Ironically, this mode does not work for the Relative view, which would be a perfect application for it. It is intended for views such as the Broken-out Section view where a depth must be selected for the cut. In Figure 21.22, notice the small toolbar above the drawing view. This toolbar is available while the 3D Drawing View Mode is turned on. Clicking OK on the small toolbar turns off the mode and returns the view to its previous state. FIGURE 21.22 3D Drawing View Mode View orientation and alignment Although you may have selected the Top view, and it displays the correct geometry, you may want to spin the view in the plane of the paper, or orient it in a particular way. You can do this using two methods. The easiest way to reorient the view is to use the Rotate View tool on the View toolbar. This rotates the view in the plane of the paper much like it rotates the model in 3D. Another option is to select an edge in the view and assign the edge to be either a horizontal or ver- tical edge. Figure 21.23 shows how a view can be re-oriented using this tool, which is located at Tools ➪ Align Drawing View ➪ Horizontal or Vertical Edge. Another option for view alignment is to align it relative to another view; this involves stacking one view on top of another or placing them side-by-side. You can do this by selecting the second pair of options in the menu shown in Figure 21.23, Horizontal to Another View and Vertical to Another View. Situations may arise where a view is locked into a particular relationship to another view, and you need to disassociate the views. The Break Alignment option, which is grayed out in the menu in Figure 21.23, serves that purpose. Default Alignment resets a view to its original orientation and alignment if it has been altered. 637 Working with Drawing Views 21 30_080139 ch21.qxp 3/26/07 4:13 PM Page 637 FIGURE 21.23 Rotating a drawing view to align an edge Using Display Options in Views Some important display options and settings are not listed in Tools, Options, but are only available through the menus. You can find more information about the display options and settings that are available through Tools, Options in Appendix B. Display States Display States can be used in drawing views, but they only have an effect when a drawing view is set to Shaded Display mode. You can control Display States for drawing views in the View Properties tab of the Drawing View Properties dialog box. RMB click inside the view but away from any geometry, and select Properties. The Drawing View Properties dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 21.24. One of the limitations of the Display States functionality in drawing views is that when wireframe display is used, the drawing edges appear black rather than using the color settings to show wire- frame in the same color as shaded. Selected edge 638 Creating Drawings Part V 30_080139 ch21.qxp 3/26/07 4:13 PM Page 638 FIGURE 21.24 The Drawing View Properties dialog box Display modes With even the 2D drawing world becoming less and less black-and-white, SolidWorks drawings have the ability to apply shaded views to drawings. This is probably most useful in isometric, per- spective, or pictorial views on the drawings. The shading and color may be distracting for dimen- sioned and detailed views, but it can also be indispensable when you need to show what a part actually looks like in 3D. Not everyone can read engineering prints, and even for those who can, nothing communicates quite like a couple of shaded isometric views. The more standard 2D drawing display modes are Wireframe, HLR (hidden lines removed), and HLV (hidden lines visible), which work in the same way as they do in the model environment. Unless you override it, the Display mode is set for all of the components in the view. Component Line Font Individual components within an assembly can be shown in different fonts, similar to the display in the Alternate Position view. You can access this function through the component RMB menu, by selecting Component Line Font. Figure 21.25 shows the Component Line Font dialog box, along with a drawing view in which a couple of part line fonts have been changed. The part can only be changed in the view where it was selected, or it can be changed across the board in all views in the active drawing where it appears. This is useful if you want to emphasize or de-emphasize certain parts in the assembly view. 639 Working with Drawing Views 21 30_080139 ch21.qxp 3/26/07 4:13 PM Page 639 FIGURE 21.25 The Component Line Font dialog box Layers Yes, SolidWorks drawings can use layers. No one likes to admit this, but it is nonetheless true. You can place individual parts onto layers, and the layers can have different colors and fonts. Most enti- ties can be put into layers, including edges, annotations, and sketch items. Hidden layers are often used for reference information or construction entities on a drawing. Edge display options SolidWorks drawings and models offer some options for displaying tangent edges. Many users find it distracting when tangent edges (which in a physical part are not edges at all) are given as much visi- ble weight as the sharp edges of, say, a chamfer. These settings are found at View ➪ Display, as shown in Figure 21.26. The Tangent Edges Removed option may be appropriate for parts with few fillets, but it causes a part to look over-simplified and makes details of the shape difficult to distinguish. FIGURE 21.26 Edge display options Tangent edges visible Tangent edges with font Tangent edges removed 640 Creating Drawings Part V 30_080139 ch21.qxp 3/26/07 4:13 PM Page 640 View quality settings View quality is one of those issues that keep users confused because it has changed so many times in recent releases. If you look for view quality settings, then you may be looking for some time. Are the settings with the view, the sheet, system options, document properties? Where are they? You have the choice between two options for drawing view quality: high quality and draft quality. The quality that you choose influences the performance of the software. Draft quality views are noticeably rough when viewed closely, but from a distance, they are at least recognizable. However, Draft quality is becoming less accessible, and so I would not recommend relying on this option. Although new Draft Quality views can be created, once they are set to High Quality, they cannot be set back to Draft Quality. In SolidWorks 2007, all views are created as High Quality unless the view quality setting is over- ridden. This setting is found at Tools ➪ Options ➪ System Options ➪ Drawings ➪ Display Style ➪ Display Quality For New Views. The only other way that you can create Draft Quality views in this version is if you open a drawing from an older version of SolidWorks that used draft quality views. In Figure 21.2 earlier in the chapter, the image to the right shows the Display Style pane. This PropertyManager has been taken from a High Quality view. A Draft Quality view enables you to toggle between Draft and High quality, as shown in Figure 21.27. This means that you can switch a view from Draft to High, but not from High to Draft. Also notice in Figure 21.27 that the cursor over a Draft Quality view displays a lightning bolt symbol, indicating draft quality. FIGURE 21.27 The Draft Quality options and cursor You can access the Cosmetic Thread Display setting in both the Step 1 PropertyManager and the Step 2 PropertyManager. However, you need to be careful not to misread the interface, by thinking that either of these interfaces controls the View Quality. The best advice for using the view quality settings is to forget about them. It looks like this function is being phased out or at least discouraged. 641 Working with Drawing Views 21 30_080139 ch21.qxp 3/26/07 4:13 PM Page 641 Distinguishing Views from Sheets It is sometimes difficult for new users to understand the difference between being in a sketch and being out of a sketch, or the difference between editing the sheet as opposed to the sheet format. In the same way, confusion frequently surrounds the difference between sketching in a view and sketching on a sheet. The easiest way to determine if a sketch will be associated with a view or with the drawing sheet is to look at the prompt in the lower-right corner of the SolidWorks window, on the status bar, which displays the message, Editing Sheet, Editing Sheet Format, or Editing View. This issue becomes especially important when you want to do something with a sketch entity, but it is grayed out and unavailable. This means that whatever entity is active is not the one that the sketch entity is on. Drawing views expand to contain all of the sketch entities that are associated with the view, and so if you see a view that is extended on one side, larger than it should be, then it could be extended to contain the grayed-out sketch entity. Activate the sheet and the suspected views; when the sketch entity turns from gray to black, you have found the place where it resides. Tutorial: Working with View Types, Settings, and Options This tutorial is intended to familiarize you with many of the view types, settings, and options that are involved in creating views. To begin, follow these steps: 1. From the CD-ROM, open the part called Chapter 21 – Tutorial Part.sldprt. 2. Move the drawing template named Inch B Bible Template.drwdot, also found on the CD-ROM, to your templates folder. If you do not know where your templates are located, go to Tools ➪ Options ➪ System Options ➪ File Locations ➪ Document Templates. 3. From the window with the open part, click the Make Drawing from Part button from the toolbar. The drawing becomes populated with three standard views and an isometric view, as shown in Figure 21.28. 4. In the drawing document, turn on the display of the Origins. This will help you to align a section view. Origins can be displayed through the menus at View ➪ Origin. 5. Click the Section View tool on the Drawings toolbar. This activates the Line sketch tool. 642 Creating Drawings Part V 30_080139 ch21.qxp 3/26/07 4:13 PM Page 642 FIGURE 21.28 Using a template with Predefined views 6. In the Top view (in the upper-left section of the drawing), draw a line that picks up the inference from the Origin. You may have to run the cursor over the Origin to activate the inference lines. Make sure that the line goes all the way through the model geometry in the view, as shown in Figure 21.29. When you finish the line, the section view is ready to be placed. Place it to the right of the parent view. FIGURE 21.29 Creating a section view 643 Working with Drawing Views 21 30_080139 ch21.qxp 3/26/07 4:13 PM Page 643 When sketching, remember to make sure that you are sketching in the view rather than on the sheet. A section view cannot be created from a sketch entity if it is not in a view. A glance at the status bar in the lower-right corner of the window lets you know if you are in Editing View or Editing Sheet. To change the letter label on the drawing, click the section line and change the label in the top panel of the Section View PropertyManager. 7. Bring the cursor over the sharp bend in the section line until the cursor looks like the image to the left. Double-click the cursor; the section arrows flip to the other direction, and the drawing view becomes cross-hatched. The cross-hatching indicates that the view needs to be updated. 8. Press Ctrl+Q; the view updates, removing the cross-hatching. 9. Click the section line and press Delete. Answer Yes to the prompt. If you are familiar with older versions of SolidWorks, then you may notice that the original sketch is also deleted with the section line and the view, so that you do not have to delete separate elements individually. 10. Create a new section view using a jogged section line, as shown in Figure 21.30. In order to do this, you must pre-draw the jogged section line, and press the Section View button with the part of the line that you want to use to project the new view. FIGURE 21.30 Creating a jogged section view 11. Next, click the Detail View button on the Drawings toolbar. This activates the Circle sketch tool. 12. Sketch a circle in the Front view, located in the lower-left section of the drawing. Try not to pick up any automatic relations to the center of the circle. One way to prevent this is to hold down the Ctrl key when creating the sketch. 13. Place the view when the circle is complete. Note that the view was created at a scale of 1:2. The sheet scale is 1:4, and so the detail is two times the sheet scale. The Detail view is shown in Figure 21.31. 644 Creating Drawings Part V 30_080139 ch21.qxp 3/26/07 4:13 PM Page 644 FIGURE 21.31 Creating a Detail view 14. Drag the circumference of the circle and watch the view dynamically resize. 15. Leave the Detail circle selected so that the center of the circle is highlighted. Drag the cen- ter of the circle around the view. The effect is like moving a magnifying glass over the part. If you drag the center with the Ctrl key pressed, then you will not pick up any auto- matic sketch relations when you drop it somewhere. 16. Click the Broken-out Section View tool on the Drawings toolbar. Draw a spline similar to the one shown in the image to the left in Figure 21.32. Splines take a little practice. FIGURE 21.32 Creating a Broken-out Section view 17. Click inside the view border but outside of the part in the Top view (in the upper-left sec- tion of the drawing). Press Ctrl+C. 18. RMB click the tab in the lower-left corner of the drawing that says Sheet1, and select Add New Sheet. If you used the template that I provided, a message may appear, saying that SolidWorks cannot find the format. This is because I only supplied you with the template file, not the format as a separate file. In any case, switch to the B size format and accept. 645 Working with Drawing Views 21 30_080139 ch21.qxp 3/26/07 4:13 PM Page 645 19. Click any spot inside the sheet and press Ctrl+V. SolidWorks pastes the copied view from the other sheet. Delete the section line. 20. Click the Projected View tool from the Drawings toolbar, and then click the pasted view. Practice making a couple of projected views, including dragging one off at a 45-degree angle to make an isometric. Make sure that one of the views is a side view showing the angled edge, as shown in Figure 21.33. Once you create the views, click model edges in the views and drag them around to a better location. FIGURE 21.33 Projecting views 21. Select the angled edge from one of the side views and click the Auxiliary View toolbar button. While placing the view, press and hold the Ctrl key to break the alignment. You can resize the view arrow by selecting the corners and dragging. If you drag the line itself, then you can move it between the views. Alternatively, with the view arrow selected and the PropertyManager displayed, you can deselect the green check mark icon in the Arrow panel at the top of the window to turn off the arrow. 22. Create a new drawing from the New dialog box. If the automatic Model View interface appears in the PropertyManager, click the red X icon to cancel out of it. 23. Expand the Task pane and activate the View palette (the tab that looks like a drawing icon). Click the ellipse button (. . .) and browse for the assembly named Chapter 21. SF casting assembly.sldasm. This is shown in Figure 21.34. Create at least one of these views 646 Creating Drawings Part V 30_080139 ch21.qxp 3/26/07 4:14 PM Page 646 [...]... 270 degrees 666 31_080139 ch22.qxp 3/26/ 07 4:14 PM Page 6 67 Using Annotations and Symbols FIGURE 22.16 Center marks and centerlines on a part Add centerlines by clicking cylindrical faces FIGURE 22. 17 Placing symbols in an annotation Access the symbol library 6 67 22 31_080139 ch22.qxp Part V 3/26/ 07 4:14 PM Page 668 Creating Drawings FIGURE 22.18 Creating a block Summary Annotations and symbols in SolidWorks. .. library 663 22 31_080139 ch22.qxp Part V 3/26/ 07 4:14 PM Page 664 Creating Drawings Custom symbols You can create custom symbols in SolidWorks, but creating them may not be as simple as you expect In the lang\english subfolder of the SolidWorks installation directory is a file called Gtol.sym This is the file that stores the representations of all of the SolidWorks symbols This is also the file where... a second time Fonts SolidWorks uses any TrueType fonts that Windows will accept This includes symbol, non-English, and Wingding fonts SolidWorks does not use true monofonts like AutoCAD, because they do not have width information Some look-alike fonts are installed with SolidWorks that do have a very narrow width, and are shaped like some of the monofonts If you are a long-time SolidWorks user, you... Annotations toolbar The Model Items PropertyManager interface is shown in Figure 23.1 FIGURE 23.1 The Model Items PropertyManager interface 670 32_080139 ch23.qxp 3/26/ 07 5:28 PM Page 671 Dimensioning and Tolerancing Usually, the dimensions need to be rearranged, although SolidWorks does try to arrange them so that they do not overlap Figure 23.2 shows the result of bringing dimensions into all views for... URL to the hyperlink dialog box that appears, or browse to it from the dialog box 6 57 22 31_080139 ch22.qxp Part V 3/26/ 07 4:14 PM Page 658 Creating Drawings FIGURE 22.9 Linking notes to custom properties Link to Custom Properties Hyperlink text Add symbol Notes and symbols Notes and symbols are regularly combined in SolidWorks Symbols are discussed more fully later in this chapter, but are mentioned... workflow works well, but forcing it to be a manual process makes it awkward to use 649 21 30_080139 ch21.qxp 3/26/ 07 4:14 PM Page 650 31_080139 ch22.qxp 3/26/ 07 4:14 PM Page 651 Using Annotations and Symbols A nnotations and symbols are a major component of communicating a design through a drawing SolidWorks has several options available to help you manage these entities to make engineering drawings look... reflect the new parent view 27 Zoom in on the Back view Change the view to show Tangent Edges With Font through View ➪ Display 28 Click the Alternate Position view toolbar button Type a name in the PropertyManager for a new configuration and click the green check mark icon SolidWorks opens the assembly model window 29 Rotate the handle 90 degrees and click the green check mark icon SolidWorks returns to the... leader is shown in Figure 22 .7 FIGURE 22 .7 The results of adding a new branch to a jogged leader Favorites For notes, a favorite can apply a font, an underline or bold formatting, or any other setting from the Formatting (Fonts) toolbar To create a note that uses the favorite setting from another existing note, pre-select the existing note before starting the Note command; SolidWorks applies the favorite... into the views for you, and the ability to actually change the model from the drawing are quite useful, but you may not save very much time or effort by doing things this way 671 23 32_080139 ch23.qxp Part V 3/26/ 07 5:28 PM Page 672 Creating Drawings Using reference dimensions The alternative to automatically inserting model dimensions is to manually place reference dimensions At first, this appears to... extension, *.sldnotefvt Once you save the favorite, you can load it into other documents The Favorites panel of the Note PropertyManager interface is shown in Figure 22.8 656 31_080139 ch22.qxp 3/26/ 07 4:14 PM Page 6 57 Using Annotations and Symbols FIGURE 22.8 The Favorites panel of the Note PropertyManager interface The Favorites panel contains the following buttons: Apply Defaults/No Favorites: Removes favorite . original orientation and alignment if it has been altered. 6 37 Working with Drawing Views 21 30_080139 ch21.qxp 3/26/ 07 4:13 PM Page 6 37 FIGURE 21.23 Rotating a drawing view to align an edge Using. created, once they are set to High Quality, they cannot be set back to Draft Quality. In SolidWorks 20 07, all views are created as High Quality unless the view quality setting is over- ridden drawing. Change the Display Mode to make it a shaded view. 6 47 Working with Drawing Views 21 30_080139 ch21.qxp 3/26/ 07 4:14 PM Page 6 47 FIGURE 21.35 Creating an Alternate Position view 31. RMB