Changing Part Dimensions from Drawings

The process flow for SolidWorks usually starts with modeling a part / assembly and then afterwards creating a drawing from the model.  Usually changes are made to the model and they are reflected across all the drawings.  However it is possible to directly modify a part from the drawing. (Also Read: Drawing Zones in SolidWorks)

We have a simple part shown below (Related Read: Part Description Missing)

The part is detailed in the drawing shown below

In order to drive the dimensions in the model we go to the Annotations tab and select Model Items.

With Model Items selected, we want to select the drawing view and the dimensions to be driven as shown

Notice that the dimensions are black in color, not the usual grey.  By double clicking the black colored dimensions you’ll find you’re able to modify the dimensions. In this case we want to change the dimension to 200mm.

By accepting the changes, modification to the part is successfully applied to all drawing views.

New in SolidWorks 2015- Dynamic Reference Visualization

Dynamic Reference Visualization, is a new feature in SolidWorks 2015.

Dynamic Reference Visualization lets us view the parent relationships between items in the FeatureManager design tree. When we hover over a feature with references in the FeatureManager design tree, arrows display showing the relationships as shown below.

If a reference cannot be shown because a feature is not expanded, the arrow points to the feature that contains the reference and the actual reference appears in a text box to the right of the arrow as shown below.

To turn on Dynamic Reference Visualization, in the FeatureManager design tree, right-click the first item (part or assembly) and click Tree Display > Show Dynamic Reference Visualization as shown below.

SolidWorks 2015 What's New?- Configurations Toolbar

The new feature in SolidWorks 2015 is Configurations Toolbar. With the Configurations toolbar, we can switch configurations without changing tabs in the FeatureManager design tree or using the Specify Configurations dialog box.

Open SolidWorks, click Tools > Customize. On the Toolbars tab of the Customize dialog box, select Configurations.

The other method to display the toolbar is to Right click on the Command Manager (Anywhere in the blank area shown by blue box) and select Configurations.

The Configurations toolbar provides a drop-down list of the model's configurations as shown below.

As with other toolbars, we can detach the Configurations toolbar and place it anywhere in the graphics area or on a second monitor.

Replace Model in Drawing (New in SolidWorks 2014)

We can use the Replace Model tool to change file references for individual drawing views while the drawing is open.

You can use the Replace Model tool to change file references between parts and parts, assemblies and assemblies, and between parts and assemblies. If you create drawings that have iterative changes or similar parts that require similar dimensioning schemes, this tool allows you to reuse a drawing in the new context.

Let’s understand this with an example. Here we have a drawing of a part with few dimensions already placed. We will try to replace this with an assembly.

 

Now we will right click any view and select Replace Model as shown below.

 

Now it will ask us if we want to replace a selected view or all the views. Also here we need to browse for the file with which we want to replace the view.

Once the file is selected it will ask us to confirm it as shown below.

 

 

Now as we can see below all the views have been replaced and the parameters are still there. None of the dimension lost the reference.

 

 

 

 

 

How to Change Orientation of Imported Geometry

Change Orientation of Imported Geometry

 

The View orientation of Imported Parts when imported into SolidWorks may not be what is desired for our design. So we can end up with a view that is twisted or at some obscure angle or with an Origin that is away from the actual part and this can make it difficult to insert into an assembly or create a drawing for the part.

Let’s understand this with the below example. Here we can see that when we imported the part, the tab is at an angle. We want the tab to be vertical.

We select a face or a plane that will be one of our three Standard Planes and start a new Sketch. As shown below we create two lines that are perpendicular to each other.

 

 

Now we select the Coordinate System command from Features toolbar as shown below.

 

Here we select the intersection of both lines as our origin. Then we select the lines and make them along X axis and Y axis. If they are in the opposite direction then we can use the Flip option.

 

As shown below a new Coordinate system is created.

Now we save the part as a Neutral format (Parasolid, STEP, IGES etc.) file using the newly created coordinate system as the Output coordinate system.

Once saved we reimport the part and as shown below it uses the new coordinate system and the tab is vertical.