Ask Mode

Read-only. It answers questions about the open document and changes none of it.

What it can answer

Geometry and dimensions: sizes, distances, wall thicknesses, bounding boxes.
The feature tree: what each feature does, what depends on what, why one failed.
Materials and mass properties, including the effect of a hypothetical substitution.
Interference between components, with the clash volume for each pair it finds.
Live web data: material properties, machining and process information, component pricing.

Because it cannot change anything, Ask Mode is safe to use on a released part, on someone else’s file, or on a document under PDM checkout.

Use it before an edit to establish what a feature does and what depends on it.

Ask Mode can see the failing feature and everything it depends on, so its answer is specific to your file.

Common uses: rebuild failures, dangling sketch relations, over-defined sketches, mate errors, and missing external references. See SOLIDWORKS errors.