Open
Opens existing part, drawing, or assembly documents and imports files
from other applications.
To open existing part, assembly, or drawing
documents:
Click Open 
(Standard toolbar) or File,
Open, or press Ctrl+O.
You can open existing drawings from inside part
and assembly documents. Right-click the top item in the FeatureManager
design tree or anywhere on the model in the graphics area and select Open Drawing. SolidWorks looks for a
drawing with the same name as the model, in the same folder as the model.
If the drawing exists, it opens automatically. If such a drawing is not
found, a browse window appears so you can locate a drawing manually.
In the
dialog box, select a file type in Files
of type.
Browse to select a document or documents.
Text appears in the Description field if a description exists
in the document properties
or was added when the document was saved.
Select from the following options:
Select a configuration
name in Configurations to see
a preview of a specific configuration. If the configuration is not previewed,
open the document and save it with each configuration selected. The next
time you open the document, the configurations are displayed.
Display
States. (Parts and Assemblies). Select a linked display state
for Selective open.
Advanced.
(Configurations option). Opens
the Configure
Document dialog box (assemblies only).
View-Only.
Opens the part document only for viewing. (Only documents saved in SolidWorks
98 or later can be opened in View-Only
mode.) In part and assembly documents, you can change to edit mode by
right-clicking in the graphics area and selecting Edit.
Lightweight.
Opens drawing and assembly documents with lightweight parts.
Large
Assembly Mode. Opens the assembly model or assembly drawing in
Large Assembly
Mode. Available only when you select an assembly whose number of components
exceeds the threshold specified under Large
Assemblies in Tools, Options, System
Options, Assemblies.
References.
Displays a list of the documents referenced by the currently selected
assembly or drawing. You can edit
the locations of the listed files.
Options.
Import options are available for certain types of files (IGES or STL,
for example). The button appears if the selected type of file has import
options.
Quick
view. Opens a simplified representation of the drawing. For multi-sheet
drawings, you can open
one or more sheets in Quick view.
Quick view / Selective
open.
Click Open
to open the document, or double-click the configuration name under Configurations to open a specified configuration
of the document.
When opening files from
a previous release of SolidWorks, the files may open slowly. SolidWorks Task Scheduler converts files
so they open more rapidly.
When you open a drawing of a large assembly, you are prompted with the
option to open the drawing in Large
Assembly Mode.
Large documents open in multi-threaded
retrieval mode.
You can also open documents directly
from Windows
Explorer.