Solidworks decal location?

[lr23]

Can put a decal on a front panel overlay I'm working on, but the location (hash?) marks, which don't fall on the panel, disappear, so that I can't get it precisely positioned. I'll bet there's some simple trick for this.

Thanks

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

When you drop the decal on a face it usually centres itself on that face. The Mapping options in the Decal manager should allow you to manipulate the decals size and position.

 

[lr23]

Thanks. I've played around with that, but in this case the artwork for the decal is oversized, and I wanted to line up the hash marks. I suppose I could open the file with some graphics program and crop it, but that means learning another program. Solidworks seems to do a fine job of cropping the stuff that hangs over the edge.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Are the "hash" marks part of the decal image? If so, wouldn't you only be able to use them as a visual alignment? They would not be selectable would they?

 

[lr23]

Yes, that's probably true. But it shouldn't be hard to line them up better than I can do by eye without them.

 

[Theophilus]

You can split your surface to show only what's inside your hash marks. Then, select the split surface to apply your decal--the decal will only show on that specific surface. Use the mapping tools to fit for size.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.

 

[lr23]

That's a good trick, but in this case the hash marks are already past the edge of the surface and I can't see them to line things up. So although I can move the decal around, I don't know when it's in the right place or scaled right.

 

[Theophilus]

Can you extend your hash marks?

Cropping an image shouldn't be very difficult, even if you use a simple application to do so. In fact, if it's a simple crop, you could post your image (see FAQs) and I can probably do it myself with Photoshop and repost it cropped for you--it would probably take 30 seconds.

You can also look at image editors at snapfiles.com for some decent freeware applications to do this yourself.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

So if the hash marks are outside of the surface, what are they supposed to align with. Don't the actual decal graphics have to align with a feature in/on the surface?

Also, if the hash marks are outside of the surface, doesn't that indicate that they are either in the wrong place or that the image is too big?

 

[lr23]

Actually, I've seen a lot of artwork where the hashmarks aren't on the surface. That way they don't show up. They're supposed to line up with the edges of the part, but not be on it. For instance, the upper right hashmarks are two lines, one above the right edge and one to the right of the top edge.

It bugs me if I have to crop on another program. Seems like a workaround as opposed to the right way. Particularly since I'm used to seein artwork of this style.

 

[Theophilus]

OK, another hack/workaround.

Offset a plane in front of your decal's plane and put your hashmarks on that--so they won't get covered by the decal's image.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.

 

[lr23]

Well, actually the hashmarks are part of the artwork for the decal, and if they're not in front of the selected surface I can't see them.

I thought of a really awkward trick, which is to modify the part temporarily to have little extra bits sticking off in the right places. But what a mess!

 

[Theophilus]

No, you don't have to modify your part with solids or surfaces--just add sketched lines where your hash marks need to be. You can then size the decal according to "real" units (inches, mm) instead of pixels. Piece of cake--you have to do something like this for all decals where the size/location matters.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Maybe i'm missing something and this is a dumb question, but if the hash marks are supposed to help align the decal, why not have them placed correctly in the image so that they can be seen on the panel?

In real life, how is the decal/artwork being applied to the physical face? Silk screen, sticky label, ????. How accurate does the location have to be?

Are there features in the decal which have to align with features in the panel? Hole for switch or pushbutton, etc? If there is, then use those for alignment.

 

[lr23]

I can add sketched lines, but is that going to make the invisible hash marks visible? (They're invisible because Solidworks only wants to show the stuff that will "print" on the part.) I can already see the edges of the part, which is what the hash marks line up with. It's the hash marks that don't show. Perhaps there's an option to make them visible, temporarily.

The hash marks are correctly placed. They're not especially pretty, so the custom for this type of artwork is to have them off the edge of the label you're making, but indicating how it lines up with the edges. When I say "decal", I mean the Solidworks decal function. This is an overlay that is then applied to a part. We want it to look right in the assembly.

I suppose I could ask for artwork with extra lines on it in places that will be cut off and punched out. Then, if I can't see the lines, it must be in the right place. But that's a mess and another pass, and is not customary.

 

[Theophilus]

Wow--I've never seen so much difficulty with this. Maybe as CorBlimeyLimey points out the problem is with the image.

I'd suggest the image ought to be cropped to size/proportion already (what I always do myself--that way the hash marks are unnecessary, although I know what you mean by having hash marks--but that's usually for cutting printed matter). SolidWorks certainly cannot know where the image needs to be cropped, since it will assume the image you've got is what you want. Image-side issues are best solved with an image editing application (which SolidWorks certainly is not).

I don't understand why the hash marks appear in the image file, but not in SolidWorks as a decal. How is it that they are invisible? Are they beyond the surface you're applying the decal onto? If so, I would think some of the methods mentioned above would work with a pre-cropped image file. If not, are you using a mask or removing certain colors from appearing in the image when applying the decal?



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.

 

[rockguy]

Can you provide some screen shots of this issue?

Rob Rodriguez CSWP
President: Northern
Vermont SolidWorks User Group

http://www.robrodriguez.com

(updated 8/12/06)
SW 2006 SP 4.0 / SW 2007 SP 0.0