Make a file available on this PC¶

A placeholder file (dimmed, ·placeholder· badge) has only a lightweight stub on your PC. To open or edit it, you download its full bytes with Make Available on this PC.

Prerequisites¶

You are signed in to a repository.
The file shows the ·placeholder· badge.

Steps¶

In the Files tab, find the placeholder file.
Right-click it → ↓ Make Available on this PC.
Wait for the download to finish.

Expected result¶

The ·placeholder· badge clears and the row is no longer dimmed.
The full file is on disk and can be opened in SolidWorks.

This is not the same as Get Latest. Make Available downloads the bytes of the version you already point to. Get Latest pulls newer versions from teammates.

Troubleshooting¶

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Download does nothing / file stays a placeholder	LFS fetch didn't complete.	Retry; check your connection. If it persists, see Troubleshoot everyday issues.
Assembly opens with missing children	Children are still placeholders.	Make the referenced parts available too.

Known limitations¶

No automatic prefetch of references. Making an assembly available does not pull all its children automatically.
Selective hydration of a chosen sub-assembly only ("Focus on assembly") is not built at the current repository scale.
"Free up space" is not available in the current release. The reverse action has been temporarily removed — see Known limitations.