Basically to recreate the problem, open Excel and type in the =HYPERLINK command to link to a SldWrks part/assembly.

ex:

=HYPERLINK("\\store01\cad\904\904-0102-06\904-0102-06.SLDPRT","904-0102-06")

Next, click on the link in Excel and watch the fun begin.

So far we have only tested this on two computers, and both gave us different outcomes. Both were running 2010 and Excel '07, and we were linking to files on our network. On both computers the part/assembly does come up in SldWrks, but on one of our machines all of the stock images for the Design Tree are incorrect (weird surface symbols show up instead of simple feature symbols). On the other computer, everything is as it should be except there is no heads up view tab and the minimize/maximize/close tab in (both in the part window itself) are NOT being displayed ... this is VERY annoying to say the least.

I'm assuming this is a bug with either Excel or SolidWorks (or both), but if someone has a solution/workaround I would greatly appreciate it!

By the way, we're doing this to create a type of "toolbox" if you will with a lot of our information (not just SldWrks files), so this really does need to stay in Excel.

Oh, and the other way I know of linking files in Excel still causes the same problems:

- Manually clicking Insert->Hyperlink-> (Follow Prompt)

Thanks for the interest! Let me know what everyone thinks.