Drawing Creation Rules
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Drawing Creation Rules

The Drawing Creation Rules automate SOLIDWORKS Drawing creation for non-virtual models for which a drawing cannot be found. Each rule may define specific Drawing Template and Sheet Format to use, sheet naming rule, and what kind of dimensions are automatically imported to the view(s). Using the rule it's also possible to automatically insert a BOM table to the created drawing. In addition, a Drawing Creation Rule can stamp drawings with a specific Drawing Property during creation, making it trivial to locate all automatically created drawings with Search for finalizing them. It is highly recommended to utilize File Selection Filters with Drawing Creation Rules to target very specific group of models with each rule. You can, e.g., have a Drawing Creation Rule that only applies to sheet metal parts that are not toolbox or Design Library components and also have a very specific set of Custom Properties.

Info NOTE: Drawing Creation Rules do not aim to create perfect, production ready drawings. Instead, they can be used to initialize drawings in batch with rule based files names and locations, targeting each rule very specifically for arbitrarily defined groups of models. However, it is also possible to deploy and attach a CUSTOMTOOLS Extension Script to the Drawing Creation Rule, and utilize SOLIDWORKS API to override view adding and finalizations of each sheet.

All Drawing Creation Rules and their related File Selection Filters can be accessed at CUSTOMTOOLS Profile Options under page Drawing Creation. Users with Profile modification rights can also create and edit both File Selection Filters and Drawing Creation Rules directly from the Batch Operations dialog.

Create Missing Drawings node of the Drawing Automation / Tasks -tab lists all Drawing Creation Rules of the current profile. Each rule may have an associated File Selection Filter, which is shown with the Filter -icon.

- When a rule is selected, the Document Listing enables only non-virtual, drawingless models.
- When the rule is checked and it has no filter, all enabled documents are automatically checked.
- It a filter exists, only filter matches will be checked.
- And when a model gets checked for the Drawing Creation Rule, an about-to-be drawing is immediately populated to the view.

An "about-to-be drawing" supports Printing, Converting and other Tasks, too. You could e.g., always pair your Drawing Automation Rules with Merge PDF -style File Conversion Rule having Is New Drawing File Selection Filter attached. This would always give you a nice PDF report of the drawings created by the automation rules.

It is highly recommended to define and attach a File Selection Filter to your Drawing Creation Rule. For example, you might never want to automatically create drawings for toolbox components or design library components, and you might want to use different sheet format and view orientations/palacement for parts, sheet metal parts, sub-assemblies and main assemblies. So for each of those model types you can have a dedicated Drawing Creation Rule with dedicated File Selection Filter.

If the current user has Profile modification rights...
...the listing will also have a <Create New> button that invokes the New Drawing Creation Rule dialog.
... and the following operations become available for each rule in Right click context menu:

Edit Invokes the Edit Drawing Creation Rule dialog. Editing the rule name is disabled.
Delete Delete the Drawing Automation Rule from the Profile.
Delete associated filter Deletes the attached filter. Only available if the rule has one.

This page lists all Drawing Creation Rules of the current profile.

Add... Invokes the Add Drawing Creation Rule dialog.
Edit... Invokes the Edit Drawing Creation Rule dialog for the selected rule. Disabled if no selection.
Delete Deletes the selected Drawing Creation Rule(s) from the profile. Disabled if no selection.
Define/Edit Filter... Define, if selected rule has no filter. Edit if it has. Defines or Edits the File Selection Filter for the selected rule. Disabled if no selection.
Delete Filter Deletes the associated File Selection Filter from the selected rule. Disabled if no selection or selected rules has no associated filter.

This page lists all Drawing Creation Rules of the current profile.

Rule Name Unique name for the rule. Cannot be edited at Batch Operations dialog.
Script Extension Attach separately deployed Script Extension with Drawing Automation capabilities to this rule.
Drawing Template Browse a Drawing Template to use with this rule. CUSTOMTOOLS does no store the template, but only its name. All designers must have the same SOLIDWORKS Drawing Templates accessible from the path defined for Document Templates in the SOLIDWORKS Options for File Locations.
It is allowed to use Drawing Template from immediate subfolder of SOLIDWORKS Drawing Template Location, but the template name must then be unique within those subfolders.
Leave empty to use Default Drawing Template defined in SOLIDWORKS Options.
If the Drawing Template has predefined views, this rule will populate them. If the Drawing Template has no views, the Standard 3 View is added when the rule is processed.
Drawing Template can also have Sheet Format saved into it; in that case you should leave the Sheet Format option empty.

Sheet Format Browse a Sheet Format to use with this rule. CUSTOMTOOLS does no store the sheet format, but only its name. All designers must have the same SOLIDWORKS Sheet Formats accessible from the path defined in the SOLIDWORKS Options for File Locations.
Leave empty to use the one defined in the Drawing Template.
BOM Type Define type of BOM table to insert to the first view of the created drawing.
  • None: No BOM table is inserted to the created drawing.
  • Top-level only: Insert Top-level only BOM table.
  • Parts only: Insert Parts only BOM table.
  • Indented - No numbering: Insert Indented BOM table with no numbering.
  • Indented - Detailed numbering: Insert Indented BOM table with detailed numbering.
  • Indented - Flat numbering: Insert Indented BOM table with flat numbering.
BOM Table Template Browse a BOM Table Template to use for the inserted BOM table. CUSTOMTOOLS does no store the template, but only its name. All designers must have the same SOLIDWORKS BOM Table Templates accessible from the path defined for BOM Templates in the SOLIDWORKS Options for File Locations.
Leave empty to use default BOM Template.
Anchor Point Define whether and how to attach the inserted BOM table to anchor point. Anchor point is defined in the sheet format. Note: If you select to attach the table to anchor point, but anchor point is not defined (for example if there is no sheet format), table will be attached to bottom left corner of the sheet.
  • None: BOM table will not be attached to anchor point. It will be positioned to bottom left corner of the drawing sheet, from where user can drag it to correct place when opening the drawing. Use this option if there is no sheet format in use.
  • Top Left: BOM table will be attached to anchor point. Top Left corner of the table will be positioned at the anchor point.
  • Top Right: BOM table will be attached to anchor point. Top Right corner of the table will be positioned at the anchor point.
  • Bottom Left: BOM table will be attached to anchor point. Bottom Left corner of the table will be positioned at the anchor point.
  • Bottom Right: BOM table will be attached to anchor point. Bottom Right corner of the table will be positioned at the anchor point.
Sheet Name Define how to name the sheet that is created in the drawing.
  • From Drawing Template: Use whatever the sheet name is in the defined Drawing Template
  • Configuration Name: This could be useful if you create single drawings for multiple configurations. Currently Drawing Creation Rules only create a single sheet for the active/referenced configuration, but you can later copy the first sheet and change the referenced configurations and sheet name accordingly.
  • BOM Part Number: Similar case as Configuration Name but sometimes Part Number is better choice for Sheet Name.
  • Custom: Define custom text as Sheet Name.
Set Property Select a Drawing Property defined in CUSTOMTOOLS Profile and type in a value that should be stamped for that property when the drawing is created. Only supports text values.
TIP: Enable the same Property for CUSTOMTOOLS Search so you can easily locate drawings created by this rule.
Add dimensions Define which dimension and/or annotations should be added to each Drawing View.
  • No dimensions
  • Auto dimensions: Uses SOLIDWORKS' Smart Dimension -> Autodimension feature for each view. This easily creates a mess unless the design shape is very trivial.
  • Import from Model: Uses SOLIDWORKS' Model Items feature for annotation importing from the referenced model. Currently supports following annotation types that can be separately enabled/disabled:
    • Marked for drawing
    • Not marked for drawing
    • Hole Wizard Locations
    • Hole Wizard Profiles
    • Hole Callouts


Info When executing Drawing Creation Rules in SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional environment, the created drawings are automatically checked-in to PDM.



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Batch Operations