In this blog, we will be taking a look at Drawings on SOLIDWORKS Cloud. Creating drawings with SOLIDWORKS Cloud is the only portion that is hybrid in its approach. Drawings are created through the Drafter role. The Drafter role requires the installation of an application on the local machine called “Drawings”. This application runs locally and saves the data to the cloud automatically.
Drawing creation is the only non-browser-based application that still requires a Windows machine and a local installation. With that said, we are referring to traditional 2D detailed drawings. For 3D model-based drawings, we have Product Document Creator which is browser-based and more information can be found in this blog.
Creating a 2D print of a part with Drawings
We are going to walk through the process of creating a 2D print of a part. Let’s begin by opening the application, which is both installed and launched from the 3D compass.
Once launched, I like to drag and drop my models from xDesign into Drawings to open the model. This populates the view palette with the views that I can place on the sheet.
Before placing views, I can use the sheet background icon, as shown below, to place a view border and title block on the drawing. This way, the views can be arranged around the title block.
With the title block in place, I can simply drag and drop the first view onto the sheet. Projected views will start automatically. Section and Detail views can be found in the View Layout toolbar as well.
A lot of information is available by right-clicking on the view. Right-clicking on the sheet in the tree, on the left, and selecting properties will allow you to change the scale. You can also see the drawing name on the Reference tab.
Learn more about moving from SOLIDWORKS Desktop to 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS >
Once the views are arranged nicely on the sheet, annotations can be added. These are all found in the Annotations menu bar.
Single clicking on an icon will use the command once, double-clicking on the same icon will allow you to repeat the command. This is handy when adding dimensions, center marks, and other items that are placed repeatedly.
Right-clicking on a dimension and selecting properties allows for control to the appearance. For example, you can disable the second arrow on a diameter dimension.
When the drawing is complete, Save File will store it on the platform. This is the benefit of the cloud connection. Every time the drawing is saved, it places the drawing back in the cloud for anyone to view, print or share.
As you can see, all the tools necessary to create complete detailed drawings of your design are available with SOLIDWORKS Cloud.
