How To Save Time & Money By Copying Drawings
April 25, 2008 7 Comments
Have you ever wondered if it is possible to copy a drawing and then associate it to another similar part. Maybe the new part has 1 or 2 dimensions that are different from the original part and you don’t feel like spending the time redrawing something that you already did. Well it is possible, maybe you already knew this but I have seen some topics on the different discussion forums that are asking if this is possible or not. So here is a step but step process for copying a drawing and then how to associate it to another similar model.
The first step is to find the drawing that you want to use as your template. Once you find it you need to right click on it and select copy.
After you have copied your “template” drawing you need to browse to the file folder where you want to copy the drawing into. Right click on a blank area of the screen and select paste.
Once you have pasted the “template” drawing into the new file folder you need to right click and select rename or slow click the copied file to rename it to your new file name.
Now that you have renamed your new drawing you need to select the new file. Once you have the new drawing highlighted select the References button towards the bottom of the “Open” window.
Once the “Edit Referenced File Locations” window opens double click on the part model icon to open the next window which allows you to browse to the new part model that you want to associate your new drawing to. Once you have found your new model click the Open button.
Once your new file has been associated to the drawing it should show up in green in the “Edit Referenced File Locations” window. If this is green click the OK button.
Now you should be ready to open the new drawing and double check to make sure that the models associated correctly (which it should) to the copied drawing.
This is an quick way to reuse drawings for similar models. BE SURE to follow these steps in the order I have shown so that things associate correctly. If used correctly you will find this trick to be very beneficial if you have a lot of parts that are very similar.
I discovered this techique/trick after our 1st project we did in SW.
The part that I kept making was as side sheet for the lower water tank. The overall sheetmetal is the same all the time, only the hole locations changed and sizes also. Huge timesaver! Glad you posted this! I am sure it will help of help to others who do not know about it.
Good tip there jraak. saves SO much time when you have a bunch of the same drawing to do.
cant see the pictures.they dont show up
Arash,
I am working on this and am hoping to correct the problem. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Jason
The site looks great, but I can’t see the pictures either.
Sorry to everyone but I am hoping that the switchover from Blogger to WordPress will address my picture problems I was having. We will see if the pictures show up from now on with the new format. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Still no pictures…