Drawing: Detail View with blank detail circle

**UPDATE Sept 2016**

As with many old tips for SOLIDWORKS, this old tip is now outdated.  As of SOLIDWORKS 2017, there is an option for detail and crop views within their PropertyManager called “No outline” that allows you to turn off the view outline.  No more need for the fancy workaround below.

**Original post, now outdated**

An interesting drawing question recently came up on the SolidWorks Forum.  How does one create a detail view were the detail circle is hidden?  Jennifer Reid gets props for coming up with a great solution for newer versions of SolidWorks (I’ve modified her original post for clarity):

1. Open the document that will have the blank detail circles.
2. Go to toolbar Tools>Options>Document Properties tab>Line Style.
3. Click the New button.
4. In the Line styles field, name the new line style something like “None”.
5. In the Line length and spacing values field, enter “A,-1,-1”.
6. If desired, Save the new line.  This is not necessary.
7. Click OK button to apply this new line to this document.
   
8. Then goto toolbar Tools>Options>Document Properties tab>View Labels>Detail
9. Set Circle and Border to the blank line that was just created.  (It shows up as a blank line at the bottom of the line style drop down lists.)
   
10. Click OK to apply changes.
    
11. On the drawing, ignore the dashed line for the detail circle and detail border.  This is just a guide that does not appear when the drawing is printed.

The full conversation is found here.

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