Applying Additional Characteristic Information

When extracted, a characteristic is assigned a sequential number, and all of its information is recorded in the Properties window underneath the Characteristics Table. This information is shown when the characteristic is selected and includes the nominal value, units, tolerances, and a calculated upper and lower limit to determine pass/fail status of measured values. All of this information can be automatically passed through to a typical first article inspection report during publication.

You’ll notice that many of these fields are blank, and most are editable including the nominal value and tolerances. These fields are critical and should be carefully reviewed for each characteristic, as any information applied to this section can be automatically published to an Inspection Report. Selecting the “Key” checkbox also updates the associated characteristic with a unique flag-style balloon, which can be modified using the Add/Edit Balloons command if required.

Producing Ballooned PDFs and Inspection Reports

Once all the required characteristics have been extracted and the necessary information applied, a controlled PDF copy can be exported in just a few clicks. From the SOLIDWORKS Inspection tab, look for the Export to 2D PDF command. The following dialog allows the entire drawing to be exported as a single PDF or, if preferred, each sheet of the drawing as a unique PDF. You can also use the checkboxes to control which sheets will be published.

Select OK, provide a name/location for the document and save the file. When producing a PDF copy of a ballooned drawing, “what you see is what you get,” so you can expect that the PDF will essentially be an identical copy of your SOLIDWORKS drawing. Importantly, however, the PDF copy is not associative to the CAD data and is very useful for meeting document control standards.

To produce an Inspection Report, use the Export to Excel command in the SOLIDWORKS Inspection tab. From here, select the appropriate template to format your characteristics in the final report. Default templates include AS9102 for first article inspection, PPAP and Process Performance, although these can be customized to suit your unique requirements if desired.

Click the Active checkbox for the template you wish to use, and optionally the Multisheet checkbox if you want to export characteristic information from all sheets within the SOLIDWORKS drawings. Leaving Multisheet unchecked will only export characteristics from the current active drawing sheet. After providing a name and location for the file, the Inspection Report will appear in Microsoft Excel.

All the important characteristic information including the nominal value, unit of measurement and acceptable upper and lower measurement limits are organized and presented in Form 3 of the AS9102 First Article Inspection report. Additionally, the Part Number and Part Name have been exported from the Inspection Project properties, and the Designed Tooling and Comments fields have been populated for the characteristics which had this information applied in the original Inspection Project.

Taking a closer look, you’ll notice that many characteristics do not contain information in the Designed Tooling or Comments fields – this is simply because that information was not applied in the Inspection Project. Additionally, many of these fields (including the Results field) are intended to be filled out manually during the inspection process.

Though outside the scope of this article, it’s worth mentioning that the default AS9102 report template also includes sheets for Form 1 and Form 2 which can be customized to link to additional Inspection Project information regarding part number accountability and product accountability, respectively. In fact, Inspection Report templates can be customized to automatically publish almost any information captured in the Inspection Project.

As a final note regarding Inspection Reports, the same completed Inspection Project can be used to produce multiple reports in different formats if required. Each will be produced as a unique Microsoft Excel document.

Handling Design Revisions

Since SOLIDWORKS CAD models, drawings and Inspection Projects are all associatively linked, any adjustments made to dimensions already captured in the Inspection Project will update automatically, with any changes being reflected in the Characteristics Table. However, if new characteristics are added to the drawing, or if any captured characteristics are removed, these changes are not automatically recognized. These changes require the use of the Update Inspection Project command, which will highlight any deleted characteristics in red, while new characteristics are highlighted in green.

These changes can be accepted individually by right-clicking a highlighted characteristic and choosing “Accept this annotation change” or alternatively, all annotation changes may be accepted at once.

SOLIDWORKS Inspection Projects are also fully compatible with SOLIDWORKS PDM for more comprehensive revision control.

Using Inspection with 3D CAD Models

With SOLIDWORKS Inspection Professional, Inspection Projects and reports can be developed using 3D CAD models using nearly the same strategy as with 2D drawings. As a prerequisite, the CAD models must be annotated with DimXpert dimensions (otherwise known as MBD dimensions) which essentially replace traditional 2D annotations in drawings. This process is further enhanced with the Model-Based Definition (MBD) add-in for SOLIDWORKS, although it is not required to run Inspection on 3D CAD models. For more information on DimXpert and MBD, consider visiting our article on DimXpert.

Ultimately, the process for setting up an Inspection Project in 3D is nearly identical, with the DimXpert annotations being extracted (either automatically or manually) as characteristics and balloons being generated in 3D space.

In conjunction with SOLIDWORKS MBD, this information can then be further organized into customizable 3D Views for improved clarity and published to 3D PDF or eDrawings format along with the final Inspection Report, effectively eliminating the requirement for a 2D drawing.

Limitations and Workarounds

One significant limitation of the Inspection Add-in for SOLIDWORKS is its inability to import data from coordinate measuring machines, which is an advertised feature of Inspection Professional but only available in the standalone Inspection module. Fortunately, both the add-in and standalone module are included with the purchase of SOLIDWORKS Inspection, and a pathway exists to transfer projects from the add-in to the standalone.

After setting up an Inspection Project with the SOLIDWORKS add-in, the Export to SOLIDWORKS Inspection Project command can be used to pack all the required files into a unique project file compatible with the standalone inspection module.

This project file will contain the exact same information, but can be opened in Inspection Standalone. This provides the ability to import CMM data and a handful of other benefits such as enhanced balloon customization and characteristics identification. Unlike the SOLIDWORKS Inspection Project, it is also disconnected from the original CAD data, making it an attractive option for some document control standards.

Additionally, it is important to note that the SOLIDWORKS Inspection Add-in and the Standalone module are licensed separately and can be used concurrently. Depending on your company’s inspection process and policies, it may be possible to take advantage of this and use both programs simultaneously to improve documentation efficiency.

Summary

The Inspection Add-in for SOLIDWORKS is a robust solution for SOLIDWORKS users looking to develop Inspection Projects and Reports from2D drawings or 3D CAD models (Professional only) and can significantly reduce the time and human error involved in inspection processes. The process of creating inspection documentation can be summarized as follows:

1. Create a new Inspection Project and set necessary Project Properties.
2. (Optional) Save a project template for future reuse via Create New Template command.
3. Extract necessary dimensions, geometric tolerances, notes, etc. for inspection using manual and/or automatic extraction techniques.
4. Verify characteristic accuracy and provide additional characteristic detail as needed.
5. Adjust characteristic order, grouping and balloon position/properties as required.
6. Produce a ballooned 2D PDF of the inspection drawing or 3D PDF/eDrawing if using a 3D CAD model.
7. Produce an Inspection Report according to the type of inspection process in use.

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of this series on the SOLIDWORKS Inspection Add-In.

Here, we continue with the basic steps for using the Inspection add-in for SOLIDWORKS CAD, which is designed to work with SOLIDWORKS 2D drawings as well as 3D CAD models directly (Professional version only).

Setting Extraction Preferences

Be on the lookout for a small blue right-facing arrow at the top-right of the dialog used to create your Inspection Project. This is a multi-page dialog, and the second page allows you to adjust the criteria that will be used to extract characteristics from the drawing.

Use the available checkboxes throughout this dialog to control which types of characteristics should be extracted from the drawing. There are many sub-options to further control which characteristics are captured, and which are filtered out. For example, checking the Include checkbox for Dimensions and leaving all sub-options unchecked would result in automatically extracting all dimensions except for reference and basic dimensions, which are not included by default. Checking the Inspection Only box in addition to Include would extract only dimensions marked with an inspection circle in SOLIDWORKS. The differences can be seen below:

The Notes section of Extraction Setting contains a couple options worth investigating, as well. Checking the box for Sheet Format will extract notes contained within the sheet format, often associated with the title block of a drawing. The auto-explode checkbox controls the grouping behavior of multiline notes. If enabled, each line of a multiline note will be treated as an individual characteristic. If disabled, the entire note will be treated as a single item.

Finally, the Notes section contains an Extraction Criteria field which contains a regular expression for interpreting the formatting of notes. While it is not advised for inexperienced users to adjust this expression, those wishing to learn more can visit the Help File on Note Extraction Criteria.

Like the Notes section, the Hole Callouts section also contains a checkbox for Auto-explode, which controls how the various components of a hole callout will be treated. If enabled, each individual component of a hole callout (such as counterbore diameter, counterbore depth, hole depth, etc.) will be treated individually. If disabled, the entire hole will be considered as a single characteristic.

Finally, the Sheets section (introduced in SOLIDWORKS Inspection 2023) can be used to control which sheets the characteristic extraction will be applied to. This can be particularly useful for multipage or multi-project drawings, where only a single sheet or a select number of sheets are applicable to the Inspection Project. This section also includes controls for characteristic sequencing, which can be customized.

Tolerance Settings

The final page of this dialog (again accessed with the right-facing arrow) allows you to customize the default tolerances that will be applied to any characteristics that do not already have an explicit tolerance assigned to them. Options are available to select between tolerances based on precision or range, set units and assign different tolerances to linear and angular dimensions. The plus and minus tolerances fields can be manually adjusted, and while they are not required to match the tolerances specified in the title block of the drawing, this is most often the case. You will need to update these tolerance values to match your company standards.

Extracting Characteristics

Once all Project Settings have been applied, click the green checkmark to confirm. Keep in mind that if these options need to be adjusted, the Edit Inspection Project command can be used to change Project, Extraction and Tolerance settings at any time. Additionally, these settings can be saved to an Inspection Project template file to avoid repeating this (often tedious) task. Once confirmed, simply select the Create New Template command and provide a suitable file name.

If you have selected Automatic Extraction, confirming the Inspection Project options will immediately initiate the extraction process according to the extraction criteria. The SOLIDWORKS Inspection tab will take the place of the PropertyManager, displaying a table containing all of the extracted characteristics along with a list of properties associated with the currently selected characteristic.

We will be discussing these two windows in-depth in the following sections, but first we must consider the manual extraction approach. Manual extraction can be particularly useful when only a limited number of characteristics are required. Especially in large or complex drawings, automatic extraction can often “over-extract” and provide many unnecessary characteristics, requiring significant cleanup in order to produce a reasonable ballooned drawing or report.

If manual extraction is specified during project setup, clicking the green checkmark only confirms the project settings and does not extract any characteristics. However, a new command becomes available which is grayed out and not useable during automatic extraction.

Clicking the Add Characteristic command will turn it on and keep it active until it is clicked again, allowing you to select any characteristic within your drawing to extract it. This includes dimensions, notes, geometric tolerances, weld symbols and any other available annotation data. Each annotation you select will be added to the Characteristic Table and organized within the left pane of the screen.

If the Auto Balloon checkbox was enabled in Project Settings prior to using the Add Characteristics command, each annotation will automatically receive a balloon as it’s extracted. If this option was left unchecked, the extraction will still occur, but balloons will need to be added manually using the Add/Edit Balloons command. This command can be used to add and edit the properties/positioning of balloons/bubbles en masse.

It should be noted that balloons/bubbles are organized by default in a separate drawing layer which can be shown/hidden independently from other drawing information. The Layers dialog can also be used to adjust the color of the balloons, if desired.

While automatic and manual extraction techniques cannot currently be mixed in the SOLIDWORKS Inspection Add-in, it is possible to “turn off” any unnecessary characteristics, which is particularly helpful during automatic extraction. Simply right-click a characteristic in the table and deselect “Selected for Inspection.” Though the characteristic will still be listed in the table, it will not be assigned an ID or balloon number and will not appear in any reports published from the project. If you need to turn a characteristic back on, simply reverse this process.

Characteristics in the table can be reordered and modified with respect to grouping. To change the order and corresponding number of a characteristic, simply click and drag it into another position within the table. This technique can also be performed with groups of characteristics by using Shift or Control to select multiple characteristics first. Note that grouped characteristics with detailed numbering (such as 4.1, 4.2, etc.) cannot be moved outside of their group.

Grouped characteristics often occur from annotations with a quantity specified or multiline notes. To adjust grouping behavior, all characteristics within the group must be selected using Shift or Control and then right clicked. The Grouping flyout provides several options to group/ungroup characteristics with various accompanying balloon schemes.

To learn more about the specific behavior of each of these options, consider visiting the SOLIDWORKS Inspection Help File on Using the Bill of Characteristics.

Part 1 of this SOLIDWORKS Inspection Add-In series can be read here, and Part 3 here.

In this article, we’ll be covering the basic steps for using the Inspection add-in for SOLIDWORKS CAD, which is designed to work with SOLIDWORKS 2D drawings as well as 3D CAD models directly (Professional version only). As such, there may be some advanced concepts and tools that are not covered. Additionally, if you primarily work with PDF files for inspection purposes, the Inspection add-in for SOLIDWORKS will not be suitable for you — instead, consider reading our article on SOLIDWORKS Inspection Standalone, which is designed for use with PDF drawings.

This article also assumes an intermediate knowledge of inspection as a process — for those less familiar with the industry of inspection in general, we highly recommend first familiarizing yourself with the basic concepts, tools and terminology which are covered in our related article SOLIDWORKS Inspection and the Importance of First Article Inspection.

Creating a New Inspection Project

It is important to note that when using the SOLIDWORKS Inspection add-in, inspection projects live within SOLIDWORKS drawings/models and do not exist as separate unique files. As such, a drawing or 3D model must be open in order to begin an Inspection Project.

Once the desired drawing has been loaded, the SOLIDWORKS Inspection add-in must be enabled. Navigate to Settings > Add-Ins and scroll down if required to locate SOLIDWORKS Inspection in the list of available add-ins:

Checking the box in the left column will enable the SOLIDWORKS Inspection add-in for a single session while checking the box in the right column will load the Inspection add-in automatically each time SOLIDWORKS is booted.

Once the Inspection add-in has been enabled, a SOLIDWORKS Inspection tab will appear, providing all the required tools and options for ballooning/bubbling SOLIDWORKS drawings and producing inspection reports. The very first command in this new ribbon tab is New Inspection Project and is the first step toward producing a ballooned drawing and report:

Upon creating a new inspection project, you’ll be prompted to select an inspection project template. It’s important to note that inspection project templates are not the same as inspection report templates. The inspection project template (shown below) sets the default units/tolerances and properties of the project, often according to standards such as ANSI or ISO, to ensure that the project data is captured properly.

Inspection report templates, on the other hand, format the data for export in accordance with a particular report standard, such as AS9102 (first article inspection), PPAP (production part approval process) or process performance.

Both of these template types can be modified to suit your organization’s needs and reduce the amount of time required to set up an inspection project or produce a final inspection report.

Once you’ve selected an appropriate inspection project template, you’ll be prompted to provide a variety of project properties which are divided into four sections. While these are not technically required in order to produce a ballooned drawing or report, any information provided here will be available for automatic export to the final inspection report and as such it is highly recommended to provide any critical information.

The first section is simply named Properties. While the fields available for Part Name, Part Number, etc. can be typed in directly, one of the unique advantages of the Inspection add-in for SOLIDWORKS is the ability to link these fields to custom properties of the associated drawing and/or CAD model. This not only speeds up the data entry process but more importantly, it ensures that if the drawing/model are ever revised, the updated information will be passed through to the inspection project.

To link an inspection property field to a custom property, simply click the button for Part Name, Part Number, etc. and select the custom property you would like to link. Selecting OK will then populate the field with this property and establish the link:

Certain properties, such as Vendor, Operation and Method are controlled by dropdown lists which contain frequently used selections. If a new entry needs to be added to this list, it may simply be typed into the text box for the property and will become available the next time the dropdown is used.

Alternatively, there are commands available in the ribbon to add/remove selections from these lists:

The second section is Custom Properties, which allows additional custom properties from the CAD model and/or drawing to be added and linked to the inspection project in the Custom Properties section. A large dropdown list is available to select from common custom properties, although names can be typed in directly as well if preferred. Once named, the value field can be linked by clicking the green plus symbol and the familiar Custom Property dialog box will appear once again to select a property:

Note that while capturing and linking additional custom properties can certainly be valuable, the default inspection report templates do not contain placeholders for them and as such they will not automatically appear in produced inspection reports without first customizing the Inspection Report templates, which is outside the scope of this article.

The Characteristic Info section contains a handful of settings that control how the characteristics extracted from the drawing will be organized and classified, along with the option to choose between automatic and manual extraction. Automatic ballooning and renumbering options are also available. The options in this section will be different between organizations, and often between individual projects, and should be explored to determine your preferred settings, as shown below.

Finally, the Sampling section allows you to input lot size, default level/type and an AQL value to be applied to the project. These values ultimately control how precise manufacturing processes must be for parts to be deemed acceptable and Characteristic Info will often vary depending on manufacturing methods and requirements.

Read Part 2 of this series on the SOLIDWORKS Inspection Add-In. Part 3 is available here.

In this article, we’ll be covering the basics of the second module, known as SOLIDWORKS Inspection Standalone, which is used to produce ballooned inspection drawings and inspection reports. Inspection Standalone is used primarily with PDFs, does not require SOLIDWORKS to be installed and is ideal for quality control personnel who do not have access to or experience with SOLIDWORKS, or in situations where PDF is the only available file format. Additionally, Inspection Standalone must be used when importing data from coordinate measuring machines.

This article assumes the use of SOLIDWORKS Inspection 2023 or newer, as well as an intermediate understanding of quality control terminology. Novice users should consider reading the related article SOLIDWORKS Inspection and the Importance of First Article Inspection for a more comprehensive understanding of quality control and inspection as an industry. Additionally, this tutorial is intended to be a very basic introduction to using the software and as such many advanced tools and techniques will not be covered.

Creating a New Project

The first step to generating an inspection report is the creation of an inspection project file. When first loading the software, Inspection will display the Getting Started tab, with an option to begin a New Project. Clicking this button will prompt the selection of a template, which will define the units, standards and other basic properties of the project (these can be changed as needed). After selecting a template, select the drawing file to be ballooned and click Open.

Once the drawing has been loaded, it can be navigated with simple mouse controls, which can be found (and modified if necessary) by clicking the green File tab at the top left of the interface, then going to Options and finally User Interface, which is nested under Application Options.

Next, you’ll want to provide Project Properties, which include fields such as Part Name, Part Number, Custom Properties and Sampling information. While it’s possible to type in these fields manually, it’s typically preferable to click the lightning bolt icon next to a particular field, then click and drag over text on the sheet itself – this extracts the embedded text from within the PDF and also makes updating easier in the event of a revision, as the box created when extracting the text maintains its position and can be automatically updated.

Extracting these properties is an important step, as anything captured in these fields can be automatically exported to the inspection report, which is the ultimate goal of this process. It should also be noted that in the case of a document without embedded text, the lightning bolt icon will be replaced with a small camera, indicating that optical character recognition (OCR) will be used instead. While typically still effective, the behavior of OCR can be adjusted in the Options dialog and the results should be checked for consistency.

Once complete, click OK to close the Project Properties window and consider taking a look at the available Project Options found in File > Options. These settings, along with any captured Project Properties, can be saved to an Inspection Project Template for reuse, saving significant setup time for future projects:

Of particular interest here are Characteristic settings, where default tolerances, units, inspection methods and classifications for extracted characteristics can be defined, along with default balloon settings including size, shape and color. Once you’ve adjusted your settings to meet your standards, access File > Save As > Inspection Project Template to save these settings for future reuse. It is important to note that many users prefer to keep Project Properties such as Part Name and Part Number undefined when developing a project template, opting to adjust only the Project Options seen above.

Extracting Dimensions and Applying Characteristic Properties

To begin the process of extracting characteristics, access the Document tab, click Manual Extract and choose the type of characteristic to be extracted, keeping in mind that any characteristics which are not extracted will not be exported to the final inspection report. Click and drag a window around a single characteristic to be extracted, in its entirety. Once complete, a balloon will appear, the characteristic will appear in the Characteristics Table at the bottom of the interface and the Characteristic Properties window will appear on the left, where the characteristic can be further modified:

Regardless of the type of characteristic extracted, it is typically very important to spend some time verifying the data captured in Characteristic Properties and filling in any other necessary fields. These fields are ultimately the main source of information that will be exported to the final inspection report and are divided into four major sections which can be accessed using the small blue dropdown arrows:

The General dropdown contains the extracted information, including type/subtype, quantity, full specification, nominal value, tolerance information and calculated upper/lower limits, all of which can be adjusted manually if required.

The Inspection dropdown provides fields to specify the type of manufacturing operation associated with the characteristic, its classification or “criticality,” the method or tool which will be used to inspect and several other fields including a checkbox to identify the characteristic as Key. Many of these fields operate using dropdown lists and typing a new entry into the field will add it to the list for future reuse.

The Balloon dropdown contains relatively simple settings for balloon shape, color and size. It should be noted that these settings will only apply to the selected characteristic(s) and the default balloon style (defined in Options > Project Options > Ballooning) will not be changed. The position of balloon(s) can be modified with the available position tools relative to the characteristic, or with a simple click and drag.

Finally, the Custom dropdown provides fields that can be utilized to capture any required additional information not specified in the previous sections. It should be noted, however, that these fields will not be automatically exported to the final inspection report without modifying the default report templates to include them, which is outside the scope of this tutorial.

Dimension Types and Quantity:

While they can be set manually, properties such as dimension type and quantity are recognized automatically so long as the required information is included in the characteristic extraction window. For example, the following characteristic is interpreted as a Diameter dimension with a quantity of 3:

Extracting Other Characteristic Types

Though dimensions are the most common, many other types of characteristics can be extracted, including geometric tolerances and notes. These function similarly to dimensions in terms of extraction, with a few minor differences.

Geometric Tolerances

When extracting a geometric tolerance, we recommend beginning the click-drag operation from within the frame of the tolerance and capturing the information within while avoiding the outer boundary for best performance (illustrated by the solid blue rectangle below). The Characteristic Properties window will contain a tolerance builder with multiple symbols available for editing the geometric tolerance displayed in the Value field if needed. To enable these tools, you must first click the edit button, highlighted in red in the image below:

It is important to note that extraction allows multiple lines of text to be extracted simultaneously, each of which becomes its own sub-characteristic with detailed numbering. If preferred, each line may be captured separately:

Automatic Extraction

Introduced in 2023, Automatic Extraction simplifies and expedites the process of extracting characteristics and replaces the Smart Extract. From the Document tab, click Auto Extract and note that any existing characteristics will be deleted. The Extraction Settings page allows you to specify which types of characteristics to include, but notably does not include notes (these can be added after automatic extraction):

The following page provides optional sheet control when working with multi-page PDFs. In the following image, only page 1 has been selected for extraction:

Clicking the green checkmark begins the extraction process, at which point each of the characteristics should be reviewed for accuracy and updated with any required properties. Unnecessary characteristics can be deleted and any notes can be added using manual extraction tools. It is common practice to begin an inspection project using automatic extraction and then move into manual extraction as required.

Using the Characteristics Table

The Characteristics Table at the bottom of the interface functions as a hub for organizing and managing characteristics. Characteristics can be reordered (and as a result, renumbered) by clicking and dragging the characteristic to a different position. It may be helpful to expand the Table Manager window before attempting this if many characteristics are present.

Characteristic properties displayed in the Characteristics Table such as type, tolerances and limits can be adjusted directly by double-clicking the corresponding cell. To quickly locate a characteristic on the sheet, right-click the characteristic row in the table and select Go To.

When working with characteristics with a quantity greater than one, grouping options become available by right clicking the characteristic row in the Characteristics Table. Access Grouping and select Create for Each Instance to generate a new characteristic for each instance:

The result is similar to multiline notes – a single balloon representing multiple characteristics with detailed numbering. If preferred, you may multiselect these characteristics using Control or Shift, right-click to access Grouping once again and Ungroup to give each characteristic its own unique ID and balloon. The image below shows the before and after of the Ungroup command.

This process can be reversed by using the Group with Share Balloon command to return to a single balloon with multiple detail-numbered characteristics, or by using the Group command to create a balloon for each.

Producing Ballooned PDFs and Inspection Reports

Once all required characteristics have been extracted and populated with the necessary inspection information, a ballooned copy of the original PDF can be exported from the Publish section of the Home tab by simply clicking 2DPDF and providing a file name.

Additional settings for PDF export can be adjusted in Options > Project Options > Export, including the SOLIDWORKS Inspection watermark, default filename prefix/suffix, resolution and more.

Ballooned PDFs typically go hand in hand with an inspection report, which lists captured characteristic information in accordance with the ballooned PDF, along with upper and lower acceptable measurement limits and a blank field (or multiple fields) for manually entering results.

To create an inspection report from your inspection project, begin by clicking the Excel button in the Publish section of the Home tab.

You will then be required to select an inspection report template and your selection will likely depend on the type of inspection you intend to perform. By default, SOLIDWORKS Inspection includes templates for First Article Inspection (AS9102), Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) and Process Performance, among others. Once you’ve selected the proper template, click the Export button to produce the inspection report.

Note that different sets of information will be exported from the inspection project file depending on the template selected and the general formatting of each template is different. Some fields, such as the Results column, are intentionally left blank as they will be filled in as the inspection process is completed. Additionally, some fields may report “No Results Found” if the necessary information was not supplied within the inspection project. All templates can be customized to adjust this formatting and include characteristic, project, document and/or custom properties as required.

For more information regarding the customization of inspection report templates, consider visiting the SOLIDWORKS Inspection Standalone Help File on the subject.

Summary

SOLIDWORKS Inspection Standalone is an excellent solution for non-SOLIDWORKS users, or for those who work primarily in PDF format for inspection, especially when compared to manual creation of inspection documentation. The process of creating inspection documentation can be summarized as follows:

1. Create a new project and set necessary Project Properties.
2. Adjust Project Options via File > Options > Project Options.
3. (Optional) Save a project template for future reuse via File > Save As.
4. Extract necessary dimensions, geometric tolerances, notes, etc. for inspection using manual and/or automatic extraction techniques.
5. Verify characteristic accuracy and provide additional characteristic detail as needed.
6. Adjust characteristic order, grouping and balloon position as required.
7. Produce a ballooned 2D PDF of the inspection drawing.
8. Produce an inspection report according to the type of inspection process in use.

1. Use AutoCAD Aliases

For newer users migrating from AutoCAD (especially those who prefer to use the command line), this tip can significantly reduce the DraftSight learning curve. Although many DraftSight commands have different names compared to AutoCAD, any AutoCAD alias can be used to activate the equivalent DraftSight command.

For example, even though the equivalent to MOCORO in DraftSight is QUICKMODIFY, typing MOCORO into the command line (or even just a portion of MOCORO) will show both the AutoCAD alias and the corresponding DraftSight command name. Then, simply click or press Enter to activate the command. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

You can continue using AutoCAD aliases indefinitely or slowly learning DraftSight command names over time.

2. Automatic Dimensions

Automatic dimensioning is a great way to make quick work of an otherwise tedious situation that would typically require the individual placement of multiple dimensions. Before this tool can be used, however, a dimension bounding box must be established. After selecting the objects you wish to automatically dimension, use the command DIMBOUNDINGBOX to create a bounding box for the arrangement of dimensions.

Then type the AUTODIMENSION command or find it in the Dimension dropdown menu in the ribbon. A properties window will appear allowing you to control the dimension scheme (baseline, continue or ordinate), the dimension placement, the origin and the geometry to be included in the automatic dimensioning. Geometry can be added and removed by selecting entities graphically and using the +/- buttons in the window. Once you have set the properties, simply click the Preview button to take a look at the results and if satisfied, click Apply.

3. Power Trim

As the 2D drafting companion to SOLIDWORKS, DraftSight has inherited a handful of productivity tools directly from the world of 3D. Power Trim is one that you will not be able to live without once you have tried it.

Power Trim can be found in the Modify section of the ribbon under the Trim icon, or can be activated with the POWERTRIM command. Once active, simply click/hold and drag over any number of entities you would like to remove, and they will automatically be trimmed back to the nearest intersection with any other geometry. Trimming has never been easier.

4. Associative Patterns

Patterns on their own can save you plenty of time by reducing tedious, repetitive creation of identical geometry. However, traditional patterns lack any sort of intelligence and cannot be dynamically modified once created. Associative patterns, on the other hand, behave like features that can be adjusted—instances can be added and removed and spacing can be changed at any time with just a few clicks.

With an entity (or multiple entities) selected, input the PATTERN command or use the available icon in the Modify section of the ribbon. Once activated, be sure to select the Associative checkbox in the dialog or a traditional pattern will be created. Set the desired spacing and number of instances as you normally would and confirm.

Once created, you will find that clicking any of the pattern entities selects all of the instances and additional handles become available. Click and drag the first handle to reposition the entire pattern as a group. Click and drag the second handle to dynamically modify instance spacing, and then click and drag the third handle toward the source geometry to remove pattern instances or away from it to add instances. If preferred, the pattern can be double-clicked or the EDITPATTERN command can be used to adjust the pattern options using the original dialog.

Patterns have never been more intuitive.

5. Reuse Dynamic Blocks

Understandably, many DraftSight users are AutoCAD veterans and often have libraries full of dynamic blocks created with AutoCAD that they would like to reuse. The good news is, you can. All versions of DraftSight allow you to insert, view and configure existing dynamic blocks from AutoCAD, while DraftSight Premium and Enterprise Plus also allow those blocks to be edited.

Simply insert the dynamic block, specify position/size/rotation and then select the block to view the configuration handles. The handles will control the visibility state of the dynamic block just as they did in AutoCAD, making it exceptionally easy to swap between different variants.

If you happen to have DraftSight Premium or Enterprise Plus, dynamic blocks can be converted to Custom Blocks (the DraftSight equivalent of dynamic blocks) in order to enable editing. Right-click the dynamic block and use the Convert to Custom Block command. Once converted, the Custom Block may then be opened with the Block Editor to adjust or add visibility states as required. Now you can gain even more design efficiency by reusing legacy data from AutoCAD.

6. Geometric/Dimensional Constraints

Constraints can add intelligence to your work, otherwise known as design intent. Put simply, geometric and dimensional constraints allow you to control how your design elements will behave when changes are made to them.

For example, the sizes of lines, arcs or circles may be defined by the various dimensional constraint types, while the geometric constraints allow for relationships such as parallelism, perpendicularity and concentricity to be established between entities. Constraint commands may be activated from the Constraints tab of the ribbon.

Once activated, select the entity or entities to apply the constraint to, and in just a few clicks you will have a more robust design that can easily be changed without any extra work. Don’t forget, you can use the Enter key to repeat your last used command for a fast application of constraints.

Additionally, coincident relations are very important for keeping entities connected during future changes. You may notice the icons that appear indicating the type of constraints present in the design. If you would like to turn these off, click the Options button (pictured above) and use the Hide All function or selectively choose the constraint types to hide.

Dimensional constraints function differently from traditional dimensions in that they directly control the size of the entity. In the before and after photo shown below, several geometric and dimensional constraints were added to the design and D2 was changed from 10 to 12 (using a simple double-click), automatically lengthening the required entities while keeping everything else intact. While they may take a bit of practice to learn, the power of constraints make them worth learning.

7. Reusing Customization Files

If you are a long-time AutoCAD user, you may be concerned that you are going to lose (or think you have already lost) all of your customization from your old AutoCAD environment. Fortunately, DraftSight can make use of almost all AutoCAD customization files. The table below summarizes the customization types and extensions that are supported by DraftSight:

Note that PGP files are not supported by DraftSight. This was to allow standard AutoCAD commands to be mapped to corresponding DraftSight commands, and reading in a PGP file could have caused conflicts with the default mapping. For command aliases in the PGP file, you will need to manually add aliases with Options > User Preferences > Aliases.

8. API for Customization/Automation

DraftSight’s API (application programming interface) can be used to automate many common processes within the software and allows you to create your own add-ins. Several programming languages are supported, including LISP, C++, C#, VB.NET and JavaScript for maximum flexibility.

But even non-programmers should know of the API’s existence. Perhaps you would like to import a batch of PDFs from a specific folder at a certain time of day every day. This is not a native function within DraftSight but you can invoke the API to create one. You might also use the API to integrate DraftSight with an ERP system, for example, or develop your own custom menus and toolbars. Options are unlimited with the DraftSight API. To get started, check out the DraftSight API Help Documentation.

9. Importing PDF to DraftSight

Trying to recreate geometry represented in a PDF in order to turn it into an editable DWG/DXF is one of the most tedious jobs one can face and, in most cases, it is unnecessary. So long as your PDF is not “flat” (meaning the geometry, letters and numbers are saved within the PDF, and it is not simply a picture in PDF format) the Import PDF command can be used to make quick work out of converting a PDF into an editable DWG. If you are importing an entire drawing, you will want to begin with a blank DraftSight document. Then, use the PDF command found in the Import tab of the ribbon.

The resulting dialog has several options—including a button for even more options. You can discover more about all these options within the Help Documentation on Importing PDF Files, including the ability to retain and create layers automatically. If you are only importing a single PDF, use the Insert as Block option (use the Batch Processing option for multiple files). If your PDF contains multiple pages, you may select one or more to import from the preview window.

Once the options are set, click OK and, if required, specify position, scale and rotation of your imported PDF. You will likely notice that the PDF is imported as a block and, as such, you will need to use the EXPLODE command to separate everything and allow for editing. Additionally, if you have PDF files representing smaller design elements, they can be imported into existing DraftSight documents and kept as blocks. Here is a quick side-by-side of an original PDF and the resulting DWG after importing:

Note that PDF Import is only available in DraftSight Premium, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus.

10. Network Licensing

DraftSight is often used as a collaboration tool, rather than as a company’s primary design application. Therefore, designers may use the program rather infrequently. It is likely that DraftSight licenses are shared between many users. Network licensing makes this possible by storing licenses on a server and distributing licenses as needed by users.  Network licensing allows anyone and everyone on your team to leverage DraftSight when they need to, making it easier than ever to design and collaborate in 2D. DraftSight Professional and Premium, by contrast, do not allow sharing of licenses in the same way.

Please note that network licensing is only available with DraftSight Enterprise and Enterprise Plus. These versions also offer optional perpetual licensing, allowing your company to own the software permanently without requiring an annual subscription/maintenance fee.

Bonus Tip #1: Copy/Paste to SOLIDWORKS

If you happen to be using both DraftSight and SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD, here are some bonus tips.

Because DraftSight is a Dassault Systèmes product, there is a degree of interoperability between the two programs, including the ability to copy and paste entities from a DraftSight document directly into a SOLIDWORKS sketch. Simply select the required geometry in the DraftSight document and use the Copy command. Then, open your SOLIDWORKS document, select a plane/planar face and use the Paste command.

Here is an example of some DraftSight entities that were pasted into a SOLIDWORS assembly:

It is likely that your copied DraftSight entities will need to be adjusted for position and scale once they have been pasted into SOLIDWORKS. To make quick work of this (especially if you don’t intend to fully-define the copied entities with dimensions/constraints in SOLIDWORKS) use the Modify command found in Tools > Sketch Tools to quickly adjust the scale and position of all the sketch entities simultaneously. Alternatively, the Make Block command can be used on the pasted sketch to provide similar options.

Bonus Tip #2: Dark Mode

New for DraftSight 2022 is a dark mode which darkens menus and ribbons along with the rest of the UI. Simply access Options > System Options > Display > User Interface Style and choose the Dark option to enable dark mode. You will need to restart DraftSight for the changes to take effect.

Conclusion

Here’s a feature matrix for each tool or feature discussed in this article, along with the versions of the software that you can find them in.

For more information on these commands, check out the DraftSight Help Documentation.

In the image below (left), we see a common scenario where a cosmetic thread has been applied to a cylinder of a diameter larger than the thread itself. Though this may be acceptable by some drafting standards for manufacturing, it may result in difficulties at the assembly level. To solve this, the excess material would need to be cut away prior to applying the cosmetic thread (right), which may require multiple features if the threads do not extend up to next or through.

The release of the Thread feature in 2016 offered designers a simplified approach to creating helical thread geometry for a more accurate and realistic representation of threads, but it still left a bit to be desired. The Thread feature, while extremely powerful, was also rather complex and resulted in significantly slower rebuild times when applied frequently. Additionally, automatic callouts are not supported for Thread features, making it more difficult to communicate through manufacturing drawings. Because of this, the Thread command is typically reserved for modeling non-standard threads which cannot otherwise be communicated.

SOLIDWORKS 2022 introduces the Stud Wizard, a brand-new feature specifically designed to split the difference between overly-simplistic thread callouts/cosmetic threads and the slow, complex accuracy of the Thread feature. As the name implies, the Stud Wizard functions very similarly to the Hole Wizard and is specifically geared toward creating externally-threaded studs to complement the existing capability of the Hole Wizard for internally-threaded holes.

By default, the Stud Wizard command can be found in the Features tab of the CommandManager by clicking the dropdown arrow underneath the Hole Wizard.

Creating a Stud on an Existing Cylinder

Once activated, the Stud Wizard provides two different modes to choose from to create a stud, which can be toggled using the icons at the top of the PropertyManager.

The first mode allows the use of an existing cylindrical body, similar to what would be required to use a Thread or cosmetic Thread feature. Simply select the outside circular edge of the existing stud body, then specify the standard, type (machine threads or straight pipe tapped thread) and size as you would for a Hole Wizard. It should be noted that just like the Hole Wizard, available standards for the Stud Wizard are controlled by the Toolbox Configuration properties. Additionally, when creating a stud from an existing cylinder body, available sizes are limited by the diameter of the cylinder. In this case, since the cylinder diameter is 5/8”, the available sizes are 9/16” and smaller.

Thread depth can be controlled using a Blind end condition with a depth value (1” in this example), Up to Next, or Through for added flexibility. Additionally, thread class options can be enabled to communicate a tolerance of 1A, 2A or 3A. For the uninitiated, the “A” in this designation indicates that the threads are external (internal thread are designated with the letter B), while the numeric value represents the closeness of the fit. Generally, a higher-class number indicates a tighter fit, with class 2A being the most common due to its balance of manufacturing difficulty/cost and performance.

It should be noted that specifying a thread class in the Stud Wizard feature will not change the nominal dimensions of the stud, nor will it apply any type of tolerance; however, if a thread callout is inserted for the feature, it will include the thread class designation if one was applied.

Finally, the undercut checkbox may be enabled to cut away material below the threads for proper assembly and fit of components. Simply specify a diameter for the undercut (limited to a maximum equal to the thread diameter), a depth value and a fillet radius to be applied to the edges of the undercut. Note that if a blind end condition is in use for the stud, the undercut depth is limited to the remaining space between the end of the threads and the end of the cylinder body.

Once the Stud Wizard feature is completed, a thread callout annotation can be inserted by expanding the stud feature in the design tree, right clicking the Stud Thread sub-feature and selecting Insert Callout from the shortcut menu. Alternatively, callouts may be added by right clicking the graphic circle representing the Stud Thread feature (if visible). Note that the visibility of cosmetic threads is controlled by the “View Top Level Annotations” setting in the Hide/Show Items dropdown menu, which must be enabled to see them. Thread callouts may also be inserted into drawing views.

As seen here, the Stud Wizard feature allows you to quickly define externally threaded studs using familiar standards while representing the intended geometry more accurately and avoiding the complexity (and documentation difficulty) associated with full helical threads. Though using the Stud Wizard on an existing cylinder is certainly efficient on its own, the second available mode allows you to create a stud entirely from scratch in a fashion almost identical to that of the Hole Wizard.

Creating a Stud on a Surface

Begin by activating the Stud Wizard feature as you would normally, then select the second icon labeled “Creates Stud on a Surface.” Once this mode is activated, two tabs become available in the PropertyManager.

The Stud tab provides all the same fields for defining thread parameters as seen in the first mode above, but also includes an additional Shaft Details section where the shaft length and diameter must be defined as this mode creates a brand new stud rather than using an existing cylinder feature. Also like the first mode, the available thread sizes are limited by the diameter value applied in the shaft details section.

Once shaft details and thread standards have been defined, the Position tab can be used to locate the new stud in a manner nearly identical to that of the Hole Wizard. However, as of this release, there are several limitations for the positioning of new studs. Unlike the Hole Wizard, selection of reference planes and non-planar faces is not currently supported as of this release; only planar faces are supported.

Additionally, though a sketch point is used to position the center of the stud, all other sketch tools including the Smart Dimension tool are unavailable while placing the point. If construction geometry or dimensions are required for position, the resulting point sketch must be edited after the stud feature is completed. Finally, multiple sketch points are not currently supported, meaning that each stud requires its own unique feature. Alternatively, mirror/pattern features may be used, but the Insert Callout command will not be available for the threads of the mirrored instances.

There also appears to be a potentially frustrating bug when using this mode. If the Through or Up to Next end condition is selected for the threads, the diameter field in the Shaft Details section becomes uneditable. Normally this would not be an issue, as the thread diameter would take priority and allow the stud to size properly; however, the diameter value in the shaft field still limits the available sizes in the thread standard section (illustrated below).

To solve this, temporarily set the end condition for the threads to Blind so that the shaft diameter field becomes editable once again, then set the shaft diameter to a value larger than the threads you would like to use. You’ll then return to the original end condition and the larger sizes should be available.

Conclusion

The Stud Wizard is a welcome new feature for SOLIDWORKS 2022 that takes advantages of the familiar Hole Wizard workflow to make externally threaded studs easier than ever before while balancing model accuracy with complexity and performance. The resulting model geometry is more accurate (and requires less work) than traditional cosmetic threads while avoiding the slow rebuild times associated with geometrically accurate helical thread features. While there are a few existing limitations to Stud Wizard as of the current release, they’re certainly not showstoppers. We expect to see additional improvements that will make the Stud Wizard even more useful.

Learn more about the new enhancements to SOLIDWORKS 2022 in the ebook SOLIDWORKS 2022 Enhancements to Streamline and Accelerate Your Entire Product Development Process.

About the Author

Jacob Ames is a Senior SOLIDWORKS Applications Engineer with Hawk Ridge Systems based out of Olympia, WA. He's been producing SOLIDWORKS content, training students, and providing product demonstrations for over 5 of his 10+ years of CAD experience. If he's not in front of his computer, you'll likely find him playing video games or wandering the trails of the Pacific Northwest.

SOLIDWORKS 2022 introduces a new workflow for mesh enthusiasts known as Hybrid Mesh Modeling, which allows users to directly combine traditional SOLIDWORKS geometry with mesh geometry. In addition, most classic features (think extruded cuts and fillets, for example) can now be added to the combined result, even in areas containing both faceted mesh geometry and traditional SOLIDWORKS geometry.

This new capability follows the release of Parasolid v33.1 (the kernel used by SOLIDWORKS), where it is also known as convergent modeling.

To demonstrate a use case for working with hybrid mesh modeling, consider the unicycle seat pictured above. The goal is to combine the mesh file (in STL format) of the handle with the seat, which was created using traditional SOLIDWORKS features. Once they are combined, I will want to add some downstream features for the placement of fasteners and create a blend between the handle and the seat. Please note that this workflow does involve a multibody approach and the Insert Part command.

First, make sure to open the mesh file you plan to work with on its own and convert it to a solid body. Typically, mesh files import as graphics bodies to improve performance, which is great for visualization but does not offer much in the way of design. Once the mesh file opens, look for a Graphic Bodies folder in the FeatureManager design tree. Expand this folder, right-click the body and use the context menu to select Convert to Mesh Body. Then save the file as a SOLIDWORKS document.

Once that is done, navigate back to your main document (the seat). Use the Insert dropdown, choose Part, browse to the newly saved SOLIDWORKS file containing your mesh body and select Open. You’ll find that the PropertyManager for this command will allow you to choose a configuration, if applicable, along with any information you’d like to transfer.

Because we are inserting one existing document into another, any information we choose not to transfer will be inaccessible in our top-level design. While dimensions and materials typically are not important when inserting mesh files, transferring the default planes along with any axes and/or coordinate systems (if you created any in the mesh file prior to inserting it) may help with proper positioning.

Optionally, use Locate Part with Move/Copy Feature to activate the Locate Part command immediately after inserting the mesh file to reposition the body.

Click OK once finished and the mesh file will be inserted. By default, a link will be created to the original file, so if any updates made to the original will propagate to the inserted mesh. This can be controlled in the Insert Part PropertyManager. Your design now contains both a traditional SOLIDWORKS body and a mesh body, giving you access to the hybrid mesh modeling workflow.

Up to this point, however, nothing is particularly novel—this is the same workflow that would be used to add a mesh body to an existing document in SOLIDWORKS 2021 and earlier versions.

But this is where things get interesting. Let’s take a look at some of the improvements SOLIDWORKS brings to mesh modeling in 2022, starting with Combine. With the handle model in proper position, we will use Combine in Add mode to merge these two bodies together.

It was technically possible to combine SOLIDWORKS and mesh bodies prior to 2022, but it required that the SOLIDWORKS body first be converted to mesh, which limited many downstream applications. Now, taking a look at the result in SOLIDWORKS 2022, you will see that boththe traditional and mesh geometry are maintained along with easily accessible dimensions, even though the result is a still single body.

Classic SOLIDWORKS features such as fillets and extruded cuts/bosses are supported between body types as well and the results can be rather interesting. For example, adding a fillet between the mesh and SOLIDWORKS bodies yields additional faceted mesh faces as seen below.

However, adding features that do not blend with any faceted mesh geometry are treated just like regular SOLIDWORKS features and result in real SOLIDWORKS geometry suitable for referencing, sketching (assuming the resulting face is planar) and other downstream operations. Here, we have added a couple simple extruded cut/boss features to illustrate this behavior. Again, while technically possible to achieve similar results prior to SOLIDWORKS 2022, the old workflow required the construction and conversion of separate bodies and the use of (often several) combine operations and the result was still a fully faceted mesh body with additional limitations.  

There is, however, one exception to this behavior that we have identified so far. If any features are created using an offset from Surface end condition where a mesh face is specified as the reference surface, the resulting end face of the feature will be a mesh face. As such, it is not possible to sketch on the resulting face, even if it is planar. Below, we have created a slot-shaped extruded cut illustrating this behavior. As you can see, the side faces of the feature are SOLIDWORKS geometry, whereas the end face is faceted, as a result of the Offset from Surface end condition.

Hybrid (or convergent) mesh modeling is a significant step toward enabling better collaboration between SOLIDWORKS users and their mesh-oriented counterparts, but it still comes with some important limitations that need to be considered prior to diving head-first into mixed-body design.

First, while hybrid mesh modeling allows you to maintain your original SOLIDWORKS geometry, keep in mind that you are still introducing mesh elements into your design. Though well-suited for applications such as 3D printing, mesh files are known for causing difficulty in CNC and CAM applications. Therefore, traditional manufacturing techniques may not be suitable for mixed-body models.

Additionally, there are still significant limitations for mesh models in the SOLIDWORKS drawing environment. As of this release, it is not possible to reference mesh bodies for the creation of dimensions or other annotations and section views cannot be created for meshes in drawings. This may add another layer of difficulty to the manufacturing process for hybrid models, as shown below.

All that being said, you should find working with meshes easier in SOLIDWORKS 2022, as being able to directly combine SOLIDWORKS and mesh body geometry has significant implications. Rather than limiting your modeling approach to Boolean operations such as Combine in multibody parts, hybrid mesh modeling enables the majority of standard SOLIDWORKS features to be applied to models with mixed body types, even in areas that blend traditional and mesh geometry. In most cases, faces resulting from added features are created in true SOLIDWORKS BREP format and can be used in downstream operations—or even sketched on, if planar— which opens the door for many new creative uses.

Whether you collaborate directly with mesh users, download mesh files from online services such as GrabCAD, or create your own mesh models in a third-party program, hybrid mesh modeling is an exciting and long-awaited enhancement to SOLIDWORKS 2022 for any mesh enthusiast.

Learn more about the new enhancements in SOLIDWORKS 2022 with the eBook SOLIDWORKS 2022 Enhancements to Streamline and Accelerate Your Entire Product Development Process.

About the Author

Jacob Ames is a Senior SOLIDWORKS Applications Engineer with Hawk Ridge Systems based out of Olympia, WA. He's been producing SOLIDWORKS content, training students, and providing product demonstrations for over 5 of his 10+ years of CAD experience. If he's not in front of his computer, you'll likely find him playing video games or wandering the trails of the Pacific Northwest.