SolidWorks 2011 Parts Bible - Matt Lombard [225]
FIGURE 16.7
Adding a leader to a note
Using multiple leaders
You can also attach multiple leaders to notes. To create a new note with multiple leaders, pre-select the entities that the leaders are to be attached to, and then click the Note toolbar button.
To add a leader to an existing note, first click the note, and then Ctrl+drag the handle or small dot on the end of a leader to the second location. A note with multiple leaders is shown in Figure 16.8. To remove one of multiple leaders from a note, click the handle at the end of the arrow and press Delete.
FIGURE 16.8
A note with multiple leaders
Using jogged leaders
Jogged leaders have come a long way since their introduction many releases ago. You can switch a regular leader to a jogged leader by selecting an option in the PropertyManager. In Figure 16.7, the middle icon in the top row is the Jogged Leader icon. The icon to the left simply turns on the default leader, and the icon to the right turns off leaders altogether.
Once you activate the jogged leader option, you can add a jog from the leader right mouse button (RMB) menu. Notice in Figure 16.9 that two options give you control over the jogged leader — Insert New Branch and Add Jog Point.
FIGURE 16.9
Jogging a leader
Adding a jog point
Selecting the Add Jog Point command adds a new handle to the leader that you can move around. You can add multiple jog points to the leader.
Inserting a new branch
The Insert New Branch command enables you to create a new jogged leader that ends in another arrow from the selected point. This arrangement with multiple branches in a jogged leader is shown in Figure 16.10.
FIGURE 16.10
The results of adding a new branch to a jogged leader
Adding styles
For notes, a style can apply a font, an underline, bold formatting, or any other setting from the Formatting (Fonts) toolbar to a note.
To create a note that uses the style setting from another existing note, pre-select the existing note with the style to be copied before starting the Note command; SolidWorks applies the style to the new note.
Caution
Sometimes adding a style to a note can make other changes that you may not expect, such as turning off the leaders if a note has multiple leaders. In particular, if the style is made from a note with a jogged leader, then it turns off leaders for regular multiple leaders. Styles that are created from regular leader notes do not turn off jogged leaders.
Making a change to the leader of a note after you apply the style removes the style from the note, although the formatting remains. This does not apply to adding multiple leaders, only to changing the type of leader.
Applying a style may also remove the ability of the text to wrap, as well as any changes to the text box shape. You cannot move the corner of a text box of a note to which you have applied a style.
Styles exist only in the document in which they were created, but they can be shared to other documents by saving the style out as a separate file. Note styles use the extension *.sldnotestl. Once you save the style, you can load it into other documents. The Style panel of the Note PropertyManager interface is shown in Figure 16.11.
FIGURE 16.11
The Style panel of the Note PropertyManager interface
Annotation types that can use styles are
• Note
• Dimension
• Weld Symbol
• Surface Finish
• Datum Feature
• Datum Target
• Balloon
• Auto Balloon
• Stacked Balloon
• Center Mark
Note
Styles before the 2009 release were called Favorites, and some functions still retain the old name. The file type for note favorites was *.sldnotefvt. If you run across any of these legacy file types, you will at least know what they are. When loading styles, the Open dialog box will recognize and use both the new file type and the