Open Dialog Box

To open existing part, assembly, or drawing documents, do one of the following:
  • Click Open (Standard toolbar) or File > Open, or press Ctrl+O.
  • From File Explorer in Windows® or the PDM Vault View, right-click the .SLDPRT, .SLDASM, or .SLDDRW file and click SOLIDWORKS > Open.

If the SOLIDWORKS software is already open, you can access the Open dialog box from the PDM Vault View or File Explorer by holding Alt and dragging a .SLDPRT,.SLDASM, or .SLDDRW file into the graphics area.

You can open existing drawings from inside part and assembly documents. Right-click the top item in the FeatureManager design tree, an open section of the graphics area, or anywhere on the model in the graphics area and select Open Drawing.

The SOLIDWORKS software 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 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 dialog box lets you display the Open Documents browser to select the drawing to activate.

  Mode Select one of the following:

Large Design Review

(Assemblies). Opens very large assemblies quickly, while still retaining capabilities that are useful when conducting design reviews of assemblies.

Quick view

(Parts). Opens the part for viewing only. You can select the configuration but not the display state. You can pan, zoom, or rotate, but you cannot edit, use measure, or save the document. In part documents, you can change to edit mode by right-clicking in the graphics area and selecting Edit.

Quick view

(Drawings). Opens a simplified representation of the drawing. For multisheet drawings, you can open one or more sheets in Quick view.

Detailing

(Drawings) Opens a drawing without part or assembly data. You can add or modify dimensions and annotations for most views.

Lightweight

(Assemblies, Drawings). Loads only a subset of model data into memory. The remaining model data loads on an as-needed basis. Opening in lightweight mode improves the performance of assemblies and drawings.

Resolved

(Parts, Assemblies, Drawings). Fully loads all model data into memory.

When you open a drawing of a large assembly, Mode is automatically set to Lightweight, but you can select another mode from the list.

Large documents open in multithreaded retrieval mode.

  Thumbnail Displays an image of the selected configuration. If the configuration does not appear, open the document and save it with each configuration selected. The next time you open the document, the configurations display.
  Load hidden components (Assemblies). Loads the hidden components.
  Use Speedpak (Available in Assemblies in Resolved or Lightweight). Opens an assembly using SpeedPak configurations to improve performance when opening large, complex assemblies.
  Use Large Assembly Settings (Assemblies). Sets a collection of options that improves the performance of large assemblies.
  Configuration (Assemblies). Specifies which configuration of the model to open. Select <Advanced> to open the Configure Document dialog box.
  Display State (Parts and Assemblies). Specifies a display state in which to open the model.
  References Displays a list of the documents referenced by the selected part, assembly, or drawing. You can edit the locations of the listed files.
  Edit Assembly (Assemblies). Enables a limited set of features and tools for editing.

Available when you select Large Design Review mode.

  Select Sheets Select the sheets to load.
  Options Options appear if the selected file type has import options. Import options are available for certain types of files (IGES or STL, for example).
In the Open dialog box, if you select one or multiple files of the same type and click Options, the System Options dialog box displays the options for the selected file type.

Include PMI

Import options are available for certain types of files (IGESSelect to import PMI (Product Manufacturing Information) with NX, Creo, and STEP AP242 formats as semantic graphical annotations.
  File Types List Lists the files types.
Down arrow (next to Open )

Open Read-Only

Allows another user to have write access to the document while you have the document open. You cannot save or change the part in Read-Only mode.

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Quick Filter

Click the Quick Filter options in any combination to see the file type. For example, click Filter Parts to see only parts. To see parts and assemblies, click Filter Parts and Filter Assemblies .

Filter Parts (*.PRT, *.SLDPRT)  
Filter Assemblies (*.ASM, *.SLDASM)  
Filter Drawings (*.DRW, *.SLDDRW)  
Filter Top-Level Assemblies (*.ASM, *.SLDASM) Displays only top-level assemblies, not subassemblies. If you have a very large number of files in the folder or have files with very long names, this might take several seconds. To cancel, press Esc.