New in SolidWorks 2014: View label overhaul (Part 1)

On Drawings, view labels are special annotation notes that are attached to views such as Detail, Section and Auxiliary.   Previous versions of SolidWorks tightly controlled these labels via the Document  Properties (Tools>Options…>Document Properties tab>Views Labels).   When changes were made to view labels in the Document Properties, those changes were then forced onto all view labels of that type throughout the drawing.  Sometimes you might want to add specific information to a particular view.  SolidWorks often reverted manual edits to the view label.  The settings within the Document Properties were enforced to the exclusion of other edits.    There is a setting that allows you to override this behavior called “Manual view label” in the view label’s PropertyManager.  The drawback of this setting is that elements within the view label all become simple text and no longer update (e.g., if the scale of the view was changed, the view label would not automatically reflect the change).

Edit View Labels in SolidWorks 2014

SolidWorks 2014 introduces sweeping improvements to view labels.   First, a new setting is now available in the view label’s PropertyManager called “Use document layout”.  When this is checked, the Document Properties prevail.  When this is unchecked, you can manually edit the layout of the view label while still maintain the values for scale, view letter, name, etc.  This means, you can type your own text in-between or even on a separate row of text.

Using tags for view label elements

The second improvement actually makes the first improvement possible.  View elements such as scale, view letter and name are now represented by tags.  These tags are viewable when editing the view label within the Edit Text Window.

Didn’t know that there was an “Edit Text Window”?  It’s always been there.  Right-click on any annotation note and choose “Edit Text in Window”.  This dialog has been expanded for view labels.

As shown in the above image, buttons are now included that allow you to add view label elements.  The dialog is smart enough to know when elements are already included in the edit box or when the elements are not valid for a particular view.

You might notice that these buttons are also available when editing the view label directly in the graphics area too.

Labelling views with angles (to be cont’d…)

In addition to all of the above enhancements, SolidWorks 2014 now has a tag that allows you to add a view’s angle of rotation.  However, more on that in a future article.  A lot more.

Author: fcsuper

As a drafter, mechanical designer and CAD engineer, I've been in the mechanical design field since 1991. For the first 8 years of my career, I was an AutoCAD professional. I utilized AutoLISP and many other AutoCAD customization features to streamline drafting activities for 6+ drafters and designers. I authored several custom functions, one of which was published in the March 1997 issue of Cadalyst Magazine. Since 1998, I've been used SolidWorks non-stop. I've worked to utilize the SolidWorks' user environment to simplify drafting and design activities for 20+ engineers. I've created this website to provide current information about SolidWorks from a variety of contributors. More recently, I am now employed by Dassault Systemes as SOLIDWORKS Sr. Product Definition Manager to improve drawing, annotation and MBD related areas. View all posts by fcsuper