Managing Configuration Data

For part and assembly models containing configurations, you can manage the size of files and the time needed to save them. You can specify and identify which configurations to always keep up to date. You can purge cached configuration data every time you save the model.

If a configuration has never been activated (such as one defined in a design table), only essential defining data about the configuration is carried in the model. When you activate a configuration for the first time, the full definition of the configuration’s model data is generated. This full data set is updated and saved every time you save the document. By default, once the full data set is generated, it remains available every time you open the model. Having this full data set readily available for a configuration can save a significant amount of time when switching to that configuration from another. However, for each configuration that you activate, the file size of the model increases, as does the time required to rebuild and save the file.

The following icons appear beside the configurations in the ConfigurationManager:

Active Configuration	Inactive Configurations	Description
		Indicates a configuration for which a full, up-to-date data set exists.
		Rebuild/Save Mark. Indicates a configuration that will have its full data set generated the next time you save the document. Subsequently, the data is rebuilt and saved every time you save the document. To unmark a configuration, right-click it and select Remove Rebuild/Save Mark. Its icon changes to or (depending on the current state of its configuration data).
		Indicates a configuration for which a full data set is out of date or does not exist.