Lightweight Components
You can load an assembly with its active components fully
resolved or lightweight.
Both parts and sub-assemblies can be lightweight.
When a component is fully
resolved, all its model data is loaded in memory.
When a component is lightweight,
only a subset of its model data is loaded in memory. The remaining model
data is loaded on an as-needed basis.
You can improve performance of large assemblies significantly by using
lightweight components. Loading an assembly with lightweight components
is faster than loading the same assembly with fully resolved components.
Assemblies with lightweight components rebuild faster because less data
is evaluated.
Lightweight components are efficient because the full model data for
the components is loaded only as it is needed. Only components that are
affected by changes that you make in the current editing session become
fully resolved. You can perform the following assembly operations on lightweight
components without resolving them:
When a component is lightweight,
a feather appears on the component icon 
in the FeatureManager
design tree.
To enable automatic lightweight loading
of components:
Click
Options 
(Standard
toolbar) or Tools, Options.
On
the System Options tab, select
Performance.
Under Assemblies,
select Automatically load components
lightweight.
If the previous option is not selected,
you can manually open an assembly with its components lightweight.
To manually open an assembly with lightweight
components:
-
Click File, Open.
The Open dialog box appears.
-
Select Lightweight, browse
to the assembly file, and click Open.
All components of the assembly are loaded lightweight.
To set one or more resolved components
to lightweight:
For a single component, right-click the component
and select Set to Lightweight.
For an entire assembly, right-click the top level
assembly icon and select Set Resolved
to Lightweight.
For a sub-assembly and its components, right-click
the sub-assembly icon and select Set
Resolved to Lightweight.
Related Topics
Component
Suppression States
Loading
Additional Model Data
Simplified Representations
of Assemblies