• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Assembly drawings require many of the same skills as regular drawings, but much less dimensioning, and much more pictorial and visualization capability. Sometimes you have to use the unique tools for assembly drawings to get the job done.

Chapter 17: Working with Tables and Drawings

In This Chapter

Creating the Bill of Materials

Inserting and displaying Design Tables

Using Hole Tables to describe drawing details

Creating and controlling Revision Tables settings

Employing General Tables

Using tables in models

Using BOMs tutorial

Using Hole Tables tutorial

Using Revision Tables tutorial

SolidWorks enables you to create several types of tables on drawings, such as the Bill of Materials. Design Tables that are used in parts and assemblies can also be shown on the drawing to create a tabulated type drawing. Hole Tables enable you to chart the center locations and sizes of holes for easy access to manufacturing data. Revision Tables can work with Workgroup Product Data Management (PDM) or by themselves to help you document the revision history of a drawing. General Tables are also available for any specialized items that are not covered by the other table types.

Driving the Bill of Materials

The Bill of Materials (BOM) is one of the most frequently used types of tables that are available in SolidWorks. BOMs are intended for use with assemblies, but you can also use them with individual parts for specialized applications. The information that you can expect to see on a BOM includes item number, filename, quantity used, description, and any other custom property that you would like to add to it. A typical BOM is shown in Figure 17.1.

BOMs are made in one of two ways: the default BOM is made from a special SolidWorks table, while an Excel-based BOM is driven by Excel. While Excel offers some advantages, many users appear to prefer the default BOM. Excel and SolidWorks table-based BOMs are not interchangeable, so if you plan to customize the default templates, you need to decide which type of BOM (Excel or SolidWorks) you will want to use.

FIGURE 17.1

A sample BOM

Note

You can also place BOMs directly in the assembly and even in multi-body part files.

Examining the SolidWorks table-based BOM

The BOM shown in Figure 17.1 is a default SolidWorks table-based BOM. The differences between the displays of the two types of BOM are mainly cosmetic; the bigger difference is in the functionality. The PropertyManager interface for the SolidWorks BOM is shown in Figure 17.2.

FIGURE 17.2

The PropertyManager for a table-driven BOM

Creating table-based BOM templates

Like other types of data, the SolidWorks table-driven BOM starts from a template. The BOM in Figure 17.1 was created from the default BOM template. When a BOM is initiated, you can select the template in the Table Template panel near the top of the PropertyManager, as shown in Figure 17.2.

You create table-based BOM templates in much the same way that you create other templates:

1. Specify the settings.

2. Delete the document-specific data.

3. Save the template.

4. Access the template from a library location.

To save the template, right-click the BOM and select Save As. In the Files of Type drop-down list, select Template (*.sldbomtbt) — sldbomtbt stands for SolidWorks Bill of Materials Table Template. Any of the settings, additional columns, links to properties, and so on are saved to the template and reused when you create a new template from it.

Best Practice

Put the BOM template in your library area outside of the SolidWorks installation folder. Then specify the path in the Tools⇒Options⇒File Locations area.

Setting a table anchor

A table anchor locks a corner of the table to a selected point on the drawing sheet format. If you do not select a point in the format, then the table is placed at a corner of the sheet. To specify a point in the format to act as the anchor, you must be editing the format. Right-click the sheet and select Edit Sheet Format. Then right-click a sketch endpoint in the format,