SolidWorks 2010 Bible

Chapter 24: Working with Tables and Drawings

FIGURE 24.13

A Hole Table combining holes in different views

To initiate the Hole Table function, you must first select a view. You can access the Hole Table

function by choosing Insert ➪ Table ➪ Hole Table.

To specify the datum, either select an edge in each direction to serve as the zero mark for the X

and Y directions or select a vertex or point to serve as the Origin in both directions.

To select the holes to be included in the table, activate the Holes panel selection box, and either

select the hole edges directly or select the faces on which the holes are located. Once you place the

table, you can add holes or change the datum information. To do this, click on the RMB menu of

the Hole Table entry in the Drawing FeatureManager, and select Edit Feature. The RMB menu is

shown in the middle image of Figure 24.12. If you simply select a Hole Table that has already been

created, the Properties interface displays, as shown in the top-right image. You can resize columns

and rows in the same way as for BOM tables.

In the table in Figure 24.13, the Combine Same Sizes option is used, which causes several of the

cells of the table to merge. If you use the Combine Same Tags option, then the hole locations are

not displayed — only the hole callout description and the quantity appear. Figure 24.14 shows

this arrangement.

You can control the hole callout description used in Figure 24.14 by using the file named call-

outformat.txt, which is found in the lang\english subdirectory of the SolidWorks instal-

lation directory. Again, if you customize this file, then you should keep it in a library external to

the installation directory and list it in the Tools ➪ Options ➪ File Locations area. This text file

enables you to specify how hole callouts are specified for different types of holes.