I am in the process of adding Solidworks to my companies CAD capabilities and, as to be expected, I am running into some speed bumps as a beginner with very little SW experience.
Background:
We have been a ProEngineer user (alongside AutoCAD for legacy data) for the past 8-9 years or so and designs were done using AutoCAD with some 3D help from ProE and UG in the years prior. That said, our drawings were always set up with whatever worked easily with AutoCAD and our needs/abilities in using our plotter to get files to our tool shop. It is most ideal for us to plot our drawings around D-Size using our plotter to reduce wasted paper and the time trimming the paper. Depending on the size of the detailed component, the sheet would be as follows (See images):
- Large size - Full sized sheet on D-Sized paper in landscape orientation
- Medium size - Approximate C-Sized paper in portrait orientation
- Small size - Approximate B-Sized paper in landscape orientation
Problem:
The problem here is how we achieved this is using the D-Sized paper and cutting it in half for two C-Sized sheets or quartering it for B-Sized sheets or any possible combination thereof. This was easily adapted to ProE using parameters to autofill the title block information with the same information that is in the BOM for a particular detail. All sheets are loaded into one ProE drawing file including the assemblies. I would like to know if there is a similar solution using SolidWorks or do I need go down another road when it comes to SolidWorks and keeping drawing data parametric?
Notes:
95%+ of design work is injection mold designs where one person is responsible for the entire design.
If the way our design drawings have been laid out for the past 10+ years isn't practical for SolidWorks, I am very open to chaging the drawing structure for these designs.
- Caveat - The fellas in the tool shop are not going to be happy. Those guys aren't huge fans of the winds of change.
Solutions:
- Completely dismantling our current format to match SolidWorks capabilities.
- Manually fill in title block information a' la AutoCAD.
- The floor is open....hopefully there is a way to achieve our current methods. If not, I can move on.
