Engineering 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 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.
SolidWorks drawing templates and formats enable you to automate some of these tasks. SolidWorks can insert information on a drawing's creator and the materials to be used, and start similar types of drawings from a consistent starting point. Drawing templates and formats also save settings that you may want to reuse.
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 type. In this chapter, I cover the *.drwdot file type.
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 use and recommend. Using SolidWorks' default drawing templates, the templates and formats are initially kept separate. You specify the size and the format when creating a new drawing from a blank template. However, when the format is already in the template, the size has already been determined, 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 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 the settings, which is for the most part equivalent.
SolidWorks offers custom drafting standards, which provide some of the functionality the ability to swap templates would achieve. You can take a drafting standard such as ISO (International Organization for Standardization) or ANSI (American National Standards Institute), make adjustments to it, and save the standard out to a file that you can distribute to other users. You can change the standard by choosing Tools
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.
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 following sheets.
If you put formats on the templates, then you are making separate templates for various sized drawings. Also, separate templates are frequently created for different units or standards because templates contain document-specific settings. I also keep a blank drawing template with a blank format on it just to do conceptual scribbles or to make an informal, scalable, and printable drawing without the baggage that typically accompanies formal drawings.
Warning
SolidWorks can install with default document templates that use different standards. Be careful of the difference between drawings with ANSI and ISO standards, or more importantly, the use of Third Angle Projection versus First Angle Projection. Figure 20.1 shows the difference between a Third Angle 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.
If you work for a company that does a lot of work for manufacturing in Europe, then you may have to deal this issue more frequently. The setting that controls the projection angle is not in Tools
In my experience, in companies that work in the real world, very few companies follow any of the single drafting standards perfectly. Each company seems to have its own interpretation of, or exceptions to, the standards. SolidWorks is coming to grips with this in a practical way. In SolidWorks, you can create your own custom drafting standards, equivalent to the established ISO and ANSI standards. These standards allow you to save all the settings found in Tools
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.
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 and assign it, and your drawing will assume all the customized properties.
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 by choosing Tools
Creating drawing formats can be either simple or difficult. Generally, copying existing drawing borders from other drawings imported through DXF (Data eXchange Format) or DWG format is the easiest way to go. Trying to edit an existing border into a different size is usually much more difficult. Adding all the automated annotation information is much easier than editing the lines in the border and title block.
The simple solution is to customize an existing format of the size or sizes you require 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.
The sample formats installed with SolidWorks include ANSI sizes A through E, and ISO sizes A0 through A4. You can probably find enough space on the formats to place a company logo and some standard notes. These templates are located in different directories in Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Choose Tools
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
Templates that have been saved with a format already on them skip the step of prompting you to select a format. This enables 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.
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, so when you edit the format, any drawing views that may be there disappear.
To peel back the sheet and gain access to the format, right-click a blank area of the sheet and select Edit Sheet Format. Alternatively, you can also access the sheet format by right clicking on the sheet tab in the lower-left corner of the SolidWorks window. This RMB 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 the "Editing Sheet Format" message appears at the lower-right- corner on the status bar.
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.
You can use most common image types to insert logo or other image data onto your drawing or format by choosing Insert
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.
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.
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. SolidWorks does not automatically reduce the text box down the way PowerPoint does. You are better off dragging the lower-right corner handle of the text box to get the wrap to work.
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 happens at the part or assembly level. This information is then reused in the drawing format and in tables such as BOMs (Bills of Materials) 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 box and through the Custom Properties Tab in the Task Pane.
Figure 20.7 shows the Summary Information dialog box. This functionality has existed in SolidWorks for several releases. You access this dialog box by choosing File
This is a perfectly functional way of entering data, but the fact that it is somewhat out of the way, hidden in the menus, means that it does not get used as much as it should. So SolidWorks came up with another way of entering data.
The Custom Properties Tab of the Task Pane enables you to quickly and easily access and assign custom properties within a document. Figure 20.8 shows the process of building your own Custom Properties Tab. You can start the Custom Property Tab Builder by either clicking the Create button on the Custom Properties Tab or choosing Start
The interface enables you to add drop-down lists, toggles, and text entry boxes. This gives you a lot of flexibility with custom property data entry, and is a very nice addition to the software.
Figure 20.9 shows the existing custom property formatting in the default format being used for this example.
The syntax $PRP or $PRPSHEET indicates that the property that follows the syntax is to be pulled from either the current document (drawing) or from the model specified in the Sheet Properties, respectively. This is an important distinction to make. Most of the time, you can type custom properties in at the part or assembly level so that you can reuse the data by drawing properties, BOM, or even design tables.
Notice that all the notes in the format that are showing raw syntax are pulling data from the model. "Draw2" and the Scale notes are driven by the drawing. When no value exists for the property to display, you have an option of what to show. The top portion of Figure 20.10 shows the settings in the View menu that control the display of syntax of the custom property links. In general, it is common to deselect the error display and to show the link variables.
The errors in Figure 20.10 are caused by links to the local document for which there is no corresponding property. For example, the "ERROR!: COMPANYNAME" message is linked to "$PRP: COMPANYNAME," but the local custom property COMPANYNAME does not exist. If it existed but had a null or space value, the error would disappear.
Likewise, with the option to display link variables selected, the syntax that calls model custom properties displays until there is some value for it to pull from. If a part is put onto the drawing, then some of the properties are filled in because properties and values exist to pull from, and the rest of the properties simply disappear to make space. Notice in Figure 20.11 that the Material property has been filled in, but the Finish property has not. This is because either there is no Finish property in the part on the drawing or there is a null value in the Finish property.
Tip
When initially setting up the format, it can be useful to have a dummy model already on the drawing. The dummy model should have all the custom properties in it that you intend to use in your drawings. This prevents the blank fields or error messages from appearing during setup.
Note
If you drag-and-drop a part onto a drawing while editing in the Sheet Format, the views may appear for a split second and then disappear again. This is because you cannot display drawing views while editing the Sheet Format. Once you exit the Sheet Format and go back to editing the sheet, the views can display once more.
It is easy to create annotations that are linked to properties. Begin as if you are creating a note:
Place the note on the drawing. The Formatting toolbar appears.
If the desired custom property is not in the drop-down list shown to the right, then you can type it into the text box or click the File Properties button to edit the properties. If the property is added to the part file or a part file with that property is used on the drawing, this linked annotation will pick it up. This button is not available for the model if there is no model on the drawing, in which case you must type in the name of the property manually.
The Title Block enables the person who sets up the sheet format to specify an area that contains notes that are easy to access without editing the format. (Many CAD administrators prefer that the users not have to deal with the details inside the Sheet Format.) You can even cycle through these notes in a specific order by pressing Enter or Tab. Figure 20.13 shows the resizable black border of the Title Block, the Title Block PropertyManager, and where the Title Block sits in the drawing FeatureManager.
You can access the Title Block to edit or define it by right-clicking in the Sheet Format (while editing the Sheet Format, not the sheet) and selecting either Define Title Block or Edit Title Block, as the situation requires.
The Title Block can be any size you like, but it must remain rectangular, and you can only create one Title Block area per sheet format. The area bounded by the Title Block box is used to zoom the display to make it easier to fill in the text boxes. If you want to include areas in different corners of the drawing in the Title Block area, you will need to make the Title Block box as big as the entire sheet and the user will have to manually zoom to each corner.
Select each Note item to add it to the list in the PropertyManager selection box. Use the arrows to the left of the box to assign the order in which the user cycles through the boxes. The idea is that the user clicks in a box within the Title Block area, fills it in, then presses Enter or Tab to get to the next box. The order will loop if the user does not start on the first box listed in the PropertyManager.
On the CD-ROM
You will find a sample template with a format with a Title Block definition added to it on the CD-ROM. The file is called title block.drwdot. Add it to your template library folder and try it out.
SolidWorks is not good at manipulating a lot of 2D sketch-line data, such as what you find when drawing title blocks. I have gone through the process of making my own formats, as well as the process of importing DWG data from which to create them. If you choose to custom build one size and then use it to create the rest of the sizes, you need to be patient. SolidWorks typically select 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 select these settings, you can find them by choosing Tools
If you insist on creating your own borders and title blocks, set aside some time for it and have an idea of what you are trying to achieve, maybe sketched out by hand or in a printout of a title block that you would like to replicate. You can also use the DWG Editor, which is much better suited to this kind of work.
The Modify Sketch tool may be useful for moving entities around the screen, and even scaling them. You can also access a useful hidden command by right-clicking the name of the drawing in the FeatureManager and selecting Move from the menu, as shown in Figure 20.14. A small dialog box appears that enables you to move the entire format by a specified distance.
Tip
If you need to use construction geometry to help you size or locate objects or text while manually creating your Sheet Format, then you do not need to delete the geometry when you are done. You can put all the construction geometry on a specially created drawing layer and select the layer.
If you want to create your format from an imported DWG or DXF file, choose File
You can find the sample files used for this example on the CD-ROM for Chapter 20 if you are interested in following along. You will find five *.dwg format files. You can use any of them to create a format, but I suggest either the A or B size. To make a drawing format, you can select the Create New SolidWorks drawing and Convert to SolidWorks entities options. Although one of the other options contains the word format, it is not being used in the same sense, so do not be misled. When this selection is complete, click Next. Figure 20.16 shows the next screen.
Select the Layers selected for sheet format option. Select the TB layer, leaving the other layers unselected. Every imported file will be different in this respect, because layers used by title blocks vary widely. Click Next when you have made these selections. Figure 20.17 shows the Document Settings screen.
The important features in the Document Settings screen are the Document template selection and the Geometry positioning options.
Document template selection is only important if you plan to save the format with a template. Be sure to select a template that does not already have a format saved in it. In the Geometry positioning section, if you can get the software to center the title block for you, definitely take advantage of this functionality and use the Center in sheet option. Once you are happy with these settings, click Finish. The resulting format is shown in Figure 20.18.
From here, you can add the links to custom properties as described earlier, as well as logo images, loading favorites, and blocks. You can now save the format as described in the next section.
Tip
You can save drawing formats in two ways: either with the template or separate from the template. You cannot edit formats separate from a template, but they do have their own file type, *.slddrt.
Note
If you are wondering how the extension *.slddrt relates to a sheet format, what is now known as sheet format used to be called a drawing template (thus, the drt of slddrt). What is now called a template did not exist in 1997. The shift in architecture and, more importantly for users, the shift in terminology still leaves many people a bit confused.
Saving templates is covered in the next section. To save a format, choose File
Even if you have saved a format with a template, it is a good idea to also save the format on its own. This is because you might want to use that format on an existing drawing that has a different format on it or use it on a second sheet.
When you have multi-sheet drawings, it is often important to have a simplified or specialized format for the second sheet. Figure 20.19 shows sample page-one and page-two formats side by side.
If a format has been changed, and you would like to update a drawing to the new format, this option is available in the Sheet Properties, as shown in Figure 20.20.
Document-specific settings are an important part of the template, and it is probably best to get one drawing size completely set up the way you want it, and then create the other sizes from this drawing. This helps to ensure that the settings, such as bent leader length, font, and line weight, are the same for all the templates. Uniform settings on drawings give them a consistent look and make them easier to read. Drafting standards are also controlled by drawing templates.
Figure 20.21 shows a template using Pre-defined and Projected Views. You can access Pre-defined Views on the Drawings toolbar; although it is not there by default, you can place it on the toolbar by choosing Tools
Once a Pre-defined View has been placed, you can select an orientation for it from the PropertyManager. Figure 20.22 shows the Drawing View PropertyManager. The orientation for a view is set in the top Orientation panel. In addition to orthogonal views, you can also create isometric and other custom views as Pre-defined Views.
After the view has been oriented, you may want to create more views on the drawing that also become populated by model geometry. This is where the Projected Views are used. Make sure that the drawing properties are set to the correct projection angle.
Because the rest of the views have been created relative to the Front view, none of the views needs to be rotated as it would if, for example, the Top view was placed above the Back or Right view.
Although it is not on this drawing, many drawing templates include a Third Angle Projection symbol as a part of the Title Block, which is in the format. Figure 20.23 shows First and Third Angle Projection symbols. These are included as blocks with the sample data in the SolidWorks installation. Blocks are discussed in more detail in Chapter 22.
You can align views to one another through a view's RMB menu, as shown in Figure 20.24. Projected Views are aligned to one another automatically, but if you chose to use a Pre-defined View rather than a Projected View to one side of the original Pre-defined View, you can use the Align Vertical by Origin or the Align Horizontal by Origin command. This ensures that the parts in each view are aligned. Aligning by center should not be used for Projected Views on an engineering drawing, because it is not guaranteed to line up edges in adjacent views.
Four methods exist to populate a drawing with Pre-defined Views:
Drag-and-drop. Drag a part or assembly from the FeatureManager and drop it in the drawing window. All Pre-defined Views are automatically populated.
Insert Model. Right-click a view and select Insert Model. From the interface, browse for the model to be displayed in all the related (projected) views.
PropertyManager. Select a pre-defined view, and from the PropertyManager, select Browse in the Insert Model panel.
Make Drawing from Part/Assembly. Click the Make Drawing From Part/Assembly button in the Standard toolbar and select a template that uses Pre-defined Views.
When Pre-defined Views are created, they are set to follow the sheet scale by default; however, you can manually set them to have a custom scale. If you are using the automatic scaling option (found at Tools
The function and expectations of Pre-defined Views are fairly straightforward, although there are a few things that could be improved. For example, SolidWorks does not allow you to create pre-defined section or detail views. Also, the View Palette does not preview the populated Pre-defined Views.
Starting in SolidWorks 2009, the functionality formerly known as favorites is now known as styles. In SolidWorks, styles function like styles and formatting in Microsoft Word, or other word-processing software, by adding underlines, bold formatting, and even items such as tolerances and symbols. Hole Wizard Styles are described in Chapter 17, and work similarly to Dimension and Note Styles (described in Chapter 22). This chapter addresses the fact that styles can be saved to files and loaded to documents. In particular, they can be loaded to documents that can be saved as templates, thus maintaining the loaded styles. Several types of styles can be loaded into and saved with drawing templates, including dimension, note, GD&T, weld, and surface finish symbols.
When a style is loaded into a template, any document that you create from that template can use any of the loaded styles. The many file types for styles exist mainly to transfer styles from one document to another, but they are not needed once the style is loaded. As a result, before saving a template, you should gather together your styles into your library folder and load them into the template.
You can load styles by going to the interface for the type of favorite; for example, dimensions or notes. Figure 20.25 shows the top of the Note PropertyManager interface, which contains the Styles panel.
The buttons in the Styles panel of the Note PropertyManager interface have the following functions, from left to right:
This section is concerned with the last function, Load a style. After clicking this button, you can load multiple styles at once by Shift+selecting them through the Open dialog box that appears.
Even symbol types that can be applied by dragging-and-dropping from the Design Library can also be loaded as styles. However, I prefer dragging from the Design Library because you get a preview of the symbol; with the styles, you just see a text tag.
Blocks can also be loaded into a template or used from the Design Library as drag-and-drop items.
Part of the usefulness of templates is that you can do work once and have it replicated many times. This is an excellent example of process automation. One of the ways that you can take advantage of this feature is by putting default custom properties in your templates. In many cases, simply having a default value for something is better than no value, and a default value may even prompt you to put a value with real significance in the property. For example, the Description of a document is extremely important, 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 the same as they do in drawings. The custom properties interface is shown in Figure 20.26.
To save drawing templates, choose Save As
In the case where a template and format have been saved together and are being saved together, but the format also needs to be saved to its own file, saving the template with the changed format only changes the format for documents that are made from that point forward with that template.
You may also save out the format to its own file from the edited template. Formats are needed in their own file (in addition to existing within a template) for situations when you have an existing drawing and want to change the size of the sheet, and then need a format to put on the sheet. Another situation is when a drawing may come in to your organization from an outside contractor, and they have not used your format; in this case, you can simply replace their format with yours, or you can send them your format (and template, for that matter), from which the contractor can create all drawings for you.
Separate formats are important for when you have multi-sheet drawings. When adding a sheet, you also need to add a format. You can save multi-sheet drawing templates in which the first and second sheets have different formats on them.
Blocks are an important aspect of automating drawing creation. They enable you to combine text and sketch geometry and to annotate common features on drawings. Blocks are discussed in Chapter 4 and also in Chapter 22 (creation, editing, and placement). Blocks can be used for many purposes, including the following:
Tolerance blocks on drawings that might change with the process (if you do not have separate formats that already contain this information)
Electrical or pneumatic schematic symbols that can be snapped together
Flowchart type symbols
Fluid flow-direction arrows
Special markers calling attention to a specific detail
Sheet formats that can be created as a block, enabling you to move it around as a single entity much more easily
You can create blocks by selecting a group of sketch entities, annotations, or symbols and then choosing Tools
Cross-Reference
For more information on creating, editing, managing, and placing blocks, see Chapter 22. For more information on general CAD Administration and specific recommendations for templates and formats, please refer to the SolidWorks Administration Bible (Wiley, 2009).
Getting your templates and formats correct creates an excellent opportunity to save some time with drawings by automating many of the common tasks using templates, Pre-defined Views, multiple formats, blocks, favorites, and linked custom properties. Setup becomes more important when you are administering a larger installation, but is also important if it is just for yourself. One of the most important things that you can do is to establish a file library and direct your Tools