What causes yellow equations?

[Uncle_Hairball]

Can you guys shed any light on what causes equations to turn yellow? I've got a whole slew of them and cannot find any cause.

[AlexLachance]

Can't you view what is wrong with the equation? I've seen it at times, but I can't deduct from that screenshot alone.

Maybe the one missing dimension (D4@Sketch5) is the cause of it all?

[Glenn Schroeder]

Did you delete some dimensions or sketches? If yes, and they contained equations, the equations will show an error instead of being deleted.

[Uncle_Hairball]

Can't you view what is wrong with the equation? I've seen it at times, but I can't deduct from that screenshot alone.

Maybe the one missing dimension (D4@Sketch5) is the cause of it all?

Yeah, I had the same thought, but it wasn't.

[Uncle_Hairball]

Did you delete some dimensions or sketches? If yes, and they contained equations, the equations will show an error instead of being deleted.

No, it's the usual SW stuff: one minute everything is clear, the next minute, everything changes colors. I checked the dimensions and none show any errors. It's only the Equation Manager that is complaining. I gave up on solving the problem and deleted them all. It's horrible to have to do it, but it was keeping me from completing my work. Frustrating.

[SPerman]

Any chance you had multiple configurations?

[ryan-feeley]

What happens if you hover your mouse over them? Or RMB the equations node of the feature tree? I believe there is a some way to get an indication of the (supposed) problem.

You can also try CTRL+Q to do a force rebuild.

Another possibility (I can't see from your screen capture) is that you have the equations set to "manual solve order", but the order in the equation manager (or via Reference id depending on version) doesn't match the order the equations are used by your feature tree.

Solidworks did screw something up with equations in 2022 (and maybe in 2021 also), where the "order" the solver obtains from the equation manager isn't the order they are listed, but is the order of the "Relation IDs" which you can see by hovering over an equation. Stupid bug. I haven't checked to see when/if its been fixed in a future version. I believe SPR1227203 is the one to track for this issue.

One hack to reset equations is to export them to a .txt file, delete them all from the model, and re-import from the file, WITHOUT linking to it. Then delete the .txt file.

Good luck!

[Uncle_Hairball]

Any chance you had multiple configurations?

Yes, there are two configurations: One with everything, and one with the fine details suppressed for the sake of performance. The current configuration was the one with everything.

[Uncle_Hairball]

What happens if you hover your mouse over them? Or RMB the equations node of the feature tree? I believe there is a some way to get an indication of the (supposed) problem.

You can also try CTRL+Q to do a force rebuild.

Another possibility (I can't see from your screen capture) is that you have the equations set to "manual solve order", but the order in the equation manager (or via Reference id depending on version) doesn't match the order the equations are used by your feature tree.

Solidworks did screw something up with equations in 2022 (and maybe in 2021 also), where the "order" the solver obtains from the equation manager isn't the order they are listed, but is the order of the "Relation IDs" which you can see by hovering over an equation. Stupid bug. I haven't checked to see when/if its been fixed in a future version. I believe SPR1227203 is the one to track for this issue.

One hack to reset equations is to export them to a .txt file, delete them all from the model, and re-import from the file, WITHOUT linking to it. Then delete the .txt file.

Good luck!

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll check them next time this happens.

[Frank_Oostendorp]

Potentional Circular Reference detection, which has changed detection levels in the last few versions of SolidWorks, causes the alarm of yellow displayed equations. Some equations had no alarm in SW2019 and performed as expected, but were potentionally to be problematic in later versions, but still performed as expected.
https://help.solidworks.com/2022/englis ... 559254#Pg0.

[Uncle_Hairball]

Potentional Circular Reference detection, which has changed detection levels in the last few versions of SolidWorks, causes the alarm of yellow displayed equations. Some equations had no alarm in SW2019 and performed as expected, but were potentionally to be problematic in later versions, but still performed as expected.
https://help.solidworks.com/2022/englis ... 559254#Pg0.

A good thought. I don't think it applies to this case, but definitely something to keep an eye on.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[TTevolve]

If you have dims used in the equation and the item is suppressed it will show as an error since it can't fine the dimension

[Uncle_Hairball]

If you have dims used in the equation and the item is suppressed it will show as an error since it can't fine the dimension

Hmmm, I wonder if that was it. I'll have to watch for that in the future. Thanks for the help.