SolidWorks 2010 Bible

Chapter 23: Dimensioning and Tolerancing

on the right shows a few dimensions applied by the DimXpert, along with the datum used for the

dimensions in the view.

FIGURE 23.5

Dimension PropertyManager for DimXpert in drawing

You can choose to place the DimXpert dimensions on the drawing when placing the views either

through the second page of the Model View PropertyManager, or on the Import Options panel

(which is closed by default). No, it’s not your imagination, this is about as obscure as SolidWorks

could possibly make this functionality. Apparently they didn’t really expect anyone to use it. Both

pages of the Model View (Insert ➪ Drawing View ➪ Model, or click Model View from the View Layout

tab on the Command Manager) are shown in Figure 23.6. The Import Options panel is shown at the

bottom of the second page, although I have cut the second page off about half way down.

You can find this functionality in one other place: when you drag views from the View Palette in

the Task Pane. This interface appears in the image on the right in Figure 23.6.

Consensus on this functionality is that it is a work in progress, and while it may offer some inter-

esting functionality, you may not find that it is ready to save you a lot of time when you are dimen-

sioning and tolerancing parts on a drawing. It seems that it has particular difficulty with molded or

cast parts, which typically don’t have parallel faces.

Annotation views

Annotation views are views in the model in which annotations have been added. You can access

annotation views from the Annotations folder in the model FeatureManager. They are created auto-

matically when you add dimensions or notes to the part. You can use the annotation view in the

model to show the note or dimension in the view in which it was created or on the drawing to help

parse the dimensions into views where they are easily read.