Management of Toolbox parts can be a headache, especially if they are used in a PDM/PLM environment. There is a little known fact that may help some CAD administrators with their Toolbox file management issues. By default, any files from the Toolbox are flagged with a hidden property called “IsToolboxPart”. To make SolidWorks forget that a part is from the Toolbox, this property must be set to “No” for each individual file. SolidWorks has a small utility buried deep in its folder structure that does just that. It’s called “Set Document Property”.
To access it, run the file at this location “C:\Program Files\SolidWorks Corp\SolidWorks\Toolbox\data utilities\sldsetdocprop.exe” in most cases. Once the program is open, it’s fairly self-explanatory. Good luck!
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Author: fcsuper
As a drafter, mechanical designer and CAD engineer, I've been in the mechanical design field since 1991.
For the first 8 years of my career, I was an AutoCAD professional. I utilized AutoLISP and many other AutoCAD customization features to streamline drafting activities for 6+ drafters and designers. I authored several custom functions, one of which was published in the March 1997 issue of Cadalyst Magazine.
Since 1998, I've been used SolidWorks non-stop. I've worked to utilize the SolidWorks' user environment to simplify drafting and design activities for 20+ engineers. I've created this website to provide current information about SolidWorks from a variety of contributors.
More recently, I am now employed by Dassault Systemes as SOLIDWORKS Sr. Product Definition Manager to improve drawing, annotation and MBD related areas.
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I am currently implementing SolidWorks Enterprise PDM and am exploring new functionality in EPDM that allows you to flag files as “Is toolbox” so that EPDM users can always get the latest version of our library parts downloaded ot their local cache.
We currently don’t use toolbox and create our own configurations of fasteners as well as keeping an extensive commercial part library. I have set the “Is toolbox” to yes for all of those files and automatically all EPDM users have the most recent parts copied to thier local cache except assemblies. The “Is toolbox” functionality for EPDM files is not working for assemblies. Still working with my var to see if it is a limitation or operator error.
Thanks so much for this post. It helped us with a nagging toolbox problem!