• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 1174 0

in General Tables or custom properties in BOMs, you can use the tab and arrow keys to move the cursor between cells. In fact, most of the Excel-like functionality has been added back into the SolidWorks native table format.

Here is a summary of the added Navigation functionality:

• Enter. Move to next cell down.

• Tab. Move to next cell to the right.

• Arrow. Move cursor in any direction.

• Shift+Arrow. Increase selection size.

• Shift+Tab. Move cursor backward.

• Shift+Enter. Move cursor up.

• Home. Move cursor to first column.

• Ctrl+Home. Move to upper-left corner of table.

• End. In combination with arrow keys, move to end indicated.

• Ctrl+End. Move cursor to bottom-right corner of table.

Here is a summary of the added Editing functionality:

• F2. Edit contents of cell.

• Double-click. Edit contents of cell.

• Alt+Enter. Add multiple rows to cell.

• Delete. Delete contents of cell without activating cell.

• Backspace. Delete contents of cell and activate cell.

• Ctrl+Delete. Delete one word at a time.

• Edit. Edit multiple row heights simultaneously.

• Lock. Lock row height and column width.

• Copy. Copy cells from Excel to SolidWorks tables.

Retiring the Excel-based BOM

In previous releases, the Excel-based BOM was the only way to add a BOM to a drawing. This feature has been replaced in most respects by the SolidWorks native table-driven BOM, but many people still use the Excel-based BOM either out of habit or to comply with legacy standards. Figure 17.9 shows the interface for the Excel-based BOM.

FIGURE 17.9

The interface for Excel-based BOMs

Best Practice

Unless you have a compelling reason to do otherwise, you should use the SolidWorks table-based BOM because this function will be best supported in future versions of SolidWorks software.

Using Design Tables

Design Tables that are used to drive configurations of parts and assemblies can be shown on the drawing. This is often called a tabulated drawing and is typical of parts that have a basic shape that is common among several sizes or versions of the part. The sizes are shown by a symbol on the drawing, with a column headed by that symbol showing the available dimensions and the corresponding size (configuration) names.

You can insert a Design Table into a drawing by choosing Insert⇒Tables⇒Design Table or by clicking the Design Table button on the Tables toolbar. In either case, you must pre-select a drawing view of a part or assembly that contains a Design Table before the menu selection or toolbar button becomes activated.

Design Tables that are displayed in this way are often formatted to some extent. It is necessary to hide columns and rows unless you want the dimension or feature name syntax to display on the drawing as well as the values. Extra columns and rows are often added to make the Design Table readable. The image to the left in Figure 17.10 shows a Design Table that is formatted to be placed on a drawing. The image to the right shows the same Design Table with all the information visible. The first column and the first row are hidden to make the table more readable on the drawing, and the second column and second row use the $user_notes header to format the names.

FIGURE 17.10

A Design Table prepared to be placed on a drawing

Figure 17.11 shows the drawing with the table inserted. To display the table properly, you have to edit the table in the window of the parent document and adjust the border of the table to be exactly how you want it to appear on the drawing. The adjusted table is shown in Figure 17.11.

FIGURE 17.11

A drawing with the Design Table inserted

The labeled dimensions are created by simply making reference dimensions and overwriting the value in the Dimension Text panel of the Dimension PropertyManager. If you would like to examine this data more closely, the drawing and part are included on the DVD. The drawing is named DT.slddrw.

This drawing uses a part Design Table, but you can also place assembly Design Tables onto the drawing. This