scan me please…barcodes in solidworks
April 11, 2009 12 Comments
This week I was asked a question about how to use a barcode on a SolidWorks drawing so that you can scan drawings in. After some investigation and asking the question on Twitter I seem to have found a very easy way to accomplish this.
When the question first popped up in my inbox I thought that this could be a quite complicated task to achieve. However, in the end it is actually quite simple. The toughest item you will encounter is figuring out what kind of font your scanner can read. So with out further nonsense here is how you quickly and easily add a barcode to your SolidWorks drawings.
- Determine what kind of fonts your scanner can read (Note: from what I have been told there is not a generic font that all scanners can read but there are fonts that most of them can)
- Download a free barcode font from the web or here:
- Free3of9 (compliments of Anna Wood)
- IDAutomationHC39M (compliments of Mike Garvelink)
- www.fontcubes.com (search for “barcodes”)
- Install downloaded font in C:WindowsFonts or Control Panel > Fonts
- Add annotation/text to your drawing as you normally would
- Change the font of your annotation/text to the font you downloaded in step 2
- The end!
Sounds simple, huh? Well it is! However, one thing to keep in mind when doing this is that this font is going to need to be downloaded on all of the computers that will be printing off these drawings. Not a big deal, but definitely some initial setup to get it working good. Another thing to keep in mind is that you may need to tell the code where the text starts and stops. To accomplish this you may need to add a “*” before and after the text. Example, if you want your barcode to read ROCKSOLID BARCODE POST you will have to type the text in like this *ROCKSOLID BARCODE POST*. This is not the case with all the fonts you use but it is for some. So if you add a barcode and it doesn’t work right away you might want to try this.
There are some things that can make this very easy to use and convenient if you set it up right. Think of how easy it will be if you add this note right in your drawing template and have it linked to the file name of the drawing (if this is what you are hoping to accomplish). There are almost unlimited possibilities to get this to work and work for you.
That is it, simple as that. If you have other uses or this method worked for you please let me know by dropping me a comment here.
Awesome post, saw when you twittered this and also thought it sounded like a a complicated project. defiantly going to save a link to this post.
Jason,
Cool Post! I hadn’t thought of adding a scanner element to drawings link this before. What is the ultimate goal if your drawings are electronically vaulted?
hey rich,
i can see that this would be very useful if you would like the employees on the shop floor to check parts in and out. maybe have it on there and make sure they are working on the right part, etc. etc. etc.
i think that there are unlimited possibilities for this option if you have the equipment to do it.
jason
OK, interresting idea for the shop floor. Might work for a production control department as well. The drawing controls the work orders that get pulled to the floor by scanning. Might be worth putting an ideas list together for what to use it for.
thanks for the feedback rich! i think i will put a list together and maybe do a followup post in a little while. thanks again!
I wonder if you can do the font as a extruded font…. Ill have to give it a go later….
hey ben,
you can do it as an extruded font. i tried it the other day and it seemed to work just as expected. they only thing would be is you would need some special tooling in order to actually get an accurate barcode machined on.
p.s. thanks for the shoutout on solidjott.
jason
So, how do you do 2D barcodes?
matt,
i am confused! what are you meaning about “2d barcodes”? my post was about 2d codes on drawings. did you mean 3d barcodes?
Is this something that users would be interested in using? I have done a fair amount of research into doing this on prints and parts and it seemed to be a very small number of uses. However, if others are interested I can continue the work I have done and make subtle changes to accommodate other applications. If you have an idea that you think would be useful, post it and I will see what I can do.
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Yes, it is usefull post!
The most important for me was information to use “*”!