Have you
ever wanted to take a drawing view and make it into a standard block that you
could use in layout drawings? You have a part model, but you only want a 2D
“picture” of it? You want to mirror a drawing view, avoiding to create the
model for the opposite hand part, since the only thing needed is an extra
Isometric view
The answer
to above questions is this new feature in 2013 version of SolidWorks. This
feature enables you to convert a drawing view to sketch entities or a block of
sketch entities using the Convert View to Sketch
PropertyManager.
The other
advantage of this is if you convert you views to sketch, you can directly send
the drawing file to other users, no need to send the part or assembly model.
From the
shortcut menu, you can convert a drawing view to sketch entities or a block of sketch
entities.
In a
drawing view, right-click and click Convert View to Sketch as shown in
the picture below.
In the
Convert View to Sketch Property Manager, you can get the following three options
as shown in the picture below. Here we are selecting the first option that is
Replace view with sketch.
Replace view
with sketch: Replaces the drawing view with equivalent 2D sketch entities.
Replace view
with block: Replaces the drawing view with equivalent 2D sketch entities
that are grouped in a block.
Insert as block:
Creates
a separate block comprised of equivalent 2D sketch entities that you can place
anywhere in the drawing.
You need
to do this for each view individually. Once done you will hardly see any
difference between the drawing view and the one replaced with sketch as shown
below. The advantage is now you can forward this drawing file to any user and
he should be able to open this without the need of 3D model.
The
difference is in the Property Manger is as shown below. You will
see that there are very few options shown when you select a view.
