New in SOLIDWORKS 2015: Spline Leaders

Spline leaders are fun. They’re not fun in the sort of playground, video game, action flick kinda way. They are fun because if you need them, you can now make them with the freedom to shape them in many ways. Contrast that with dimensions. The most fun you have with dimensions is deciding how far to offset them from the model edge. I’ve been doing that for years, and the word “fun” doesn’t really come to mind. With spline leaders, you can actually take a moment of your day to draw without strict conformity. It’s not a big moment, but it is a nice one.

Spline leaders are avaiable for notes and balloons. They work the same way for either.

To add spline leader to an existing balloon, select that annotation, then click on More Properties button in the PropertyManager. Find the swiggly lined icon and click it.  Then, use the control points to manipulate the spline leader as desired.

To make spline leaders your default, goto Tools>Options…>Document Properties>Annotations>Balloons (or Notes) in the Leader display area, and choose Spline.  Have fun!

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