How to Recover Virtual Parts in SolidWorks
This article outlines how I saved myself an hour of work by been able to recover virtual parts after SolidWorks crashed.
While I was working on an old assembly project, I took some parts, and went “form new subassembly”. It prompted me for a template and off I went opening up the New sub-assembly. I saved regularly. Little did I realise that I was working on a Virtual sub-assembly. After spending 60+minutes working on the sub-assembly, saving it religiously (thinking I had it saved externally). I went back to the main assembly and was fixing a few mate errors when, solidworks froze. I was a little impatient, thinking I had my sub-assembly and 60+ minutes work saved! After re-opening the assembly I saw no sign of my work, and was about to pack it in for the day.
After a bit of looking, I found my virtual assembly and virtual parts 
They were located in:
C:\Users\sburke\AppData\Local\Temp
After sorting by Date Modified, the parts were in a folder called “swx5792″. I copied the part out of there and to safety.
Phfew. Thanks SolidWorks. As virtual parts become more and more mainstream, I hope this tip will help somebody and save them some time.