• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

• Standardization for a large number of users

• Working in various units

• Preset materials

• Preset custom properties

• Parts with special requirements, such as sheet metal or weldments

• Parts and assemblies with standardized background colors

• Drawings of various sizes with formats (borders) already applied

• Drawings with special notes already on the sheet

Cross-Reference

Drawing templates and formats are complex enough that I cover them in a separate chapter. Chapter 14 discusses the differences between templates and formats and how to use them to your advantage. This chapter addresses part and assembly templates.

FIGURE 1.9

The Novice and Advanced interfaces for the New SolidWorks Document dialog box

Depending on your needs, it might be reasonable to have templates for metric and inch part and assembly, templates for steel and aluminum, and templates for sheet metal parts and for weldments, if you design these types of parts. If your firm has different customers with different requirements, you might consider using separate templates for each customer. Over time, you will discover the types of templates you need, because you will find yourself making the same changes repeatedly.

You should also note that in SolidWorks 2011 templates can also control document scenes. A system option controls whether the document scene or a system background color option is the default. The default setting for this gives the document scene precedence over the system background color settings. See Chapter 5 for more details on scenes and background colors.

To create a template, open a document of the appropriate type (part or assembly), and make the settings you want the template to have; for example, units are one of the most common reasons to make a separate template, though any Document Property setting is fair game for a template, from the dimensioning standard used to the image quality settings. You can find these settings through the menus at Tools⇒Options⇒Document Properties.

Some document-specific settings do not appear in the Document Properties dialog box. Still, these settings are saved with the template. Settings that fall into this category are the View menu entity type visibility option and the Tools⇒Sketch Settings menu options.

Custom Properties are another piece of the template puzzle. If you use or plan to use BOMs (Bills of Materials), PDM (Product Data Management), or linked notes on drawings, you need to take advantage of the automation options available with custom properties. Setting up custom properties is covered in detail in Chapter 14.

In addition, the names of the standard planes are template specific. For example, the standard planes may be named Front, Top, and Side; or XY, XZ, and ZY; or Plane1, Plane2, and Plane3; or North, Plan, and East; or Elevation, Plan, and Side for different uses.

Locating templates

You can set the location of the templates folder at Tools⇒Options⇒File Locations⇒Document Templates. The folder location may be a local folder or a shared network folder. Multiple folders may be specified in the list box, each corresponding to a tab in the New Document's Advanced interface.

After all the Document Properties, custom properties, and other settings are set to your liking and you are ready to save the file as a template, choose File⇒Save As and select Part Templates in Files of Type. SolidWorks prompts you to save the template in the first folder listed in the File Locations list. You can create assembly templates the same way, except you change the settings for an assembly document.

You can also create additional tabs on the New SolidWorks Document dialog box by making subfolders in the main folder in the File Locations area. For example, if your File Locations list for Document Templates looks like Figure 1.10, your New SolidWorks Document dialog box will look like Figure 1.11.

FIGURE 1.10

The Tools⇒Options⇒File Locations list

Adding subfolders to either