Wiley SolidWorks 2009 Bible Part 9 pot

616 Creating and Using Libraries Part IV TIP TIP You may have difficulty expanding the width of the column that contains the config- uration names, thus making it difficult or impossible to read the ends of the long config names. However, like Excel, you can expand the height of the rows, which causes the config names to wrap, as shown in Figure 19.20. Summary Smart Components can automate the placement of a main component, as well as associated mounting features and components. It can also offer automatic resizing options, depending on the geometry to which it is mated. The setup for Smart Components varies from simple to complex, with auto-sizing causing most of the complexity. P art V, Creating Drawings, walks you through the tools you need to make drawings work for you. The main focus is on task automation where possible, and where it supports the end goal. Sometimes automation is not the answer and manual processes are better, so be prepared for answers that you may not expect. Creating Drawings IN THIS PART Chapter 20 Automating Drawings: The Basics Chapter 21 Working with Drawing Views Chapter 22 Using Annotations and Symbols Chapter 23 Dimensioning and Tolerancing Chapter 24 Working with Tables and Drawings Chapter 25 Using Layers, Line Fonts, and Colors 619 E ngineering drawings include a lot of repetitious information from one drawing to the next. The information is not always exactly the same, but it is usually in the same format and of the same type. For example, part drawings always include information about who made the drawing, when the person made it, what the material and surface finish of the part are, and some basic notes that depend on the use of the drawing (manufacturing, assembly, or inspection). All of this information needs to appear consistently on each drawing, every time. However, humans are not always good at following dull routines, which is why we have computers to help with these boring or difficult tasks. The Difference Between Templates and Formats Simply put, templates are collections of document-specific settings and default views, saved in the *.prtdot (part template), *.asmdot (assembly template), and *.drwdot (drawing template) file types. Formats, more formally called “sheet formats,” are exclusive to drawing documents, and contain the sheet size, the drawing border-line geometry, and the text/custom property definitions that go with the text in the drawing border. Formats can also include company logo images. You can save formats in drawing templates; in fact, this is the method that I both use and recommend. Using SolidWorks’ default settings, you specify the size and the format when creating a new drawing from a blank template; IN THIS CHAPTER The difference between templates and formats Creating drawing formats Creating drawing templates Creating blocks Automating Drawings: The Basics 620 Creating Drawings Part V however, when the format is already in the template, the size is taken care of ahead of time, and so the templates end up being saved as sizes. Of course, you can change formats later if you need to use a larger drawing sheet. Can templates be changed on existing documents? Can you change templates on existing documents? No. This is one of the most common questions from new users. Perhaps if SolidWorks received enough enhancement requests on this topic, they would be willing to change the software to enable the user to transfer the settings from an existing template to one or more existing documents. Currently, once you create any kind of document from whatever kind of template, you cannot change the underlying template. However, you can change all of the settings, which is for the most part equivalent. SolidWorks 2009 offers custom drafting standards, which fulfills much of the function that the ability to swap templates would achieve. You can take a drafting standard such as ISO or ANSI, make adjustments to it, and save the standard out to a file which you can distribute to other users. You can change the standard at Tools ➪ Options ➪ Document Properties ➪ Drafting Standard. You can load and save standards from the same location. More detailed on what can actually be changed within the drafting standard is in Appendix B, and additional detail comes later in this chapter. While templates cannot be reloaded, formats can be. You might want to reload a format (drawing border and associated annotations) if you have made changes to the information or line geometry. Why have different templates or formats? Different formats must be maintained for different sheet sizes. If you do contract design or detailing work, then you may need to maintain separate formats for different customers. Some people also choose to have different formats for the first sheet of a drawing and a simplified format for the remaining sheets. Why you should maintain different templates is an easier answer. First, if you put formats on the templates, then you are making separate templates for various size drawings. Also, separate templates are frequently created for different units or standards, because templates contain docu- ment-specific settings. I also keep a blank drawing template with no format on it just to do con- ceptual scribbles or to make an informal, scalable, and printable drawing without the baggage that typically accompanies formal drawings. CAUTION CAUTION SolidWorks can install with default document templates that use different standards. Be careful of the difference between drawings with ANSI (American National Standards Institute) and ISO (International Organization for Standardization) standards, or more importantly, the use of third-angle projection versus first-angle projection. Figure 20.1 shows the difference between a third- and first-angle projection. Third angle is part of the ANSI standard used in the United States, while first angle is part of the ISO standard used in Europe. 621 Automating Drawings: The Basics 20 FIGURE 20.1 Third-angle versus first-angle projection If you work for a company that does a lot of international work, then you may have to deal this issue more frequently. The setting that controls the projection angle is not in Tools ➪ Options (where you might expect it to be), but in the Sheet Properties, which you can access by right- mouse button clicking anywhere on the blank drawing sheet and selecting Properties. Custom drafting standards In my experience, in companies that work in the real world, no one follows any of the single draft- ing standards perfectly. Each company seems to have its own interpretation or exceptions to the standards. SolidWorks is coming to grips with this in a practical way. Starting with SolidWorks 2009, you can create your own custom drafting standards, equivalent to the established ISO and ANSI standards. These standards can allow you to save all of the settings found in Tools ➪ Options ➪ Document Properties to a single standard that you can then transfer to other users. To make your own custom standard, make changes to the various settings for annotations, symbols, dimensions, and so forth, and then go back to the Drafting Standard page of the Document Properties tab, rename the Overall Drafting Standard, and save the standard to a file. I have created a new standard, which is shown in Figure 20.2. FIGURE 20.2 Creating a new customized drafting standard 622 Creating Drawings Part V The drafting standard file type has the extension of *.sldstd. If someone else has sent you a standard file, you can read it in to your drawing, assign it, and your drawing will assume all of the customized properties. ON the CD-ROM ON the CD-ROM I have saved a custom standard file and put it on the CD-ROM for Chapter 20. You can load this file into an open drawing using the interface at Tools ➪ Options ➪ Document Properties ➪ Drafting Standard. Creating Drawing Formats Drawing formats can be either simple or difficult; the good news is that you can choose which one you want to use. Customizing an existing format The simple solution is to customize an existing format for your own use. This generally works well, and you can usually finish the task in a few minutes, depending on your requirements. The easiest option is to take the existing SolidWorks sample formats and add a few things such as a company name, logo, and tolerance block to them. You can also use formats from other drawings, editing and saving them out as your own. Sample formats The sample formats that installed with SolidWorks are located in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SolidWorks\SolidWorks 2009\. They include ANSI sizes A to E, and ISO sizes A0 to A4. You can probably find enough space on the formats to place a company logo and some standard notes. You cannot open a format directly — it must be on a drawing — and, so, to get a closer look at the format, you must make a new drawing using the format. NOTE NOTE Templates that have been saved with a format already on them skip the step of prompting you to select a format. This allows you to create new drawings more quickly. If you select one of the default SolidWorks templates, these do not have formats on them, so you are prompted to select a format immediately. Figure 20.3 shows the interface for selecting a format that displays after you have selected the template for a drawing. Editing a format In the drawing, you are either editing the sheet or editing the format. You can think of the sheet as being a piece of transparent Mylar over the top of the drawing border format. In order to get to the format, you have to peel back the Mylar layer. Drawing views go onto the sheet, and so when you edit the format, any drawing views that may be there disappear. 623 Automating Drawings: The Basics 20 FIGURE 20.3 Selecting a format To peel back the sheet and gain access to the format, right-click a blank area of the sheet and select Edit Sheet Format. This right-mouse button menu is shown in Figure 20.4. Be careful of the terms here, which include Sheet and Sheet Format. The sketch lines of the format light up like a sketch becoming active, and at the lower right-hand corner, on the status bar, a message appears, saying Editing Sheet Format. FIGURE 20.4 Selecting the edit sheet format 624 Creating Drawings Part V The lines in the format border are regular SolidWorks sketch entities, but they display a little differently. Also, sketch relations are sometimes not used in formats because solving the relations causes the software to be a bit sluggish. Typically, Trim, Extend, and Stretch functions are the best sketch tools for editing lines. Using Insert ➪ Picture in the drawing, you can use most common image types to insert logo or other image data onto your drawing or format. Not all compression styles are supported, however. I have had difficulty with compressed TIFF images. Be aware of the file size of the image when you put it into the format, as images can be large, and all of that extra information will travel around with each drawing that you create from the format. Figure 20.5 shows a bitmap placed in the format. You can resize the image by dragging the handles in the corners and move it by simply dragging it. The bottom image in Figure 20.5 shows the Print Preview window. I included it here to show that the outline around the image that displays while you are working in SolidWorks does not print out. FIGURE 20.5 Placing an image 625 Automating Drawings: The Basics 20 Managing text SolidWorks allows you to make a text box of a specific size that causes text to wrap. This is particularly useful in drawings. The upper image in Figure 20.6 shows a new annotation being added. The lower image shows the same text box after the corner has been dragged. FIGURE 20.6 Adding an annotation and wrapping the text TIP TIP When dragging the text box, it may seem intuitive to drag the middle handle on the end, thinking that shortening the box will cause it to wrap. However, that only works if the box has some space on the bottom to wrap to; SolidWorks does not automatically expand the text box down the way PowerPoint does. You are better off dragging a corner to get the wrap to work. Custom properties The most important part of the drawing format is the custom properties. While the rest of the format is just for display, custom properties use automation to fill out the title block using matching custom properties in either the model or the drawing document. Custom properties can pull items such as filenames, descriptions, materials, and other properties from the model associated with the sheet, or they can pull data from the drawing itself, such as the sheet scale, filename, sheet number, and total sheets. If you are seriously looking to automate drawings, you cannot overlook custom properties. Custom property data entry Custom property data entry happens at the part or assembly level. This information is then reused in the drawing format and in tables such as BOMs and revision tables, as well as searches using the FeatureManager filter and all PDM (Product Data Management) systems make use of SolidWorks custom properties. You can enter the data several ways, but the two most prominent ways are through the Summary Information dialog and through the Custom Properties Tab in the Task Pane. [...]... there are a few things that could be improved For example, SolidWorks does not allow you to create predefined section or detail views Also, the View Palette does not preview the populated Predefined views Using styles and blocks in templates Starting in SolidWorks 20 09, the functionality formerly known as favorites is now known as styles In SolidWorks, styles function like styles and formatting in Microsoft... PropertyManager Select a predefined view, and from the PropertyManager, select Browse in the Insert Model panel n Make Drawing from Part/ Assembly Click the Make Drawing From Part/ Assembly button in the Standard toolbar and select a template that uses Predefined views 6 39 20 Part V Creating Drawings FIGURE 20.24 Alignment options Predefined views and sheet scale When Predefined views are created, they... then use it to create the rest of the sizes, you need to be patient SolidWorks typically turns off the most useful parametric sketch functions when working with a format (what SolidWorks considers a large sketch) because of speed problems If you would like to turn these settings back on, they are located at Tools ➪ Sketch Settings SolidWorks is not the best program for making a nice-looking drawing... Tab Builder by either using the Create button on the Custom Properties Tab or through the Start menu, at Programs ➪ SolidWorks ➪ SolidWorks Tools ➪ Property Tab Builder 626 Automating Drawings: The Basics FIGURE 20.8 Using the Custom Properties Builder and Custom Properties Tab 627 20 Part V Creating Drawings The interface enables you to add drop-down lists, toggles, and text entry boxes This offers... displays the Link to Property dialog box, as shown in Figure 20.12, which gives you the option of linking to a custom property in the current (drawing) document or in the model (part or assembly) that is on the drawing 6 29 20 Part V Creating Drawings FIGURE 20.12 The Link to Property dialog box 4 If the desired custom property is not in the drop-down list shown to the right, then you can type it into... especially if you are using sequential part numbers for your filenames A custom property named Description can be added to your template, and the default value is used unless it is changed when the template is used in a document You have already seen how custom properties used in parts can be instrumental in filling out a title block on a drawing Custom properties in part and assembly documents work exactly... with Drawing Views T welve years ago, when I first moved from AutoCAD to SolidWorks, one of the most difficult concepts to understand was that in SolidWorks you do not create lines in the drawing view, and in fact, you cannot move any of the lines in the view at all The drawing view was in effect a snapshot of the 3D model from a particular point of view The snapshot could be updated, but it could not... these issues and know how to deal with them when or if they occur One issue arises from assemblies that contain parts that interfere HLR (hidden lines removed) display of interfering parts can show extra lines or hide lines that should be shown At other times, you may have issues with lightweight parts When possible, it is best to work with model geometry that is fully resolved as well as highquality drawing... dragged from the View Palette are also Model views Open documents The large selection box in the Part/ Assembly to Insert panel displays any models that are open in SolidWorks at the moment If the model that you are looking for is not in the list, then you can use the Browse button to look for it I find this part of the interface to be clumsy because an extra step is involved that was not there before... directly, but now there is an intermediate step For this reason, I try to use a workflow that avoids this PropertyManager I typically use the Create Drawing From This Part/ Assembly if the part is open, and if not, I drag-and-drop the part onto a new drawing created from a template with Predefined and projected views on it This combination saves a lot of extra steps One of the annoying quirks of this . formats The sample formats that installed with SolidWorks are located in C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication Data SolidWorks SolidWorks 20 09 . They include ANSI sizes A to E, and ISO. own interpretation or exceptions to the standards. SolidWorks is coming to grips with this in a practical way. Starting with SolidWorks 20 09, you can create your own custom drafting standards,. underlying template. However, you can change all of the settings, which is for the most part equivalent. SolidWorks 20 09 offers custom drafting standards, which fulfills much of the function that the