Drawing-Focused design in SW 3

[Sparweb]

Hi,
I'm still pretty new to Solidworks, but I am far from new to CAD, having spent the first 20 years of my career using AutoCAD and Inventor.
A year into the transition to Solidworks, I still feel shaky. I don't want to treat it unfairly, but I'm repeatedly hunting around for the workflows I'm used to, and clumsy picking up the new ones. That's all on me, but I'd like to improve.

One bias that I keep running up against is that Solidworks seems to be geared toward modelers, not drawers. While I do enjoy making an elegant model, I usually don't see the point of trying because I am thinking about the eventual drawing that will be produced. I often know that the end product - the drawing - will require very little detail in the model to be an accurate drawing so I don't model things very finely. This may be peculiar to the area I work in and way I do things. But it often causes the following things to happen:

* My models are done very quickly
* My drawings are elaborate
* My google searches for Solidworks tips I need come up empty/irrelevant
* My searches of the help files turn up irrelevant things or "I can't do that Dave".

I personally think my workflows are much more economic than my coworkers. I regularly finish a complete set of work instructions in 1/2 the time they take. But now my unfamiliarity with Solidworks is slowing me down.

Can anyone recommend blogs or groups that are **DRAWING FOCUSED** like I am?

No one believes the theory except the one who developed it. Everyone believes the experiment except the one who ran it.
STF

 

[drawoh]

SparWeb,

When the model is oriented the way you like it, hit the space bar. Naming and saving your view is one of the options. Don't use isometric views ever again![ ]

In your drawing, named views are listed on the drawing browser.

--
JHG

 

[Jboggs]

"Materials database; how to make custom materials".
Simple. Copy, paste, edit. Right click over an existing similar material. Click "copy". Move to the Custom Materials folder (or create one). Right click. Paste. Click on the new material to edit the name. Edit any property you like in the dialog box. Save.

 

[SBaugh]

Sparweb,

I think these images will answer your question:
BOM with a balloon:

Select the Ballon Text and pick your poison.

I selected Custom Property that is programmed directly from the part file and it pulls the same description that the BOM is pulling.

I am also using PDM which IMO makes this so much easier to program than it used to be when I didn't use PDM.


Scott Baugh, CSWP
CAD Systems Manager
Evapar

http://www.evapar.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

faq731-376

 

[Sparweb]

Thanks again to drawoh and Sbaugh,
The view orientation trick worked like a snap. The parent view was a few degrees off the Top plane so the view was skewed a little. Reorienting to the saved view, which is normal to the component's top face, fixed it right up. Thankfully I didn't have much detailing hung on the child views, so the drawing clean-up was minor.

Placing item balloons in the block of notes also turned out to be easy. I wasn't able to find a way to remove the balloon+quantity from the note's item without removing the balloon from the item call-out on the drawing view. That was the only fly in the ointment and maybe I'll figure that out later.

I got my summer student to make up a macro to replace the default view label with a label filled with the part number and description today. Worked well, and he got it partly formatted per our drawing standard. For some reason, couldn't center-justify the text, but it sure will save a lot of steps. And I do accept that the proper solution is to configure the template properly. Baby steps.

Jboggs,
I am pretty sure that some "non standard" shenanigans have been carried out on our materials database before my arrival. All of the things JBoggs wrote about material properties led to very different things on my screen. Something may be changed in our installation, so I'll come back later to try better to describe what I'm seeing. It may warrant a separate post.


Everyone's feedback is also indicating several places where the drawing templates are out of line. I will take steps to fix it when I can, but for the time being I won't frustrate you all with asking you to help. It will need some investigation on my part first.

All help has been greatly appreciated! Thank you.

No one believes the theory except the one who developed it. Everyone believes the experiment except the one who ran it.
STF

 

[Sparweb]

Oh and lastly:
The SW resellers that I contacted, including the one that supplies our license, have drawing courses, but only one on a regular basis. The next one happens during my summer vacation, while the next is in October. I'll try not to teach myself too much before them.

And... they all put me on their e-mail spam lists so I now get a dozen SW e-mails per day.

No one believes the theory except the one who developed it. Everyone believes the experiment except the one who ran it.
STF