Performance Options

Changes to these options do not affect documents that are already open.

To specify performance options:

Click Options or Tools > Options > System Options and select Performance.

Click Reset to restore factory defaults for all system options or only for options on this page.
Verification on rebuild (enable advanced body checking) Controls the level of error checking when you create or modify features. For most applications, the default setting (cleared) is adequate and results in a faster rebuild of the model.

To control verification on rebuild for Large Assembly Settings, click Tools > Options > System Options > Assemblies and under Large Assembly Settings, select or clear Disable verification on rebuild.
Ignore self-intersection check for some sheet metal features Suppresses warning messages for certain sheet metal part. For example, when flanges share a common edge and the part flattens correctly but displays a warning message.

Transparency

High-quality transparency is similar to looking through clear glass. Low-quality transparency is similar to viewing an object through a mesh or screen. This option is not available when Large Assembly Settings is on.
High quality for normal view mode Retains high-quality transparency while the part or assembly is not moving or rotating. When moving or rotating with the pan or rotate tools, the application switches to low-quality transparency, enabling you to rotate the model faster. This is important if the part or assembly is complex.
High quality for dynamic view mode Retains high-quality transparency while moving or rotating the model with the pan or rotate tools. Depending on your graphics card, this option may result in slower performance.
If the display is slow when using transparent planes in Shaded With Edges or Shaded mode, it may be because of the transparency that you specified. With some graphics cards, the display speed improves if you do not use high-quality transparency.

Curvature generation

Select an option. This option is not available when Large Assembly Settings is on.
Only on demand Displays curvature slower on the first display, but uses less memory.
Always (for every shaded model) Displays curvature quicker on the first display, but uses extra memory (RAM and disk) for every part that you create or open.

Level of detail

Move the slider to Off or from More (slower) to Less (faster) to specify the detail level during dynamic view operations in assemblies, multi-body parts, and draft views in drawings. This option is not available when Large Assembly Settings is on.

Assemblies

Automatically load components lightweight Loads all the individual components and subassemblies in assemblies that you open as lightweight. If you select Always resolve subassemblies, subassemblies are not opened lightweight. See Lightweight Components.
Always resolve subassemblies Resolves subassemblies when an assembly opens lightweight. The components in the subassemblies are lightweight.
Check out-of-date lightweight components Specifies how you want the system to load lightweight components that are out-of-date. This option is not available when Large Assembly Settings is on.

Don't Check

Loads the assemblies without checking for out-of-date components.

Indicate

Loads the assemblies and marks them with an icon if the assemblies contain an out-of-date component, even if the assembly is not expanded. You can right-click an out-of-date top-level assembly and select Set Lightweight to Resolved.

Always Resolve

Resolves all out-of-date assemblies during load.

Resolve lightweight components Provides options for resolving lightweight components in an assembly. Some operations require model data that is not loaded in lightweight components.

Prompt

Asks to resolve lightweight components each time you request one of these operations. In the dialog box that appears, click Yes to resolve the components and continue, or click Cancel to cancel the operation. If you select Always resolve before you click Yes or Cancel, the option is set to Always.

Always

Automatically resolves lightweight components.

Rebuild assembly on load Specifies whether you want assemblies to rebuild, so components update when you open them.

Prompt

Asks if you want to rebuild each time you open an assembly. Click Yes or No in the dialog box that appears when you open the assembly. If you select Don’t ask me again before you click Yes or No, the option updates to reflect your choice. Selecting Yes changes the option to Always and selecting No changes the option to Never.

Always

Never

This option affects rebuilding of parts. When you select Never, if a part had rebuild errors in an earlier save, the part does not rebuild when you open it.
Mate animation speed Enables animation of mates and controls the speed of the animation. When you add a mate, click Preview or OK in the PropertyManager to see an animation of the mate that you created. Move the slider to Off to disable mate animation.
SmartMate sensitivity Specifies the speed at which the software applies SmartMates.
Magnetic mate proximity Specifies the distance at which the software detects and initiates a magnetic mate.
Purge cached configuration data Automatically purges the cached configuration data of inactive configurations each time you save the document.
  • With the option selected:
    • Purges data for all inactive configurations marked with or .
    • Saves data only for the active configuration marked with or , and inactive configurations marked with .
  • With the option cleared:
    • Rebuilds and saves data for all configurations marked with , , , or .
    • Purges data for all configurations marked with .
Update mass properties while saving document Recalculates mass properties when you save a document. The recalculation may slow the save operation.

The next time you access the mass properties, the system does not recalculate the properties if the document has not changed.

This option is not available when Large Assembly Settings is on.
Use shaded preview Maintains the shaded preview while you rotate, pan, zoom, and set standard views.
Use software OpenGL Disables the graphics adapter hardware acceleration and enables graphics rendering using only software. For many graphics cards, this results in slower performance. Select this option only if instructed to do so by technical support. You can only select this option when there are no documents open.

If you select the option, SOLIDWORKS changes some of your options for optimum software performance. You can override any of these options. See Performance Settings with OpenGL.

This option is automatically selected and unavailable for change if your graphics card does not support hardware acceleration, or does not support it for the current combination of resolution, number of colors, refresh rate, and so forth.

Magnetic mate pre-alignment Orients a component to align with the predefined magnetic mate. When enabled, the speed of the orientation is based on the SmartMate sensitivity option.
Go To Image Quality Switches to the Image Quality options.
Enhanced graphics performance (requires SOLIDWORKS restart) Improves graphical performance. This option affects rotate, pan, and zoom for parts and assemblies, and the display of drawings that have shaded or draft quality views.