Has to be an easier way

JAYMAN · Jun 29, 2001

At my company, we recieve customer prints, then create internal process sheets for routing the parts from raw stock to the finished part. There are sometimes 20 different sizes of a given part. I create the models using a design table. That is the easy part. The bad thing is my employer requires a seperate "process sheet" (slddwg) for each individual size, meaning I can't just make one drawing sheet with letter tags and a table showing the dimensions that change.

So currently, I create all the process sheets for a given part, then copy those files to the folder for the next size, then go into each drawing file, right click on each view and change the configuration to the next part, as well as updating the title block info.

Any ideas on streamlining this ?

dsi · Jun 29, 2001

If you have the resources, you could write a VB program to automate the process. I have automated complete product lines, but it takes some significant time as well as a good working knowledge of the SolidWorks API. DimensionalSolutions@Core.com
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BBRAZEAU · Jun 29, 2001

JAYMAN,
I DON'T KNOW IF THIS WILL HELP BUT HERE GOES.
IF EACH PART IS BASICALLY THE SAME EXCEPT FOR DIMS ,SUPPRESSED FEATURES AND PROPERTIES(NOTES YOU WANT IN TITLE BLOCK OR ON SHEET) YOU COULD... MAKE THE CONFIGURATIONS YOU NEED,FOR EACH PART.UNDER PROPERTIES ,CUSTOM,CONFIGURATION SPECIFIC CREATE THE FIELDS YOU NEED. CREATE DRAWING AND PUT IN A VIEW.NEXT(RIGHT CLICK SHEET)SELECT USE PROPERTIES FROM MODEL SHOWN IN "DRAWING VIEW",PICK THE VIEW .THEN POPULATE THE DRAWING TITLE BLOCK AND SHEET WITH NOTES AND INFO ,USE "LINK PROPERTIES"EXTERNAL MODEL REFERENCE MUST BE CHECKED. FINALLY TO CHANGE THE DRAWING RIGHT CLICK THE VIEW SELECT PROPERTIES ,USE NAMED CONFIGURATION,THEN SELECT THE DESIRED CONFIGURATION FROM THE DROP DOWN LIST.

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Has to be an easier way

JAYMAN

Mechanical

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dsi

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BBRAZEAU

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