Managing Concept Explorer

You can manage the history of an object thanks to the Concept Explorer dialog box.

This task shows you how to:

Before you begin: Open an object in the Collaborative Lifecycle app

Open Concept Explorer

You can show the history of the current selected product thanks to the Open Concept Explorer command.

  1. From the Lifecycle section of the action bar, click Open Concept Explorer .
    The Concept Explorer dialog box appears with the existing concept points, if any.

    If no concept point exists, seeCreate a Concept Point.

  2. Edit your product, save it as usual and click Refresh to see these changes on the active product image in the Concept Explorer dialog box.
  3. Click the arrow at the lower right of the active image or of the branch to:

    • Open it in a new tab
    • Create a Concept Point
    • Create a Concept Branch
    • add Comments
    • Merge Features: the item has its features merged with the features in the active tab. This command is only seen when the SOLIDWORKS app is active.

  4. Click the arrow at the lower right of the concept point to:

    • open it in a new tab and view it in read-only mode
    • Create a Concept Branch
    • access the Properties dialog box where you can change the concept point description and the title.
    • add Comments
    • Merge Features: the item has its features merged with the features in the active tab. This command is only seen when the SOLIDWORKS app is active.

Create a Concept Point

You can capture a design point of the state of the model at that time for later use using the Create a Concept Point command.

  1. Do either of the following:
    • Click in the fly-out.
    • If no concept point already exists, click in the Concept Explorer dialog box.
    • If concept points already exist, click the arrow at the lower right of the active product image in the Concept Explorer dialog box.
    The Create Concept Point dialog box appears
  2. Fill in the Title and Description fields.
  3. Click Create.
    Two nodes are created in the tree. The concept point is a node and the active product is a leaf.
  4. Create as many concept points as you want.

Create a Concept Branch

You can capture a concept point and duplicate, create, and open another product called a design alternative using the Create a Concept Branch command.

  1. Do either of the following:
    • Click in the fly-out.
    • If concept points already exist, click the arrow at the lower right of any concept point or of the active product image in the Concept Explorer dialog box.
  2. Fill in the Title field.
  3. Click Create.
    If you used the command from the action bar, the branch will be linked to the last concept point. If you want the branch to be linked to a specific concept point, you need to create it via the arrow at the lower right of the wanted concept point.