Hello,
I was wandering how you all handle modifications to title blocks and sheet formats.
I'm in this condition:
- a single drawing template
- multiple sheet formats for different ISO dimensions (A4 to A0)
- one title block
Now we are in the middle of making some changes to the title block, which is a sketch inside the sheet format with some annotation linked to the model custom properties. To modify the title block I need to change each sheet format and it's tedious, inefficient and prone to errors.
Are there any best practices? How you handle the matter? Is there a better workflow to propagate title block change to all sheet formats? I considered using blocks but I don't like them in SolidWorks.
Thanks in advance.
Sheet formats and title block best practises
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Peter De Vlieger
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Fri Mar 12, 2021 9:46 am
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Re: Sheet formats and title block best practises
Blocks in SW are indeed sub-par BUT for something like this I do find it to be the best solution.
Like you we use a single drawing template but have lots of different sheet formats. Not just the different papersizes but also different languages in the titelblock and different 'entities' (daughter companies etc) . There for I don't just have to admin A0 to A4 but on top have them with different languages and different logos.
We made a block with all the things that don't change. Then I just retype any text needed in every needed language version(French, Dutch, English), double checking that all fits the space. I also added lines and dots on a hiddenlayer to function as location guides for the property fields, so that they are all located in the exact same place across the title blocks. Once the blocks are inserted in the sheet formats, explode them,
Sure, if any future alterations are needed it does mean changing the different title blocks, swapping out the blocks as needed and it's a hassle but lets be honest shall we, Solidworks isn't particularly good at 2D's. Lots of stuff that was common place in 2d 30years ago they still either can't do, won't do, or can't be bothered about. E.G.: using layers with different colors in Solidworks behaves as if it's a shareware v0.8
In short, if I now need to make a new sheetformat, I just take an existing sheet format and either bring in the title block and edit it (and afterwards save it as a new block externally) or edit the existing one and then make a block of it to save externally so that I can paste it in other sheet formats.
Like you we use a single drawing template but have lots of different sheet formats. Not just the different papersizes but also different languages in the titelblock and different 'entities' (daughter companies etc) . There for I don't just have to admin A0 to A4 but on top have them with different languages and different logos.
We made a block with all the things that don't change. Then I just retype any text needed in every needed language version(French, Dutch, English), double checking that all fits the space. I also added lines and dots on a hiddenlayer to function as location guides for the property fields, so that they are all located in the exact same place across the title blocks. Once the blocks are inserted in the sheet formats, explode them,
Sure, if any future alterations are needed it does mean changing the different title blocks, swapping out the blocks as needed and it's a hassle but lets be honest shall we, Solidworks isn't particularly good at 2D's. Lots of stuff that was common place in 2d 30years ago they still either can't do, won't do, or can't be bothered about. E.G.: using layers with different colors in Solidworks behaves as if it's a shareware v0.8
In short, if I now need to make a new sheetformat, I just take an existing sheet format and either bring in the title block and edit it (and afterwards save it as a new block externally) or edit the existing one and then make a block of it to save externally so that I can paste it in other sheet formats.
Re: Sheet formats and title block best practises
Hi Peter,
thank you for sharing your workflow.
I did in fact mention the use of blocks because, like you, I use them to port the changes between formats and then explode them. It's a shame they don't have better functionalities. I was not able to have the title block as block referenced to an external SLDBLK file to have a single place to make my changes...
thank you for sharing your workflow.
I did in fact mention the use of blocks because, like you, I use them to port the changes between formats and then explode them. It's a shame they don't have better functionalities. I was not able to have the title block as block referenced to an external SLDBLK file to have a single place to make my changes...