SolidWorks 2011 Parts Bible - Matt Lombard [219]
FIGURE 15.29
The Component Line Font dialog box
Using layers
Yes, SolidWorks drawings can use layers. You can place individual parts onto layers, and the layers can have different colors and line fonts. Most entities can be put into layers, including edges, annotations, and sketch items. Hidden layers are often used for reference information or construction entities on a drawing. Figure 15.30 shows the Layers dialog box on a SolidWorks drawing.
FIGURE 15.30
Using the Layers dialog box in SolidWorks
Working with tangent edge display options
SolidWorks drawings and models offer some options for displaying tangent edges. Many users find it distracting when tangent edges (which in a physical part are not edges at all) are given as much visible weight as the sharp edges of, say, a chamfer. To find the settings, shown in Figure 15.31, choose View⇒Display, or select them from the RMB menu. The Tangent Edges Removed option may be appropriate for parts with few fillets, but it causes a part to look oversimplified and makes details of the shape difficult to distinguish.
FIGURE 15.31
Edge display options
Additional options are available, including applying a color to the tangent edges by choosing Tools⇒Options⇒Color list for Tangent Edge display, and the Hide/Show Edges options.
You can use the Hide/Show Edges tool for specific selected edges, or just click the tool with nothing selected to activate the Hide/Show Edges PropertyManager, shown in Figure 15.32. Hide/Show Edges functionality is only available with high-quality views. View quality is addressed in the next section. Hide/Show Edges is available from the left-click context toolbar or the RMB menu.
The PropertyManager indicates that Hide/Show Edges works from a selection, although it has no list box to show the edges selected. The tools offered here may not have a wide general appeal, but they will be most useful probably to people documenting complex shapes or plastic parts. Hide Non-Planar Edges is meant to simplify the display of complex parts with a lot of curvature. Hide Blend Edges limits the filtering to edges with curvature continuity across the edge, which is usually found only in more sophisticated surfaced parts. Hide Edges Shorter Than gives you the ability to filter the edge display again. These settings apply only to the current view, not to the entire drawing.
Take note of the options in the Hide/Show Edges PropertyManager message box shown in Figure 15.32:
• Box selection toggles the active edge selections
• Shift+box selection selects all edges, including previous selections
• Alt+box selection clears all selected edges
These mass selection options can be important if you have used one of the Tangent Edge Filters, Hide Non-Planar Edges, Hide Blend Edges, or edges shorter than a given value.
FIGURE 15.32
The Hide/Show Edges PropertyManager offers tangent edge display options.
Choosing view quality settings
You have the choice between two options for drawing view quality: High quality and Draft quality. The quality that you choose influences the performance of the software. Draft quality views are noticeably rough when viewed closely, but from a distance, they are at least recognizable. However, Draft quality is becoming less accessible, and so I would not recommend relying on this option. Although new Draft quality views can be created, once they are set to High quality, they cannot be set back to Draft quality.
All views are created as High quality unless the view quality setting is overridden. To find this setting, choose Tools⇒Options⇒System Options⇒Drawings⇒Display Style⇒Display Quality For New Views. The only other way that you can create Draft quality views is if you open a drawing from an older version of SolidWorks that used Draft quality views.
In Figure 15.2 earlier in the chapter, the image to the right shows the Display Style pane. This PropertyManager has been taken from a High quality view. A Draft quality view enables you to toggle between Draft and High quality, as shown in Figure