When the rigid groups and the joints are defined, there is a mechanism in due form, and when the assembly is included in an assembly of a higher level, the articulations can be activated when positioned in relation to the other parts of this assembly.

However, it can also be useful to visualize certain key positions of the mechanism locally, without having to include it in another assembly.

This is done using the notion of configuration.

A configuration of the mechanism is actually a position of the mechanism compatible with the constraints of its joints.

The system automatically creates a configuration which cannot be deleted and which corresponds to the position of the parts at the end of the modeling stage, the configuration of design.

You can create other configurations, for example configurations defined by constraints, using the Constraint Configuration command, such as if the mechanism was included in a higher level assembly: Rigid Groups are moved by taking into account the joint constraints to accommodate the positioning constraints that you can create using the various Mechanism menu commands (similar to the constrained positioning used when modeling an assembly by remounting).

One of the different existing configurations is called the current configuration, its name displayed in the corresponding drop down list in the menu, and it can be changed by selecting another configuration.

When working in the Mechanism stage, parts can be seen in their position corresponding to the current configuration.