How to Make SOLIDWORKS Inspection Templates

How to Make SOLIDWORKS Inspection Templates

Table of Contents

SOLIDWORKS Inspection does come with several very nice existing templates to use for projects but if you need to customize it there are ways to make that a saved one as well. So the first step is to turn on the add-in and open a file. This process is similar for both the add-in and standalone versions, you will need to start with an existing project. So you can either open one you have already created or create a new project using an existing template.

inspection CM tools

So we will be creating a new project. Then select the existing template..

project settings

Now go through and make changes to all of the properties you would like to change from the set up for the project.

 general settings    extraction seetings             

Here we set the linked info from the properties of the drawing and what we want to include for the extraction.

 tolerance settings   characteristic tree                     

On these pages we set up how to control the tolerance and then we accept this and we get the characteristics as we choose from the set up.

Then we can also look at each of the individual characteristics and modify them.

  characteristic property   balloon settings              

At this point we have changed what we are able to during the set up. From the menus above the characteristics we select the Balloon options the second one from the left. Here we can adjust how the balloon is going to look. What layer from SOLIDWORKS to use, what fit for it and the shape it will be. Also what shape and fit for a Key Characteristics balloons. There are also offset settings for locating the balloons by type of characteristic.

As far as the color of the balloon this is controlled by the layer in SOLIDWORKS. By default Inspection will create a layer called Balloons and make it red. So to better control this you can add this layer or one with a name you prefer and set it to the color and line data of your choice. As you can see here the Balloons layer has a description showing that Inspection created it.

layer

So for the Standalone version once you are in the software and have a project open. We will need to get into the Options.

Sa toolbar

Now we can go through these options under the Project Options tab.

SA general

With the General area this is setting up the units and tolerance & GD&T.

SA OCR

The Imaging/OCR is controls for Optical Character Recognition, to control how Inspection recognizes text and dimensions.

SA balloons

For Ballooning we can set up the balloons, the shape the will be the color and also a file if wanted.

SA export

Exporting is the options for PDF and Excel export options including what Excel template to use.

SA drawing

On the drawings tab we have information on the drawing like to file name and also the scale of the intended sheet size.

Now once we are done with any changes we need to make for either platform add-in or standalone. We will need to save these changes out to a new template. So from the standalone version we select the Inspection icon from the top left and from the add-in Create New Template and OK.

SA create new   create new template

Then we can give them a name and save them into the templates location. This should be the folder that you are in with the save as. It will also save it to the extension for the template file as well Standalone is .ixpdot and the add-in will be .swidot.

SA save as   Save as  

Now if you are needing more assistance or run into issue please let us know and we can help find a solution.

Andy Rammer

Andy Rammer

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
solidworks cad dual monitors

Free Upgrades on SOLIDWORKS