SolidWorks 2010 Bible

Part V: Creating Drawings

Follow these steps to create a note:

1. Click the Note toolbar button on the Annotations toolbar.


2. Click in the graphics window where you want to create the note or click an entity
   that you want the note leader to point to, and then click where you want the note.


3. Type the note. Press Enter at the end of a line, or, if you intend to force the note to wrap
   later, just allow the line of text to be as long as it wants to be. While you create the note,
   the text box expands to the right until you press Enter, and it expands down every time a
   line is added.

At the end of the last line of the note, do not press Enter again (this creates extra lines),
but you may press Esc. Esc gets you out of the note and ready to place a new note. When
you press Esc twice, you get out of the note you were typing, and then get out of the
Note command altogether.

4. Another way to finish the note is to click the mouse outside of the text box. After
   that, if you are done, press Esc. If you want to continue with another note, click again
   to place it, and start typing. If you want to place the same note as the first one again, the
   text is already there, so click a second time.

Making use of fonts

SolidWorks can make use of any TrueType fonts that Windows will accept. This includes symbol,

non-English, and Wingding fonts. SolidWorks does not use true monofonts like AutoCAD because

they do not have width information. Some AutoCAD monofont look-alike fonts are installed with

SolidWorks that do have a very narrow width, and are shaped like some of the monofonts.

In the Customize dialog box (Tools ➪ Customize), the Fonts toolbar displays as the Formatting

toolbar. The Formatting toolbar also appears in the graphics area immediately over your text every

time you either insert a new note or edit an existing note, unless the toolbar is already docked

somewhere. The Formatting toolbar is shown in Figure 22.1.

FIGURE 22.1

The Formatting toolbar

Using text boxes and wrapping

Text boxes enable you to limit the size, particularly the width, that a note can occupy. This enables

notes to wrap in tight spaces on title or revision blocks, as well as other places.

You can size text boxes immediately after placement, even while they are blank; the text then

wraps as you type it. The text box expands downward automatically. Blank text boxes can be left