The FeatureManager design tree on the left side of the SolidWorks window provides an outline view of the active part, assembly, or drawing. This makes it easy to see how the model or assembly was constructed or to examine the various sheets and views in a drawing.
The FeatureManager design tree and the graphics area are dynamically linked. You can select features, sketches, drawing views, and construction geometry in either pane.
You can split the FeatureManager design tree and either display two FeatureManager instances, or combine the FeatureManager design tree with the ConfigurationManager or PropertyManager.
To toggle visibility of the FeatureManager design tree area, press F9 or click , which is especially useful when in full screen mode.
The FeatureManager design tree makes it easy to:
- Select items in the model by name.
- Filter the FeatureManager design tree.
- Identify and change the order in which features are created. You can drag items in the FeatureManager design tree list to reorder them. This changes the order in which features are regenerated when the model is rebuilt.
- Display the dimensions of a feature by double-clicking the feature’s name.
- Rename items by slowly clicking two times on a name to select it and then entering a new name.
- Suppress and Unsuppress part features and assembly components.
- View parent/child relations by right-clicking a feature and selecting Parent/Child.
- Display the following items:
- Feature descriptions
- Component descriptions
- Component configuration names
- Component configuration descriptions
- Locate errors and warnings associated with the model or a feature and described in tooltips and in What's Wrong?
- Locate errors
and warnings 
associated with the model or a feature and described in tooltips and in What's Wrong?
The FeatureManager design tree provides the following folders and tools:
- Use the rollback bar to temporarily roll the model back to an earlier state.
- Add a new equation, edit, or delete an equation by right-clicking the Equations folder
, and selecting the action you want. (The Equations folder appears when you add the first equation to a part or assembly.)
- Control the display of dimensions and annotations by right-clicking the Annotations folder
.
- Keep a Design Journal and add attachments to the Design Binder folder
.
- Add or modify a material applied to a part by right-clicking the Material icon
.
- View all solid bodies that the document contains in the Solid Bodies folder
.
- View all surface bodies that the document contains in the Surface Bodies folder
.
- View Planes
, Axes 
, and Sketches
of inserted parts.
- Add your own custom folders, and drag features into the folders to reduce the length of the FeatureManager design tree.
- View and work in the tree in a flyout FeatureManager design tree in the graphics area while a PropertyManager appears in the left pane.
- Move between the FeatureManager design tree, PropertyManager, ConfigurationManager, DimXpertManager, and Add-In tabs by selecting the tabs at the top of the left pane
.