Opening Existing Part, Assembly, or Drawing Documents

To open existing part, assembly, or drawing documents:

  1. 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.

    When there is more than one open and unsaved drawing for a model, a message prompts you to select the drawing to open from the Browse Open Documents dialog box.

  2. In the dialog box, select a file type in Files of type or use the quick filter buttons to view commonly-used SOLIDWORKS file types (for example, .sldprt, .slddrw, and .sldasm) in any combination.
  3. 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.
  4. Select from the options.
  5. Click Open to open 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.