SolidWorks 2010- P19 pdf

Chapter 16 Creating Your Own Templates: Part 2 Set the Sheet Size and Drafting Standards  Start the Drawing Template  Create the Drawing Title Block  Learn Timesaving Features for the Drawing Template  Save and Share the Sheet Format and Template  505434c16.indd 509 1/27/10 1:35:01 PM Chapter 16 • Creating Your Own Templates: Part 2 510 I n the previous chapter, you began the process of creating many of the tem- plates you have used throughout this book. In this chapter, you will be con- centrating on the templates and sheet formats used in the chapters related to drawings. As you have seen in the previous chapters, templates that are properly set up can save you a lot of time. When you created the templates for parts and assemblies, you needed to make only a couple of adjustments to the document settings. However, drawing templates have more that can be included, which makes the process of creating drawings with them even easier. In addition to specifying document settings in the template, you can add the sheet format, title block, revision table, and notes. In this chapter, you will be creating a template for size B (11 ″ × 17″) drawings (and you can use the same process for the other drawing sizes). Creating drawing templates for each drawing size is the most common practice, since users will not need to change the sheet for- mat for each drawing. Set the Sheet Size and Drafting Standards The first thing you need to do before creating a new template is to open one of the standard templates that ships with SolidWorks. The standard drawing templates offer a good starting point, allowing you to make some changes to the document settings and then add elements to finish the template. The first settings that you will adjust are the ones that specify the size of the drawing and the drafting stan- dards that will be used when the template is put to use. To start the process, follow these steps: 1. Create a new drawing by clicking the New button on the menu bar, and select Drawing Template on the New SolidWorks Document menu. Click OK to open the drawing. 2. Since you will be using an 11 ″ × 17″ sheet for all the drawings in this book, you will start by creating the template for size B. Right-click anywhere in the graphics area, and select Properties in the menu. 3. In the Sheet Properties window shown in Figure 16.1, select the B size standard format, and click OK. NOte Beyond A size sheets (8½″ × 11″), drawings are drawn in the Landscape orientation. 505434c16.indd 510 1/27/10 1:35:01 PM Set the Sheet Size and Drafting Standards 511 FIGURE 16.1 Sheet Properties window Explanation of the Sheet Sizes There are many standard sheet sizes worldwide, each controlled by the appro- priate standard in each country. The two most common standards that specify paper dimensions are ANSI/ASME Y14.1 and ISO 216. The ANSI/ASME standard, the most commonly used standard in North America, refers to page sizes with a letter designation. Paper sizes in ISO are represented with the letter A, B, or C followed by a number. Since all the examples in this book are based on the ANSI/ ASME standards, we will refer to page sizes as either A, B, C, D, or E. Table 16.1 describes the ANSI/ASME sheet sizes and shows the closest ISO A size. TABLE 16.1 ANSI Sheet Sizes Name Inches × Inches MM × MM Alias Similar ISO A Size ANSI A 8.5 × 11 216 × 279 Letter A4 ANSI B 11 × 17 279 × 432 Tabloid A3 ANSI C 17 × 22 432 × 559 - A2 ANSI D 22 × 34 559 × 864 - A1 ANSI E 34 × 44 864 × 1118 - A0 505434c16.indd 511 1/27/10 1:35:01 PM Chapter 16 • Creating Your Own Templates: Part 2 512 tIp Instead of changing the sheet size for each drawing as you create them, save time by using the process described in this chapter to create templates for each drawing sheet size. 1. When you begin creating a new drawing, SolidWorks may prompt you, depending on your settings, to select a part or assembly from which to create a view. Since we are not going to be creating views just yet, click the red X in the PropertyManager. 2. Select the Options button in the Menu Bar. 3. Select the Document Properties tab at the top of the window to access the properties and settings that will only apply to the active document. 4. First we need to ensure that the Overall Drafting Standard displayed in the Drafting Standard field is set to ANSI. If another drafting stan- dard is shown in the field, click the downward pointing arrow and select ANSI from the list. The Different Drafting Standards Before proceeding, even if you do not use any other drafting standard, it is a good idea to be aware of each of the standards shown in the Drafting Standard section. A standard, when referring to drawings, is a set of guidelines and definitions that ensures drawings created meet the same minimum requirements. Without stan- dards, drawings created by different organizations and individuals would each be created differently and would be near impossible to interpret correctly. SolidWorks supports seven drafting standards that are used in different parts of the world. Each standard specifies how dimensions are placed, how values are represented, how arrowheads are drawn, and so on. The seven drafting standards and a brief explanation of each are as follows: A N S I ANSI refers to the American National Standards Institute, a nonprofit organization that maintains standards for many aspects of drawings to ensure that products produced in the United States can be used worldwide. The ANSI drafting standard in SolidWorks also includes American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) standards such as ASME Y14.1, ASME Y14.5, and ASME Y14.100. 505434c16.indd 512 1/27/10 1:35:01 PM Start the Drawing Template 513 ISO ISO refers to the International Organization of Standardization, which is comprised of representatives from standards organizations worldwide. The ISO drafting standard in SolidWorks encompasses many different standards includ- ing ISO 129:1985 and ISO 406:1987. DIN DIN refers to the Deutches Insitut für Normung, which translated into English is the German Institute for Standardization. JIS JIS refers to the Japanese Industrial Standards. Many JIS standards are derived from or are equivalent to various ISO standards. In fact, a few of the JIS standards end with a five-digit number that corresponds to an ISO standard. B S I BSI refers to the British Standards Institution. The BSI group was the first standards organization in the world and played a major role in the development of ISO. Many of the BIS standards are equivalent to ISO standards. G O S T GOST refers to Gosudarstvennyy Stardart, which translated from Russian means State Standard. GOST was originally developed by the government of the Soviet Union but is now maintained by the Euro-Asian Council for Standardization, Metrology, and Certification. G B GB refers to Guobiao, which translated from Chinese means National Standard. GB standards are maintained by the Standardization Administrations of China. Many GB standards are based on or are equivalent to ISO standards. Start the Drawing Template Just like with part and assembly templates, a few document properties are extremely helpful to specify in the template rather than trying to remember to set them when creating a new drawing. The next couple of sections will describe the process for specifying the unit system, adjusting the line fonts, and setting the projection types. Each of these areas can easily be set when creating a new drawing, but keep in mind that it may not always be you who will be creating drawings on your system or in your organization. Specifying these and other settings in the drawing template helps ensure that each drawing created will meet the minimum requirements in your organization. Select a Unit System Now that you’ve set the sheet size and drafting standard, you must set the drawing units. In previous chapters, you set the units for the one document you were work- ing on. That change affects that document only and does not propagate to other similar documents. Since the current drawing will become a template, there will O All the examples and instruction in this book are based on ANSI/ASME standards. 505434c16.indd 513 1/27/10 1:35:01 PM Chapter 16 • Creating Your Own Templates: Part 2 514 be no need to set the units again when you create a new drawing. To set the units in the template, do the following: 1. On the Document Properties tab of the Options window, select the Units option in the menu. 2. Ensure that Unit System is set to IPS (inch, pound, second), and set the number of digits following the decimal to three for the length. Setting this option will ensure all the dimensions created on the drawing will be set to three decimal places unless they are individually changed. NOte Some organizations use more than one unit system when cre- ating drawings. If you tend to use more than just the IPS unit system, it’s a good idea to create additional templates for each unit system used. Draw Line Fonts Line fonts in drawings are the appearance of different types. Line types, when used on drawings, are specified in ASME Y14.2M-1992, Line Conventions and Lettering. The standard specifies the various types of lines as well as the thickness that they will be displayed on a drawing. How a line is represented is an important aspect of a drawing since each line type has its own meaning. For instance, a visible line is used to represent the visible edges or contours of a part. If a visible line were shown not as a solid line but as a phantom line, it would be very confusing to the reader of the drawing. SolidWorks uses 11 available line types to represent different areas of a draw- ing. Each of the 11 line types has a Style setting, a Thickness setting, and an End Cap Style setting. SolidWorks has done a good job of setting the style and thick- ness of each line type to meet the requirements of the ASME standard. You will find that you will rarely need to adjust the line fonts unless your company has its own set of standards. For example, many companies we have worked for require the tangent edge of a part in drawings be changed to a solid line instead of a phantom line. After polling a few industry friends in other companies, we find that this is a common practice. A tangent edge is the edge created when a curved surface meets the adjacent surface. By default the line type is set to be represented as a phantom line, as shown in Figure 16.2. 505434c16.indd 514 1/27/10 1:35:01 PM Start the Drawing Template 515 FIGURE 16.2 Drawing view shown with phantom tangent line We’re partial to showing a tangent line as a solid line because it has a cleaner look in drawings. To change the line font of tangent edges, do the following: 1. On the Document Properties tab of the System Options window, select Line Font. 2. Select Tangent Edges in the Type Of Edge section of the window. 3. In the Style drop-down menu, select the Solid line type, as shown in Figure 16.3. FIGURE 16.3 Selecting a solid line type 505434c16.indd 515 1/27/10 1:35:01 PM Chapter 16 • Creating Your Own Templates: Part 2 516 NOte For the specified line type to be shown in drawing views, the views’ tangent edge display must be set to Tangent Edges With Font in the right-click menu for a selected view. Set the Projection Type To properly define a part, a drawing consists of views to show the part from dif- ferent perspectives. The views are projections of the part perpendicular to the viewing plane of the drawing reader. The surfaces that are parallel to the view- ing plane are represented in their true form, but surfaces that are not parallel will be foreshortened. This system of creating drawings is referred to as ortho- graphic projections, and the views are referred to as orthographic views. The six basic views of an orthographic drawing are Front, Back, Top, Bottom, Right Side, and Left Side. All six views are not required on every drawing; if you can fully define a part with two views, then more would be overkill. The drawing views are laid out in a standard arrangement based on the projection type; the projection type used depends on what part of the world you reside in. In the United States, the projected views are arranged based on the Third Angle projection type, and other parts of the world use the First Angle projection type. Third Angle projection Drawings created for use in the United States are usually made using the Third Angle projection type; however, some companies in other parts of the world have adopted the same system to prevent confusion when work- ing with U.S based customers. Basically, the Third Angle projection type creates the image of a part projected onto the viewing plane that is placed between the observer and the part. Figure 16.4 shows the six basic orthographic views using the Third Angle projection type. FIGURE 16.4 Basic orthographic views using Third Angle projection 505434c16.indd 516 1/27/10 1:35:01 PM Start the Drawing Template 517 First Angle projection All the drawings in this book will be created using the Third Angle projection type, but it still would not hurt to at least understand the difference between the two projection types. First Angle projections have the image of the part projected onto a viewing plane with the part between the observer and the view. We know it sounds confusing, but look at Figure 16.5, and you should notice the difference between the two projection types. FIGURE 16.5 Basic orthographic views using First Angle projection If your template is not set to the correct projection type, it could cause confu- sion. Although it should already be set properly, the following steps describe how to set up the projection type in your new drawing template: 1. Right-click in an empty area of the drawing sheet, and select Properties from the menu. 2. In the top middle of the Sheet Properties dialog box there is a section labeled Type Of Projection, as shown in Figure 16.6. Select the Third Angle option, and click OK to close the window. FIGURE 16.6 Selecting the type of projection in Sheet Properties O You can also get to the sheet properties by right-clicking the drawing sheet in the FeatureManager and selecting Properties from the menu. 505434c16.indd 517 1/27/10 1:35:01 PM Chapter 16 • Creating Your Own Templates: Part 2 518 Create the Drawing Title Block The title block is an important area of a drawing since it contains all the infor- mation required to allow the drawing to be properly interpreted, identified, and archived. In mechanical drawings, the title block is located in the lower-right corner of the drawing and is divided into rectangular sections that provide qual- ity, administrative, and technical information. Although each organization has its own regulations or standards that define the content of the title block, every title block must have at least the drawing title, part number or ID number, and the legal owner of the drawing. Custom Properties Defined In SolidWorks, you can create drawing title blocks that link to metadata, or prop- erties, in the drawings and models being drawn. All SolidWorks documents (parts, drawings, and assemblies) have three types of properties that can be referenced: System-defined properties  Custom properties  Configuration-specific properties  System-defined properties consist of information generated by the system such as the author, created date, filename, material, sheet scale, and so on. These properties are read-only and cannot be directly edited but are instead based on another action in the software. Custom properties are user-defined properties that can be used for the descrip- tion, vendor, company name, checked by name, drafter name, and so on. Lastly, configuration-specific properties are custom properties defined by the user that apply only to specific part and assembly configurations. File properties are used in a number of ways. Properties that are defined in parts and assemblies can be used to automatically populate fields in a drawing or bill of materials and can even be used by a PDM or ERP system. Properties in drawings can also be used to automatically update notes in different areas of a drawing in addition to being used by a PDM or ERP system. The advantage to having various locations referencing the document properties is that making changes in one location can update all the referenced areas at once. Not only is this a huge time-saver, but it also helps prevent overlooking important informa- tion that should be updated. 505434c16.indd 518 1/27/10 1:35:01 PM [...]... This is useful if you had selected a SolidWorks parameter, global variable, or linked dimension since it would display the actual value instead of just the name Manage the Drawing Title Block Prior to SolidWorks 2009, the custom properties associated with the text items in the drawing title block had to be modified using the Properties window described earlier In 2009, SolidWorks introduced title block... change custom properties for any SolidWorks document The first is by using the Custom Properties tab in the task pane if the Property tab was built by your system administrator or CAD manager If the Custom Property tab is not an option, you can access the custom properties from the menu bar Follow these steps to view, add, or edit custom properties: 1 Hover over or click the SolidWorks logo on the left... DrawnBy property will require a name, select Text as the value type 4 Click the cell for the Value/Text Expression column, and you will see another downward-pointing arrow Click the arrow to see the SolidWorks parameters, global variables, and linked dimension names that can be associated with the named property Selecting one of the values will automatically populate the named property with the system-generated... Custom tab is where you can view, edit, or add custom properties for the active document The active document refers to the part, assembly, or drawing that is currently being shown in the graphics area of SolidWorks On the Custom tab, a table displays the currently assigned custom properties Each custom property is shown on a numbered row, and each row is divided into four columns: Property Name, Type,... predefined views for the most common projections: Front, Top, Right, and Isometric: 1 Make sure you are in the Edit Sheet Format mode from the last step of the preceding section 2 Hover over or click the SolidWorks logo on the menu bar to show the menus In the menu, select Insert ➢ Drawing View ➢ Predefined 3 A small dashed box will be shown under the mouse cursor To place the view, click the left mouse... shortcut bar 6 In the shortcut bar, click the Drawing Commands button, and select Projected View 7 Now you can place the projected view in the drawing Depending on what side you place the new view, SolidWorks will automatically set the view to the appropriate orthographic projection For instance, if you place the view to the right of the Front view, the new view will be set to show the Right projection... change, and approval at the very least Your company or organization may have additional information that must be recorded, but you are going to use the default revision table that is already created for SolidWorks N O TE  ​ or more information about revisions and revisions tables, F refer to ASME Y14.35M-1997 The advantage of placing the revision table in the template is that it will help minimize the . drawing. SolidWorks uses 11 available line types to represent different areas of a draw- ing. Each of the 11 line types has a Style setting, a Thickness setting, and an End Cap Style setting. SolidWorks. drawing. Custom Properties Defined In SolidWorks, you can create drawing title blocks that link to metadata, or prop- erties, in the drawings and models being drawn. All SolidWorks documents (parts, drawings,. selected a SolidWorks parameter, global variable, or linked dimension since it would display the actual value instead of just the name. Manage the Drawing Title Block Prior to SolidWorks 2009,