SolidWorks 2010 Bible

Chapter 21: Working with Drawing Views

FIGURE 21.30

The Draft quality options and cursor

Distinguishing Views from Sheets

It is sometimes difficult for new users to understand the difference between being in a sketch and

being out of a sketch, or the difference between editing the sheet as opposed to the sheet format. In

the same way, confusion frequently surrounds the difference between sketching in a view and

sketching on a sheet. The easiest way to determine if a sketch will be associated with a view or with

the drawing sheet is to look at the prompt in the lower-right corner of the SolidWorks window, on

the status bar, which displays the message, Editing Sheet, Editing Sheet Format, or Editing View.

This issue becomes especially important when you want to do something with a sketch entity, but

it is grayed out and unavailable. This means that whatever entity is active is not the one that the

sketch entity is on. Drawing views expand to contain all the sketch entities that are associated with

the view, and so if you see a view that is extended on one side, larger than it should be, then it

could be extended to contain the grayed-out sketch entity. Activate the sheet and the suspected

views; when the sketch entity turns from gray to black, you have found the place where it resides.

Tutorial: Working with View Types,

Settings, and Options

This tutorial is intended to familiarize you with many of the view types, settings, and options that

are involved in creating views. To begin, follow these steps:

1. From the CD-ROM, open the part called Chapter 21 – Tutorial Part.sldprt.


2. Move the drawing template named Inch B Bible Template.drwdot, also found
   on the CD-ROM, to your templates folder. If you do not know where your templates
   are located, choose Tools ➪ Options ➪ System Options ➪ File Locations ➪ Document
   Templates.