SolidWorks 2010
Chapter 2 – Creating an A3 drawing sheet
In this chapter we will learn the basic steps required to produce an A3 drawing blank with data block which will be used as we produce various drawings throughout the course.
Please note. Read the text of the notes carefully, the pictures are only there as a visual check.
Open SolidWorks by double clicking on the desktop icon as shown
When you log on you will get a series of messages, help windows, etc. Each of these should be closed until you arrive at the page shown below:
You will not be using the menu shown on the right of the screen, as shown below, so move the cursor over the left edge of the menu until the double ended arrow appears, as shown below circled in red, then left click and hold down the mouse button and drag the edge of the menu to the right before letting go of the button.
You should now have a screen that looks like the one shown below.
To start a new file, click the New button from the main menu at the top of the screen, as shown below.
You will see one of the two options shown below. It doesn’t matter which menu appears, so from either one select the Drawing option.
The drawing screen will open along with the Sheet Format/Size menu, as shown below
On this menu select the Custom sheet size button, as shown below circled in red and change the Width to 420 and the Height to 297, as shown below circled in green.
You should now have a view of the paper size as shown below.
At this point it you need to Save and close the file, giving it an appropriate title such as A3 Drawing Blank. Save it as the DEFAULT (*.drw) file. Now close the file and re-open it.
Now you need to change the format of the drawing sheet from the default 1st Angle Orthographic Projection to 3rd Angle Orthographic Projection. To do this move the cursor to an unused area of the drawing sheet, somewhere near the top of the screen and right click.
This menu will open:
Select the Properties.... option and this menu will open:
From the top centre of the menu you need to select the Third Angle option as shown above. Once this is complete, click OK to close the menu.
Now you will need to change some of the default settings of your drawing blank. To do this select the Options icon from the top menu, as shown below circled in blue. Then select the Options menu, as below circled in red.
Under the System Options tab, select the Display Style option, as shown below circled in red. Then select the Hidden lines visible option, as shown below circled in blue.
Under the Document Properties tab, as shown below circled in green, select the Dimensions option, as shown below circled in blue. Now change the arrow Style to solid filled, as shown below circled in red and the size of the arrow to 4mm x 1.5mm, as shown below circled in yellow.
Still under the Document Properties tab, select the Units option, as shown below circled in red. Now change the arrow Unit system to MMGS, as shown below circled in green.
Finally, when your drawing blank and data block is complete, re-save the file.
Now select the Sketch tab from the list of menu’s available, as shown below
To draw the lines for the page border, select the line command, as shown below.
Now draw 4 lines just inside the edges of the black border, as shown below.
You will notice that each of these lines you have drawn is blue. This means they are unconstrained and therefore you are able to move them.
Once you are happy with the positions of these border lines, select one of the lines by clicking on it and it will change colour to light blue as shown below. This will also generate the Line Properties menu to open on the left side of the screen, as shown below.
The fix the position of each line, click on the Fix button with the anchor on it as shown below.
You will notice that the Existing Relations box now has Fixed relation added to the Vertical relation that was already there, as shown below.
Repeat this process for the other 3 lines until they all appear black, as shown below.
To zoom in and out of the drawing, roll the centre mouse button forward to zoom out and back to zoom in. You may also hold down the centre button to allow you to Pan across the drawing space.
If you need to reposition the drawing to fill the screen and see the whole drawing sheet, click on the Zoom to Fit icon at the top of the screen, as shown below.
Draw the data block to your design using the line command, as shown below. You will notice that the line command produces a rubber band effect at the end of each line, press Esc on the keyboard to break the rubber band, this will also cancel the Line command. Alternatively, right click and select End Chain from the menu if you wish to draw more lines.
Each of these lines can be constrained in the exact position required by dimensioning it. To do this select the Smart Dimension command from the top left of the menu, as shown below.
Once selected, move the cursor over the end of the line until the orange dot appears, then select it. Repeat this process for the other end of the line.
The true length of the line will appear, as shown below. Place this in an appropriate place with a mouse click, as shown below.
This will open a menu, as shown below, which gives you the opportunity to specify an exact dimension. Type in the required dimension and click the green tick.
Repeat this process for all of the lines which make your data block, as shown below.
Obviously we don’t want to see these dimensions on the finished drawing blank, so once the data block is how you want it, you can hide the dimensions.
To do this, press ESC to ensure that no commands are selected. Now move the cursor over the dimension you wish to hide and click the right mouse button. The menu shown below will pop up and from it select the Hide option.
Repeat this process for all dimensions until they are hidden, as shown below.
All dimensioned lines will now be black as they are constrained.
WARNING - Please be aware that once dimensions have been hidden, you cannot reverse the process to show them again. Therefore if you need to move a line, after hiding the dimension, the only way is to delete the line and redraw it.
Now select the Annotation menu tab from the top of the drawing space and select the Note icon, as shown below.
As you position the Note box do not drop it in a position where there is an arrow attached to it, as shown below.
You can move the text box later, so do not be too concerned about the exact position.
Change the text size from 13 to 8, as shown below.
Enter the text you require, ensuring that all text is in CAPITAL LETTERS, as shown below.
Once you have created the text you require, the system will default to letting you place it multiple times. To overcome this simply press escape.
The text box, once created, can now be moved to the position required, as shown below.
Now draw the 3rd Angle Orthographic Projection symbol.
Click on the outer circle of the 3rd Angle Orthographic Projection symbol to highlight it and select the Centre Mark icon from the Annotation menu, as shown below.
The outer circle should be Ø10mm as a guide, so scale the rest of the lines accordingly.
Now grab the right hand end point of the horizontal centre line and drag it to the right, as shown below….
…. until it passes through the side view, as shown below.
CAD – Chapter 2 - Paul Mulder
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