About Virtual Components

You can save a virtual component of SOLIDWORKS into 3DEXPERIENCE as a physical product extended with an XCADEmbeddedCmp extension. These saved physical products are connected with XCADComposition relations to their physical assembly. Lock the physical product of a virtual component to modify the virtual component.

In the Save dialog box, all the files including virtual components are displayed. For distinction, the virtual component files are displayed in a gray color. The Status column for the Save dialog box, is empty for virtual components.

Physical Product is created in 3DEXPERIENCE only for the active configuration of a virtual component, even if it has multiple configurations. User must activate the configuration and save to create the new physical product. If the related physical part is modified, MySession displays all the related virtual components with the same status even if they have not been modified. The virtual components display the same maturity state as its related physical product.

You can create only the instantiated virtual components in the 3DEXPERIENCE. A virtual component in 3DEXPERIENCE cannot exist without the related physical assembly. Hence, a virtual component is deleted if the related physical assembly is deleted and the virtual component is not related to another physical assembly.

Externalization creates physical components from the virtual components. The virtual components are deleted from the database when the assembly is saved to 3DEXPERIENCE, if they do not exist in an earlier revision or other related physical assembly.

Virtualization creates new virtual components that replace the external components. These previous physical components are kept in the 3DEXPERIENCE and can be used.

When you lock or unlock a physical assembly, all the virtual components under that assembly are locked or not locked.