Notes in feature manager tree

[macPT]

Hi all

In a project I'm doing, I've crossed with the need to explain and give further details about some features, for future reference. I can do this by creating notes in the part, but I think the proper way should be creating notes attached to the feature, accessible in the feature manager tree.

When we RMC in a feature and select Properties, there's a field called Description (that I never use and don't know the reasons to use it) that could be the solution, but it should have a box to input more information.

More, it should have a special kind o sign in the feature icon informing the designer that there's a note to read (like in an Excel cell) and even showing partialy the note when the mouse is traveling above the feature icons.

What do you think about this? (maybe you alredy have a workaround for this)

Regards

 

[Beggar]

I concur - Have you submitted an enhancement request?

About the only thing that I miss from Inventor to SWX is Inventor's "engineer's notebook" which provided just that functionality and even let you put in sketches, etc.

 

[TheTick]

On one occasion, I resorted to adding a reference dimension to a sketch with a very wordy explanation appended under it. I'm not sure what the absolute limit is for length of text appended to a dimension, but I had enough room.

Due to illness, the part of The Tick will be played by... The Tick.

http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

 

[Standing]

macPT,
See if you like this:
Create a text document in “note pad”. Save it somewhere, then drag and drop that file to your SolidWorks model. It will land in the upper left corner, you can also resize or move the icon.


Bradley

 

[rockguy]

If you concentrate really, really hard the next release (which has a launch date of july 14) may just make your wishes come true.

 

[macPT]

Beggar - before thinking of an enhancement request, I was trying to check if this would be of general interest and if there was not a simple workaround.

TheTick - This is a good idea for dimensions, but I mean information related to the features; not dimensions.

Bradley - I will try this, but I predict a problem: the information is in a different file and there's the risk of loose the link when manipulating files (this text file should have a meaningful name, relating to the part)

rockguy - why are you saying this? Do you know about something new?

Regards

 

[Standing]

macPT,
I deleted the file from the drive after pasting it to the SolidWorks model. No problem, the file still opened in Note Pad from within SolidWorks.


Bradley

 

[Bouke]

You can also try to insert a object to your part. It will show up the same as described above or you can choose not to display the object as an icon but as the document itself. You can insert word-documents for notes and even mathcad or mathlab documents for your calculations...

 

[J-C]

http://www.swcommunity.com/news_full.php?cpfeatureid=1058

The new Design Binder also supports multiple users, letting them insert text or voice comments, files, and links into a SolidWorks file to track design intent and progress.


Jason Capriotti
ThyssenKrupp Elevator

 

[Luca83]

Why not just add an annotation note pointing to the actual feature and mentioning to reference back to "Extrude 22" or something like that?

I usually just rename the feature with a small note, although you may need to expand out your feature tree to read it.

 

[TheTick]

Actually, the dimension was superfluous. The purpose of the dimension was just to have a place to put text that would be visible if the feature was edited.

 

[macPT]

SW2005 as a Design Binder in which we can attach documents. It also as comments that can be created for each branch of the feature manager tree (a folder in the design manager tree colects all these comments and allow to create others not linked to features).

Just what I was looking for!

Regards