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FIGURE 14.16

The Drawing Layer Mapping screen

Select the Layers selected for sheet format option. Select the TB layer, leaving the other layers unselected. Every imported file will be different in this respect, because layers used by title blocks vary widely. Click Next when you have made these selections. Figure 14.17 shows the Document Settings screen.

FIGURE 14.17

The Document Settings screen

The important features in the Document Settings screen are the Document template selection and the Geometry positioning options.

Document template selection is only important if you plan to save the format with a template. Be sure to select a template that does not already have a format saved in it. In the Geometry positioning section, if you can get the software to center the title block for you, definitely take advantage of this functionality and use the Center in sheet option. Once you are happy with these settings, click Finish. The resulting format is shown in Figure 14.18.

FIGURE 14.18

The finished imported format

From here, you can add the links to custom properties as described earlier, as well as logo images, loading favorites, and blocks. You can now save the format as described in the next section.

Tip

The Color Display Mode button on the Line Format toolbar toggles the display between using the layer color to using the SolidWorks sketch colors. Another setting that affects sketch display in drawings is found at Tools⇒Options⇒System Options⇒Drawings⇒Display Sketch Entity Points, which shows endpoints and arc center points in the same way that they are shown in feature sketches.

Saving the format

You can save drawing formats in two ways: either with the template or separate from the template. You cannot edit formats separate from a template, but they do have their own file type, *.slddrt.

Note

If you are wondering how the extension *.slddrt relates to a sheet format, what is now known as sheet format used to be called a drawing template (thus, the drt of slddrt). What is now called a template did not exist in 1997. The shift in architecture and, more importantly for users, the shift in terminology still leave many people a bit confused.

Saving templates is covered in the next section. To save a format, choose File⇒Save Sheet Format. You can do this with or without the format being active. Save the format into a location with other formats and give it a descriptive but unique name. If you have not yet done so, this is a good opportunity to create a separate folder, outside of your SolidWorks installation folder, that contains your most frequently used files. Remember also to tell SolidWorks where this library location is by choosing Tools⇒Options⇒System Options⇒File Locations⇒Sheet Formats.

Even if you have saved a format with a template, it is a good idea to also save the format on its own. This is because you might want to use that format on an existing drawing that has a different format on it or use it on a second sheet.

Using second sheet formats

When you have multi-sheet drawings, it is often important to have a simplified or specialized format for the second sheet. Figure 14.19 shows sample page-one and page-two formats side by side.

FIGURE 14.19

First and second sheet formats

Adding new sheets

You can add sheets to a drawing by clicking the Add Sheets icon to the right of the sheet tabs at the bottom of the SolidWorks window or through the RMB menu of the sheet tab at the lower-left corner of the drawing window. If you right-click the first sheet tab, the sheet that is added gets the format that is used on the first sheet. If you right-click the second sheet tab, the added sheet gets the second sheet format.

Reloading formats

If a format has been changed, and you would like to update a drawing to the new format, this option is available in the Sheet Properties, as shown in Figure 14.20.

FIGURE 14.20

Updating a format through the Sheet Properties

Creating