Displaying annotations in an assembly

[grunt58]

Is there another/better way to display annotations in an assy. other than checking the "Display Annotations" button under the annotations folder.

I need to show the annotations so that I can put them into the design table. Mainly I need to see info about patterns, dist. and # of times patterened.

I would like to see just the annotation of a newly created pattern. Not all annotations as "Display Annotation" shows.

Using SW 2005 SP3.0

thanks

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

1) Double clicking the pattern feature will display the relevant annotations.

2) You can also use the "Auto-create" option to populate the DT. If you rename the annotations as you create them, it helps to identify the DT column headings.


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[grunt58]

Double clicking doesn't work for me in an Assy, works in a part though. Is there an option I may have turned off?

Yes I do rename the annotations and patterns or else I would have no idea what patterns were what (upto colum EE in the DT).

thanks

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

No option that I know of.

If you double click the component pattern feature at the bottom of the Feature Manager, you should see the patterns annotations ... Distance & Qty if it's a Linear Pattern. (you may have to zoom in on the first copied part to find the Qty)
If it's a derived pattern you will not see any annotations, because the pattern is driven from another parts already defined pattern.


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[CorBlimeyLimey]

By the way, you can delete or hide the columns in the DT that you dont need the DT to control. Reducing the number of columns makes the DT easier to navigate & manage.


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[smcadman]

You can not see the Distance & Qty in a Linear Pattern of a part in an assembly since SP 1.1. This has been a gripe of mine, and others including those at comp.cad.solidworks. Even if you change the view to wireframe, it cannot be seen (currently using SP 3.0) The only way I have found how to view the distance + qty is to right-click the Annotations folder and pick the "show feature dimensions" option along with "display annotation"

Flores

 

[grunt58]

Thanks Cor and smcadman.

I was hoping there was a way to see it with out all the other irrelivat annotations. Owell I'll put in a request.

 

[macPT]

I think there's a bug. If you double click on the pattern in the feature manager tree, the dimensions should also shown. But that's not true with SP3.0.

Regards

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Works fine in SW2004-SP2.1


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[macPT]

Maybe I'm talking about the same problem referenced by smcadman.
The turn arround is like CBL mencioned, double clicking on the patterned part/feature.

Regards

 

[meintsi]

This complaint didn't sound right.

I just mad a simple rectangular extrusion with an oddly shaped closed spline cutting thru the part.
Then used the linear pattern command on the cut, along the length of the shape.

I then inserted the part two times in an assembly with a bolt joining a two random holes.

Going to the feature tree in the assembly, and double clicking the pattern feature in the part, I see both the number of instances and the distance of the pattern.

No bugs here...

SW 2005 SP01.1

Remember...
[navy]"If you don't use your head,[/navy]
[navy]your going to have to use your feet."[/navy]

 

[smcadman]

SW 2005 SP01.1

You can not see the Distance & Qty in a Linear Pattern of a part in an assembly since SP 1.1

Thanks Meintsi for verifying my statement.

Flores

 

[macPT]

Meintsi

My post it's not correct because I've used wrongly the word "feature".

What I mean is the feature "Component Pattern". If if you pattern the part, the number X dimension don't show if you double click on the assembly pattern in the feature manager tree.

The turn arround is, in fact, like smcadman said, turn on All Annotations and check Show Feature Dimensions.

Have you tried this?

Regards

 

[grunt58]

macPT

Yes I do it like smcadman said. Just wanted to see if there was a another way. As I said in my original post doing it that way makes it very cluttered. It's not horrible because annotations linked to the DT are a diff color but it is annoying.

 

[meintsi]

Missed the "since 1.1" sorry..
Also seemed to have missed the "assembly pattern" comment.
Must not have been a good day yesterday.

But your going to love this....

I just took the same part I made yesterday, put it in an assembly, and applied a linear pattern.

"LocalLPattern1" was created in the feature tree.

Now double-clicking the pattern-icon in the feature tree, at first it appeared that you are correct but about the second or third try I noticed a very tiny blue dot appearing in the assembly. Zooming in way close, it IS the number of instances and distance.

Creating a second circular pattern gave the EXACT same result. It appears that it is not there, but zooming way in at the base of the "second" instance of the part that was patterned, THEY ARE THERE on my system.

It appears that the scaling of the annotations size is what is off.

Remember...
[navy]"If you don't use your head,[/navy]
[navy]your going to have to use your feet."[/navy]

 

[grunt58]

Hmmm. Just tried what you suggested meintsi turned the annotations scale way up double clicked my pattern several infact still nothing. It did scale the annotations in "display annotations" so I now they got scaled. We have a document template we use. Could there be a setting we have turned off so you can't double click assy patterns to see there annotations?

 

[meintsi]

Under annotations:
All I have checked is "Show reference dimensions"

And under properties nothing is checked except for a couple types within the "Display filter" area.

Scaling the text does scale the pattern instance and distance on the screen.

But again, smcad man did say "You can not see the Distance & Qty in a Linear Pattern of a part in an assembly since SP 1.1."

We have SP2 on another system here, will try that shortly.


Remember...
[navy]"If you don't use your head,[/navy]
[navy]your going to have to use your feet."[/navy]

 

[grunt58]

Ohhhh didn't know you weren't using SP1.1 +. My bad disregard my last post.

thanks for your help all who replied.

 

[macPT]

meintsi

That tiny blue dot you're reffering can be avoided in "Tools/ Options/ Document Properties/ Annotations Display" and check the box "Always display text at the same size". After this, there's no need to zoom to see the annotation.

But the problem is that in SP3.0 nothing shows up, not even a tiny blue point!

Regards

 

[meintsi]

Yep, it sure can.

Normally that is always checked, but we just updated our sheet formats and templates with some minor changes and somehow that became unchecked.

Time to resave.

Thx

Remember...
[navy]"If you don't use your head,[/navy]
[navy]your going to have to use your feet."[/navy]