How to apply reference dimensions to an assembly?

[acciardi]

Hello all...

I just started a new job last week using SolidWorks 2009.

I've come up to speed pretty quickly after using Pro for 14 years and then NX for the last three years. However, I am stumped on how to place temporary reference dims on an assembly.

In Pro, you could annotate a part or assembly in any canned view to make a quick screen dump for retaining measurements.

In SW assembly mode, I select 'smart dim' and pick the entities I want to dimension. I see the dimension flash on the screen and then disappear with the message 'creating new annotation view annotationveiw1' and so on.

Where are these dimensions going and how can I view them?

Note that I do not want to create model annotations for PMI or anything like that. I just want to be able to make a number of measurements and temporarily retain them so I can print a screen shot and adjust the positions of my components.

Thanks in advance for any help...

Ed

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Select {b]View > All Annotations[/b]

 

[acciardi]

Thanks, I'll try it again on Monday.

 

[acciardi]

OK, I've just been playing with this. I have two holes in two different plates that are at different elevations. I want to know the distance between them as projected into the top view.

When I orient the view to Top and place my annotation, the dimension created is the shortest distance between the holes, not the projection that I want. It does the same thing whether I pick the hole or its axis.

How does one get the annotation to measure the projection into a desired view?

Thanks,

Ed

 

[ArtemTat]

Probably you should use the Measure Tool instead of Smart Dimensions (Tools->Measure...)

Artem Taturevich, CSWP
Software and Design Engineer
AMCBridge LLC

http://www.amcbridge.com

 

[acciardi]

Well yeah, the measure tool does measure the projections, but what I'd like to do is save a whole bunch of measures as annotations to make a screen shot.

 

[AnnaWood]

Search the SolidWorks Help, Index tab for 'Annotation View' Then select 3D Annotations. This should get you closer to what you want.

Cheers,

Anna Wood
Anna Built Workstation, Core i7 EE965, FirePro V8700, 12 gigs of RAM, OCZ Vertex 120 Gig SSD
SW2009 SP3.0, Windows 7 RC1

http://www.solidmuse.com

http://www.phxswug.com