Part V: Creating Drawings
Another option for view alignment is to align it relative to another view; this involves stacking one
view on top of another or placing them side by side. You can do this by selecting the second pair
of options in the menu shown in Figure 21.24, Horizontal to Another View and Vertical to
Another View. These are grayed out in the figure, but preselecting a linear edge before selecting
this option in the menus will activate them.Situations may arise where a view is locked into a particular relationship to another view, and you
need to disassociate the views. The Break Alignment option, which is grayed out in the menu in
Figure 21.24, serves that purpose.Using Display Options in Views
Some important display options and settings are not listed in the Tools ➪ Options menu; they are
only available through the menus, and in particular the View menu. You can effectively deal with
most items in the View menu by assigning a hotkey that can be toggled on or off. For example,
Axes and Temporary Axes are things you often want to be visible when you’re sketching some-
thing, but not visible when printing a drawing. You can easily assign the display for Axes and
Temporary Axes to hotkeys, making them ready at your fingertips. You can assign hotkeys by
choosing Tools ➪ Customize ➪ Keyboard.Display States
You can use Display States in drawing views, but unless you are only hiding and showing parts
with the Display States (that is, you are not changing colors or display styles with Display States),
they only have an effect when a drawing view is set to Shaded Display style. You can control
Display States for drawing views in the View PropertyManager. The Drawing View Properties dia-
log box appears, as shown in Figure 21.25.One of the limitations of the Display States functionality in drawing views is that when wireframe
display is used, the drawing edges appear in black rather than using the color settings to show
wireframe in the same color as shaded. The necessary color settings are found in two places, and
you need to set both. The System Options setting is on the Colors page and is called Use Specified
color for shaded with edges mode. The second setting is in the part Document Properties (not
assembly), again on the Colors page, and is called Apply Same Color to Wireframe, HLR (Hidden
Lines Removed), and Shaded.Display styles
The 2D drawing world is becoming less and less black-and-white and SolidWorks has the capabil-
ity to apply shaded views to drawings. This is probably most useful in isometric, perspective, or
pictorial views on the drawings. The shading and color may be distracting for dimensioned and
detailed views, but it can also be indispensable when you need to show what a part actually looks
like in 3D. Not everyone can read engineering prints, and even for those who can, nothing com-
municates quite like a couple of shaded isometric views.