How to add Watermark to SolidWorks Drawing (with linked value)

How to add a Watermark to SolidWorks Drawings
By Matthew Lorono
For whatever reason, watermarks are sometimes necessary, even on drawings. Since SolidWorks has no watermark feature, and does not allow the user to change the order of certain drawing entities, a workaround is necessary. Here the most effective and powerful method useful for Drawing Templates and Sheet Formats.
1. Open the drawing.
2. Create a drawing layer by choosing the layer icon.

Layer Toolbar

3. Change the layer name and description to something identifiable.Then click on the color block in the Color column and choose a very light color.Select OK.

Layer Window

4. Goto pulldown menu File and select Properties.
5. Add the property Watermark.As a place holder, give this property the value of “PRELIMINARY” or something similar.
6. Edit Sheet Format.
7. Use Annotation Note to create and place the entity that will become the watermark.
8. Edit the properties of that Note to adjust its font, angle, size, etc as desired.Then, link the Note to the custom property Watermark, as shown in the figure.Select OK.

Annotation Note Properties Window

8. Change the layer of the Note to the newly created layer.

**UPDATE: New functionality in SolidWorks 2013 makes steps 9 and 9.5 no longer necessary, please see this article for details: Sometimes it’s the little new things – Watermarking **
9. Right Mouse Button click on the Note and select Make Block and accept.
9.5. Due to some funky behavior that I’ve discovered by SolidWorks when loading a watermarked template into an existing drawing, I’m adding this one step: Once you make the block, change the layer of the block to the same layer you set for your Note.
10. Save the Sheet Format (under pulldown menu File and select Save Sheet Format).
11. Edit Sheet.The Note will now appear underneath all other objects on the Drawing Sheet.
12. Save this document as a Drawing Template (under pulldown menu File and select “Save As”, then change Save as type to “Drawing Templates”).This creates both the Drawing Template and Sheet Format with an embedded watermark.To change the text of the watermark in any drawings that use the Drawing Template, simply go back to Files>Properties, and edit its text value.To remove the watermark, simply replace the current value with a space.These instructions are geared towards SolidWorks 2007 or earlier. SolidWorks 2008 or later instructions will be similar, though how to access some of the functions may have changed.

SolidWorks World 2008 Animation

SolidWorks World 2008 Inspired to Design VEXplorer Video from Solidsmack on Vimeo.

This was the introduction animation (linked above) used each day at the start of the General Session.  In a presentation with Jeff Ray, VEXplorer was introduced.  This is a Student Design Kit where kids of ages 10 and up can build their own robot, and design other variations with the Student Edition of SolidWorks, which is now provided for free with the robot kit.  Honestly, I wasn’t that impressed with the robot itself.  I saw the live demonstration of the robot in the Partners Pavilion.  It would be fun for one or two uses for one or two times.  I don’t see what would keep the average kid coming back to it.  However, it is a start in the right direction to help inspire kids to explore design at a younger age.  It is certainly a good way to expose kids to SolidWorks as the preferred software for accomplishing engineering tasks.

SolidWorks World 2008 Day 1: The General Session

Each day of SolidWorks World kicks off with a General Session.  Each day had surprises.  Of course, to experience all of this requires getting up early enough in the morning.  The crowd quickly filled up the area outside of the General Session auditorium of the San Diego Convention Center.  Even on the first day, I developed quite the talent of surfing through the crowds to get closer to the doors into the General Session auditorium to get a good seat when the door swung open.

 Outside the General Session, NorthCrowd outside of General Session, South

It was standing room only in the General Session.  Even with thousands of seats, hundreds of people where left standing.  Estimates ranged over 4700 attendees.

General Session, facing the stage 1 General Session, facing stage 2

General Session, facing doors

On Monday, the surprise guest was Danny Forster, whose trademark is expressing his deep fear of heights.  He is the host of Built it Bigger on Discovery Channel, and a prominent architect and engineer.  Despite the fact that he did give a rather interesting and engaging presentation that discussed everything from home design to the marriage of architecture and engineering that went into the University of Phoenix Stadium, I am surprised he didn’t get booed off of the stage early on as he made it a point to state that he used AutoCAD to design one of his buildings.  SolidWorks users must be a more forgiving bunch than I would’ve thought.  I know he did it on purpose; the rat.

KIVA Systems made an interesting presentation where they showed off a robotic system that replaces the need to send people into a factory to retrieve items.  Another robot highlighted at the conference in the SolidWorks intro animation was of a robot being designed and built.  It turned out that this robot is a built-it-yourself kit and being sold for the ages 10 and up crowd.  Included with the robot is SolidWorks Student Edition!  Talk about hooking the kids young!  More on this later on.

There was another surprise on Monday; one that was both fascinating and a bit scary at the same time. See, there’s this guy named Theo Jansen.  He is a kinetic sculptor that builds “Beach Beasts”, based on skeleton like designs that are powered by nothing more than the wind.  He’s designed the creatures (as he also called them) to become so sophisticated, they are able to mechanically sense their environment, and mechanically respond to it.  For example, if one of these creatures walks up to the ocean’s edge, it knows to start going the other way to avoid the water.  It does this without the use of any electronics at all.  It’s all plastic tubing.  During his presentation, Mr. Jansen appeared to be one of those people that successively balances the line between genius and insanity.  However, off stage was a different story.  I talked to some of the facilities contractors for SolidWorks World 2008 later that night at one of the local bars.  They where the crew that helped Mr. Jansen assembly one of the creatures for an on-stage demonstration.  Those fellows couldn’t wait to tell me that they think he had crossed well into the realm of insanity, often talking about his creations as though they where actual pets; and that he wanted his creatures to survive long after he passed on.  He was definately the most provocative presenter during the Monday session.  The video about him is too long to post here, so check out this YouTube link.

At the end of the General Session, everyone filed out into convention center’s maze of hallways, filtering into the many different Breakout sessions, Hands-on sessions and the Partners Pavilion.

Lorono’s SolidWorks Resources

This is minor announcement about Lorono’s SolidWorks Resources.  This is my website with tons of SolidWorks related file downloads, weblinks, tips, tricks, etc.  Recently, I improved functionality of the site so that when new content is added, notification will appear on the homepage.  This will allow for easier navigation to areas where new content is added.  Of course, all content is still easily accessable by exploring the site’s many areas directly.

SWW8 Pre-Day (Jan 20, 2008) Part II

Sunday was beautiful, as I mentioned before.

On route to the convension centerGaslamp Quarter

But did I get to enjoy it?  No.  Being the dedicated SolidWorks user (geek) that I am, I attended workshops (called Focus Groups) about different functions of the software.  The convention center wasn’t all that crowded on the Pre-Day.

Entering Focus Group meetings

Did we change the world in the Focus Groups?  Only time will tell.  Later in the evening, the Partners Pavilion was opened to us early attendees as a reception.  I got to leisurely stroll around.  This would be my only chance to do this, as my schedule for the next three days was booked with hella events and things.  One of the displays in the Partners Pavilion that struck my fancy at the sheer irony was this item, labelled as a competitive class luxery off-road racing truck.  If that isn’t a whole series of oxymorons, I don’t know what is…but hey, I wouldn’t mind having one of these in my garage!  (And yes, luxury appeared to be purposefully spelt with an e.)

competitive class luxery off-road racing truck

This truck was completely laid out in 3D before production began.  It is called the Luxery Prerunner and made by Stewart’s Raceworks, Inc.  Another cool vehicle getting a lot of attention was an Orange County Choppers creation made for SolidWorks World 2005.

Orange County Choppers' SolidWorks Chopper

I took this picture at just the right angle to catch the star sheen gleaming off the chopper’s chrome, and just in time to avoid yet another person trying to take of shoot of themself sitting on the seat pretending to ride it.

I didn’t go out that evening too late, as I wanted to be well rested for the next day’s activities.

SWW8 Pre-Day (Jan 20, 2008)

Flying in on the afternoon of Saturday, I was greeted by beautiful San Diego weather.  It was the sort of picture perfect day that one tends to take for granted in San Diego.  Sunday was just a beautiful, but I didn’t know that from personal experience.  See, I was at the first day of SolidWorks World 2008, buried deep in the heart of the San Diego Convention Center.  In the morning, I attended two Focus Group sessions, the Design Checker Focus Group and the Surface Model Functionality Focus Group.

Now, I know what you are thinking, “Who cares about Design Checker, and in fact, who even uses it?”  Well, this is likely part of the reason SolidWorks held a focus group on the topic.  Participation was a little light.  When invited to the focus groups, participants were told that the group size would be limited to 12 people.  The group for Design Checker hit 9 people, and that was including the two SolidWorks employees there were putting it on.  Points discovered in the meeting basically revolved around the fact that Design Checker is not nearly as flexible as people need.  For example, there’s no way to create custom checks for type of items not included within the software.

The Surface Model Functionality Focus Group was brimming at the edges with over 15 attendees.  Most of the comments during his session revolved around increased functionality and ease of use for the various surfacing features.  SolidWorks staff was on hand to both take the suggestions and immediately respond when someone mentioned a bug-like issue.

After that, I attempted to take the CWSP test.  I got hung up on an apparent error in the test that turned out to be an acceptable part of the test.  I will need to leave some feedback about the issue since it has the distinct appearance of being unintentional.  If it is intentional, it’s an issue that should be evaluated at least, since it is distracting to say the least.  It is frustrating to see a flaw in the model only to find out I got the problem correct (after wasting half my time trying to resolve the issue).

After that, I attended the Attendees Reception in the main Exhibitors hall.  I found a few familiar faces among the vendors’ booths and fellow attendees.  I didn’t walk out of the Reception with nearly as much swag as I would’ve expected.  That is prolly for the best since I forgot my backpack.  Oh yeah, let me tell you about this backpack.  This is the best swag I’ve ever received.  It’s like a million pockets.  However, there is one area where SWW8 was woefully lacking.  They didn’t provide pens!  I can honestly say I have never been to a technical event where pens where not provided, either as swag or just as courtesy.  But despite this frustrating point, the overall experience was great.