Pro Detailing PDF

Page 1 of 3
Lesson
41
Lesson Objective: In this lesson, we will learn about the basic flow for creating drawings.
3D to 2D
Pro/ENGINEER is a highly advanced three-dimensional solid modeling package. The benefits to modeling in three-
dimensions are:
• Easier to visualize and interpret the product being defined – ambiguity of 2D drawings being perhaps the
biggest problem with 2D
• Faster for making drastic changes (assuming that design intent is followed when modeling the part)
• Direct 3D manufacturing and analysis capability (CNC, CMM, STL, FEA, etc.) – Rapid prototyping all the way
to full manufacturing processes, 3D translation into international exchange formats makes manufacturing much
easier
• Higher quality of products – more design iterations can take place with 3D over 2D, allowing for fit, form and
function checks
• Lower unit costs – a by-product of faster, more reliable computer prototyping, resulting in fewer samples being
produced or purchased
• Improved MRP data – fully defined product structures that are easy to create, and maintain allow for more
http://www.stdg.us/Tutorials/ProE_Fundamentals_WF2/WF2_Lesson41.htm 5/14/2008
Page 2 of 3
accurate data transfer to MRP systems.
• Others…
Even with the benefits to generating product designs in 3D, the reality is that many companies (ours included) still
rely on 2D drawings to convey product information (in addition to 3D models).
Having said that, it is important to learn the proper way to generate 2D Detailed Drawings from Pro/ENGINEER 3D
models.
Practice Makes Perfect
When you talk to many Pro/ENGINEER users, they will complain about the 2D mode of Pro/ENGINEER – either
because of ease of use, perceived lack of functionality, or performance issues. Unfortunately, many of the
complaints that come up are a result of inexperience with this tool.
Pro/ENGINEER has one of the best 2D Drawing packages out there (aside from AutoCAD). The huge advantage
over AutoCAD is the associative nature with the 3D modeling world. The problem is that most users spend about
95% of their time in 3D modeling modes, and only about 5% of their time in drawing mode. Because of this, it is
very easy to fall behind the learning curve on the tools and functionality of this module. This training guide will
serve as a reference for users to recall such tools and techniques, but the reality is that unless you spend a lot of
time in drawing mode, you may forget many of these tools.
DRAWING 101
A Drawing in Pro/ENGINEER is a by-product of the 3D model. When done properly, the majority of drawing mode
steps should be automated by the definition of the model. If you recall from our first lesson, drawings can not exist
without the 3D part or 3D assembly of which the drawing represents.
The typical steps to creating a drawing are:

1. Model Definition – Create the part and/or assembly files that the drawing represents. Be sure to follow
design intent and model in dimensions that must be shown on the drawing, especially critical dimensions.
2. Create Drawing – Start a new drawing. Select the model for the drawing.
3. Load in Drawing Setup File – Load in the appropriate drawing setup file for your units and sheet size.
This is critical to getting your text, arrows and line styles to appear properly on the drawing. Ours our
based off of ASME Y14 standards.
4. Add Views – Add all of the views you will need for your drawing. For cross-section views, define the
cross-sections in the model itself (much faster and easier than doing it in the drawing).
5. Show Axes – Show axes for any features/views that require them. Clean up any axes as necessary.
6. Show GTOL Datums – Show the datum references for any GTOL Datums created. Again, the GTOL
datums themselves should be created in the part or assembly.
7. Show Dimensions – Show dimensions from the model that exist and need to be captured in the drawing.
Clean up dimensions as necessary. Modify the dimension to add specific text, tolerances, or symbols.
8. Create Additional Dimensions – Create any additional dimensions in the drawing that do not already
exist in the model. Modify the dimension to add specific text, tolerances or symbols.
9. Create/Show GTOLs – Create or show already created geometric tolerance blocks on the model.
Associate to any dimensions as necessary.
10. Add Notes and Symbols – Add notes and symbols to your drawing views. Relate any symbols that must
move with the views.
11. Create Any Necessary Draft Entities – Create any geometry that does not currently exist in the model
that is necessary for further defining the drawing. This might include things like parting lines that weren’t
already created as datum curves, etc. Relate any draft entities that must move with the views.
12. Add Tables – If your drawing requires a table (BOM, for example), add it to the drawing.
13. Add Balloons – Add any table-driven balloons and clean-up as required.
14. Add Additional Sheets – This can be done earlier, but it is easier to define all views, notes, etc. on one
sheet (even if outside the border at first), and then move to additional sheets as space requires.
15. Add Format – Assuming that your drawing is not based on a template (covered later in this lesson), you
will need to add your drawing format. You can add the drawing format at any time in this list. I find that it is
easier to add the format once you are pretty sure your drawing sheet size is the one you want.
16. Finalize – Tweak any additional items on the drawing, filling in parameters, etc.
If you try to follow these steps in this order, you will be more efficient in creating drawings, as well as adapting to
changes to your model in the meantime. In the rest of this lesson, and additional lessons coming up, we will go
through these steps in more detail.
FORMATS, TEMPLATES AND SETUP FILES

A Drawing Format is another Pro/ENGINEER object type (.frm) that typically defines the borders and tables in the
drawing. Typically, these are created by system administrators, and maintained by the same individuals. Most
users only apply already created company formats to their drawings. The creation and maintenance of drawing
formats is not covered in this training guide – only how to apply/change the applied format on the drawing.
Page 3 of 3
A Drawing Template is an actual drawing file that contains a format, an associated drawing setup file, and some
pre-defined information (such as pre-defined views, notes, tables, symbols, etc.). These are designed to help
automate the creation of drawings further, but can cause problems if the company doesn’t always follow the same
rules for creating drawings from one product to the next. For the purpose of this training guide, we will not go into
further detail about templates. We will learn how to do everything from scratch.
A Drawing Setup File is a configuration file that controls the look and feel of the drawing. It defines such things as
the drawing units, the text heights, the line and arrow styles, the format for dimensions, symbols, tolerances, gtols,
etc. These files are typically created by system administrators and applied by the users. We will not go into detail
on how to create one of these files, nor will we go through the myriad of options controlled in these files. Suffice it
to say that our company has a pre-defined set of files that are based on industry standards (ASME Y14).
LESSON SUMMARY
Drawings are critical to the release of products, but the creation of drawings doesn’t have to be a time-consuming
and confusing process. By following the typical steps to creating a drawing, users can be confident in the quality of
their drawings, and be happy with the methods for creating these drawings.
EXERCISES
None
Page 1 of 8
Lesson
42
Lesson Objective: In this lesson, we will learn how to create a new drawing, apply a drawing format, and
a drawing setup file.
CREATING A NEW DRAWING

To demonstrate how to create a new drawing, we will start by opening a model that the drawing is going to be
created from. Therefore, open up the model called Lesson41a.prt, which looks like the following:
Page 2 of 8
We are going to demonstrate how to create the new drawing file, add the format and drawing setup file. In later
lessons, we will learn how to create views, show dimensions, create geometric tolerances, etc.
In this lesson, we are going to start the new drawing, associate the model to it, add a drawing format, and add the
drawing setup file in preparation for adding views, dimensions, etc.
We will look at parameters in the model and how they fill in the title blocks, etc.
NEW DRAWING
Before we get started, switch your working directory over to Drawing, located in your ProETrain folder.
We are going to start by going to File, New, and pick on Drawing as the primary object type. For the name, type
Lesson41a, which is the exact name of the part file we are working with. NOTE: It is important to use the same
name as the primary model in your drawing. The reason for this is due to making a copy of the drawing. If your
model and drawing have the same file name, when you perform a SAVE_AS on the part, it makes a copy of the
part, and its drawing as well. This will save you from having to re-create the drawing for the copied part.
The New window currently looks like the following:
Page 3 of 8
Down at the bottom, you can see a check box labeled Use Default Template. If we were using a company-created
template drawing, we want this to be checked. For our training class, we are not going to use template drawings,
so we will leave this unchecked.
You can also see that there are no sub-types for drawings. Click on OK to continue. We now see the following
window.
The first thing we need to check is the model listed at the top of this window. By default, it uses the last model that
was active. Since we just opened our Lesson41a.prt part file, it should be listed.
If this is not the case, or if you have not opened a model recently, click on the Browse button to find the model to
use.
Next, we have another chance to specify a template drawing, or to bring the drawing in empty with an associated
drawing format, or just empty. The default is Empty, which we will leave.
Next, we can specify the orientation of the drawing. We always want to use Landscape, but it won’t really matter
once we apply the actual drawing format, which will replace all settings as they are now. That is why we will leave
this default at landscape.
Finally, we have the ability to pick a sheet size to start with. We will pick C to start. Once your window looks like
the previous figure, click on OK to continue.
We can now see an empty drawing. There is a rectangular border around the drawing that represents the sheet
boundary (“C” in this case). At the bottom of our working window, we can see a summary of the drawing to this
point, which looks like the following:
From this we can see that the overall drawing scale is 1:1, the active model is a Part, and the name of that part is
Lesson41A. Finally, we can see that our current sheet size is C. If we needed to change the scale or sheet size,
Page 4 of 8
we could double-click on these values in the summary and these would invoke the proper interface to make those
changes. For now, we will leave these alone.
ADDING A DRAWING FORMAT

For this lesson, we are going to add a drawing format at this time. Normally, we would add the format once we are
ready to release the drawing, and have created and cleaned up our views.
If you recall, we picked an empty “C” size drawing sheet. We are now going to add a format to this sheet. To do
this, go to File, Page Setup from the menu bar. This brings up the following window:
Currently, there is only one sheet, so there is only one row in our window. Had we had multiple sheets, we would
see a row for each sheet. We can apply different formats for different sheets. Generally, I would recommend
against this. The only thing we will do is have a different format sheet for the first sheet of the drawing and one that
is used for the rest of the sheets. This will make more sense in a little later.
Currently, we can see that for sheet one, we have a C Size format applied. This is the generic empty “C” size that
we picked. If we click on the word C Size, we can see that it becomes a pull-down field to select from other formats
in our library. We can see the following.
In this list, we can see all of the default PTC sheet sizes for English (A, B, C, D and E) and Metric (A4, A3, A2, A1
and A0). We can also see a choice called Variable Size. We could use this to create a custom sheet size, which
would invoke the rest of the options in this window.
The last choice is Browse, which will let us search for a format to use. We will click on Browse, which brings up
the following window.
Page 5 of 8
Typically, companies use a configuration file called Config.pro, which defines the location for global standards.
The location of company-approved formats is often one of these standards defined. If you have a config.pro file
that calls out the location for standard formats, it comes up by default, as shown in the figure above.
For this training class, we will all work off the same formats for consistency, therefore, we will want to click on the
folder that brings us into our current working directory (which we selected as the folder called Drawing). The figure
above shows the icon to select to get to our working directory. Once we pick on this, we see the following drawing
formats to choose from.
We will pick on the Train_Frm_C format, followed by Open. Our page setup window now lists this format, as
shown in the next figure.
We can see that for sheet one, the current format is TRAIN_FRM_C (Sheet 1). Notice the “Sheet 1” comment at
the end. Why is this? In ASME Y14 standards, the first sheet of a drawing has more information than the rest of
the sheets (referred to as continuation sheets). Therefore, Pro/ENGINEER formats can contain two sheets. The
first sheet of the format is typically applied to the first sheet of a drawing when used. The second sheet of the
Page 6 of 8
format is typically applied to the second, third, etc. sheets of a drawing.
Therefore, our drawing sheet 1 in this example is using the first sheet of the drawing format. When we click on OK
to complete this page setup, we can see the drawing format applied to our drawing.
DRAWING SETUP FILES

The Config.pro file that we talked about before governs the behavior of Pro/ENGINEER as a whole, but there is a
special file that governs the behavior of drawings. This is called a Drawing Setup File, and has a .dtl extension.
The Drawing Setup File controls the units of the drawing, the text properties, line styles, view display styles, rules
for tolerances, etc. We have drawing setup files that follow the ASME Y14 standards in their values for these types
of controls. For the purpose of the training class, we have included a copy of these in our current working directory.
By default, Pro/ENGINEER has its own drawing setup files. The Config.pro file that we use calls out a company
standard setup file as the default, but this may be different for each division, so we want to get in the habit of
retrieving one into our current drawing before we add views, notes, dimensions, etc. Failure to add the drawing
setup file before the views may result in some re-work.
To access the drawing setup file and its options, go to File, Properties. This brings up the following menu
manager.
In this menu, we can see three different options. The first (Drawing Models) is used to access the current drawing
models in the drawing. The last (Tolerance Standard) is used to control tolerance mode.
We will pick Drawing Options, which brings up the following window.
Page 7 of 8
At the top, there is a File Open icon. Pick on this, and you will be brought into your working directory. We will stop
a minute to talk about something.
If you were to look at the units of our model, they are in Millimeters. If you recall, we chose a C size sheet for our
drawing. It might seem logical to select a drawing setup file that is tied completely to the sheet being used. This
would be an incorrect assumption. Why?
The rules governing metric drawings are completely different than those governing English drawings. For example,
dimensions in millimeters are not allowed to have trailing zeros (zeros after the decimal point). English dimensions
are not allowed to have leading zeros (zeros before the decimal point).
The drawing setup files have the correct settings to control this. If we were to pick a drawing setup file in English
units, then our drawing would have the rules for English dimensions applied to metric dimensions. This could throw
off Tolerancing, etc.
We do need to understand the sheet size that we are using to make sure our text heights, arrow lengths, line
weights, etc. are appropriate for reading the values when printed, so we can not completely ignore the “C” size
sheet.
Therefore, we need to pick a drawing setup file for millimeter dimensions that corresponds to an approximate “C”
size sheet. So, what are the equivalents for metric and English paper sizes? The following table shows the
equivalents.
English Paper Sizes (inches) Metric Paper Sizes (millimeters)

A (8.5 x 11) A4 (210 x 297) ~ (8.23” x 11.7”)
B (11 x 17) A3 (297 x 420) ~ (11.7” x 16.54”)
C (17 x 22) A2 (420 x 594) ~ (16.54” x 23.39”)
D (22 x 34) A1 (594 x 841) ~ (23.39” x 33.11”)
E (34 x 44) A0 (841 x 1189) ~ (33.11” x 46.81”)
Even though there is a clear difference in size from English to metric sheet sizes, we can see that the equivalent for
a “C” size is an A2 size. Therefore, the drawing setup file that we will pick will be the a2a3a4.dtl drawing setup file
(located in our current “Drawing” working directory. Our window looks like the following:
Page 8 of 8
Click on Open once you have selected this drawing setup file. The Options window now lists the settings that
correspond to this file, as shown in the next figure.
We are not going to go through all of these settings. Suffice it to say that they do follow ASME standards, so we
can be confident in the outcome of our drawings using these files. Click on OK to apply the settings and close out
of the window.
Save the drawing.
LESSON SUMMARY
When creating a new drawing, be sure to name it the same as the primary model used in the drawing. Before
adding any views to a drawing, add the drawing setup file that corresponds to the model units and sheet size being
used.
Drawing formats are added to the sheets. Formats should be applied once you know how big your sheet size will
need to be to accommodate the different views, their dimensions, notes, symbols, etc.
EXERCISES
None
Page 1 of 10
Lesson
43
Lesson Objective: In this lesson, we will learn about adding general views, and some basics about the
view properties window. We will also learn about the drawing mode toolbar.
DRAWING MODE TOOLBAR

In the System Toolbar, there is a set of icons for drawing mode. These icons look like the following.
Page 2 of 10
From left to right, these icons do the following:

• Set Current Drawing Model – If you have more than one model associated with the drawing, you can use
this tool to make one of the models the current active model. We will talk about this in more detail in a later
lesson. You can also get to this functionality through File, Properties, Drawing Models.
• Update Views – Certain changes update in the drawing automatically, while other changes require you to
update all of the sheets and all of the views. This icon is used to do this. You can also get to this through
View, Update, All Sheets.
• Add General View – This icon lets you add general views to your drawing. You can also get to this through
Insert, Drawing View, General from the menu bar.
• Show/Erase Tool – This icon accesses the tool used to show or erase dimensions, axes, reference
dimensions, notes, geometric tolerances, set datums, etc. already created in the model. You can also access
this tool through View, Show and Erase.
• Create Dimensions – This tool allows you to create driven dimensions in the drawing. These dimensions do
not exist in the model, and can not be used to change the model itself. This functionality can also be accessed
through Insert, Dimension, New Reference.
• Notes – This tool allows you to create notes on the drawing. You can also access this functionality through
Insert, Note.
• Balloon Note – This tool allows you to create balloon notes on the drawing. You can also access this
functionality through Insert, Balloon.
• Drawing Symbols – This tool allows you to access your custom symbols library. You can access this
functionality through Insert, Drawing Symbol, Custom.
• Sheet Selector – When you have more than one sheet on your drawing, the current sheet is listed in this
field. You can use the up/down arrows to go through the sheets. You can access this functionality through
View, Go to Sheet.
GENERAL VIEWS
The first view that you add to a drawing is called a General view. It has no pre-defined orientation, scale or style.
To demonstrate this functionality, we will go back to the Lesson41a.drw drawing that we started earlier.
Currently, it looks like the following:
Page 3 of 10
Click on the Add General View icon in the system toolbar, and the message window will show the following
prompt: “Select CENTER POINT for drawing view.”
We will pick out in the middle of the drawing. Initially, the view appears in the default orientation, as shown in the
next figure.
A properties window appears for the view, as shown in the next figure.
The first thing we will do is select the orientation for the general view. In the main portion of this window, we can
see a list of saved views. We will scroll down, and double-click on TOP. When we do this, we can see the view
Page 4 of 10
update on the drawing. Click on OK to continue. Our view now looks like the following.
One of the things you might immediately notice about this view is that there are little letters enclosed in squares,
with leaders going to triangular bases. These are called Set Datums (or Datum Features in ASME Y14). They are
used in conjunction with geometric tolerances. This model has some set datums defined, and they appear on the
view when we create it. We can clean these datums up on this view. First, look at the following figure.
The figure on the left shows the datum feature before we select it. We can see that there are two main components
to this datum feature – a leader that identifies which surface/entity the reference is tied to, and the identifier, which
gives the label for the datum.
If we pick on this datum feature, it highlights in red, and we can see some little red squares appear (as shown in the
figure on the right). The squares on the leader line can be used to move the leader endpoints. The square at the
base of the identifier is used to move the text in and out from the base.
If you place your mouse over the base, you will see a four-arrow symbol that allows you to move the datum
identifier along the leader. We will clean up the leader lines so our datums look approximately like the following
figure.
We will now go back and look at the view properties window for this general view.
GENERAL VIEW PROPERTIES

When we place our mouse over the drawing view, we can see a light blue dashed rectangle appear. Click once to
highlight the box in red. We can now right click and go to Properties which brings up the view properties window.
(NOTE: We can also double-click on the view once we see the blue rectangle to get to the properties window).
Page 5 of 10
On the left side of this window is a list of Categories that we can select for the particular view. The first category is
View Type, which defines type of view, the system name for the view, and the orientation.
We can see that the view type is grayed out (but indicates General). At this time, we have no other views on the
drawing from which we could convert this to a different type (like projection, or auxiliary, etc.)
We can also see the default system name for this view is New_View_2. The name can be shown on the drawing
for projection views, or for defining templates.
Finally, we can see that we have the ability to re-orient this view using the saved view list, or by picking on a
different method for orientation.
Visible Area
The next category down is used to create broken views, partial views, half views, or to add z-direction clipping of
the view (like cutting away the part from the point of view of the screen behind a certain planar surface)
This category looks like the following for this general view.
We will come back in a later lesson to see how to create half, partial and broken views. For now, click on the Clip
view in Z-direction box, and then pick the following flat surface on the view:
Page 6 of 10
Click on Apply, followed by Close. What do you notice? All of the geometry beyond this flat surface is no longer
visible in this view, as we can see in the next figure.
Go back into the properties window, return to the Visible Area category, and uncheck the box. Click on Apply.
Now we will continue to the next category.
Scale
When we apply a default view, we have the ability to change its scale with respect to the current drawing scale. If
you recall, the current drawing scale is 1:1. This means that as long as we print this drawing on the same paper
size as the drawing format or sheet size selected, the views will be at a 1 to 1 scale. A 1” dimension should
measure 1” with a ruler.
In Pro/ENGINEER, we don’t scale the model. We always create the 3D models at full scale. We only scale the
drawing or drawing views. The Scale category for this drawing view looks like the following:
The default option is to keep the view at the current drawing scale. If we wanted the view to have a different scale,
we would pick Custom Scale, and enter a value in decimal or fractional format (.5 or ½, for example). NOTE: It is
better to scale the drawing if most of the views are going to have to be scaled, and then use this interface to scale
selected views differently. You should not scale all general views on the drawing, and leave the drawing view at its
original scale.
We can also add perspective to a general view.

Sections
The next category is used to create cross-sectional views, or views of distinct surfaces of the model. It looks like
the following for this general view.
Page 7 of 10
Currently, the default option is No Section. If we wanted to add/create a cross-section (planar or offset), we would
use the 2D Cross-Section option. We will demonstrate this in an upcoming lesson.
If you want to create a view of a particular surface only (perhaps for calling out special instructions for painting or
coating of a surface), you can use the Single part surface option, and then select the surface on the model.
NOTE: If you do this, and then decide later that you don’t want this, you will have to delete and re-create the view.
View States
This category is used to define exploded views, simplified representations of assemblies, and mechanism
snapshots. It looks like the following.
Because this view is of a PART model, and not an assembly model, these options are currently unavailable.
View Display
The next category is used to define the display mode for the drawing and entities on the drawing. It looks like the
following.
Page 8 of 10
Currently, this view is in Wireframe display. Tangent edges (like those created by the round features), are currently
displayed in Phantom mode (dashed lines).
The hidden line removal for quilts is currently grayed out, because it is not applicable in Wireframe display mode.
You can also define how colors, skeleton models, and weldments are displayed on the drawing view. We will
change the display style from Wireframe to No Hidden, as shown in the next figure.
Click on Apply to see the model update. In this particular case, there is no difference for this view.
Origin
The next category helps you define the origin of the view. By default, the origin of a drawing view is at the center of
the view. We can see a red square at the center of our view to indicate this when we select the view.
If you wanted the origin to be at the corner or other location on a view, you could specify it here, and then you can
use the X and Y coordinate locations to define the exact location of a view on the sheet. This category window
looks like the next figure.
Alignment
If we had other views on the sheet that came before this general view, we could align this view to one of the views.
Page 9 of 10
You might do this to align two general views, or a separate detailed view with its parent.
The alignment category window looks like the following.
You specify whether the alignment is a horizontal or vertical one, and then you pick the references or view origins
on the current general view to the other view.
NOTE: You are not converting the view to a different type, only lining it up with another view so they move
together. Click on Close to get out of the properties window.
LESSON SUMMARY
The first view in any drawing is a general view. Use the different categories in the properties window to further
define the view once it is placed.
EXERCISES
None
Page 1 of 13
Lesson
44
Lesson Objective: In this lesson, we will learn how to create projected and cross-sectioned views.
PROJECTED VIEWS
Many drawings use orthographically projected views. These create 90 degree rotated views that represent such
orientations as: FRONT, TOP, RIGHT, BACK, BOTTOM and LEFT. For this reason, we have created default saved
views in the start parts.
Depending on the product and company, you will have third angle or first angle projection. Third angle projection
places the view on a plane that lies between the observer and the object. This is the most commonly accepted
view configuration used in the United States. It looks like the following:
Page 2 of 13
THIRD ANGLE PROJECTION
First angle projection places the object between the observer and the plane where the view is created. This type of
projection can be found in many countries outside of the United States. It looks like the following:
FIRST ANGLE PROJECTION
By default, we use the third angle projection in our configuration settings. To enable first angle projection, you must
set the drawing setup file option PROJECTION_TYPE to FIRST_ANGLE. For the rest of this training guide, we will
continue to work with Third Angle projection.
ADDING PROJECTED VIEWS
To add a projected view, you must have at least one general view already defined in your drawing. We will
demonstrate a projected view with the drawing that we have been working on (Lesson41a.drw).
We will start by selecting the general view that we created earlier so a red dashed rectangle appears around it, as
shown in the following figure.
Next, we hold the right mouse button down over the view, and select Insert Projection View, as shown in the next
figure.
Page 3 of 13
Once we select this option, move your mouse cursor (without picking) over your existing general view. You will
notice an orange rectangle that appears as your mouse leaves the boundary of the general view. Depending on
whether you leave the boundary to the left, top, right, or bottom, you will get a different projection.
We will move our mouse below the general view, and click to create a FRONT view (remember our first view was
actually a TOP view). When you create this view, it appears initially with the red dashed rectangle around it. Click
anywhere outside of the two views to clear this. Our drawing currently looks like the following.
We will first double-click on this view to go to the properties window. On the first category, View Type, you can see
that this is a projected view.
Page 4 of 13
We can see that the name of this projected view is Bottom_3, just because we came off the bottom of the existing
view. We can also see that it lists the parent view as new_view_2, which (if you recall) was the name of our first
general view.
There is an option to Add projection arrows. This creates arrows on the first general view that we can move and
clean up that indicate where this view came from. This is helpful if we need to move a projected view to a different
sheet from the parent view. The only catch – you will want to show view names for this to be effective, otherwise
you may not know which view it is.
In the config.pro file, there is an option called MAKE_PROJ_VIEW_NOTES, which currently is set to NO. If you
decide to use this, you have to have this enabled BEFORE you project your view to get the label to show up.
Within the properties window, we will look at a couple of other categories which are different for this view than the
general view. First, look at the Scale category.
Notice that we can not change the scale of this view. Why? A projection view always takes on the scale of its
parent view. The only way to be able to scale this new view independently, would be to convert it to a general view
(using the View Type category window).
In the View Display category, change the display type from Wireframe to No Hidden. Finally, if we look at the
Alignment category, we can see that, by default, there is an alignment between this view and the general view, as
indicated in the following figure.
Click on Apply to make the display change to the view, and then close out of this window. On our drawing we see
the following.
Page 5 of 13
For the set datums on this view, we will start by selecting the “A” datum feature on the right side of this view. Once
selected, right click and select Erase. This will get rid of this datum feature on this view. Next clean up the “C”
datum feature as we did in the other view to get the following.
Save the drawing.
CROSS-SECTION VIEWS
For this lesson, we will learn how to create a cross-section view where a cross-section already exists. We will start
by returning to the Lesson41a.drw drawing. We are going to convert our existing projected view into a cross-
section view.
Therefore, double-click on the projected view to get back to the properties for the view. Once inside the properties
window, go to the Sections category. It will look like the following.
Page 6 of 13
We are going to add the existing cross-section into our view. Therefore, click on 2D cross-section, and we will see
the following.
We have a “+” button available now, so we will click on this to add a cross-section to this view. This will give us the
following.
At this time, we can either select a cross section from the list (here we see “A” available), or we can click on Create
New, and create a cross-section right inside drawing mode. We will select the existing “A” section. Once we
select the cross-section, we can define how the section will be created. We have several options shown in the next
figure.
Page 7 of 13
The options are:

• Full – The entire model will be cross-sectioned in the view. This is the default.
• Half – We select a datum plane perpendicular to the view, and select on which side of the plane the model
will be sectioned.
• Local – We sketch a boundary on the view, and only the portion of the model within the boundary will be
sectioned.
• Full(Unfold) – This section type works for offset cross-sections on axially symmetric models (such as ones
that are revolved).
We will keep the default of Full. Above the list of sections, we can see some radio dials in a section entitled Model
edge visibility. There are two options for this:
• Total – All model geometry will be visible past the cutting plane.
• Area – Only the cross-section will be visible – all geometry past the cutting plane will not be shown.
We will keep the default of Total for this. At this time, we could add additional cross-sections to this view. This
would enable us to do a Full and Local type cross-section, by selecting one section to be full, and then sketching a
boundary on top of this section to show another section that might lie further into the part.
We are done once we add this section. Click on OK to complete this cross-section, and we will see the following on
our drawing.
When we create a cross-section view, we have the ability to show arrows on another view to indicate where the
section cuts through the part. To do this, we will first click on the section view to activate it, and then hold down the
right mouse button to select the Add Arrows option, as shown in the next figure.
We are prompted to pick on the view to show the arrows. We will pick on the TOP view that we started with. When
we do this, we can see the cross-section arrows, as shown in the following figure.
Page 8 of 13
We can click on the arrows themselves to move them (and the text) to a new location. If we wanted the cross-
section view to be flipped to see the other side, you would select the cross-section itself so it highlights in red, and
then right click and select Flip Material Removal Side. We are NOT going to do this at this time. NOTE: When
dealing with a projected cross-section view, flipping the material side technically means your view is now the
opposite of what it was before. Therefore, our cross-section view (which is currently a FRONT view) would become
a BACK view if we flipped the arrows, and therefore, should be positioned according to the first or third angle
projection rules.
To clean up our cross-section a bit, we are first going to move the view name. To do this, click on the text
(SECTION A-A) so it highlights, and then move it to the following location.
Next, we will change the spacing of the cross-hatching, as it is a little too close together. To do this, click on the
hatching itself so it highlights in red, and the right mouse click and select Properties. This brings up the following
menu manager.
There are many different options in this menu. We will select on Spacing, which brings up the following menu.
Page 9 of 13
We will keep the default option of Overall, to increase the spacing for all lines. Then, click once on Double to
double the width of the spacing. We should see the update in our view. Now, before we exit out of this menu, we
will click on Angle to see what options we have here. This makes the menu look like the following.
Page 10 of 13
By selecting a value from the list, we can change the angle of the hatching. This would be important if we had an
assembly with several members. Each member would have its own angle to avoid confusion between the
boundaries of the models.
We will now click on Done to finish this hatching change. Our view now looks like the following.
Save this drawing.
CROSS-SECTION TYPES
In this section, we will explore the Half, Local and Area cross-section options. We will use the same drawing.
Half Section
In order to create a half section, we need to have a datum plane in the model that represents the break in the
section. Therefore, go back to the model (Lesson41a.prt). Click on the “Create Datum Plane” tool, and then pick
the cylindrical surface on the inside of the taller hole, hold down the Ctrl key, and select the RIGHT datum plane
from the model tree.
Be sure to use the Parallel option instead of Normal in the datum plane window. Our window will look like the
following.
Page 11 of 13
The preview of the new plane on our model should look like the following.
Click on OK to complete the datum plane. We should now have DTM1 in our model tree that we can use for this
cross-section. Return to the drawing, and double-click on the existing cross-section view to get back to the
properties window. Once inside the window, go back to the Sections category.
We will use the pull-down to change from Full to Half. When we do this, we are prompted to pick on the datum
plane to cut the section. From the model tree, pick on the datum plane that we just created (DTM1). When we do
this, we see a red arrow pointing to the side that will be cross-hatched, as shown in the next figure.
We will pick out to the left of the arrow (sort of near that red rectangle), which will cause the arrow to flip to the other
direction. Click on OK to complete this cross-section. Move the view name text to clean it up, and your view will
look like the following.
NOTE: Typically, half sections are used when you have a symmetrical object where cutting half away can give you
(in one view) a good representation of the interior and exterior of the object. Our example doesn’t fall into this
category, but it does demonstrate how to create a half section view.
Local Section
Page 12 of 13
Now, we are going to create a local cross-section. To demonstrate this, go back into the properties for this section
view. Return to the Sections category, and change the option from Half to Local. When we do this, we get the
following message bar prompt: “Select the center point for a breakout to section < A >.” We will pick out in the
middle of the view (on the blue line that appears when you place your mouse just below the little red square), and
sketch an approximate circular spline as shown in the next figure.
Once you pick your last point (indicated by the “End Here” location in the previous figure), click on the middle
mouse button. You will see the boundary close itself, and appear in blue, as shown in the next figure.
Click on OK to complete this cross-section view. We will see the view now looks like the following.
Area Section
We will now create a Full, Area cross-section. To do this, return one more time to the properties window for this
view, and return to the Sections category. Change the type from Local back to Full, and above the list of cross-
sections, change the display from Total to Area. The window should look like the following at this time.
Click on OK, and your view will now only show the cross-hatching. All model geometry is missing from the model,
as shown in the next figure.
Page 13 of 13
We will go back one more time and change it back to a Total view with a full cross-section, to get back to our
original cross-section view that we started with, as shown in the next figure.
Save and close this drawing.
LESSON SUMMARY
Projection views are 90 degree rotated views off of existing views in the drawing. You can use first or third angle
projection schemes in your drawings. When creating cross-section views, it is easier to create the cross-section in
the model, and then show it in the drawing.
You can use different types of cross-section definitions to get what you are after.
EXERCISES
None
Page 1 of 8
Lesson
45
Lesson Objective: In this lesson, we will learn how to create Auxiliary and Detailed views.
AUXILIARY VIEWS
To demonstrate how to create an auxiliary view, we will open up a drawing called Lesson45.drw. It will look like
the following.
Page 2 of 8
This drawing uses a B size sheet, and the 1abc.dtl drawing setup file has been applied. No drawing format has
been applied at this time.
Three views exist on this drawing already. The first view (General View) is the front view in the lower left corner.
The second and third views are projected views to make the TOP and RIGHT views in the drawing.
We are going to add an auxiliary view in the upper right corner of this drawing. Therefore, we will go to Insert,
Drawing View, Auxiliary from the menu bar. This will give us the following message bar prompt: “Select edge of
or axis through, or datum plane as, front surface on main view.”
Since an auxiliary view is often created from an angled surface, we will pick on the edge indicated in the following
figure.
When we select this edge, an orange square appears showing us the location of the view to place it, as shown in
the next figure.
As you move your mouse, you will notice that the view stays in a line normal to the edge that we selected. We will
drop the view in the upper corner of the “invisible” square that makes up the views, as shown in the next figure.
Page 3 of 8
At this point in time, we will drag all of the views in towards the general view to get them a little closer together.
This is optional, as we have not added all of the dimensions yet so real-estate might be a problem if the views are
close to each other, but we will need some room for our detailed view that we will add next. Our drawing (with the
views closer together), looks like the following.
Save the drawing.
DETAILED VIEWS
A Detailed view is a drawing view that represents only a portion of the parent view from which it comes, but it is
intentionally scaled independently so we have the ability to “blow up” the magnification of the view to see more
detail – hence “detail” view.
We are going to create a detail view that zeros in on the top of the auxiliary view that we just created. Therefore,
we will go to Insert, Drawing View, Detailed. When we do this, we get the following prompt in our message bar:
“Select center point for detail on an existing view.” We are going to pick in the following location.
Page 4 of 8
When we pick here, a solid red dot appears on the model, as we can see in the next figure.
And, in our message bar, we see the following prompt: “Sketch a spline, without intersecting other splines, to define
an outline.” We are going to sketch a spline (similar to how we did it for the local cross-section boundary in the last
lesson) as shown in the following figure.
When we pick our last point (indicated by “End Here” in the figure above), click on the middle mouse button, and
you will see a dashed circle appear around the region with text indicating “SEE DETAIL A”, as shown in the next
figure.
Page 5 of 8
In the message bar, we are prompted to select the center point for the view on the drawing. We will pick out to the
left of our existing four views. When we do this, we see the new detailed view, as shown in the next figure.
Okay – a couple of things to point out. By default, the new view comes in at a 2X scale to the existing drawing view
scale. The boundary of the detailed view is a circle by default. Also, the name of the detailed view is assigned at
“A”.
We want to change all of these things at this point.
Scale
To change the scale of this view, simply double-click on the “2/1” text in the detail view name. In the message bar,
type in 4, and then hit the <ENTER> key on your keyboard. The view will enlarge by a factor of 2 again, as shown
in the next figure.
NOTE: You must first select the entire note, and then you will notice that the “2/1” text highlights independently.
Once you see it independently highlighting, that is when you double-click on it to change the value in the message
bar.
Page 6 of 8
View Name
In this drawing, it is okay that the detail name is “A”, because we currently do not have any section views that may
already be using this designation. As a general rule, view names should never repeat themselves, even if one is a
section and the other is a detail view.
To demonstrate how to rename a view, we will change the name of this view to B. To do this, double click on the
“A” note in the view name, and enter “B” in the message bar. The following figure shows the new view name (in
both locations). NOTE: You can change the name in either location where it appears.
Boundary Shape
By default, the boundary is approximated into a circle with the minimum radius being the maximum distance from
the filled in dot to the sketched boundary at the time we made the view. We can use other shapes for our boundary
(Ellipse, H/V Ellipse, Spline and ASME 94 Circle).
To edit this, we will click on the detailed view so it becomes selected, and then right click and go to Properties.
This brings up the properties window for this view, as shown in the next figure.
We can (of course) rename the view here as well. On the View Type category, we can see an option entitled
Boundary type on parent view. It is currently set to Circle. If we use the pull-down, we can see the other
options.
Page 7 of 8
We will select the Spline option, just to show you something different. Click on OK when you are done, and your
view will update as follows.
NOTE: You may need to move the text around on the parent view to get it to be the way you want it, as shown in
the figure above.
One last thing to mention. In our properties window, we saw a check box labeled Show boundary on detailed
view. If our sketched boundary intersects view geometry, leaving this checked will show a solid line where the
boundary exists. We can see this in the lower right corner of our detailed view.
If you were to uncheck this option, then the boundary will not show. The boundary edge that is out in space (not
touching any of the model) will not show regardless.
LESSON SUMMARY
An Auxiliary view is a projected view that is normal to an angled surface in the model. A detailed view takes a
portion of the parent view that you sketch around and blows it up into an independent view. The boundary can be
changed to one of a variety of formats. Both views are accessed through the menu bar.
EXERCISES
None
Page 1 of 17
Lesson
46
Lesson Objective: In this lesson, we will learn how to show axes on our drawing view, and also how to
show GTOL Datums. We will have a general discussion on the Show/Erase tool as well.
SHOWING AXES
If your model has holes, slots or cylindrical surfaces, you will want to show axes in your drawing view – especially if
you intend to dimension to these axes. All axes should exist in the model prior to showing them in the drawing.
Most cylindrical-like features in Pro/ENGINEER generate axes. Full Rounds, for example, do not, so they will need
to be added afterwards.
To demonstrate this functionality, we are going to open up a drawing entitled Axis_Model.drw, which initially looks
like the following.
Page 2 of 17
This drawing consists of three views. The upper left view is a general view oriented to the TOP saved view. The
second view is a projected section view (using a Full(Align) section type so it unfolds the geometry). The third
view is a general view in a TRIMETRIC orientation, and at a ½ scale.
For the first and second view, we want to show the axes that go through the two holes, but we don’t want axes on
our general view.
SHOW/ERASE TOOL
Therefore, to show axes, we will go to View, Show and Erase from the menu bar (or select on the Show/Erase
icon in the drawing toolbar). This brings up the following window.
This tool is used to show most of the detail-oriented entities in the model, such as axes, dimensions, notes, GTOLS,
etc. The figure above shows what each of the individual buttons are for.
The most important thing to note when you enter this tool is whether you are in SHOW or ERASE mode. The tool
will start out in the last mode that was used in the same session.
Once you have selected your mode, you pick on the object button(s) you wish to control. You can show more than
one type of entity at the same time, although I highly recommend against it. For a simple model like this, it might be
okay, but when you have hundreds or thousands of features in your model, it can get very messy very quickly.
My advise is to start with axes, and then move on to dimensions, and then on to more specialized entity types.
Therefore, we are going to pick on the Axes button, which will make the window look like the following.
Page 3 of 17
In the Filter region of the tool we have the following options:

• Feature – When you select on a feature in any view, it shows the axis in all views for that feature.
• Part – Shows all of the axes for a selected part (usually use this in assembly mode where you have more
than one part)
• View – Shows all of the axes for a selected view. All other views will not show axes yet.
• Feature and View – Shows the axes for the particular feature, but only in the view where you picked the
feature. All other features and views will not show the axis yet.
• Part and View – Shows the axes for the entire part in a selected view. Again, this is used more in Assembly
mode.
• Show All – Shows all axes in all views. For part mode, this would do the same as the Part option.
Okay – here’s my advice on selecting a filter. If your model is small in terms of the number of features, and the
amount of entities that might be shown, then using Show All is faster for getting all of the entities to show up.
Then, you can optionally keep or remove entities from the preview, or erase them later. The disadvantage of “Show
All” is the fact that it will take you longer to perform a clean-up of entities.
If the model is very complex with a lot of features, I recommend using the Feature or Feature and View options,
because you may not want all of the dimensions for the entire part shown. The disadvantage of using these two is
that to show all dimensions for an entire part, you would have to pick on each feature in turn, where a “Show All”
would do it in one shot. As you show the entities per feature, you can then clean them up and move on to the next
feature.
We are going to keep the default of Feature selected, and pick out on the large revolved protrusion as shown in the
next figure.
When we do this, an axis will show up in each of the views, as we can see in the next figure.
Page 4 of 17
We could continue to pick more features, but we will click on the middle mouse button at this time to accept our
current selection. When we do this, we get the following.
At the bottom of this window, we have four options for dealing with the entities that have appeared on our views.
These options are:
• Sel to Keep – (Select to Keep). Only axes that we pick on the views will be kept when we are done, all
others will be erased automatically.
• Sel to Remove – (Select to Remove). Only axes that we pick on the views will be erased, all others will be
kept.
• Accept All – Keeps all of the axes that we see on the screen.
• Erase All – Cancels the current show/erase by erasing all axes that popped up on the screen.
We only want to get rid of the axis that appeared on the general trimetric view. Therefore, we will pick on the Sel to
Remove button, and then pick on the axis on the general view. It will highlight red when we select it. We could
hold down the Ctrl key and select additional axes to remove, but we are done at this time.
When we click on the middle mouse button to finish selecting objects to remove, we are left with the following.
Page 5 of 17
As you can see, the axis is gone from the general view, but still remains in the two other views. Click on Close to
get out of the Show/Erase tool. Now, we have some clean-up to do on these axes.
RESIZE AXES
If we zoom in on the first general view we created, we can see that the axis is very small. Normally, when you
show axes on a drawing view, the axis lines extend beyond the cylindrical surface to which they apply (and
sometimes even longer if the axis represents other items on the model, such as a bolt pattern).
When we zoom in, we see the following.
We can see the tiny axis that we just showed on this view. When we pick on the axis, we can see it highlight in red,
and little red squares appear at the ends of each of the axis lines, as shown in the next figure.
Page 6 of 17
You can drag the axis lines independently of each other by placing your mouse over the square and drag it. The
following figure shows such a drag.
This is useful if you need to extend one or more of the lines further than the others. To resize all of the lines at
once, place your mouse over the selected axis until you see four arrows on the mouse icon. Then drag out one of
the axis lines. The following figure shows what we want to end up with.
Page 7 of 17
Once you have the axis looking the way you want, click on the drawing outside of the view to de-select it. Our axis
on our view now looks like the following.
We will go to the cross-section view, and drag out the axis on both sides just to make it a little more clear that this is
an axis, as shown in the next figure.
Page 8 of 17
Remaining Axes
We still have one more axis we have to show for these two views, the one that goes through the hole in the handle.
Repeat the same process that we just went through to create the following.
NOTE: You don’t want to have any axes on the second general view, and you may want to use Sel to Keep this
time instead of Sel to Remove (fewer items to pick). You also may be wondering why the axis in the big hole
showed up again. When creating the handle, a “Use Edge” command was used in the sketch, which grabbed the
outer edge of the revolve feature, thus creating another axis for this feature.
ROTATE AXIS
Another thing you may wish to do for your axes, is have the axis lines rotated to line up with the model edges. On
our first general view, we might want to do this for the new axis that sits on the handle.
To rotate an axis, you first select the axis, as shown in the next figure.
Page 9 of 17
Next, right click on the axis and select Edit Attachment, as shown in the next figure.
This will bring up the following menu manager.
We can use a variety of methods for defining the angle for the axis, but we will pick Parallel on the menu, and then
select the following edge.
Page 10 of 17
When we do this, the axis rotates as expected.
Now, we will resize one of the axis lines to bring it back just outside the small circle, as shown in the next figure.
Click anywhere outside of the view to de-select the axis, and save the drawing.
GTOL DATUMS
If you recall from our Lesson41a drawing, we saw some geometric set datums. These datums were planes
created in the model, and then converted over to set datum features. We will go through an example using our
current model (Lesson45) to show how to create set datums.
Therefore, open up the axis_model.prt model. Currently, we have all of our default datum planes turned off on a
layer. That is okay, because when you create set datums, you should use new datum planes instead of existing
default datum planes. Why? In the process of creating the set datums, we will give the datums new names (A, B,
C, etc.). We don’t want to rename our FRONT, TOP or RIGHT datum planes, or our default axes, as well in this
process.
AXES AS SET DATUMS
We will start by going to our layers, and turning on the AXES layer, and then save status. Turn on the visibility of
axes and you should see two axes on the model, as shown in the next figure.
Page 11 of 17
We want to create a set datum on the A_5 axis. To create a set datum, we will go to Edit, Setup from the menu
bar. This brings up the following menu manager.
We will click on the Geom Tol command, which brings us to the next menu.
Within this menu, we can create inspection and basic dimensions, and create our set datums. We will pick on Set
Datum, and then pick on the A_5 axis on the model. This brings up the next window.
Page 12 of 17
On the model, we can see a box around the dimension, and dashes on either side of the name, as shown in the
next figure.
We have two different ways we can place this datum. The first is Free, which keeps it tied to the axis itself. This is
the one shown above. The second is In Dim, which ties the datum to a selected dimension (usually a diameter or
radius in this type of selection).
We will keep the default of Free selected. You may also notice two buttons in this window. The First button,
labeled A, is used to unset the axis if it was previously set as a datum. The button labeled -A- is used to set a
datum. We will leave this latter button pressed. The last thing we need to do for our axis is rename it. We will give
it a name of A. Click on OK to complete the definition, and we will see the following on our model.
PLANAR SET DATUMS
We will now create a planar set datum. Therefore, turn on the display of datum planes, and then create a new
datum plane through the bottom planar surface of our part (not the side with the handle).
Rename the plane to B. Our model should currently look like the following.
Page 13 of 17
Now, I am going to show you a different way to set datum planes/axes as set datums without having to go through
the Edit, Setup, Geom Tol, Set Datum menu structure. Right click on this datum plane in the model tree and select
Properties. This brings up the following window.
Click on the -A- button to turn this into a set datum, followed by OK. We will now see the datum symbol on the
datum plane on the model, as shown in the next figure.
Now we are ready to show these datums on our drawing. If we switch back over to our drawing file, we can see
that our planar set datum is there already.
In fact, we can see two set datums right now. The reason for this is the nature of the cross-sectional view. Since
this is an “unfolded” or “aligned” cross-section, it is almost like two separate views in one, and that is why we are
seeing two datums. We will pick on the middle datum so it highlights in red, and then using the right mouse button,
Page 14 of 17
select Erase. Then, clean up the remaining datum to look like the following.
Now we will show the axis set datum. To do this, go to View, Show and Erase and you get the following window.
To show axis set datums, we actually have to show axes again. Therefore, we will click on the Show button, and
then the Axis button. We will use the Show All this time. When we do this, we get the following:
Remember, a show all may give you a very cluttered screen to sift through, so you get a prompt asking if you are
really sure you want to do this. We will click on Yes, which will bring back all axes, including ones that we didn’t
select before, and the default datum axes as well, as shown in the next figure.
Page 15 of 17
The default option at the bottom of our window is Sel to Keep, and we will keep this selected. On our cross-section
view, we will select the box with the “A” inside it, as shown in the next figure.
Click on the middle mouse button once you have selected this set datum. The rest of the axes disappear, and we
are left with just the newly added set datum for the axis. Move the datum to clean it up as shown in the next figure.
So, you might be wondering why we didn’t need to show the set datum planes, and yet there is a button on the
show/erase tool to show these. Actually, these are the only set datums that come on by default. If you erase a set
datum, as we have in this lesson, you can use the show/erase tool to bring them back.
LESSON SUMMARY
The Show/Erase tool allows you to turn on/off many entities in your drawing. In this lesson we saw how to show
axes using some of the different ways to use this tool. We also learned how to create set datums for axes and
planes, and show them on the drawing.
EXERCISES
Page 1 of 41
Lesson
47
Lesson Objective: In this lesson, we will learn how to show and create dimensions in our drawing.
SHOW VS. CREATE – THE GREAT DEBATE

One of the biggest debates in the Pro/ENGINEER community is the question of whether you should show
dimensions that are in the model, and design accordingly, or whether you will just simply create dimensions in the
drawing.
The reality is that it depends on several things:

1. Product Definition – If we are talking about fixtures, sheet metal parts, or parts that have predominantly
linear or cylindrical surface definitions, then I personally feel that users should show more dimensions than
create. For products that are defined with many swoopy 3D curves and surfaces, the availability of well-
defined dimensional constraints in the model is less, so showing dimensions may not present a realistic
solution to creating drawings.
2. Fit, Form and Function versus Manufacturability – The other driving factor is whether it is possible to
capture manufacturing dimensions in the model and preserve design intent. This is, perhaps, one of the
biggest cases made for creating dimensions. For an example, we will look at the following bracket design:
Page 2 of 41
Suppose that the bracket in the previous figure must be designed so that it always mounts perfectly depending on
the spacing of the two posts. Another requirement might be that the outside of the bracket must line up perfectly
with the outside edges of the posts.
Therefore, the direct spacing between the holes is critical for satisfying the first condition, but the overall width of the
bracket can not be specified and still maintain design intent for the second condition. Instead, the dimensioning
scheme for the model might have to be created as follows.
From the previous figure, we can see that the dimension between the two holes is defined, and the distance from
the hole to the outside of the bracket on each side is defined. This scheme will allow us to take the width of the
posts, as well as the spacing of the posts into consideration for our bracket design.
Unfortunately, we can not manufacture the bracket this way, because we would first start with the metal and bend it
to form the main geometry of the bracket, and then put the holes in afterwards. Therefore, on the drawing, we
might have a different dimensioning scheme, as indicated in the next figure.
Another possible manufacturing scheme might be…
Page 3 of 41
As you can see, both of these schemes allow for the creation of the bracket geometry first, and then the holes
second. Unfortunately, all three modes potentially create a different result based on dimensional tolerances.
The good news, you can combine both schemes into the drawing, by showing the fit, form and function dimensions,
and then specify the overall length as a reference, or a “Basic” dimension, and then specify the three shown
dimensions as critical or “inspection” dimensions, as shown in the next figure.
In this lesson, we will see how to do both – show dimensions in the drawing that were created in the model
definition, and how to create dimensions directly on the drawing.
SHOW DIMENSIONS
To demonstrate this functionality, we will open up the drawing called Show_Draw.drw. It currently contains four
views, as shown in the following figure.
Our first general view creates the front view in the lower left corner. We then added a projected view off of this
towards the top to create our next view. From that TOP view, we projected another view, and made it a section
view (Section A).
From the first general view, we projected a RIGHT view, and used an offset cross-section for this view (Section B).
On the views, you can see axes where appropriate, and you can also see three set datums for this part (A, B, and C
– on the FRONT and TOP views).
We are now going to show the dimensions for this part. Therefore, we will go to our Show/Erase tool in our
drawing toolbar (the one that looks like a flashlight), or go to Edit, Show and Erase from our menu bar. We get the
familiar show and erase window. We want to make sure that the Show button is pressed in, and that the first
dimension button is pressed in. All other buttons should be depressed, as shown in the next figure.
Page 4 of 41
For this example, we will click on the Show All button (since we don’t have that many dimensions on our model).
We get the confirmation window, as shown below.
Click on Yes to confirm showing all of the dimensions in the model. When we do this, dimensions show up on the
drawing views where they are able to be shown, and we will pick on the Accept All button in our Show/Erase
window. When we do this, all of our dimensions are currently highlighted in red, as shown in the next figure.
It keeps the dimensions highlighted until you click on the refresh button. We will zoom in on the TOP view first to
clean up the dimensions.
CLEANUP DIMENSIONS
If we zoom in on the TOP view, we can see the following.
Page 5 of 41
We only have seven dimensions on this view so far, so dragging each one to clean up the view isn’t really that big a
deal, however, we will take a moment to show the cleanup tool.
First, click anywhere on the drawing (away from any entity), and the dimensions will de-select. We can use the
clean-up tool to clean up all dimensions on the drawing, but we will just focus on this view right now.
Once all of the dimensions are no longer selected, drag a box around this view (make sure it is big enough to go
around all of the dimensions. Do not worry if it gets a dashed border around the view as well. Once you have all of
the dimensions highlighted for this view, go to Edit, Cleanup, Dimensions, from the menu bar, which brings up the
following window.
We will take a moment to talk about this window, and what it does. First of all, we notice at the top that it says 3
Selected. If you remember, we have 7 dimensions on this view, so why is it only reporting 3? Only linear
dimensions are affected in the cleanup process. Diameter/Radius dimensions are not included. If we look at the
view, we can see that we have only 3 linear dimensions (the width of the block (10”), the height of the block (8”),
and the width of the protrusion on top of the block (2.5”)).
Page 6 of 41
The next thing we see are two tabs. The first tab, which is currently selected is Placement. The first thing we can
define in this tab is how it spaces out the linear dimensions. If you notice, we have only one linear dimension on the
right side of this view, but we have two dimensions on the bottom of this view.
When we space out the dimensions, one of the dimensions will start out a distance away from the view specified by
the Offset value. In this case, our first dimensions will be spaced 0.5” away from the view.
The next dimension, and the one after that, and so on will be spaced according to the Increment value. On the
right side of the view, we only have the one dimension, so it will sit out 0.5” from the view. On the bottom side of
the view, we have two dimensions, so one of them will sit out 0.5” from the view, and the second will sit out 0.375”
from the first one.
So, what determines the starting point for the offset value of 0.5”? Currently, the Offset Reference is specified as
the View Outline. In other words, when you pick on a view, and you see a dashed rectangular border around the
view, that is the view outline. Therefore, the first dimension will be offset 0.5” from the dashed rectangle. If you
want to use a different reference, such as an edge of the model, you can select the Baseline option, and choose
the reference. We will keep it as the “View Outline”.
Finally, we have the option to create snap lines and to break witness lines. A Snap Line is a dashed, muted line
that only appears electronically on the drawing, and is used to allow you to snap dimensions to it. If we were going
to show more dimensions later, we could snap the newly shown dimensions to the existing snap lines. If we select
this option, we will get snap lines at 0.5” from the border, and 0.375” from the first snap lines for any additional
dimensions that we have. We will leave this option selected right now.
By default, we don’t have the Break Witness Lines option selected. A “Witness Line” is the leader line that goes
from the dimension back to the geometry. If you have lines that overlap in the drawing, you can have one of the
lines broken so there is a small gap, as shown in the next figure.
The figure on the left above shows overlapping witness lines without a break, while the figure on the right shows the
witness line for the 8.0” dimension broken to make it easier to see the lines. This is a cosmetic feature, but I
recommend it.
Now, in our drawing, none of the linear dimensions will overlap witness lines, so we really don’t have to worry about
checking this option. For now, we will change the two offset values as follows: Offset = 1.0, Increment = 0.5. The
Placement tab should now look like the following.
Page 7 of 41
Now, we will click on the Cosmetic tab, which looks like the following figure.
On this tab, we have some additional ways to control the look of the dimensions and arrows. If the witness lines are
too close together, the system can automatically flip arrows to the outside of the lines. We can also center our text
on our lines. We will leave both of these options selected.
Down in the lower part of this tab, we can see how to adjust our text if we have to place it outside of the witness
lines. We will leave the default options of placing the text to the left and/or top (depending on the orientation of the
dimension).
We will now click on Apply to see how these settings affect our view. We see the following.
We can see that our linear dimensions have moved to the outside of our drawing view. We can also see that there
are three dashed snap lines. One is really obvious – the one that the 2.5” dimension sits on. The others are harder
to see, because the dimensions and leader lines are sitting right on top of them.
For this drawing view, we really didn’t have to use the cleanup tool for only three dimensions, but it was a good
exercise to learn how to do it, because, if you have a model with a lot of features, and you decide to use the “Show
All” option, you can perform an initial clean-up that will make it easier to come back and perform your manual clean-
up later.
If we didn’t like the way the clean-up looked, we could click on the Undo button, and reset our values, and re-apply
the clean-up. We will click on Close to accept this clean-up. Click outside of the view to de-select all dimensions.
MANUAL CLEANUP
Page 8 of 41
Staying on this view, we will perform some manual clean-up. Just as we did with axes and GTOL datums, we can
drag dimensions around to where we want them. If we pick on one of the squares at the end of leaders or witness
lines, we can control the length of the lines, and the distance of the text.
We will drag our dimensions around so we are left with the following.
Since we moved our dimensions off the snap line, we probably don’t need them anymore. Therefore, click on a
snap line, and then hit your <DELETE> key on your keyboard. Click outside the view to refresh it.
HINT: As you drag a dimension, if you click on the right mouse button, it flips the arrows on-the-fly.
Now, we will go to the FRONT view. It currently looks like the following.
Okay, we can see that this view has several things that need to be fixed. All of the linear dimensions across the top
describe holes in the model. The problem is that we can not see the holes on this view.
NOTE: Even if you were to turn on hidden line display for this view, it is against ASME Y14 standards to dimension
to hidden entities. We will have to move these dimensions to a view where we can clearly see the holes.
MOVE ITEM TO VIEW
To move a dimension from one view to another, we first select the dimension to move. In this case, select the
7.000, and 1.500 linear dimensions at the top of this view using the Ctrl key to get both of them. Be sure not to
select the 0.250” radius dimension, or the 5.000” linear dimension.
Once these dimensions are selected, hold down the right mouse button over one of the selected dimensions, and
select Move Item to View. (You can also access this through Edit, Move Item to View from the menu bar). We
must now select the view we want to move them to. We will select on the Section A-A view (at the top of our
drawing). When we do this, the dimensions leave the FRONT view, and jump to our section view, as shown in the
Page 9 of 41
next two figures.
FRONT VIEW
ALIGN DIMENSIONS
When you have two linear dimensions that are next to each other, as we do in our section view, we can line them
up on the same horizontal or vertical without having to use snap lines. In our Section view, we want to move these
dimensions above the view, so the witness line for the 7.000” dimension doesn’t cut through the view, overlapping
the geometry.
Therefore, we will select both of these dimensions using the Ctrl key, and then right click on one of them and pick
Align Dimensions. When we start dragging, we can see that both dimensions move at the same time. We will
drop the dimensions as shown in the next figure.
Notice that when we do this, our witness lines are still embedded in the drawing. One thing to point out is that when
you print out this drawing, the witness lines will clip back to the ends, but from an electronic viewing, this is still
messy. I personally like to keep my drawings clean on the screen as well. Therefore, we will drag our witness lines
to clean them up as shown in the next figure.
Page 10 of 41
Return to the FRONT view, and we will clean up the dimensions as shown in the next figure.
Again, we will have to move one more dimension. The 5.000 dimension goes to the center of the large hole. We
will need to move this dimension to our TOP view. Therefore, click on this dimension, hold down the right mouse
button and select Move Item to View, and then pick on the TOP view. Clean up this dimension as shown in the
next figure.
This was the only view that would accommodate this dimension, because it is the only view that has the center of
the large hole visible, and where we can see the right edge of the model where the dimensions goes to.
Finally, we will go to the Section B-B view to clean it up. It currently looks like the following.
Page 11 of 41
We can keep two of these linear dimensions, but we will need to move the 5.000 dimension to the TOP view. This
view, when cleaned up will look like the following.
Clean up the TOP view once more for this newly moved dimension. NOTE: You may need to move the section
view arrows for A-A to get it clean, as shown in the next figure.
Page 12 of 41
FLIP ARROWS
On two of our view, we may wish to flip the arrows of some of the dimensions to clean it up a bit. Go to the FRONT
view. As you can see, we have a linear dimension on the left side for the height of the plate. We are going to
demonstrate how to flip arrows and we want to move the dimension over to the right side of the view, where it
makes more sense to show it.
Just Flipping the Arrows
If you don’t want to move the dimension, just flip the arrows, you select the dimension first, and then hold the right
mouse button down and select Flip Arrows. We will do this first for the 1.0 dimension. When we do this, our view
looks like the following.
Flipping Arrows While Moving
Now, we will click on the dimension to move it to the right side. As you are dragging the dimension, try clicking with
the right mouse button. What happened? The arrows went back to the inside of the witness lines. Click once more
with the right mouse button (while still dragging), and you will see the arrows flip back to the outside. Place the
dimension and clean-up as shown below.
Page 13 of 41
This works just as well for radius and diameter dimensions, as well as angular dimensions. At this point in time, our
dimensions are all placed, as shown in the next figure.
Save this drawing. We will continue to work with it in the next section.
EDIT MODEL THROUGH DRAWING

One of the advantages of shown dimensions is the ability to make design changes from within the drawing.
Created dimensions are read-only, but shown dimensions are fully associative and parametric with the model, since
they came directly from the model definition.
To demonstrate this, go to the TOP view in our drawing. It currently looks like the following.
Page 14 of 41
We want to change the large hole diameter from 3.000 to 2.000. Therefore, click once on the 3.000 diameter
dimension to select it, and then double-click on the “3.000” text. (We will explain in a minute why we did this in a
two-step select process). When we do this, an edit field appears on the dimension, as shown in the next figure.
Change the value to 2.0, and then hit the enter key. Now, using Edit, Regenerate, Model or click on the following
icon in the system toolbar:
The model will regenerate, and the drawing view will update to show the new geometry and dimension value, as
Page 15 of 41
If we look at our Section B-B view, we can see that the cross-section has updated as well.
If we open up the model, we can see that (as expected) the hole is at the smaller diameter.
Page 16 of 41
This is a two-way associativity. If we make a dimensional change in the model, it updates the drawing as well. In
the case of created dimensions, the dimensions will update, but you can not drive the model from the drawing with
created dimensions.
Save the model and close it. Save the drawing, but leave it open for the next section.
CREATE DIMENSIONS
As we talked about in the beginning of this lesson, there are many times when you may need to create a dimension
in your drawing instead of showing one. My absolute advice is the following:
1. Rule 1 – If you have the dimension already in the model, always show it.
2. Rule 2 – If the dimension is going to be an inspection dimension (critical), it should probably be in your
model to drive changes to the model, and to perform any necessary analysis on the dimension as you are
designing. Critical dimensions should typically be shown dimensions (not always, but I make it a habit of
trying to do it as much as possible).
3. Rule 3 – If you need to dimension to geometry within a cross-section, you might want to create a cross-
section datum curve first so you have well-defined entities (edges, vertices, etc.) to select from when
dimensioning. Often it is difficult in drawing mode to select the entity you want. You can then hide the
curves in layers when done.
4. Rule 4 – Avoid creating draft geometry to facilitate dimensioning. In a later lesson, we will learn all about
draft geometry. For now, suffice it to say that it is easier to create the geometry as curves in the model and
then reference these entities in the drawing. You can always hide this geometry in layers when you are
done.
I can not stress the importance of following these rules. If you don’t you may find yourself frustrated with using the
tool the way it was not intended to be used.
Having said all that, we will get into learning how to create dimensions. To demonstrate this functionality, we will
return to our drawing that we’ve been working with in this lesson. Go to the Section A-A view. We are going to
create couple of dimensions for this view just to show how it is done. NOTE: You want to avoid an over-
dimensioned drawing. Because all of our current dimensions are shown, and we are showing every one from the
model, any ones that we add as standard dimensions now will over constrain the drawing, and could confuse
manufacturers – especially if we specify conflicting tolerances. So, we will put aside common sense for the purpose
of this exercise.
Standard Created Dimensions
We will start by adding a radius dimension to the round at the right side of this section view. Therefore, we will go
to the create dimension tool on our drawing toolbar, or go to Insert, Dimension, New Reference.
Pick once on the arc shown in the next figure.
Page 17 of 41
When we do, it highlights in a bold red, as shown in the next figure.
Now, click with the middle mouse button where you want the dimension to be, and you will get the following.
Try to change this dimension value here in the drawing. What happens? Down in the message bar, we get the
following error:
Now, we will add a linear dimension from the axis of the left hole to the right edge of the protrusion sticking out of
the plate. Therefore, click on the create dimension tool again, and this time start by picking on the axis. It will
highlight in red. Next select the right edge, and it will highlight in a bold red, as shown in the next figure.
Page 18 of 41
Now, using the middle mouse button, pick outside of the geometry below, and in between the two selected
references to place the dimension as shown.
We can clean up created dimensions the same way we clean up shown dimensions. Therefore, flip the arrows to
get the following.
Save the drawing.
CREATED REFERENCE DIMENSIONS
Page 19 of 41
Whenever you need to add a dimension that is not critical, but may potentially over constrain the drawing, you
should use a reference dimension. Tolerance is not applied to reference dimensions, so be careful which
dimensions you choose to consider “for reference only”.
To create a reference dimension, you would select Insert, Reference Dimension, New Reference, and then select
the references as you would with the creation of any type of dimension. We will create a reference dimension for
the distance from the left edge of the section view to the left hole axis, as shown in the next figure.
We can see the parenthesis placed around this newly created reference dimension. We will flip the arrows and
align this dimension to the other two linear dimensions to clean it up as we can see in the figure above.
As a typical rule, reference dimensions are the most commonly “created” dimensions in drawing mode. You can,
however, create reference dimensions in the part and show them in drawing mode – the choice is up to you. I
personally find it easier to create reference dimensions in the drawing.
Save the drawing and close it. We will come back to it in a later section of this lesson.
ORDINATE DIMENSIONING
If you recall from Lesson 4 – Sketcher Basics, we learned how to create ordinate dimensions when sketching a
feature (Pg 4-22). Sometimes, you don’t have the luxury of having the forethought to use ordinate dimensioning
from the start. Once you get to the drawing, you might think it is too late to show ordinate dimensioning, but it isn’t.
In this section, we will learn how to convert a set of linear dimensions to ordinate dimensions. To do this, we will
open up a drawing called Ordinate.drw, which currently looks like the following.
Okay, let us first take a look at this drawing and point out a couple things. The first is that any radius or diameter
dimension can not be converted to an ordinate dimension.
Page 20 of 41
The second thing we notice is that in the horizontal direction, we have two linear dimensions that represent the
distance between similar holes (8.000 and 5.000 dimensions at the top of the FRONT view).
In order to convert dimensions from linear to ordinate, the witness lines for the dimensions must share the same
reference. For example, all of the linear dimensions at the bottom of the FRONT view all reference the left edge of
the model. Therefore, all of these can be converted to ordinate dimensions using the same baseline (where the dim
is 0.0). The two hole spacing dimensions at the top of the view do not share a common reference with each other
or with the linear dimensions at the bottom. Therefore, we will either leave these as linear dimensions in this
drawing, or go back and edit the sketch for these features and change the dimensioning scheme.
NOTE: Remember your design intent. If the fit, form or function of this drawing requires the distance between the
holes to be maintained, then you should leave them as linear dimensions in the drawing.
For the vertical dimensions, all of them reference the bottom edge of the model, so all of these can be turned into
ordinate dimensions.
We will now demonstrate how to do this conversion. First, start by selecting all of the linear dimensions at the
bottom of the FRONT view, as shown in the next figure.
With these four dimensions highlighted, go to Edit, Toggle Ordinate/Linear. When we do this, we see the
following.
Page 21 of 41
We have a “.000” baseline at the left of our model, and all the other dimensions for the holes and the plate are in
ordinate dimensions. We can use the Align Dimensions command to clean them up as shown.
Now, select the three linear dimensions on the left side of the view, and the one on the right side of the view using
the Ctrl key, as shown in the next figure.
Page 22 of 41
Once all four dimensions are selected, use Edit, Toggle Ordinate/Linear once more. We will get the following
ordinate dimensions.
Align the dimensions, and clean up the view as shown in the next figure.
Save and close the drawing.
BACK IN THE MODEL
Page 23 of 41
So, what effect did converting the dimensions do to the model? If we open up the Ordinate.prt model, and edit the
second extrude feature. We will see the following.
As you can see, the dimensions are now in ordinate form in the part as well. Remember, these were associative,
shown dimensions, so they updated automatically. So, this begs the question, can you do this with Created
Dimensions?
The answer is yes. As long as your created dimensions are going to the same reference (in this case the left edge
of the model), we can toggle them to ordinate as well.
Close this part.
SKETCHER TO DRAWING
When you are showing dimensions on a drawing, the approximate placement of the dimension will be as it was
when you sketched the feature that created that dimension. So what does this mean? If you get in the habit of
cleaning up your sketches as you make features, you will have a lot less clean-up to do in drawing mode.
To demonstrate this, we will go through an example. Create a brand new part called Sloppy. Create an extrude
feature using the TOP datum plane as the sketching plane, and face the RIGHT datum plane towards the right.
Create the following sketch (be sure all dimensions are strong and located exactly where you see them in the next
figure).
Now, extrude this to a depth of 1.0 to create our model, as shown in the next figure.
Page 24 of 41
Now, we will go and create a new drawing called Sloppy, and use a C size sheet, as shown I the next figure.
Create a general view and use the TOP saved view to orient it. Next, go to the Show/Erase tool and show all
dimensions. This is what you will get when you Accept All.
Notice how the dimensions came in exactly as they were in the sketch? Think this is a coincidence? Go ahead and
close out of this drawing and close the part, and create a brand new part called Clean. Create an extrude using the
exact shape and size as before, but clean up the dimensions in the sketch to look like the following.
Page 25 of 41
Extrude to 1.0 to complete this model, and then create a new drawing called Clean. Use the same sheet size of C,
and make sure that the model is the Clean.prt file that we just created. Add a General view, and use the TOP
orientation as before.
Show all dimensions, and accept all that show up. Notice a difference?
As we can clearly see, the time spent cleaning up our sketch is well worth it if we know we are going to show
dimensions in our drawing. I would get in the habit of cleaning up your sketches anyway, because someone may
inherit your model later, and it will be easier to figure out what you were doing with a clean sketch (remember, don’t
leave any weak dimensions either).
Close these models without saving.
DIMENSION PROPERTIES
When you show or create a dimension on your drawing, it takes on the characteristics of the drawing setup file in
terms of text height, text spacing, arrow size, arrow length, etc. There are a lot more things we can do with
dimensional properties within the drawing itself. To demonstrate this, go back to the Show_Draw.drw drawing that
we started with in this lesson. It should currently look like the following.
Page 26 of 41
We will go into the FRONT view in the lower left corner, which currently looks like the following.
Do you remember when we changed the dimension of the model directly in the drawing? Do you remember how
we clicked once to select the dimension, and then double-clicked to edit the dimension?
Well, if we were to simply double-click on a dimension (shown or created), it brings up the properties of that
dimension. For example, double-click on the 3.000 height dimension on the left side (be sure that it was not
previously selected). When we do this, we see the following.
The Dimension Properties window contains three tabs: Properties, Dimension Text and Text Style. We will focus
on each one independently.
Page 27 of 41
PROPERTIES TAB
The properties tab is used to specify the format of the dimension. It includes the ability to set dimensional
tolerances, change the fraction from a decimal format to a fractional format, specify the number of decimal places
shown (which will affect rounding), control dual dimension text formatting, witness line visibility and also specify
whether this dimension is a Basic or Inspection dimension.
Display
We will come back to Tolerancing in the next section. For now, we will look at the Display section, which looks like
the following.
Currently, this dimension is displaying as a regular dimension. We will select on the Basic option, and then click on
OK to make the change. On our drawing view, we can see the result.
Double-click on the dimension again to get back to the properties. This time, pick the Inspection option, followed
by OK. We now have the following.
So, what is the difference between a Basic and an Inspection dimension?

Inspection Dimensions
Typically, all standard dimensions on a drawing (with the exception of reference dimensions) are subject to
inspection for quality purposes. The practice of calling out a sub-set of dimensions that must regularly be checked
after first article release has led to the creation of inspection dimensions in drawings.
In some cases, separate drawings were created for quality control that only contained specific dimensions to
inspect to as the product came back from manufacturing. For companies that prefer to create a master document
and reduce potential error from multiple copies floating about, it became common practice to use special symbols to
represent dimensions that needed extra attention.
Today, most CAD systems include a built-in mechanism that helps identify these dimensions by applying an oblong
Page 28 of 41
shape around the dimension. An oblong is used because there are no other oblongs defined in ASME/ISO
standards. Tolerances can be shown within the oblong.
Basic Dimensions
A basic dimension represents a numerical value used to describe the theoretically exact size, profile, orientation, or
location of a feature or datum target. It is the basis from which permissible variations are established by tolerances
on other dimensions, in notes, or in feature control frames.
In other words, a basic dimension is not subject to tolerances, is not necessarily important enough to inspect in
every time, and yet is held to its value, unlike a reference dimension. Use a basic dimension, when you know this is
the exact value it should be, regardless of applied tolerances.
Typically, basic dimensions are denoted by a rectangular box around the dimension, and no tolerance appears in
the box.
Format
Double-click on the dimension again to get back to the properties window, and then change the display back to
Neither to remove the Inspection symbol. Now, we will look at the Format section, which currently looks like the
following.
Currently, our dimensions are shown in decimal format, and the number of decimal places shown is three. Change
the option to Fractional, and you will see the following.
Instead of the number of decimal places, we are asked to enter the largest denominator for the fraction. In this
case, it is 32. Therefore, if our dimension had been 1.500, it would have shown up as 1-1/2 (it doesn’t automatically
try to make a fraction with a denominator of 32, which in this case would be 48/32).
If we click on OK you will get the following.
We can see that no decimal places are shown in fractional form (as expected). IMPORTANT: For tolerance
reasons, you have to be extremely careful when using fractional dimensions. Why? Isn’t “3” the same as “3.000”?
Not to a manufacturer. Suppose we have a general tolerance as follows:
Page 29 of 41
x. + .5
.x + .1
.xx + .05
.xxx + .01
Now do you still think they are the same? “3” can be any number in the range of 2.5 < x < 3.5, while “3.000” can be
any number in the range of 2.99 < x < 3.01. This is a huge difference if tight fits are required.
We will set the dimension back to decimal format with three decimal places.
Dual Dimension
In this drawing, we currently don’t have dual dimensioning turned on. Had we had dual dimensioning on, we would
have two dimension values shown for each dimension on this drawing – one on top of the other.
The dimension on top represents the Primary Units of the drawing, while the dimension on the bottom represents
the Secondary Units of the drawing. In this example, our primary dimensional units are Inches, so the secondary
units would be Millimeters. The typical format for a dual dimension is as follows:
PRIMARY UNITS
[SECONDARY UNITS]
The following figure shows what this drawing view might look like if we had dual dimensioning turned on:
Okay, a few things to point out. First, the number of decimal points are going to be equal. The reason for this deals
with the idea of trailing zeros. In Metric, trailing zeros are not permitted. Pro/ENGINEER knows this based on the
drawing setup file. Therefore, our 3.000 dimension (which goes to 3 decimal places) equates to 76.2 millimeters
(3.0 * 25.4). It is not shown as 76.200. Why is this important?
We do a lot of manufacturing oversees, where the metric system is prevalent. If we model our designs in inches,
and then produce drawings with dual dimensions, there is a good chance that the manufacturer will look at the
bottom number for manufacturing or inspecting. Generally, this isn’t a problem. Sure, there is some rounding going
on when converting from English to Metric, but generally Pro/ENGINEER does a good job in maintaining
consistency in the conversion.
The problem could arise if general tolerances are used on the drawing. Going back to our example before, we
might have English tolerances as follows:
x. + .5
.x + .1
.xx + .05
.xxx + .01
From a conversion standpoint, the equivalent in metric would be:
x. + 12.7
.x + 2.54
.xx + 1.27
.xxx + .254
Page 30 of 41
Okay, if we look back at our current dimension, we know that our height can vary from 2.99 to 3.01 (based on three
decimal places). If the manufacturer is looking at the metric dimensions (but following the general tolerances listed
on the drawing), there is a chance (possibly slight – but it still exists), that they might end up doing 76.2 + .1 (which
is the metric dimension with the English tolerance for one decimal place applied). This gives us a range of 76.1 to
76.3 millimeters, which is equivalent to 2.996 to 3.004 inches.
Okay, you might be saying – wow, this would actually be better, because it is a tighter tolerance, and still leaves
room for most of the English range. Aside from a potential in cost difference to hold to this tolerance, going from
English to metric doesn’t seem as bad.
If we had the opposite, a metric drawing with English secondary units, and we called out general metric tolerances,
the results are quite different. We won’t go through an example of this, but try it on your own.
The bottom line is that when you use dual dimensioning, you should watch out for possible rounding or
misinterpretation errors that may occur.
Witnessline Display
The last section on this tab that we will talk about here is the witness line display section, which looks like the
following:
Working with the same 3.000 dimension, we will click on the Erase button. We are prompted to pick one or more
lines. We will pick the top witness line for this dimension, followed by the middle mouse button to complete the
selection. Click on OK to close the properties window, and you will see the following.
Notice that a Double arrow appears on the end of this dimension where the witness line used to be. Typically, you
see this in partial or detail views where the geometry the dimension connects to on one side is not in the current
view.
The recommend practice for this is to set up a set datum on the reference that is not visible, and then call out the
datum in the dimension, as shown in the next figure (assuming Datum “D” is the datum that is not on this view)
Page 31 of 41
This can be done in the second tab of our Dimension Properties window, which is coming up soon in this lesson.
For now, we will double-click on the dimension once more, and click on Show back in the Witnessline Display
section to get back the witness line that we erased.
DIMENSION TEXT TAB
The next tab in our properties window is the Dimension Text tab, which looks like the following for our current
dimension:
In the main field, we can see a value of @D. This is telling how to display the dimension value. There are three
options that can follow the “@” symbol. These are:
• @D – Shows the actual dimension value on the drawing. This is the default for dimensions.
• @S – Shows the symbolic name for the dimension on the drawing. For example, you can see in this figure
that our dimension’s symbolic name is currently d5, so if we edit this large field and type in “@S”, our drawing
would show the following:
Page 32 of 41
This is especially useful for tabulated drawings where you might want to call out the length dimension on a part, and
then have a table that defines what “Length” actually is for the different parts. A family table drawing is a good
example where using the symbolic name instead is common.
• @O – Can only be used for created dimensions. This overrides the value of the dimension, allowing you to
enter any value in. I highly recommend against using this. An example where you might use this is in a part
that you only want to model part of it, like a din rail that might be 10 feet long. Perhaps you only want to model
1 foot, because all of the detail along the rail is the same from one end to the next, so you only need to call out
a portion of it.
In this case, we can enter “10” for the value, and on the drawing it will appear as 10. Changing the actual
dimension in the model will not update the drawing. That is why it is better not to use it. For this same example, it
would be better to use a Broken view instead. We will see how to create partial and broken views in an upcoming
lesson.
Remember our Section A-A view has two created standard dimensions. We could take the one at the bottom of the
view and change its text to read: “@O 1396500.4” (without the parenthesis). This would result in the following on
our drawing.
Clearly, this is not correct, and could never possibly be this way, but we have the ability to do this with created
dimensions. This is just one more reason not to use created dimensions over shown dimensions (which don’t let
you override them).
Now, within this large field, we can add any additional text we want to the existing dimension. For example, we can
edit the height dimension again, and add the following:
Page 33 of 41
This, combined with erasing the top witness line is what was able to give us the following:
Down at the bottom of our Display Properties window, we have a button called Text Symbol, which, if clicked,
brings up the following window.
This Text Symbol window has many commonly used drafting symbols used in dimensional notes. For example, if
our small holes were only 0.25” deep, instead of calling out the depth dimension on another view, we could update
the dimension text with the depth symbol, followed by the symbolic name of the depth (&d31, for example), which
might give us the following.
Page 34 of 41
In our current tab, we also have three fields at the bottom. These fields are:
• Name – the symbolic name for the dimension (d5 in an earlier example). We can rename the dimension in
this location (“Height” for example).
• Prefix – Specify a prefix in front of the current dimension (3X for example).
• Postfix – Specify text at the end of our current dimension (TYP, for example).
You can add prefix and postfix text in the large window as well, as we saw.
TEXT STYLE TAB
The last tab in our Dimension Properties window is used to modify the style of the text, including font, text size, text
angle, text color, etc. This tab looks like the following.
Copy From
At the top of this window is a section that allows us to re-use any style libraries that might be set up, or to pick
another dimension/note on the drawing to copy its current style.
Character
The next section down allows us to specify the font we are using. Any true-type font can be used. If you don’t have
a font in your pull-down list that you need, contact your system administrator for help on getting that text into your
list.
In addition to the font, you can specify the height, thickness, width factor, and slant angle for the text. Most of these
use the values set by the drawing setup file. I would not override these unless you absolutely had to, as these are
based on current standards.
If you need to underline your text, you can click on the check box entitled Underline.
Page 35 of 41
Note/Dimension
In the final section, we can specify some effects for the text, such as the justification (center, left, right), the
alignment (vertical/horizontal), the color of the text, line spacing for multi-line dimensions or notes, whether the text
is mirrored, and margins for text inside table cells. Again, I would keep the default settings for most of these, as
they are driven by the setup file. Justification is the only one that is often changed.
BUTTONS
At the bottom of the Display Properties window, we see a row of buttons. They do the following:
• Move – pick a new location on the screen where you want the text to be, and the dimension or note will jump
to that location.
• Move Text – Keeps the witness lines and leaders stationary, and just allows you to pick where you want the
text to be. This is good if you want to move a radius or diameter dimension text without moving the leader.
• Edit Attach – Allows you to specify alternate attachments for the note/dimension. For dimensions with
leaders (such as radius or diameter dimensions), this is more common. For linear dimensions, you really can’t
change the location where the witness lines are going.
For example, you might have a round feature in the model that goes along many edges. By default, the first edge
you select in the round feature is the one that shows the dimension in the drawing. By using the Edit Attach
button, you could select a different arc on your drawing that is tied to the same round feature.
Close out of this properties window, and save the drawing.
DIMENSIONAL TOLERANCES
The last topic for this lesson is how to apply dimensional tolerances. If you double-click on a dimension to get the
properties window back, you can see a section on the first tab for tolerance specification.
To demonstrate this, we will go to our TOP view in the same drawing, and double-click on the overall length
dimension (10.000”) to bring up the properties window. The following figure shows the tolerance section of the
Display Properties window.
Currently, our dimension is at its Nominal value – meaning that there is no tolerance shown for this dimension.
The Nominal Value is 10.000 (which is what the dimension was set to). If we wanted to change the value of the
dimension, we could do it here. The upper tolerance is currently set at 0.010, meaning that our dimension can go
up to 10.010. The lower tolerance is set at 0.010 as well, meaning that our dimension can start at 9.990. We will
change them to the following for demonstration purposes:
Upper Tolerance: 0.05

Lower Tolerance: 0.02
Our window should look like the following:
Using the pull-down field, we can see the following tolerance modes available to select from:
Page 36 of 41
The following figures show us what our dimension would look like with the different tolerance settings:
LIMITS
PLUS-MINUS
+- SYMMETRIC
Okay, you might have noticed something a little strange. First, on the Limits setting, it used the “nominal value” +
“Upper Tolerance” to arrive at the top number (10.000 + 0.050 = 10.050). For the lower number, it used the
“nominal value” – “Lower Tolerance” (10.000 – 0.020 = 9.980).
This isn’t strange, it is exactly what we expected. When we picked on the Plus-Minus setting, however, our
nominal value changed to 10.015 instead of 10.000. Why? It took the average of the previous result (10.000 +
9.980)/2, which gave us 10.015. Then, it divided the tolerance difference (0.05 + 0.02)/2, which gave us 0.035.
Had we picked this tolerance mode first, we would have gotten the following result.
This is what we expected to see, so why didn’t it do this? Unlike AutoCAD or other 2D drafting packages,
Pro/ENGINEER is a fully parametric solid modeling tool. It gives us the ability to set our dimensions to different
ranges of tolerances to check stack-up, so when we change the tolerance mode for a dimension in the model, it
actually updates the model with these values. It was not simply a text edit on the drawing, it was an update to the
3D data.
Just keep this in mind if you decide to go from one tolerance mode to another, you will want to verify your numbers
are correct.
Now, with the Symmetric setting, we will get something different if we had started with this. The result is:
This kept the nominal value correct (10.000), but it didn’t average the upper and lower tolerance. Instead it used to
upper tolerance value. Again, if this is not what you want, make sure you change it.
Try these out for yourself. When you are done, save and close the drawing.
TOLERANCE STACK-UP ANALYSIS
In the model itself, we can set our dimensions to their upper, lower, or nominal values, or a combination of these
and regenerate the model. Then, we can run interference checks with our assemblies to see the effects of
tolerance.
Typically, you will only be concerned with certain fit dimensions, and therefore, we want to leave most of the
Page 37 of 41
dimensions at their nominal value. If you have more than one dimension adding up in the direction of the fit (for
example, instead of an overall length of the plate, if we had dimensioned from edge to hole, to edge, causing two
separate dimensions, then we would want to try different scenarios with both of these dimensions.
To set a dimension to a particular tolerance limit, we go to Edit, Setup, and then pick on Dim Bound from our
Menu Manager when it appears. This will give us the following.
In the DIM BOUNDS menu, we can see options for which dimensions we are selecting. These are:
• Set All – Sets all dimensions in the model to the tolerance limit specified in the next section.
• Set Selected – Allows you to select specific dimensions (such as the length dimension) and only set that one
to the tolerance limit specified in the next section.
The next section of options defines the tolerance limit. The choices are:
• Upper – Sets the dimension value(s) to the maximum value based on the tolerance(s) specified.
• Lower – Sets the dimension value(s) to the minimum value based on the tolerance(s) specified.
• Nominal – Sets the dimensions back to their nominal values.
• Dim Bnd Table – Lets you read from a dimension boundary table that you can create. The following figure
shows a sample Dim Bound Table.
Page 38 of 41
I recommend setting up these tables to make quick work of stack-up analyses. The way they work, you can specify
the Set All option, and then pick on the Dim Bnd Table. This brings up the following menu.
Starting from scratch, you would select Edit, which brings up the figure at the top of this page. In the table, the
dimension symbol names are listed across the columns. Here, only four of the many dimensions are visible. If we
scroll to the right, we would see the rest of them.
For each of the symbols, you can specify whether they should be at the Upper, Lower, Middle or Nominal values.
You could set up a table for each type of stack-up you want to try. Then, when you are ready, use the Apply Set to
read in one of the tables. Regenerate the model, run your analysis, then apply a different set.
NOTES
Creating notes on the drawing is easy. Demonstrate this, go back to the Show_Draw drawing that we have been
working with. We will create a note at the bottom left corner of the drawing.
Before we do this, we are going to first go to our TOP view, and find out the dimension symbol name for one of our
radius values. Therefore, double click on the radius dimension that is currently out in the middle of the view (near
the large hole). When the properties window opens up, go to the Dimension Text tab, and you should see the
dimension name is d7.
Page 39 of 41
Close the properties window. In the drawing toolbar, click on the create note icon, or go to Insert, Note from the
menu bar. This brings up the following menu.
The top section of this menu deals with leaders. To create a general note on the drawing, we will use the No
Leader option (which is currently the default). If we wanted to make a leader that pointed to an edge or surface, we
would use the With Leader option. There is also an ISO leader option, an On Item leader option, and an Offset
leader option. These are probably less used, so we won’t cover them in this guide.
Next, we can specify whether we are going to enter the note ourselves, or we are going to import a text file from
disk. We will keep the default option of Enter.
The next section defines the orientation of the note. The default is Horizontal, but we also have Vertical, or
Angular options as well. We will keep the default option.
The next section only applies if you are using leaders. Since we are not going to use a leader, we will skip this
section. The section following this justifies the text, and the section after this allows us to specify a style to use. We
will leave the Default option selected.
Finally, we have the option to make the note or cancel out (Done/Return). We will therefore pick Make Note, and
then pick down in the lower left corner of our drawing (out in the open area – not on the actual corner of the sheet).
When we do this, the message bar becomes a text field and we can enter the first line of our note. We will enter:
NOTES:
When done, click on the <ENTER> key on your keyboard. We are now prompted to enter text for the second line of
our note. We want to have a space in the note, so we will hit our spacebar once, followed by <ENTER>. NOTE: If
you don’t hit the spacebar, and just hit <ENTER>, you will be done creating the note.
We are now prompted to enter the next row of text. We will type: UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED, ALL
ROUNDS
Hit on the <ENTER> key, and type the last part of the note: AND FILLETS SHALL BE &d7.
Hit the <ENTER> key, and then hit the <ENTER> key once more to complete the note. We will see the following on
the drawing.
Page 40 of 41
We can see that instead of “&d7” in our note, we can actually see the dimension value for our radius (.500), and if
we go to our TOP view, we can see that the radius dimension is no longer on the drawing view.
Why is this? If you remember, our drawing can not be over constrained with dimensions that come from the model,
therefore, if we use the syntax &d# in a note, that dimension that represents d# will transfer over to the note, and
disappear from the drawing where it was used.
This same thing works with created dimensions, which are typically &ad#. The only difference is that you can over
constrain your drawing with created dimensions, and the system won’t stop you. If you delete the note, the
dimension will re-appear on your view.
As I mentioned a few paragraphs back, there are so many possible combinations of leader types and attachments
for creating notes that we won’t cover them all in this guide. If you have questions about notes, please don’t
hesitate to contact your CAD Administrator or the online help for more information.
LESSON SUMMARY
Dimensions are probably the most time-consuming entities to place on your drawing. Using shown dimensions, you
can save some time in creation, and by applying clean-up techniques (both in sketch mode, and in drawing mode),
you can save a lot of time.
Created dimensions are often used when you need to specify manufacturing dimensions that conflict with your
current fit, form and function dimensioning scheme, or where no such dimension exists in the model.
Always try to show dimensions that must be “inspection” dimensions. Apply tolerances to your dimensions, and
perform stack-up analyses to test your design. You can also embed dimensions into notes and remove them
automatically from the drawing.
EXERCISES
None
Page 1 of 13
Lesson
48
Lesson Objective: In this lesson, we will learn how to create Broken and Partial view types.
BROKEN VIEWS
Broken views are used to shorten a view of an elongated feature/model. Typically, the elongated model does not
vary in features from one end to the other, and therefore, you can remove the middle of this model, and not lose
any detail.
A perfect example of an elongated model is a din rail, or a broom handle, or any object that has a constant cross-
section along its length.
To demonstrate this, we will open up the drawing called Broken_View.drw, which will look like the following.
Page 2 of 13
The rectangle in the figure above represents the boundary of the sheet size we are using (which happens to be a
“D” size sheet). We could use an “E” size sheet, and possibly get more of the model to fit, but the height of the
model would be too small in comparison to the size of the sheet.
Therefore, to be able to detail out this model, we will use a broken view from the existing RIGHT view to make the
entire model fit on this sheet of paper, and not lose any manufacturing detail.
CREATING THE BROKEN VIEW
Double-click on the RIGHT view to bring up the properties window. Once open, go to the Visible Area category,
which will look like the following.
Currently, the visibility is set to a Full View. We will use the pull-down field to see the other options, shown in the
next figure.
We can see that one of the options is Broken View. We will select on this option, and we see the following.
Page 3 of 13
Click on the “+” button to add a broken view definition. When we do this, we are asked to select on the view where
we want our first break line. We will pick in the following location.
When we pick in this location, a vertical blue line appears on the drawing view, and we are prompted to pick the
location for the second break line, which will be in the location indicated in the next figure.
When we pick in the second location, we get our second vertical blue line, as shown in the next figure.
At this point in time, if we scroll over in our broken view definition, we can see additional fields that we can define.
Page 4 of 13
One of them defines the shape of the cut on the view. Currently, we are seeing the Straight option, as shown in
the next figure.
We will keep this option of Straight selected, and click on OK. Our view collapses, and we can see the following
when we click outside of the view to de-select it.
As you can see, we have vertical lines where the handle is broken. Our view is now made up of two parts, which
can be moved independently in the horizontal direction, as shown in the following figure.
We will double-click on the larger of the two view segments to get back into the properties window. Return to the
Visible Area category, and then scroll over to see the other options for the shape of the break. This time, select
Sketch. When you do this, you are asked to sketch a spline that represents the shape of the break. We will sketch
the following spline in the location shown in the next figure.
Page 5 of 13
NOTE: You should try to stay within the two black dots. Once you are done picking the last spline point, click on the
middle mouse button to complete the spline. Two identical blue splines show up on the view, as shown in the
following figure.
Click on OK to complete this view, and we will see the following.
Page 6 of 13
The following figures show the rest of the view shapes available. NOTE: For the two “Geometry” options, you have
to pick two points to define the geometry. You should pick near one of the black dots for the first point, and then
approximately the same location on the bottom line, under the dot you previously selected.
S-Curve on View Outline
NOTE: Because our handle is so small in height, the “S” shape doesn’t really manifest itself well. The other “S-
Curve” option is better, as shown in the next section.
S-Curve on Geometry
Page 7 of 13
Heartbeat on View Outline
Heartbeat on Geometry
By contrast, this “Geometry” option doesn’t work as well as its previous counterpart. The “Heartbeat” is too small to
be effective in this case.
Page 8 of 13
BENEFIT OF BROKEN VIEW
The benefit of making this a broken view is that we can now detail out the model, and the portion of the handle that
is missing from the view is not critical to the definition of that model. The following view shows how we can show
the entire length of the model, but still get it on the drawing sheet.
NOTE: The dimension on the figure above is a created dimension. The model is actually an assembly consisting of
a base and handle. Neither of these independent models has the entire length as a dimension. We could have
done this assembly with top-down design, and introduced the overall length as a variable in our skeleton model that
could be controlled, and then shown on the drawing.

PARTIAL VIEWS
A partial view should only be used to show pertinent features not described by true projection in other views on the
drawing. They are used when you want to zero in on the model to detail out a feature or set of features but to
simplify the drawing by removing all non-necessary geometry from the view that is already detailed out in other
views.
To demonstrate this, we will create two partial views for a bracket. Open up the drawing entitled Aux_Partial.drw,
which contains a RIGHT view of the bracket, as shown in the next figure.
Page 9 of 13
We could easily project a FRONT view, as shown in the next figure.
The problem occurs when we add an auxiliary view. In order to get all three views on the drawing (without
changing the sheet size or scale), we would have to arrange them as follows.
But, that brings up a good question… Should we opt to change sheet size or scale as opposed to adding partial
views? I don’t think it really matters either way. The thing to keep in mind is that a partial view allows you to
remove geometry that is not directly detailed in that view, and is detailed in another view.
Therefore, looking at the last figure, the auxiliary view contains geometry for the lower two holes that we are never
going to detail in this view. Similarly, the FRONT view contains geometry for the raised protrusion that we are
never going to detail in this view, so why not create partial views for the FRONT and AUXILIARY views? That is
what we are going to do.
If you have not added the two additional views, go ahead and do this using techniques already described in this
guide.
Partial FRONT View
We will start by creating our partial view on the FRONT view. Double-click on the FRONT view to open the view
properties window. Under the Visible Area category, use the pull-down to select Partial View, as shown in the
next figure.
Page 10 of 13
Just like when we created the detail views earlier, we have to sketch a spline around the geometry we want to show
in the view. We have to start by picking on a vertex of one of the existing geometric entities in our view as the
center of the spline. We will pick on the end of one of the hole arcs, as shown in the next figure.
A blue dot appears where we picked, and we will start sketching our spline (remember not to close it completely, as
shown in the next figure).
Page 11 of 13
When you have finished sketching the spline, click on the middle mouse button to have the spline closed, and then
you will see a blue outline for the spline, as shown in the next figure.
Click on OK to complete this view, and our FRONT view will now look like the next figure.
At this point, our drawing looks like the following.
Page 12 of 13
Partial Auxiliary View
Now, we will repeat this same process to turn our auxiliary view into a partial auxiliary view. Double-click on the
auxiliary view to get to the properties window, and then click on the Visible Area category.
Change the type to Partial View. Sketch the following spline (using the blue dot as an indication of where we
picked for the center of the spline.)
Click on OK to complete this view. Our drawing should now look like the following.
Page 13 of 13
We can now move the views back in towards each other and complete detailing it, as shown in the next figure.
LESSON SUMMARY
Broken and Partial views are used to save “Real-estate” on the drawing. By eliminating unnecessary portions of the
geometry, while still being able to convey the necessary information, we can make our drawings easier to read and
follow.
EXERCISES
None
Page 1 of 25
Lesson
49
Lesson Objective: In this lesson, we will learn how to create Geometric Tolerances (GTOLS) and how to
access symbol libraries.
DEFINITIONS
Before we jump into Geometric Tolerances, we will take a moment to look at some definitions that pertain to
concepts behind GTOLS. These definitions come from the ASME Y14.5 standard.
Datum
A Datum is a theoretically exact point, axis or plane. It is the origin from which the location of geometric
characteristics of features of a part is established. For example, if we specify the bottom, planar surface of a model
as a datum, then defining a “parallel” tolerance to that surface assumes that the datum surface is (for all intents and
purposes) perfectly flat. We already learned how to define a datum (planar and axial) in Lesson 46.
Feature of Size
Page 2 of 25
One cylindrical or spherical surface, or a set of two opposed parallel surfaces associated with a size dimension.
Least Material Condition (LMC)
The condition in which a feature of size contains the least amount of material within the stated limits of size. For
example, the maximum hole diameter and minimum shaft diameter.
Maximum Material Condition (MMC)
The condition in which a feature of size contains the maximum amount of material within the stated limits of size.
For example, the minimum hole diameter and maximum shaft diameter.
Regardless of Feature Size (RFS)
This term is used to indicate that a geometric tolerance or datum reference applies at any increment of size of the
feature within its size tolerance.
True Position
The theoretically exact location of a feature established by BASIC dimensions.
GEOMETRIC TOLERANCES
Geometric Tolerancing, and dimensional Tolerancing in general is not something that we can teach in the scope of
this training guide. For more information on GD&T (Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing), you are encouraged
to read the ASME Y14.5 standard.
The following table lists the common geometric tolerances that are used.
Usage Tolerance Type Characteristic Symbol

Straightness
Flatness
For Individual Features Form

Circularity (Roundness)
Cylindricity
Profile of a Line
For Individual or Related

Profile
Features Profile of a Surface
Angularity
Perpendicularity
Orientation
Parallelism
Position
Page 3 of 25
Concentricity
Location
Symmetry
For Related Features
Circular Runout
Runout
Total Runout
FEATURE CONTROL FRAMES
A Geometric Tolerance Feature Control Frame is the method used to display these tolerances on the drawing view.
It is a rectangular block that is divided into different sections, as shown in the example in the next figure.
The block can be a single row, as we see in the previous figure, or it can have multiple rows for composite
tolerances. The following table lists the common Modifying Symbols that are present in these tolerances.
Term Symbol
At Maximum Material Condition
At Least Material Condition
Projected Tolerance Zone
Free State
Tangent Plane
Diameter
Spherical Diameter
Radius
Spherical Radius
Controlled Radius
Reference
Page 4 of 25
Arc Length
Statistical Tolerance
Between
We will demonstrate how to build these control frames with an example.
CREATING A GTOL CONTROL FRAME

To demonstrate how to create Geometric Tolerances, we will open up the drawing entitled GTOL_Create.drw,
which currently looks like the following.
We can see axes, dimensions, a note, and some set datums. We are going to create our first geometric tolerance
by going to Insert, Geometric Tolerance, which will bring up the following window.
This window has four main tabs. These are:

• Model Refs – Define the type of tolerance, and specify how it is going to be placed on the drawing. Also
allows you to specify which model to use in the case of an assembly. NOTE: Your set datum must be in the
model where you want to show it. Therefore, if you have an assembly, you can not create a GTOL for one
part, and reference a set datum in another.
• Datum Refs – Specify the datum references.
• Tol Value – Specify the tolerance value.
• Symbols – Add modifying symbols to your frame.
The first tolerance we are going to create will be a Flatness tolerance. Therefore, we will pick on the symbol that
corresponds to the flatness. Refer back to the first table to identify which button corresponds to the different
tolerances, or move your mouse over the buttons until you see it listed in the tool tip.
Page 5 of 25
Once we pick on the “Flatness” symbol, we will see that the type of reference to select changes from an Edge to
Surface, as shown in the next figure.
We will pick on the Select Entity button, and then pick the edge that represents the surface, as shown in the next
figure.
When we do this, we now see another portion of our window become active, as shown in the next figure.
The Placement section will specify how the frame is to be placed. If we use the pull-down we can see a variety of
methods for placing the control frame on our drawing.
We are going to place our first frame using the With Leader option, which will place a leader from the frame to the
model on the view. Once we select this option, we get the following menu.
Page 6 of 25
Currently, the default settings indicate that our leader will have an arrow head and will go to an entity, such as an
edge, axis or vertex. We will pick the same edge that we picked before for defining the surface that is to get the
flatness tolerance. Once you pick on the edge, it will become a bold red. Use the middle mouse button out in the
view to place the frame, and you will see the following.
A preview of the frame is now on our drawing view, and it will update as we continue to fill in the frame. We will
now click on the Datum Refs tab, which currently looks like the following.
The GTOL frame builder is intelligent. It knows that since we picked a “Flatness” tolerance type, there are no
datum references that we can call out. Therefore, it gave us this window. Click on the Tol Value tab to continue. It
looks like the following.
Page 7 of 25
Currently, the default tolerance is 0.001. We will change this value to 0.02, and then hit the <ENTER> key on the
keyboard. The preview updates.
Within this “Tol Value” tab, we also can define material conditions for the tolerance. We will not be specifying any
for this particular tolerance. Therefore, we will click on the Symbols tab to continue. It looks like the following.
In this window, we can see some symbols that are available for this type of tolerance and any references we’ve
defined so far. We will not define any additional symbols; therefore click on OK to complete this first tolerance
frame. Our drawing view will currently look like the following.
Page 8 of 25
Save the drawing.
GTOL FRAME IN NOTE
The next Geometric Tolerance we will create will be attached to a note containing a dimension. In general,
Geometric Tolerances can not be attached to a free note, but they can be created as a free note.
Therefore, go back to Insert, Geometric Tolerance to start a new GTOL. We can see that the window is exactly
as we left it for our last tolerance definition. We will pick a Position tolerance this time.
Once we do this, our window will look like the following.
In the Reference field, we can see that Edge is currently selected. If we use the pull-down, we can see other
reference types we can select.
We will use the default of Edge, and select the edge shown in the next figure.
Page 9 of 25
You should always try to pick on geometry that the GTOL controls. In this case, we are going to be attaching our
GTOL frame to the “M42 X 1.5 – 6g” note, which is currently going to the same edge.
Once we pick the edge, the Placement type we are going to use is Dimension. Remember, we can not attach to a
free note, but the “42” in our current note is actually a dimension that was used in the note. Therefore, we can click
on the Select Entity button for the Placement filed, and select on this note. When we do, we can see a preview
attach itself to the note, as shown in the next figure.
Now, we will go to the Datum Refs tab. It currently looks like the following.
For a positional tolerance, we do have fields that we can define on this tab. In the middle of the window, we see
three tabs entitled Primary, Secondary and Tertiary. For this tolerance, we are only going to define one datum
reference, therefore we will stay on the “Primary” section.
Since we are not doing a compound tolerance, we will use the Basic row, and use the pull-down to select which
datum acts as the primary reference for this tolerance, as shown in the next figure.
Page 10 of 25
We will use B for this reference. Once you select a reference, you have the ability to define material condition for
this reference. We will use the pull-down to see a list of possible material conditions.
In this case, we will select the MMC (Maximum Material Condition) option. When we do this, our window will now
look like the following.
We will now click on the Tol Value tab. For the tolerance value, enter 0.1 in the field provided, and then we will use
the Material Condition pull-down at the bottom to specify a material condition for the tolerance itself.
We will select the same material condition (MMC) that we used for the reference. Our window now looks like the
following.
Page 11 of 25
Finally, we will click on the Symbols tab, and add a Diameter Symbol to our tolerance field, as shown in the next
figure.
Click on OK to complete this tolerance, and our note will now look like the following.
The FRONT view for our drawing now looks like the following.
Page 12 of 25
Save the drawing.

TANGENT LEADER PLACEMENT
The next Geometric Tolerance we will create will use a tangent leader as the placement type. Therefore, go to
Insert, Geometric Tolerance once more from the menu bar. This time, select a Parallelism tolerance. For the
reference type, make sure Surface is selected, and pick on the following surface in the FRONT view.
When we do this, for the placement field, use the pull-down to select Tangent Leader, as shown in the next figure.
Once we select this, we get the following menu.
Page 13 of 25
Typically, with a Tangent Leader, you use the No Arrow leader type. Therefore, we will select on this option from
the menu above, and then pick on the same edge we picked on before. Using the middle mouse button, place the
frame above the existing dimensions, as shown in the figure below.
Currently, the definition of the tolerance, datum reference, and material conditions are still left over from the
previous tolerance that we defined. Therefore, we will need to go in and edit it to get the following.
For the material condition fields, set it back to RFS (no symbol), which will eliminate the “M” symbol. Also don’t
forget to remove the diameter symbol. The FRONT view will look like the following once you complete this
tolerance.
Page 14 of 25
Save this drawing.
DIMENSIONS WITH SET DATUMS
We are now going to create a geometric tolerance tied to a dimension that has a set datum attached to it. Create a
new geometric tolerance, and pick a Perpendicularity tolerance. For the reference, we are going to pick Surface,
and then pick on the same surface that we used for our first Flatness tolerance definition.
Once we pick on this surface, use the Dimension placement type, and pick on the 44.60/44.45 limits dimensions to
the left of our FRONT view (the one that currently has the “C” set datum attached to it.
When we pick on this dimension, we can see the GTOL frame attach itself to the dimension, and the set datum
attaches itself automatically to the frame, as shown in the next figure.
On the tolerance creation window, there is a button called Move, which will allow us to temporarily move the GTOL
while we are still defining it. Click on this button and move the tolerance to the following location.
Page 15 of 25
Now we will go in and edit the values and add any material and modifying symbols as necessary to get the final
tolerance, as shown in the next figure.
Save and close this drawing. We will come back to it in the exercises for this lesson.
SYMBOL LIBRARIES
There are several libraries of symbols that are available in Pro/ENGINEER and in our company. These are:
• Surface Finish Symbols
• Weld Symbols
• Custom Company Symbols
CUSTOM COMPANY SYMBOLS
In an upcoming lesson, we will learn how to create draft entities in drawing mode – which is the method to define
symbols. For now, we will learn how to access already created symbols.
By default, we have a config.pro file that points to the location of our custom symbols. If you have the correct
config.pro loaded, then you will always end up in the custom symbol location when you go to insert a symbol.
To demonstrate this, create a brand new drawing. Accept the default name, and the default model that is
associated (even if it says None). Use an A size sheet. We are not going to add any views to this drawing.
Page 16 of 25
To access our symbols, go to Insert, Drawing Symbol, Custom, which will bring up the following window.
You can see the location is listed as User Syms in the pull-down field. Out in the main window, you will see a list of
defined symbols. Your list may be different depending on the organization.
To demonstrate the symbol window, we will open up the tri_flag.sym symbol. When we open this symbol, we get
the following window.
As we move our mouse around the drawing, a preview of the symbol follows the mouse, as shown in the next
figure.
Looking back at our Custom Drawing Symbol window, we can see that there are three tabs. The first tab (General)
is used to define the symbol, the placement, and the size/rotation/color of the symbol.
For the placement types, you have the same sort of options you have for GTOL frames, and notes. Depending on
the symbol definition, you may or may not be able to use leaders. For this symbol, it is most commonly used
without leaders, so we will leave the placement type as Free.
For now, we will also leave the height and angle at the default values. If we click on the Grouping tab, we see the
following.
Page 17 of 25
As you can see from this figure, no grouping has been defined for this symbol. Grouping allows you to create
different configurations of the same symbol instance. Each defined group can turn on/off draft entities or text in the
group definition. We will see this in more detail in the next two symbol types (Weld and Surface Finish).
If we continue on to the next tab, called Variable Text, you can see the following.
When you define a symbol, if you place text in back slashes - \text\, you can create variable text that can be
changed each time the symbol is used. Text that is not in back slashes will be read-only in the symbol.
We can see that we have a variable text that currently has a value of A. We will edit this and enter 5. Click
anywhere on the drawing to place the symbol, and then click on OK to complete this symbol.
On our drawing, we see the following symbol.
To edit this symbol, you would simply double-click on it to get back to the symbol window.
SURFACE FINISH SYMBOLS
To access surface finish symbols, go to Insert, Drawing Symbol, Custom, which this time brings us back into the
surface window, where the last symbol we used is still active. We will click on the Browse button next to the name
of the symbol (on the General) tab.
This brings us back into the file open window. In the pull-down field at the top, select System Syms, as shown in
the next figure.
Page 18 of 25
This brings us into the following window:
In this window, we can see two different Surface Finish folders, and a weld symbol folder. The first folder is for
surface finishes following the ISO 1302-1978(E) standard. The second folder is for surface finishes following the
ASME Y14.36-1978 standard.
We will double-click on the ASME Y14 standard folder. This reveals a single surface finish symbol, as shown in the
next figure.
Page 19 of 25
We will open this single symbol (surftexture.sym), and we will get the symbol creation window, which looks like the
following.
We will leave the defaults alone on the first tab, and go to the Grouping tab. We will see the following options in
the group window.
This is a perfect example for using groups. There are hundreds of possible surface finish combinations, and
instead of creating hundreds of individual symbols, a single symbol was created that contains all of the possible
definitions. By turning on/off certain options, we can get all of the different combinations possible.
Page 20 of 25
At the top level, we can specify whether this is for an Unspecified, Machined, or No-Removal surface. Within
each of these options, are further options that can be defined. If we were to expand all three options to see the
possible sub-options, our window would look like the following.
We will expand the Unspecified option to see the detail up close.
As you check items, and sub-items, it starts to build your custom symbol in the window to the right. We will select
the Average Roughness option, as shown in the previous figure, which adds variable text to our symbol.
If we go to the Variable Text tab, we can edit the value for this variable text. In this case, we will enter 3.2 for the
average surface roughness, as shown in the next figure.
Page 21 of 25
Clicking out on our drawing gives us our current symbol.
If we had more than one of these surface finish symbols to define, we could go back to the General tab, and click
on the New button, which starts a new surface finish symbol, using the current definition as the starting point.
Every time we click on the drawing, we place this symbol in its location, and then click on New to add a new one.
Click on OK to complete this symbol.
WELD SYMBOLS
To create a weld symbol, we repeat the process as the last section until we get to the folder where we see the three
different system symbol directories. This time, we select the Weldsymlib folder, which gives us the following.
As with the surface finish symbols, there are two standards to choose from for weld symbols: ISO 2553:1992(E)
and ANSI/AWS A2.4-93.
Page 22 of 25
We will double-click on the ansi_weld folder, which gives us the following folder options.
These are the first of the different categories for weld symbols. We will double-click on the Simple folder to
continue. This brings up the following window:
From this window, we can see a list of individual symbol definitions. We will open up the first one (bevel.sym),
which brings up the following symbol create window.
Page 23 of 25
One of the differences in this symbol is that we can use a Free placement type. We will have to pick a location for
the leader to go to, but we will come back to that once we have defined the group options. Therefore, click on the
Grouping tab, and select the options shown in the following figure.
When we have defined these group options, click on the Variable Text tab, which shows two parameters we can
modify based on our selection of options.
Page 24 of 25
Go ahead and enter any values you want. I will leave the current values for this example. To place this symbol, we
need to go back to the General tab. We will leave the Placement Type at With Leaders, but we will change the
New Leader value to Free Point, and then click out in the drawing. After you click, you will notice a preview of the
symbol with its leader appears.
Drag the symbol to the location you want, and then click on the middle mouse button to finish the drag. Click on OK
to complete this symbol. The following figure shows the location where I dragged it.
Close this drawing without saving.

LESSON SUMMARY
Geometric Tolerances can be applied to your drawing in a variety of ways. Be sure you have your set datums, axes
and dimensions fully detailed before adding the Geometric Tolerance to make it easier.
Symbols can be created to automate common drafting tasks. In a later lesson, we will learn how to create a basic
symbol with some grouping.
EXERCISES
Now, using techniques learned in this lesson, complete the Geometric tolerances on the GTOL_Create.drw
drawing, as shown in the next figure.
Page 25 of 25
Page 1 of 44
Lesson
50
Lesson Objective: In this lesson, we will learn about the 2D Drafting capabilities and how to create a
symbol from scratch.
2D DRAFTING
There are times in drawing mode where you may need to sketch entities. Creating symbols and formats is the most
common usage for the 2D drafting tools in drawing mode, but often, we create geometry on the drawing (such as
parting lines, arrows, etc.)
The 2D Drafting tools are not the most user-friendly tools in the Pro/ENGINEER drawing arsenal. In fact, compared
to the part mode sketcher functionality, the 2D Drafting tools seem very clunky. In a future release of Wildfire, the
2D drafting functionality is going to be replaced by the regular sketcher tools, which will make it much easier to use.
The 2D Drafting tools are located on the feature toolbar in drawing mode, and look like the following:
Page 2 of 44
We will go through these tools in the next section.
2D DRAFTING TOOLS
To demonstrate the different drafting tools, open up the 2D_Draft.drw drawing. It contains three views, as shown
in the next figure.
We will work out in the upper right corner for most of these tools, but some of them require actual geometry to work
off of, so we will come back to the views in a minute.
Enable Sketching Chain
If you depress this tool, a command remains active until you select a different command. For example, if you start
to sketch a line, once you place the endpoint of the first line, it becomes the start point for the next line.
If you don’t have this active, then the line tool is still the active tool, but you have to pick the start of the next line.
We will demonstrate this once we get into the line tool.
Remember Parametric Sketching References
When you sketch draft entities in drawing mode, you can pick on existing draft geometry or view geometry as
references (just like we pick references in sketch mode).
Page 3 of 44
If you press this button, and then sketch an entity parametrically related to a view, an update to the model will
update the parametric information (collinear constraint, for example). We will see an example of this with the line
tool.
Line Tools
The line tool is a fly-out consisting of the following tools.
2 Point Line
The two-point line creates a line by picking on the start point, and then picking on the end point. When you pick on
the tool, you will see a red cross-hairs on the mouse cursor as it moves across the drawing, as shown in the next
figure.
A window appears for capturing sketching references, as shown in the following figure.
Currently we don’t have any references. We will come back to this in a minute. Out on the drawing, if you hold
down the right mouse button, you will see the following options.
The following commands directly relate to the sketch that we are creating. These are:
• Select Reference – Takes us back to the Snapping Reference window that appeared.
• Angle – Specify an angle for the line entity that we are currently sketching or will sketch. To make a
horizontal line, enter 0.0 or 180 for the angle. For a vertical line, enter 90 or 270 degrees for the value.
• Relative Coordinates – This is usually used for the end point of the line, giving you exact control of the
Page 4 of 44
vector from the start point. For example, a horizontal line exactly 1.5” long going to the right of the start point would
result in the following: X = 1.5, Y=0.
• Absolute Coordinates – This can be used for either endpoint. It gives you the ability to sketch using the
entire sheet size as a grid, where X=0, Y=0 is in the lower left corner of the sheet. For an “A” size sheet, your
maximum X that you would want to go is 11.0”, and your maximum Y that you would want to go is 8.5”.
• Regenerate Draft – Regenerates all of the draft entities. Any parametrically linked entities would update.
• Properties – Select line size, color, style, etc.
We will select Angle, which will give us the following window.
We will keep the default value of 0.0000 to create a horizontal line. Click on <ENTER> on your keyboard, or click
on the green check mark to accept this. Click anywhere on the drawing to start the line. As you move your mouse,
you will see a magenta preview of the line going to the left or right of your first point (depending on which side you
are on when you drag).
We will make this line segment exactly 3.0” in length, therefore, before you select your end point, right click again,
and select Relative Coordinates, which brings up the following window.
As indicated in the window above, if we enter 3.0 in the “X” field, we will get a line that is 3 inches long going to the
right. If we entered -3.0, it would go 3 inches to the left. Click on the green check mark to accept this, and we get
the following line.
In our Snapping References window, we can see the line added to the list of active references.
If we move our mouse back over to one of the end points of the line, we can see that it will snap there for the
beginning of our next line.
Page 5 of 44
Go ahead and snap to the right end as shown above, and click to start a new line. As you move your line up, and
away from the first line, you will notice that it will snap at perpendicular, as shown in the next figure.
We would use this to make a square or rectangle. Instead, we are going to hold down the right mouse button,
select Angle, and enter 135 for the angle. This forces the line to go at 45 degrees with respect to the first line, as
Drag the line well over to the right of the middle, and click to create it, as shown in the next figure.
Now, we have two lines in our References window – the first horizontal line and now the new angled line. We will
create a third line starting at the left end of the horizontal line, and select Angle and enter a value of 45 to get a line
going up towards our last one.
When you get to the first angled line, our new line will snap to it, as shown in the next figure.
Click to accept this snap and finish the line. Click on the middle mouse button to finish out of line mode, and we are
left with the following on our drawing.
Page 6 of 44
Trim
We will take a moment to see how to trim a line. From the menu bar, we would select Edit, Trim, which gives you
the following options for trimming.
• Divide at Intersection – divides up the entities where they intersect. You can then delete the extra pieces
you don’t need.
• Divide by Equal Segments – Breaks up an entity into equal length segments. For example, breaking up a
line into 10 pieces of equal length.
• Corner – Trims two intersecting entities at their intersection point. The entities need to either already touch,
or project to touch at a corner.
• Bound – Extends an entity up to another one. The entities must project to a corner intersection
• Length – Trims an entity to an exact length by extending or shortening the entity near the endpoint selected.
• Increment – Extends or shortens an entity by a specified amount.
We will choose the Corner option, and then pick on the two angled lines on the portion we want to keep using the
Ctrl key, as shown in the next figure.
This will eliminate the small portion that extends out to the upper left, resulting in the following.
Page 7 of 44
Construction Line
The second line tool is the Construction Line. It creates a line just like the two-point line, but it behaves like a
sketcher centerline or construction line. It will not print out on a drawing if used.
Select this tool from the line tools fly-out. When the Snapping References window appears, you will notice that
there are no references listed. What happened to our three lines that we created? The lines are still there, but their
presence in the references window was only while we were still active in the line tool. Once we went back to the
select tool, it cleared the references.
Therefore, we will pick on the arrow button in this window to add references, and we will pick on the two angled
lines in our triangle. They will show up in the window, as shown in the next figure.
Click on the middle mouse button to finish picking references, and then bring your mouse over to the left of the two
angled lines. Around the middle of the line, it should snap to the midpoint, as shown in the next figure.
Click here, and then go over to the midpoint on the other line, as shown in the next figure.
When you click on this endpoint, a dashed line appears across the working window. Click on the middle mouse
button to complete the creation of construction lines and return to the select tool. We can see a light gray dashed
line on our drawing.
Page 8 of 44
Unlike sketcher, where you can convert a line to a construction line, and still have it be within the endpoints
selected, this construction line will use the start and end points as vectors to define an infinite line.
Go ahead and use the select tool to drag a box around the triangle to select it, and hit the delete key on your
keyboard. Pick on the construction line that we just created and delete it as well.
Crossed Construction Lines
The Crossed Construction Line tool creates two perpendicular construction lines. The first line you draw
determines the location of the origin of the lines (where they intersect) by using the start point. The end point
determines the horizontal vector. The perpendicular construction line is created automatically.
To demonstrate this, click on this tool from the line tools fly-out icon. Pick out on the drawing, and then move your
mouse over and down to create an angled line, as shown in the following figure.
When you click on the end point, the two construction lines appear. The location of the intersection of the two lines
is where our start point was before, while the angle of the lines is determined by the end point that we picked, as
Go ahead and delete these two lines.
Enable Chain Sketching – Revisited
We will now take a look at this option. If we click this icon, and then go into our line tool, we start to create a line the
same way we normally do. This time, however, when you pick on the endpoint for the first line, notice how the next
line starts automatically at the endpoint of the first one?
Page 9 of 44
This is similar to the way it works in Sketcher mode with the line tool. To complete your chain of lines, click on the
middle mouse button. The line tool will still remain active for you to start a new set of lines. To get back to the
select tool, click on the middle mouse button again. Delete any entities that you just sketched. Keep this tool active
for our next topic.
Remember Parametric Sketching References – Revisited
Now, we will look at this option again using the line tool. To start, click on the icon to activate this. You must have
the icon active before you sketch your geometry. Activating it after will only enable it for newly sketched entities.
Once you have pressed the button, click on the line tool. In the Snapping References window, click on the arrow
button, and we will pick the following edge on our RIGHT view.
When we select this edge, its endpoints highlight in a blue dot, as shown in the next figure.
We will see this edge listed in our References window.
Click on the middle mouse button to finish selecting references, and then our line command becomes active.
Sketch a perpendicular line starting on the left point of the reference edge (be sure you are snapped to it). Stop the
line before you get to an “equal length” condition between the line and the edge. The next line segment should start
automatically (because we still have our chain sketching enabled). Sketch a horizontal line over until you get an
equal length condition with the edge, then create the last segment down to the right vertex of the edge. The
following figure shows this sketch.
Page 10 of 44
To demonstrate the parametric nature of our references, we will change a model dimension to force the top edge of
the model to translate down. To do this, we will show some dimensions.
Alternate way to Show Dimensions
Another way to show dimensions on your drawing for a specific feature is to go to the model tree, right click on the
feature, and select Show Dimensions, as shown in the next figure.
Unlike the Show/Erase tool, we have no ability to only select certain ones to keep, but that is okay for this instance.
On our drawing, we can see the three dimensions that make up our selected feature.
Page 11 of 44
We will select on the 2.000 dimension once to activate it, and the double-click on it to modify the value to 1.5.
Regenerate the model, and you will notice that as the top edge of the model translates down, the sketched entities
move with it to remain snapped to the edge, as shown in the next figure.
Edit the dimension back to 2.000, regenerate the model, and then delete the three sketched entities that we made.
By contrast, if we try this same thing again without using the Remember Parametric Sketching References
activated, the sketched entities will not translate with the top edge, as we can see in the following figure.
Try this out for yourself by repeating this same process, but de-select the tool first. When done, set the dimension
back to 2.0, and regenerate the model. Delete the sketched entities. Finally, de-select the Chain Sketching
command.
Circle Tools
The circle tools is a fly-out consisting of the following.
Circle Tool
To create a circle, click on the drawing, and then drag out the diameter. Click to complete the circle. If the Chain
Sketching is active, a new circle starts again at the same center, allowing you to create concentric circles.
If you click with the right mouse button with the circle tool active, you see the following.
Page 12 of 44
This is very similar to the RMB functionality with the line tool, but instead of an Angle to define, we can specify the
Radius. When we select this option, we get the following window.
We will enter a value of 1.0 in this field, and then click on the green check mark, or hit the <ENTER> key on the
keyboard. When we do, we see the outline of the circle at the specified dimension.
We then click to place the circle. Remember, this is the RADIUS of the circle that we entered, not the DIAMETER.
The following shows the circle after it has been created.
Delete this circle when complete.

Construction Circle
This is done exactly the same as the regular circle. The only difference is that the circle that results is only used to
aid in the creation of other entities, and will not print. It is a dashed gray entity, just like the construction line.
Ellipse by Major Axis End Points
The first ellipse tool is created by first selecting the start point and then end point of a line that represents the length
of the ellipse. This line can be at any angle you want. The following figure shows the creation of this first line.
Page 13 of 44
Once you pick on the end point, the ellipse will appear, and you can drag out the width, as shown in the next figure.
The following figure shows the created ellipse.
Delete this ellipse.
Ellipse by Center and End of Major Axis
The last ellipse is very similar to the previous one. The biggest difference is that instead of picking the start point of
the line that defines the length, we are picking the center of the ellipse. Once we pick on the location, the line
grows out on both sides of this point, and rotates about it. Once you pick the second time to finish dragging out the
length, you drag out the width of the ellipse just as we did before.
Arc Tools
The Arc Tools is a fly-out icon that contains the following:
3 Point/Tangent-End Arc
Click on the 3 Point/Tangent Arc tool and click out on the drawing. This creates the start point for our arc. Next,
drag your mouse over to the location for the end point, as shown in the next figure.
When you click on the end point, you now drag out the radius of the arc, as shown in the next figure.
Page 14 of 44
When you click once more, you finish the first arc. Since the arc tool remains active, we can go straight into
demonstrating the tangent-end arc. Therefore, bring your cursor over the end point of the arc that we just created,
and you will see it snap to this point. A small “T” appears to indicate that it will be tangent, as shown in the next
figure.
Click on this end point to start the arc, and then drag out the end point for the tangent arc, as shown in the next
figure.
When you click to place the end point, we can continue to make additional arcs, or click on the middle mouse button
to complete the arc tool. The following figure shows the completed set of arcs.
Delete these arcs when done.
Center-Ends Arc
When you click on this tool, the first point you will pick is the center of the arc. Once you pick the center point on
your drawing, a circle will appear. Your cursor will ride on the circle to define the start point of the arc, as shown in
the next figure.
Once you click to create the start point, you are now dragging out the location on the circle where the end point will
be, as shown in the following figure.
Page 15 of 44
The following figure shows the completed arc.
Delete this arc when done.
Fillet Tools
The fillet tools is a fly-out, but there is only one fillet tool in our current fly-out. This is the Round Fillets Tangent
To 2 Edges command.
To demonstrate this, first create two lines that connect to each other, as shown in the next figure.
Now, click on the fillet tool, and you will be asked to select one entity. We will pick on the first line as shown below.
Next, we will pick on the second line. Once we pick on the second line, a prompt appears in the message bar, as
We will enter 0.75, as shown in the figure above. When we do this, an arc appears on the sketch, as shown in the
next figure.
Click on the middle mouse button to complete the arc tool, and you will see the following on your drawing.
Delete these entities when done.
Page 16 of 44
Spline Tool
To create a spline, start by selecting on this tool to activate it. Next, pick on the first endpoint of the spline, and then
continue to pick intermediate points. When you have picked your last point, click on the middle mouse button to
complete it. The following figure shows a spline as it is being defined.
Once you click on the middle mouse button (after picking the end point), you will see the end points highlighted in
blue, while the intermediate points are in the curve color, as shown in the next figure.
Click on the middle mouse button again to exit out of the spline tool. The following figure shows the completed
spline.
Delete this spline when done.
Point Tool
The Point tool creates a single point on the drawing. The following figure shows some completed points.
NOTE: The shape and size of the point can be controlled by the drawing setup file. There are two options:
• Datum_point_shape – Controls the shape of the point. The values available are:
• Datum_point_size – Controls the height of the symbol used for the point.
Delete these points when you are done.
Page 17 of 44
Chamfer Tool
The chamfer tool adds an angled line at the intersection of two entities. To demonstrate this tool, first start by
creating two connecting lines, as shown in then next figure.
Now, click on the chamfer tool. This brings up the following menu.
From here on out, we will assume that when prompted to select the entities, that we will pick the following lines in
the order shown in the next figure.
When you click on one of the schemes, you are then prompted to pick the entities. Once we pick the entities in the
order shown above (using the Ctrl key), a blue circle appears at the intersection, and the message bar prompts us
for the necessary chamfer values.
45 x d
You are prompted to pick the value for d. We will enter 0.5. It automatically measures the 45 degree angle from
the first line picked. The chamfer is added. The following figure shows the resulting scheme for this chamfer.
The value for d is measured along the first line selected. To get back to the line before we added the chamfer, click
Page 18 of 44
on the Undo button, or delete the chamfered edge, and then use Edit, Trim, Corner and select the two lines again
using the Ctrl key.
dxd
You are prompted to pick the value for d. We will enter 0.5. The chamfer is added equally to both lines, as shown
in the next figure.
Undo this chamfer or trim to get back to the starting two lines.
d1 x d2
You are prompted to enter the value for d1. Whatever line you pick first will have d1 measured along it. We will
enter 0.5. We are then prompted for d2, and we will enter 0.625. The chamfer is created as shown in the following
figure.
Undo this chamfer or trim to get back to the starting two lines.
Ang x d
When you click on this option, you are asked to pick the reference line. This will be the line that the distance and
angle are measured from. We will still pick the first line as indicated in an earlier figure. We then pick the second
line.
We are prompted to enter a value for d. We will enter 0.5. For the angle (measured from the first line), we will
enter 20.0. This creates the chamfer with the following scheme.
Page 19 of 44
Delete these lines when done.
Edge Tools
The Edge Tools icon is a fly-out that contains the following:
This tool allows you to create draft entities right on, or offset model edges or datum curves on the drawing. You
might want to use this tool to show parting lines in a different line style than the existing drawing entities, or for
identifying a surface boundary for a special finish, etc.
Use Edge
To demonstrate this, go to the FRONT view, which currently looks like the following.
We want to indicate a parting line for this view. Therefore, we will click on the Use Edge tool, and select (using the
Ctrl key) the following entities on this view.
Once you have all the entities selected, click on the middle mouse button to accept this selection. In the message
bar, you will get the following prompt.
In this particular case, we do want to erase the edges, because our copied draft entities will be right on top of the
existing lines, and if we change the line style, we don’t want the model edges to interfere with the visibility of the
lines. Therefore, click on Yes. You are then told that you will need to refresh the drawing views.
To do this, click on the following icon in your drawing toolbar.
Now, select each of the entities that we just created, and right click on them and select Line Style, as shown in the
next figure.
Page 20 of 44
This will bring up the following window.
To get a nice dashed line, we will pick on the CTRLFONT_S_L option, as shown in the next figure.
Click on Apply, followed by Close to see the new style on the view.
Now, we can use Edit, Trim, Increment and extend each end 0.5 inches, to get the following.
The nice thing is that the Use Edge command keeps the entities tied to that view, so if we move the view around,
Page 21 of 44
the entities move with it.
Offset Edge
To demonstrate the offset edge tool, we will look at the TOP view in our drawing. Click on this tool, and you will get
the following menu.
The default option is Single Ent, which stands for “single entity”. If you use this option, then you can only pick one
edge at a time and enter the offset right after picking it. If you want to offset more than one edge that forms a chain,
use the Ent Chain option. We will use the Ent Chain option for our selection.
Next, using the Ctrl key, select the following edges to offset.
Once all edges are selected, click on the middle mouse button. An arrow will show up on one of the selected
entities, as shown in the next figure.
Enter the offset distance where positive is going in the direction of the arrow. For our example, we will enter -0.05
(negative). This will add the following entities to our view.
Page 22 of 44
We will change the line style for these entities to the CTRLFONT_S_L style that we used before, and we get the
following.
We will repeat this same process to offset the circle in this view as well. Once we have both sets of offset edges
created and set to the CTRLFONT_S_L line style, we will select all of them by dragging a box around the view.
Next, go to Edit, Fill, Hatched and down in the message bar, you are asked to enter a name for the hatched
surface. Give it any name you want. I will use SURF_A. When you accept the name, hatch marks appear on the
view, as shown in the next figure.
The following menu also appears.
Page 23 of 44
We will click on Spacing, followed by Half (four times) to get the following.
Doing this can make it clear to a manufacturer any comments you might have that require the application to the
entire surface, such as a finish note, etc.
On the Fill menu, there is also a Solid option, which will create a shaded surface in this region. You can then go to
the properties of the filled area and change the color for more emphasis in electronic mode, as shown in the next
figure.
These are just some examples where the edge tools can be used. Save the drawing.
Mirror Tool
The mirror tool is the last toolbar icon. It is used to mirror draft entities about a draft line. Therefore, we will start by
creating a series of lines on our drawing as shown in the next figure (NOTE: do not worry about the exact shape
and size, just get it close).
Page 24 of 44
Now, sketch a single line at an angle to the right of this shape, as shown in the next figure.
To mirror the sketch, start by clicking on the mirror tool. Drag a box around the closed sketch (don’t include the
angled line). These entities highlight in red. Click on the middle mouse button to finish selecting the objects to
mirror.
Down in the message bar, it prompts you to pick on a draft line to mirror about. We will pick on the angled line that
we sketched. When we do this, we can see the new mirrored entities, as shown in the following figure.
Delete these entities when done.
SKETCH MENU & OTHER DRAFT TOOLS

Up to now, we have focused primarily on the 2D Drafting toolbar. We will now take a look at other, related drafting
tools in drawing mode.
Sketch Menu
In the menu bar, there is a sketch menu. If we click on it, we get the following.
Page 25 of 44
For the most part, this menu contains all of the commands that are covered in the icons that we have gone over.
We will look at one in particular, called Sketcher Preferences.
When we click on this, it brings up the following window.
This menu controls the automatic snapping constraints that can be applied while sketching. For example, if you
recall when sketching in previous sections, we saw that the entities snapped to each other and their vertices.
These are on by default in this sketcher preferences window.
We can see that we can enable Horizontal and Vertical snapping, which would be very useful to save us some time
in specifying right mouse button commands.
We will enable this, and the Angle snapping (leave at 45 degrees). Now, try sketching lines on your drawing. You
can see that the objects will snap at 45 degrees, as well as horizontal and vertical orientations.
Transform
In the Edit menu, there is a command called Transform, which gives you the following options.
Page 26 of 44
This set of commands will let you move, move and copy, rotate, scale, mirror and stretch your draft entities.
Translate / Translate and Copy
To demonstrate the translate functionality, go ahead and sketch a circle with a radius of .25 located at absolute
coordinates of X=6.0 and Y=6.0. This will create the circle as shown in the next figure.
Now, we will go to Edit, Translate. We are asked to pick on the entities to translate. We will pick on the circle, and
then click on the middle mouse button to finish selecting objects. This will bring up the following menu.
The options at the top are:

• Horiz – Enter a distance in the X-direction.
Page 27 of 44
• Vert – Enter a distance in the Y-direction.
• Ang/Length – Enter a distance in polar coordinates
• From-To – Enter a distance by taking a vector using one of the methods in the second section.
The second section gives the following options:

• Pick Pnt – Pick a point on the screen for the start/end of the vector.
• Vertex – Select a vertex for the start/end of the vector.
• On Entity – Pick a point on a draft entity for the start/end of the vector.
• Rel Coords – Pick a point a certain x and y distance from the current circle center for the start/end of the
vector.
• Abs Coords – Pick an exact x and y location for the start/end of the vector.
NOTE: You can use one option for the start, and a different option for the end of the vector. For example, you could
pick Vertex for the start of the translation vector, and then use Rel Coords to locate the end of the vector.
We will use Horiz in the top menu, and enter a value of 1.0. The circle will move 1 inch in the X direction.
Now, we will click on Edit, Transform, Translate and Copy, and pick on the circle again. After using the middle
mouse button to accept the selection, pick on Horiz again, and enter 1.0 for the incremental distance between
copies. Once you enter this number, you are prompted for the number of copies. The number that you enter does
not include the first circle, so if you want a total of 10, you need to enter 9. We will enter 3, and then hit the
<ENTER> key. we should see three additional circles created, each spaced 1.0 inch from each other, as shown in
the next figure.
Delete all four circles.
Rotate / Rotate and Copy
These commands are similar to the Translate and Translate and Copy commands. We will first start by sketching
the following shape on our drawing.
Page 28 of 44
We are going to rotate the triangular object about the center of the circle. Therefore, go to Edit, Transform,
Rotate, and then drag a box around the two lines and the arc that make up the piece to rotate (don’t include the
circle in the box).
Once all three objects are selected, click on the middle mouse button. We will get the following menu.
We will use the Vertex option to be able to select the center of the circle/arc. Once you pick this option, move your
mouse over to the center of the circle. You should see a light blue circle appear at the center. Click on this vertex,
and then you will get the following prompt in the message bar:
We will enter 90 as shown above, and then click on the <ENTER> key on our keyboard. The draft entities will
rotate to the bottom of the circle, as shown in the next figure.
Now, we will try out the Rotate and Copy command to make five of these wedges equally spaced about the circle.
Therefore, click on Edit, Transform, Rotate and Copy. Drag a box around the entities again, and then click on the
middle mouse button.
Select Vertex once more from the menu, and pick on the center of the arc/circle. When prompted for the angle of
rotation, we will type in 360/5 (you can enter equations in dimension fields).
For the number of entities to create, we will enter 4 to create a total of five of these wedges. The result will be the
Page 29 of 44
following.
Keep these entities on the drawing for the next topic.
Rescale
We are now going to see how to scale the object. Currently, the scale is at 1.0. To make this half as big, we would
enter a scale of 0.5. Once the object is scaled, it is reset at 1.0 again, so to make it half as big again, we would still
use 0.5 (not 0.25 from the original starting size).
Therefore, click on Edit, Transform, Rescale. Drag a box around all of these objects to select them, and then click
on the middle mouse button. We will get the following menu.
We are asked to select the point/vertex about which to scale. The point that we pick will remain where it is, and the
rest of the entities will scale about that point, potentially causing some translation if you pick an extremity as the
scaling point (such as one of the tips of the wedges).
We will click on Vertex, and select the center of the circle to scale about. When we do this, we are asked to enter
the scale in the message bar. Enter 0.5, and then hit the <ENTER> key on your keyboard.
The entities scale down to half of the original size, as shown in the next figure.
Page 30 of 44
We will use these entities once more for the next topic.
Stretch
We are going to skip over Mirror, because we already covered this as a tool on the 2D Drafting toolbar.
The Stretch tool is used to elongate or shrink the draft entities, but not proportionally (like a scale command).
Therefore, we will go to Edit, Transform, Stretch. You are asked to draw a box about the entities to stretch.
NOTE: Unlike the previous commands where you had to get the box around the entire entity to select it, this time
the box only has to touch the entities to select them.
We only want to stretch out the bottom wedge, so we will draw a box that only touches the two angled lines on the
bottom wedge. Do not touch the arc at the top of the wedge, or any other entities on this drawing.
Once both lines are selected, click on the middle mouse button. We get the following menu.
The stretch command uses the translate option to define a vector for the length and direction of stretch. We will
start by selecting Vertex, and then picking on the following vertex to act as the starting point of our vector.
Once you pick this vertex, you are prompted to define the end point. We will use Rel Coords to enter an X and Y
translation from the selected vertex. When prompted, enter X=0 and Y=-0.5. This will result in the following.
Page 31 of 44
Group
Create
We will now talk about grouping objects. If you were to select just one of the entities in this current set of draft
objects, you could then drag it and it would separate from the rest of the entities.
Even though we snapped to end points when defining the sketch, the entities are not completely connected.
Therefore, we will want to group these entities together to be able to manipulate them as a single entity.
Therefore, go to Edit, Group, Draft Group from the menu bar. This brings up the following menu.
We have the ability to create groups, suppress them, resume any suppressed groups, ungroup (explode) and edit
groups within this menu. We will click on Create, and then drag a box around all of the draft entities. Click on the
middle mouse button to finish selecting objects, and then in the message bar we will be prompted to enter a group
name. Type in STAR, and then hit the <ENTER> key.
The group is created, and now we can select additional entities to group. Click on the middle mouse button to finish
creating draft groups.
Now, if you try dragging just one entity, the entire group moves.
Edit
To edit a group, click on Edit, Group, Draft Group, and then select Edit from the menu. This brings up a sub-
menu, as follows:
You can either select the group from the drawing (which is the default), or you can pick from a list of created group
names. We will click on By Name, which brings up the following.
We can see the current group that we created, called STAR. Pick on this name, and you will get the following
options.
Page 32 of 44
We can add additional entities to our group, or remove current entities from the group. To cancel out of this, click
on the middle mouse button.
Additional Comments
The thing that makes 2D drafting less user friendly than regular sketch mode (intent manager), is the fact that you
should be more exact in your sketching, because making changes to your sketch is more difficult.
Dimensions can not be modified to shorten, lengthen, or move draft objects. Therefore, if you sketch a rectangle
using four lines, you can add dimensions. To get the exact length and width of the rectangle, you would need to
either do this up front, or trim to length the entities after the fact. Once you trim to the length, the entities become
disjointed, and you will need to translate other entities to get it back.
Therefore, I highly recommend being precise up front.
SYMBOL CREATION
Creating a symbol is an extension of 2D Drafting – since most of what you do involves sketching the shape of the
symbol.
The advantage of creating symbols is to create a library of commonly used shapes that appear in the drawing. You
can also scale symbols upon retrieval, so changing the size is easier.
To demonstrate this, we will continue to work in the same drawing, but delete any draft entities in the drawing
already.
Starting a New Symbol
To start a new symbol, you go to Format, Symbol Gallery from the menu bar. This will bring up the following
menu.
The options in this menu do the following:

• Define – Create a new symbol
• Redefine – Change an existing symbol
• Delete – Delete a symbol from the library
• Write – Save the symbol to the library
• Symbol Dir – Define the directory where you will save symbols for this session.
• Show Name – Pick on a symbol in your drawing to identify the symbol name in the library that represents the
symbol.
Symbol Dir
Normally, our symbol library is governed by our Config.pro file, as we saw in Lesson 49 – GTOLS and Symbols.
For the purpose of this training guide, we do not want to write our temporary symbols to this location.
Therefore, we will need to use Symbol Dir to select our current training directory as the location to save any
symbols we create. Click on Symbol Dir, and you will get the following.
Page 33 of 44
We can see that the current directory is our Symbols system folder. Therefore, click on the Working Directory
icon (the one with the little blue diamond in the upper right corner), followed by Open.
Down in the message bar, we see the confirmation that our working directory is now the active symbol library
directory, as shown in the following figure.
Define
We will now define a new symbol. Therefore, click on Define in the menu manager. Down in the message bar, we
are prompted to enter a symbol name. We will enter MY_SYMBOL for the name, and then hit the <ENTER> key
on the keyboard.
The following menu manager appears:
On our working window, it looks as if all the drawing entities and views have disappeared. In reality, a new window
has opened with a blank drawing sheet. In the title bar at the upper left corner of the Pro/ENGINEER interface, we
can see that our symbol is currently active, as shown in the following figure.
We can start to define our symbol in this blank drawing. The location of the symbol on the drawing is not important,
but the shape and size of the symbol is important. We want to create a series of entities that will ultimately allow us
to pick the shape of the symbol when we use it.
We are going to create three possible shapes for this symbol: Rectangle, Oblong and Oval, as shown in the next
figure.
Page 34 of 44
For each of these symbols, we want the ability to show text in the center (as shown above), or not have text. This
text has to be different every time it is used, so it must be variable. In addition, we want the ability to place these
symbols on the drawing without leaders, or with a leader on the left or right side of the symbol.
Sketching The Rectangle
The first thing we are going to do is sketch our rectangle. From a size standpoint, we should consider what is more
critical, the length or the height. We also want to understand what the relationship is between the two.
Why do we care? When we bring in a symbol instance, we have the ability to scale it. Therefore, it makes the most
sense to pick whether the length or the height is going to be the driving force behind the scale. For example, if we
needed to have a 1” long rectangle one time, and a 2.5” rectangle the next, then we should make the length the
driving force behind the size of the rectangle.
If we make the length 1” in our symbol definition, then we can directly scale it to the size we want. If we sketch the
rectangle at 2” in the symbol, we would have to scale it to 0.5 to get a 1” rectangle, for example.
Therefore, we will assume that our rectangle is going to be 4 times longer than it is high. So we want to sketch a
1.0 x 0.25 rectangle on our drawing. Use the tools that we have learned in this lesson to create it, as shown in the
next figure.
Now, before we go any further, we might want to turn on grid lines, and snap to grid. To turn on the grid lines, you
will select View, Draft Grid from the menu bar. This brings up the following menu.
We will click on Show Grid to see the grid lines on the drawing. Currently we see the following.
Page 35 of 44
We can see that the grid is too large to be useful, and the lines don’t sit squarely on the rectangle that we have
sketched. Therefore, we will start by re-sizing the grid. Click on Grid Params, which brings up the following:
We can control the X and Y spacing equally (X&Y Spacing), or set them independently (X Spacing and Y
Spacing). We can also change the Angle of the grid. We will pick on X&Y Spacing, and then enter 0.0625 in the
message bar.
The grid changes to the following.
Clearly, this grid size is better, but the location is not. Therefore, click on Done/Return to get back to the previous
menu. On this menu, click on Origin, and select Vertex as the method to select the origin. Pick on the lower left
corner of the rectangle, and you will see the grid shift. A coordinate system appears at the origin, as shown in the
next figure.
To snap to the gridlines for additional sketching, we will need to go to Sketch, Sketch Preferences, and then click
on the Grid Intersection option to activate it. Click on Close, and now we can start to sketch again.
Variable Text
We are now going to add the text inside the rectangle that will become the variable text in the symbol. If you
remember from Lesson 49, variable text is a text note that has backwards slashes around it. Therefore, we will go
to Insert, Note from the menu bar, which brings up the following menu.
Page 36 of 44
Many of the options are grayed out while in symbol definition mode. We will leave most of the defaults, but we will
change the justification of the text to Center, and then click on Make Note.
For the location of the note, click on the grid intersection at the center of our rectangle. Down in the message bar,
we will enter \TEXT\ for the note. Be sure to use the back slash before and after the word. Click on <ENTER>
twice to finish the note. Our rectangle now looks like the following.
We will want to adjust the text height to make sure it is the correct size for our symbol. We want the text height to
be fixed at 0.125 inches. Therefore, click once on the note to select it, and then right mouse click and select Text
Style. This brings up the following window.
Currently, the text height is being driven by the drawing setup file at 0.12 inches. We will uncheck the Default box
for the height field, and then enter 0.125, as shown in the next figure.
Page 37 of 44
Click on OK, and you will see the text change slightly. We are now ready to create our first grouping of entities.
Group 1 – Rectangle
The grouping functionality for symbol definition is slightly different from what we saw in the 2D Draft Group section
earlier in this lesson. We will pick on Groups in the menu manager. It brings up the following menu.
Click on Create. In the message bar, you are prompted to enter a name for the group. Enter RECTANGLE and
then click on the <ENTER> key. You are now asked to pick the entities to include in this group. Using the Ctrl key,
pick the four sides of the rectangle, and also the text note. Click on the middle mouse button once all of these five
entities have been selected. You will get a confirmation that the group has been created.
Group Attributes
Currently, we are defining groups for the top level. We will define the attributes for this level of groups by going to
Group Attr, which brings up the following menu.
We want to specify whether the groups at this level are exclusive or independent. Exclusive means that only one
option can be selected at any time. If you remember back to when we added a weld symbol, there was a top level
that had two or three choices. Only one choice could be selected from this level. This is an example of Exclusive.
Independent means that we can include more than one option from the list in the symbol instance. In the weld
symbol that we worked with earlier, you remember how we added two different text notes to the same symbol.
These were independent group options at a sub-level.
Page 38 of 44
We will click on Exclusive to ensure that we can only show one of the shapes at any given usage of the symbol.
Click on Done/Return to get back to our original symbol menu.
We will now sketch our oblong shape.
Sketching the Oblong
We can sketch our oblong shape directly on top of the rectangle, but that might get a little confusing. Therefore, we
will sketch the following shape above the rectangle:
Then, we can translate this down to its correct position, as shown in the next figure.
Now, we can click on Groups, Create and enter OBLONG for the group name. When selecting the entities, be
sure you are getting the shorter line on the top and bottom, as well as the two arcs and the text note (we need this
text note in all of our groups).
Sketching the Oval (Ellipse)
Now, we will repeat this same process to create the oval shape. The final sketch should look like the following.
Create another group called OVAL, and include the ellipse and the text note for this group. Click on Done/Return
from the groups menu when done.
Symbol Attributes
Now that we have finished defining the entities and groups that make up our symbol, we are ready to define the
symbol attributes. Therefore, at the SYMBOL EDIT menu, click on Attributes. This brings up the following
window.
Page 39 of 44
This window contains two tabs at the top. The General tab is used to define most of the attributes for the symbol,
while the Var Text tab is used to define the variable text in the symbol.
Allowed Placement Types
On the General tab, the first section is used to define how the symbol will be placed on the drawing. The choices
are:
• Free – The symbol can be placed anywhere on the drawing with no leaders.
• On Entity – The symbol is tied to a geometric entity, such as an edge or vertex on the drawing view.
• Normal to Entity – The symbol will have a leader normal to the entity selected.
• Left Leader – A leader will be on the left side of the symbol.
• Right Leader – A leader will be on the right side of the symbol.
• Radial Leader – A leader will be attached to a circle, and free to travel around the circumference. Since we
don’t have any complete circles in our symbol definition, this option is currently grayed out.
You can select more than one type of placement for a single symbol instance. If you recall, we want to be able to
bring the symbol in with or without a leader, and the leaders should either be on the left or right side of the symbol.
Therefore, we want to pick Free, Left Leader and Right Leader.
For each of these, you will need to pick the location on the symbol where the leader line goes to. The following
figure shows where we would pick for each of these options.
Symbol Instance Height
The next section is used to define the height of the symbol. The choices are:
• Fixed – The symbol height is driven from the original definition, and can not change. I do not recommend
this, because you won’t be able to scale it or change the size later.
• Variable - Drawing Units – The height is driven by the units on the drawing. For example, if the drawing is in
inches, then the height is governed by inch values, even if the model is metric.
• Variable – Model Units – The height is driven by the units of the model. For example, if the model is metric,
and the drawing is in inches, then you will be governing the height in mm.
• Variable – Text Related – You will pick on a text note in the symbol to drive the height. If you later modify
the height of the text, the symbol will grow/shrink accordingly. The unit of height for the text is governed by the
drawing units.
We will pick on Variable – Text Related, and then pick on the “\TEXT\” note in our symbol as the driving text for the
height of the symbol.
Attributes
The last section on this tab defines how the leaders and text behave. The options are:
• Fixed Text Angle – The text can not be rotated in the event the symbol is rotated.
• Allow Elbow – Allows jogs in the leaders if defined.
• Allow Geometry to Mirror – Allows you to mirror the symbol geometry
• Allow Text to Mirror – Allows text in the symbol to mirror when the symbol geometry is mirrored.
Page 40 of 44
• Allow Text to Flip – Allows the text in the symbol to be flipped and rotated to maintain its original orientation
as the symbol is rotated through 90 degree increments.
We will keep the default settings for this section.
Variable Text
Now, we will click on the Var Text tab at the top of the attributes window, and we will see the following.
The left side of this window lists all text notes that it finds that have back slashes around them. In this case, we only
defined one text note.
The other large field is used to pre-define values that are available for the symbol. By default, it put the current text
in the field. Just to see what this does, add the following words to your list of preset values:
Down at the bottom of the window, we can see some check boxes. The first (Preset Values Only) is used to force
people from only choosing from the list of preset values (like the ones that we just entered). If you leave it
unchecked, you can type in whatever you want for the value or pick from a list. We will leave it unchecked.
The other three boxes are used to define the type for the variable text. Currently, any value we put in (regardless of
numeric or alphabetic characters), will be treated as a text string. If we only wanted to use numbers in this field, we
could pick on Integer or Floating Point.
We will leave it alone at Text. The last thing we can do is add any symbols to our list of preset values by clicking on
the Text Symbol button in the lower right corner. This is the same symbol tool we saw when creating notes or
changing the properties of dimensions.
Click on OK once you have completed all of these attribute settings. Click on Done to complete the definition of
this symbol.
Write
Now, we will click on Write to save our symbol to our working directory. If we fail to do this, the symbol will remain
available in this session, but as soon as we exit out of Pro/E it no longer exists.
When you click on Write, you get the following.
This gives you a chance to enter a new directory path to store your symbol, but we will just click on <ENTER> to
accept the current location (which is the one we set earlier). You will get the following confirmation: “Symbol
[C:\Data\Proetrain\Drawing\my_symbol.sym.1] has been stored.”
Here, we can see the full path to the location of the symbol, and the name of the symbol is my_symbol.sym.1.
Page 41 of 44
Using the New Symbol in Our Drawing
Now, we will test out this new symbol that we created by using it in our current drawing (which should now be back
up on the screen). Therefore, go to Insert, Drawing Symbol, Custom. The symbol instance window should
appear with the symbol that we just created. If not, click on your Working Directory icon from the Open window that
appears, and then open the symbol that we just created.
It should look like the following:
We can see that the rectangle version of this symbol is currently active. It is also a good time to point out
something critical. If you remember, we used a 1.0” dimension to define the length of our rectangle. Unfortunately,
the height of the symbol is being driven from the text height (which by default is 0.12 as defined in the drawing
setup file). If you recall, we made the symbol dependent on the text note.
Not a big deal, we can live with this, but you will want to make a mental note that 1) height is the most important
dimension when text is not being used to drive it, and 2) the text height drives it when you do specify this attribute.
We will enter 0.25 for the height of the symbol. For now, we will also leave the placement type as Free.
Click on the Grouping tab, and you will see the following.
You can see the three groups that we created in the symbol. Try picking on each of them to see the shape update
in the right side of this window. You will also notice that we can only select one of these options at a time (based on
the Exclusive group attribute that we defined).
We will select OBLONG for our first symbol instance, and then click on the Variable Text tab, which looks like the
following.
Page 42 of 44
We can see our text note is listed as variable text, and we can also see if we use the pull-down field, that our preset
values are there, as shown in the next figure.
NOTE: The order in which you entered these preset values is the order that shows up here. It does not
automatically sort the words/numbers, so keep that in mind if you want to make a large list of possible values for
your symbol.
We will enter our own names in the field instead of picking from the list, and then click anywhere on the drawing to
place the first symbol. Our first symbol instance is created, and an outline appears immediately for any additional
symbols we want to create, as shown in the next figure.
Go back to the General tab. This time, we will change the placement type from Free to With Leaders. When we
do this, we see the menu for placing the leader. We will use the On Entity and Arrow Head options (that are there
by default), and select on the following edge on the TOP view.
When we do this, we can see a preview of the symbol appear on the drawing.
Page 43 of 44
Click on the middle mouse button to finish the placement for this symbol instance, and you will see it as shown in
the next figure.
Click on OK to complete the definition for these two symbols. Try moving around the symbol with the leader, you
will notice that you can move the symbol to the other side of the leader line, and an elbow appears automatically.
You will also notice that the leader which was on the left, automatically jumps to the right side if the symbol is
moved to the left. The following figure shows this.
Page 1 of 29
Lesson
51
Lesson Objective: In this lesson, we will learn how to create basic tables and show balloons.
TABLES vs. REPORT TABLES

In Pro/ENGINEER Drawing mode, there are two different types of tables that you can create. They both start off
the same way, but a report table takes it to the next level. To clearly define the difference, we will first need to
define some key terms:
Parameter – As we learned in Lesson 34 – Parameters and Relations, a parameter is used to capture data for the
model that can then be used later for different purposes. A good example of a user defined parameter is
PART_NO. This parameter is used to capture the part number of the object. Typically, you would report this
information on the title block in a drawing, and in Bill of Material tables.
Repeat Region – A repeat region is a grouping of table cells that gather information from the model, process it
according to different rules set up by the user, and then reported back to the table in as many rows as it needs to
accomplish the reporting. A good example of a repeat region is one that gathers Bill of Material information from an
assembly. Depending on the type of information gathered, and what you want to output, the table can be as long
Page 2 of 29
as the number of models in the total assembly.
Report Symbol – A report symbol is a special parameter used in repeat regions. It represents a full path to the
location where data is stored. For example, the PART_NO parameter that we talked about earlier is typically stored
in the model (part and assembly files). When the repeat region wants to extract this information from an assembly,
the first thing it needs to know is how to get to this parameter. In plain English, one might say that the PART_NO
parameter resides in the model which is a member of the assembly. In report symbol language, this would look like
the following:
asm.mbr.part_no
Where asm represents Assembly, mbr represents Member, and part_no is the parameter that we are looking for.
There are hundreds of possible report symbol paths that can be used to pull data from models of varying types.
So, if you think back to a Bill of Materials table, as the repeat region starts to gather information, it goes from one
component of the assembly to the next, gathering the value of Part_No for each model it encounters. Some models
are used more than once (screws, for example), so the value that it finds is duplicated, but counted. When it is
done gathering the values, it processes them. We might set up a rule that we don’t want to have duplicate rows,
therefore, when the output is created, for every value of Part_No that is identical, it tries to combine them into a
single row of the table.
The more report symbols you have reported in your table (in separate columns), the better the chances are that
there will be fewer identical rows created. This helps in calculating quantities. We will see all of this in more detail
as we create a bill of material table in an upcoming example.
CREATING A TABLE
Since Report Tables and regular Tables start off the same, the first thing we’ll learn is how to create a table.
Therefore, we will open up the 51_BOM.drw drawing located in our working directory. It looks like the following.
This is an assembly drawing (the model is 51_BOM.asm). There are two views. Both of these are general views.
One of them is showing an exploded state that was created in the assembly. The other is a scaled isometric view
to show what the assembly looks like together.
We are going to be creating a Bill of Materials table in the lower right of this drawing.
Building Rows and Columns
To start a table, we will go to Table, Insert, Table in the menu bar. This will bring up the following menu.
Page 3 of 29
At the top, we have two options: Descending and Ascending. Descending means that the table is typically read
from top to bottom, and any repeat regions that may expand in this table will expand downwards. Ascending
means that the table is typically read bottom-up, and any repeat regions will expand upwards.
Our BOM tables are typically Ascending, because they start just above the title block, and expand upwards. For the
purpose of this training guide, we will use the default of Descending.
The next section has two options as well: Rightward and Leftward. Rightward means that we will read from left to
right, and any two-dimensional repeat regions will expand out to the right. Leftward means that we will read from
right to left, and any two-dimensional repeat regions will expand out to the left. We will talk about two-dimensional
repeat regions later in this lesson. For now, we will keep the default of Rightward.
The third section from the top contains two options also. These are: By Num Chars and By Length. By Num
Chars means that the width and height of the cells we create will be based off of the number of characters of text
that will fit exactly in that space. By Length means that we will specify the actual length in the drawing units we
use. For example, we may want a cell to be 1.5” wide, and .25” tall.
The choice here really doesn’t matter, because most of the time we will adjust the actual width and height of the
cells after the fact. I do find it easier to use By Num Chars when defining the table initially, because there is fewer
input needed. Therefore, we will keep this default option.
We are now asked to start the upper left corner of the table (because of Descending, Rightward options). We will
pick out on the drawing to the right of the exploded view, and below the scaled general view.
Once we pick the location for the upper left corner, we see the following.
The numbers across the top of this figure indicate the number of characters. Each zero represents the next “tens”
of characters. The single vertical line at the left of this figure represents the left border of the first cell being created,
The purpose here is to pick on the number that represents the number of characters you want for the width of the
column. Personally, I pick at about the “10” location for each column I want to add just to do it fast. Therefore, we
will do the same. Pick on the first 0 (or close to it) that you see in the line of numbers. When we do, we see the
Page 4 of 29
following.
From this figure, we can see that we have defined our first column (left and right border). Every “0” that we pick on
from here adds one more column. We want to have three columns in our table, therefore we will pick on the first 0
in this list, and then the first 0 of the next list of numbers, until we see the following.
When we are done defining columns, we click on the middle mouse button. This will cause the table definition to
switch over to defining rows, as shown in the next figure.
Again, the numbers going down in the list represent the number of characters for the row height. I like to pick on
the 3 for each row I want to add. We will add three rows, therefore, pick on 3 a total of three times to get the
following.
We will click on the middle mouse button to finish defining rows once we have three created. This will give us the
table shown in the next figure.
We are now ready to start setting up the table.
Selecting Table Entities
We are going to take a moment to learn about selecting a table or selecting rows, columns or cells. Start by clicking
anywhere outside the table to make sure it is completely unselected. Then, bring your mouse cursor just outside
the upper left corner of the table. When you do this, you should see the entire table highlight in blue, and if you wait
a few seconds, a tool tip will appear, indicating that you are previewing the entire table, as shown in the next figure.
Page 5 of 29
Selecting now will select the entire table, and then you would have the ability to perform any operation that can be
done on the table as a whole, such as move or delete the table, rotate it, change the height and width of all cells
simultaneously, etc.
This works for any of the corners, just by bringing your mouse to the corner itself. If you place your mouse to the
left or right of any row in the table, you will see the entire row highlight, as shown in the next figure. NOTE: Your
mouse must be outside of the table, or on the outer edge of that row.
If you place your mouse just over or just below any column in the table, that column will highlight, as shown in the
next figure.
Finally, if you place your mouse cursor into the middle of any cell, just that cell highlights, as shown in the next
figure.
Clicking with the left mouse button once you see the entity highlight will select that entity, whether it is the entire
table, the row, the column or the cell. To select multiple rows, columns or cells, use the Ctrl key.
Merge Cells
Before we start adding any text to the table, we should perform any merge cell operations. We want to merge all of
the cells in the top row into a single cell. Therefore, we are going to select all three cells using the Ctrl key to do
this. Once you have all three cells selected, go to Table, Merge Cells. Click outside of the table, and you will see
the following.
Page 6 of 29
We are now ready to add the static text to the table.
Entering Text (Static)
Static text is text that is not part of a repeat region. Basically, all text not in a repeat region is going to be static
text. To add text to a table cell, double-click on that cell, which brings up the following properties window.
We will type in the following text in the large field provided: BILL OF MATERIALS, as shown in the next figure.
Next, click on the Text Style tab at the top. When the text style window opens, make the following changes:
• Font = filled
• Text height = 0.1875
• Width Factor = 1.0
• Horizontal Justification = Center
• Vertical Justification = Middle
The following figure shows what this window should look like.
Page 7 of 29
To see what the text will look like, click on the Preview button. Click on OK to complete this text. Our table now
looks like the following:
We will repeat this process to add text to each of the cells in the middle row. The only text style change that we
have to make for each cell is:
• Horizontal Justification = Center
• Vertical Justification = Middle
When done, your table now looks like the following.
Obviously our first and third columns are not wide enough – even for the titles. We could fix this right now, but we
still don’t know how much room our repeat region is going to need once it fills in with data, so it really is up to you
whether you want to fix it now, or wait until later.
For practice, we will change it now, and probably again later. To adjust the width of the first column, we first select
the entire column (as discussed in the section Selecting Table Entities earlier). Once we have the column selected,
we right click and select Width. This brings up the following window.
Page 8 of 29
We can see that the Row fields are currently grayed out, because we selected a column. We can change the width
in the number of characters (currently 9) or the actual length (1.248” currently). So you see, when we first started
creating the table, it was easier to just pick random cell widths using By Num Char, because we can come in here
later and specify exactly what we want.
We will change the width of the column using the drawing units field with a value of 1.5”, and then click on OK. Our
table updates as follows.
Repeat this for the third column, and use a width of 3.0”. The table will look like the following after this change.
The only other change I might make at this time is to change the height of the last row (bottom) to 1 Character. To
do this, select the entire row, right click and select Height. This will bring up the following window.
This time, since we only picked a row, the column fields are inactive. We will change the 2.0 to 1.0. Click on OK,
and you will have the following table.
Page 9 of 29
We are now ready to create a repeat region. Save this drawing first.
REPEAT REGIONS
Not all tables that you create will have repeat regions. In fact, most of the tables you create may only have static
text in them. The most common tables with repeat regions that I have created or have seen created are:
• Bill of Material Tables
• Pipe/Cable Cut-Length Tables
• Part Parameter Tables
• Family Table Driven Tables (Two-Dimensional)
• Miscellaneous Manufacturing-Mode Tables
By contrast, all of the tables in the drawing formats are tables with static text. Some of the static text actually pulls
value from part, assembly or drawing parameters, but does not belong to a repeat region.
Creating A Repeat Region
There are two ways to create a repeat region. The first is to select a row, and then right click and select Add
Repeat Region. The second method is to go to Table, Repeat Region, and then select Add from the menu
manager that appears.
We will do the latter of these two, since most of the other Repeat Region functionality is through the menu
manager. Therefore, go to Table, Repeat Region. This brings up the following menu.
To add a repeat region to a table that currently does not have one, we would use Add. when we click on this
option, we get the following sub-menu:
Simple is used to create most repeat regions. Two-D is only used to create two-dimensional repeat regions. We
will have a completely different section devoted to two-dimensional repeat regions, so for now, we will click on
Simple (which is already the default).
In the message bar, we get the following prompt: “Locate corners of the region.” We are supposed to pick the first
and last cells that make up the region in a row. Therefore, we will click on the following.
Page 10 of 29
NOTE: You do not need to hold down the Ctrl key for this. When you select both cells, the only way you’ll know
that you successfully created the region will be the following message bar statement: “Region has been
successfully created.”
To verify that a region exists, we will go to the TBL MANAGER table, and select on the Switch Syms command. If
we have a repeat region in our table, the region will outline in green, as shown in the next figure.
The Switch Syms command is used to let you get back to the report symbol names once you add them to the table
to see what they are. We will see this soon. For now, just remember that it is the way to see into the repeat
region. We will click on Switch Syms once more to go back to the table view (the green outline should disappear).
Removing Repeat Regions
Had we needed to remove a repeat region from our table, you would go to Table, Repeat Region, and then select
Remove from the menu manager. We will leave our repeat region in our table.
Adding Report Symbols
The method to add a report symbol to our repeat region cell is the same as entering static text, but the result is
quite different. Therefore, double click in the first cell of the repeat region. When we do this, we see the following.
The way this works is that you select a category for the first screen. For example, if you were adding a parameter
from the model to fill in a Bill of Materials table, (PART_NO, for example), you would select asm in this first screen.
Once you select a category, the screen updates to show only additional sub-categories that are related to the first
one you picked. We will pick on asm first, and our window updates as follows.
Page 11 of 29
On this window, we can see three options. The first one, labeled UP, takes you back to the previous screen (in
case you made a mistake). We then have mbr and name to choose from.
One other thing to point out is that one of the options has three dots (periods) following it, while the other one does
not. Any symbol that has dots means that there are further sub-options for this selection. In this case, name does
not go any further. In case you are wondering, asm.name would report back the name of the top level assembly,
which for a bill of materials table doesn’t do much for us.
Therefore, we will click on mbr…, which brings up the next set of options.
We can see that there are a lot of options at the assembly member level. There are a few to point out here. First,
the name option doesn’t go any further. Asm.mbr.name will give back the actual file name for the model in the
assembly. This might be useful if the name used for the part is the same as the part number parameter. Often, this
is not the case (especially for inseperable assemblies).
Type also does not go any further. Asm.mbr.type would give back the type of file it is (PART, ASSEMBLY, BULK-
ITEM, etc.)
The third one that doesn’t go any further is User Defined. User Defined allows you to type in a value for the last
symbol. This is what we use for capturing model parameters (PART_NO, for example). Therefore, if we select on
User Defined, the message bar prompts for the name of the symbol text we want to enter. We will type in
PART_NO, as shown in the next figure.
When we click on the <ENTER> key, we will see the following in our table.
We will continue this same process by double-clicking on the last two cells and entering the following:
• Second cell – rpt.qty
• Last cell – asm.mbr.TITLE (NOTE: Use the User Defined option, and type in TITLE)
Page 12 of 29
Rpt.qty will give us the reported quantity. We will describe how this works soon. asm.mbr.TITLE will give us the
description of the part by using the TITLE parameter in the model. The table should look like the following when
these two cells are done.
Don’t worry about the fact that the first report symbol (asm.mbr.PART_NO) doesn’t completely fit inside the cell.
The actual value that is reported from the parameter is what we care about, not the entire path to that value.
To see the actual values from the model, we need to update the repeat region. To do this, go to Table, Repeat
Region, Update Tables. When we do this, we see the following.
Do you know what is going on here? Unfortunately, the PART_NO and TITLE parameters were never filled in for
the models. Therefore, their default values are reporting, and are all identical. We have no idea which row
represents what component on the assembly.
This is why it is critical to fill in parameter information in the model. Therefore, we will have to go do this.
MODIFYING PARAMETERS
The easiest, and fastest way to do this will be to open up the assembly model itself. Once you have the
51_BOM.asm assembly open, we are going to focus on the model tree. At the top of the model tree, pick on
Settings, Tree Columns, as shown in the next figure.
This brings up the following window.
Page 13 of 29
Using the Type pull-down menu, select Model Params, and then add PART_NO and TITLE to the list on the left,
Click on OK, and your model tree will update as follows.
Now, we can click on the value in the PART_NO and TITLE columns and edit the value. We will type in the
following parameter values for each part and the top level assembly.
Save the assembly, and return to the drawing, which should now show the updated table, as we can see in the next
Page 14 of 29
figure.
Now we can see that our DESCRIPTION column is not wide enough to accommodate the values. We will change
the width of this column to 4.0 inches, and our table now looks like the following.
We are getting close to a completed table. There are some attributes we should set to get the table to be
completed.
Repeat Region Attributes
Go to Table, Repeat Region, Attributes, and pick on the repeat region in the table. This brings up the following
menu.
In the first section, we see the following options:

• Duplicates – Allows multiple rows with the same data to exist. This is why we see several rows that look
identical to each other. Unfortunately, Duplicates will not show a quantity in the quantity column (which is why
we don’t see any right now).
• No Duplicates – Does not allow duplicate rows to exist in the table. For any two or more rows that are the
same, the repeat region will calculate the total number of these rows and report that quantity in the second
column.
• No Dup/Level – Does not allow duplicate rows to exist for each level of the assembly. This option only works
if you have your level reporting set to Recursive.
The second section is used to identify the level of the assembly reported. The options are:
• Recursive – Shows all levels of the assembly, including the assembly itself. Sub-assemblies will show all of
their components on the table as well.
Page 15 of 29
• Flat – Only reports the items at the top level of the current assembly.
The next option, Min Repeats, allows you to specify the minimum number of repetitious rows allowed in the repeat
region. The default is 1, which will allow for blank lines to appear if data is missing from certain components. I
recommend keeping this setting at 1 unless you have an advanced table function you are trying to work with that
requires the number to be set to something else.
The following section deals with indexing numbers. The options are:
• Start Index – Allows you to specify the number that the repeat region starts at when indexing rows.
• No Start Idx – Always starts the numbering at “1”.
In the next section, we see the following two BOM Balloon options:
• Bln By Part - When you suppress or replace a component to which a BOM balloon is attached, this command
reattaches the balloon to another placement of the same part. If no other copy of the part exists in the
assembly, then the BOM balloon disappears from the drawing.
• Bln By Comp – Specifies that simple BOM balloons reattach themselves to whatever component replaced
the one that originally owned the BOM balloon.
The last section deals with Electrical Cable reporting. Since we don’t use this module, we will not go over this
section.
For our table, we will set the attributes to No Duplicates, Flat, and Bln By Part. When we select these options,
and then click on Done/Return, the table updates to the following.
We can see the quantity field has now updated to show the quantities. Again, keep in mind that the quantity field
(rpt.qty), will report the total number of rows that contain the identical information. If we were to change the
PART_NO parameter and TITLE parameter values for the 51_A component to match those of the 51_B component,
then we would see one row with a quantity of 5 instead of 4. So this quantity is only as accurate as your parameter
information.
The good news is that we can assemble in two models that (for one reason or another) had to be modeled as
separate parts but they represent the same part. By making their parameter information identical, the BOM table
will report 2 for the quantity instead of two separate lines.
To go back and see the report symbols that were used in this table, we would click on Switch Syms again, and we
would see the following.
We can still see all three rows, but only the first row shows values (the report symbols that we used). Click on
Switch Syms again to get back to the parameter values.
ADDING ROWS/COLUMNS
One column that we typically show in BOM tables is an indexing number that is used to correlate to BOM balloons.
Unfortunately, we do not have one in our table right now.
To add a column to our table, we go to Table, Insert, Column, and then pick close to the side of the cell where we
want to add the column. If we pick toward the left side, it adds a column before the one we picked in. If we pick
Page 16 of 29
toward the right side, it adds a column after the one we picked in.
The index column typically comes first in the table, so we would want to pick in the following location.
When we do this, a column is indeed added to our table, as shown in the next figure.
Unfortunately, if we use the Switch Syms command, we can see that our repeat region was not expanded into the
new column.
Therefore, we will delete this column that we just added. Click on Done from the repeat region menu. Select this
column, and then hit the delete key. We get the following warning.
You will get this message because a repeat region exists in the table, not because we actually do span a repeat
region. So we will click on Yes, and our column is now gone.
Therefore, we will have to do something else to get the column into the table. We will go to Table, Insert, Column
again, and this time pick on the following location.
Page 17 of 29
The column is now added in between PART NUMBER and QTY, as shown in the next figure.
The good news is that our repeat region does span the entire table, and we can now cut and paste the text from the
first column into the second. To do this, we will click once on the cell containing the static text “PART NUMBER”.
While this cell is highlighted, click on Ctrl-C (Edit, Copy) and then click into the empty cell to the right of it, and
press Ctrl-V (Edit, Paste). The text appears in the second cell, as shown below.
We will do the same for the report symbol in the next row, giving us the following.
Now, we can go in and edit the text style to justify them like the originals, as we can see in the next figure.
The last thing we need to do is edit the text in the first column. For both cells, double-click and enter the
appropriate values: INDEX for the static text cell, and rpt.index for the repeat region report sym cell. The following
figure shows the table when changed.
Page 18 of 29
Now, go back to Table, Repeat Region, Switch Syms, which will give us the following.
On your own, center justify the report symbols for the INDEX and QTY columns. HINT: You only need to do it for
the cell that contains the report symbol, and all other filled in cells will get the same result. The table will look like
the following with the justification.
At this time, our drawing should now have a completed bill of material table, as shown in the next figure.
Save the drawing.
BOM BALLOONS
Page 19 of 29
In Drawing mode, there are two types of balloons you can show/create. On the drawing toolbar, there is a balloon
note. This is nothing more than a balloon symbol with variable text that you manually input.
The other type is tied to repeat regions, and fills in automatically from the BOM table. You can show these balloons
on the views automatically, just like dimensions, and then clean them up.
I always recommend using the automatic balloons for linking to BOM tables instead of creating balloon notes.
Showing BOM Balloons
We are going to continue to work with the same drawing (51_BOM.drw). From the menu bar, select Table, BOM
Balloons. This brings up the following menu.
At this time, we need to identify what type of balloon we want to use. There are three choices:
• Simple – Creates a circular balloon that only lists the index number. You have the ability to report any report
symbol in the balloon, but no quantity is shown.
• With Qty – Creates a circular balloon that lists the index number and quantity. The index number can be
replaced with any other report symbols in your table.
• Custom – Can use any custom symbol you have defined as long as it as either \index\ or \index\ and \qty\
defined as variable text. This would allow you to create a balloon that was oblong in shape, or oval, or a star,
etc.
To start, we will select Simple, and then pick on the repeat region in the table. NOTE: You need to pick what type
of balloon you are going to use BEFORE you select the repeat region. If you pick the repeat region first, it takes
whatever value is highlighted in the bottom section (which is usually Simple by default).
Now that we have picked the repeat region, the rest of the menu options become available, as shown in the next
figure.
We will now click on Create Balloon, which brings up the next menu.
Page 20 of 29
We can show balloons by view, by component, or by component and view, or we can simply show all balloons.
Since we will only have three balloons (one for each row in the BOM table), we will click on Show All. When we do
this, the three balloons appear on the drawing, as shown in the next figure.
We can see that the shape is a circle, and there is an indexing number that corresponds directly with the index
number in the BOM table. These balloons are directly linked to the table. If we were to sort the table differently
from how it is now, the index numbers would change to match the table.
Edit Attachment for Balloons
By default, the balloons are going to appear on the drawing view where you can clearly see the component that the
balloon references. In this case, all three balloons went to the larger exploded view – which is perfect for what we
need.
The default attachment type is a leader with an arrow head that points to an edge on the component that represents
the row the balloon is tied to. You can not change a balloon reference to point to a different component than what it
currently belongs to. This is not true with balloon notes, which have no intelligence.
For example, component “1” and component “3” only exist once in the assembly. The balloons for these can only
touch edges or surfaces for the single models in the drawing view.
Page 21 of 29
Component “2” however is used four times in the assembly. Therefore, it could be attached to any one of the four
components on the drawing view.
We will show how to change the entity to which the balloon references. To do this, first select the balloon with the
“2” in it. When it highlights in red, use the right mouse button to select Edit Attachment. This is shown in the next
figure.
This will bring up a familiar menu that we saw when placing notes on the drawing.
We will select the On Surface and Filled Dot options, as shown above, and then pick out in the middle of the
surface that the balloon is currently touching. Click on Done/Return, and refresh your window to see the following.
Page 22 of 29
Typically, you should use an arrow head when pointing to an edge, axis, vertex, or datum curve. Use a filled dot
when pointing out in the middle of a surface.
Clear Region
If you want to remove all balloons from a drawing, the easiest, and preferred method is to clear the region. We are
not going to do this, but if you did want to – you would use Table, BOM Balloons, Clear Region, and then pick on
the repeat region. You will get a prompt to clear the region.
Change Type
We want to use a With Qty balloon instead of a simple. To change all balloons over to a different type, we use
Table, BOM Balloons, Change Type, and then pick on the repeat region. This brings back up the menu with the
three types: Simple, With Qty, and Custom.
We will pick on With Qty, followed by Done/Return. The balloons will change to look like the following.
In this symbol, there are two numbers. The number on top is the index number. The number on the bottom is the
quantity. We can see that the balloon for item “2” shows a quantity of “4”.
Split
When you have quantity balloons, any balloon that is reporting more than a quantity of “1” can be split up. This is
extremely common for fasteners or library-type items that may be used all over your assembly, and in sub-
assemblies.
We will demonstrate this with a simple example. We can split up the quantity balloon for component “2”, because
our quantity is “4”. We can not split up the balloon for components “1” or “3”, because they only have a quantity of
1.
To split the balloon, go to Table, BOM Balloons, Split, and then pick on the balloon to split. We will pick on the
component “2” balloon. When we do this, we get the following prompt in the message bar: “Enter amount [Quit]”.
We will enter 1 and then hit the <ENTER> key.
We are now asked to pick the location on a different instance of this component, and we will pick in the following
location.
Page 23 of 29
The surface will become selected, and we will use the middle mouse button to locate the balloon out to the location
where the “Select Here” note is in the figure above. Our completed balloon is shown in the next figure.
We can see that the new balloon contains only the quantity that we specified (1), which is subtracted from the
original balloon (4-1=3). We can now edit the attachment for this new balloon to select Filled Dot, to get the
following.
Page 24 of 29
Save the drawing.
Merge
The opposite of splitting up a balloon is to merge a balloon. When you merge two quantity balloons together one of
two things will happen:
• If the two balloons represent the same component, a single balloon will result with the sum of the two
quantities.
• If the two balloons represent different components, the one that is merging with the other will attach itself to
the outside of the other, and its leader will disappear.
We will demonstrate both of these.
Same Component Merge
We will start by going to Table, BOM Balloons, Merge. In the message bar, we get the following prompt: “Select
quantity balloon to be merged.” We will pick on the component “2” balloon that has a quantity of “1”. Once we pick
this, we get the following prompt: “Select quantity balloon to be merged onto.” We will pick on the other component
“2” balloon with a quantity of “3”. When we do this, only one balloon remains, with a quantity of “4”, as shown in the
next figure.
Page 25 of 29
Different Component Merge
Now, we will go to Table, BOM Balloons, Merge, and for the first balloon, pick on the component “3” balloon. For
the second balloon, pick on the component “1” balloon. We will get the following result.
We can see that the component “3” balloon attached itself to the side of the component “1” balloon. If we drag
around the “1” balloon, “3” moves with it.
When do you typically use something like this? Suppose you are mounting a plate that gets fastened down with
four hex head machine screws, four lock washers, four flat washers, and four lock nuts. Instead of showing
balloons for the plate, the screw, the washer, the lock washer, and the nut, having leaders going all over the place,
it is cleaner to show the balloon for the plate with the leader, and then merge the rest of the balloons to this one.
Doing this sort of “implies” that the hardware is tied to the plate, and also helps in the assembly of the plate.
Another good usage is if it is part of a kit that came with these different (but separate) components. By merging the
balloons together, you can imply that they are all together, possibly even before they are assembled together into
the top level assembly.
TWO-DIMENSIONAL REPEAT REGIONS

Page 26 of 29
In this section, we will learn about two-dimensional repeat regions. If you recall from our repeat region tables
before, our regions expanded in a single direction. A 2D Repeat region expands in two directions. The most
common type of 2D repeat region is a family table driven table.
To demonstrate this, we will open up the 2D_Rpt_Region.drw drawing, which initially looks like the following.
This drawing will be a tabulated drawing for a family table of steel blocks of varying sizes. As we learned in Lesson
35 – Family Tables, there is some preparation that is done to the model to get it ready for a family table.
This model has three dimensions: LENGTH, WIDTH, and HEIGHT. It also has parameters. Our family table has all
of these dimensions as varying items, and we also have the TITLE parameter to capture the different descriptions
for the individual sizes.
We went ahead and modified the dimension symbol names to their respective titles (LENGTH, WIDTH, and
HEIGHT). We then created the family table and added these three dimensions, followed by the TITLE parameter.
The family table was then verified to make sure all instances are working.
On the drawing, we added two views, and we are showing the dimensions for the block. We went into the
properties for these dimensions, and changed the display from “@D”, which displays dimensional values, to @S,
which displays the symbolic name for the dimension. That is why you can see “LENGTH”, “WIDTH” and “HEIGHT”
on the drawing views.
Then, we created a simple 2-column, 3-row table, and merged the two cells together in the first row. We added
some static text in the first row, and in the first cell of the second row. The last thing that was done was to justify
the text in the cells. I took the liberty of adjusting the text justification in the empty cells as well, because I know
what the final result will look like, and I wanted to clean it up ahead of time.
Creating the 2D Repeat Region
We will now go to Table, Repeat Region, Add. In the lower section of the menu manager, we will select Two-D.
We get the following prompt in the message bar: “Locate corners of the outer boundary of the two-dimensional
region.”
We will pick on two cells that define the upper left corner and lower right corner of the region we are creating.
Therefore pick the cells in this order:
Page 27 of 29
NOTE: If your table were ascending and/or leftward, the order of selecting the corners would be different.
Once we pick the second cell, we get the following prompt: “Select a cell to set the upper border of the row &
column subregions.” This time, we have to pick the cell that is going to be expanding in two directions
simultaneously. If you imagine that the last cell in the second row only expands to the right, and the first cell in the
third row only expands down, then the cell in the lower right corner of the table (the one that is labeled “Pick
Second” in the figure above) is the one that expands both down and to the right.
Therefore, we will pick on the cell in the lower right corner of the table. When we do this, we get the following
confirmation: “Region has been successfully created.” Click on Done to complete the definition of this region.
We will now go to Table, Repeat Region, Switch Syms, and we see the following.
We can see a single green rectangle that goes around all four cells. Then, we have a rectangle that just goes
through the last row, and another rectangle that goes through the last column.
We will now add our report symbols.
Report Symbols
Double-click on the second cell in the second row, and use the following report symbol path:
fam.inst.param.name, as shown in the next figure.
This report symbol will take the parameter name from the family table instances (such as LENGTH, WIDTH,
HEIGHT and TITLE) and add them as columns to the table. Notice how this text is already centered and is in a
bold (filled) style?
Now, double-click on the first cell in the last row, and add fam.inst.name to this cell, as shown in the next figure.
This report symbol will show the family table instance names and report them as rows in the family table. Again, we
have already left justified this text, and made it bold.
Page 28 of 29
The last cell will contain the fam.inst.param.value report symbol, as shown in the next figure.
This report symbol will show the value for the parameter (LENGTH, for example) for each instance in the family
table. Therefore, this will report as the columns are added, and as the rows are added.
If we now go to Table, Repeat Region, Switch Syms, we will see our expanded table.
There are a few things to point out that we will need to address. The first is that our header row isn’t merged all the
way across. Therefore, we will need to pick on each cell (while holding down the Ctrl key), and then go to Table,
Merge Cells. This will fix this, as shown in the next figure.
The second thing to point out is that all of our columns (starting with the HEIGHT column) are all the same length.
We can not change this. Because the original table didn’t have all of these columns, it takes its width from the last
one in the repeat region. We had to make the column wide enough to accommodate the TITLE column, which
meant that all the rest of our cells are large compared to their data.
The last thing to note is that the columns (starting with HEIGHT) are in alphabetic order. This is okay, except that
we might want to show the WIDTH right after the other dimensional columns. When we create our family table, we
add dimensions and parameters in a particular order (or at least we should). The order in the family table itself can
be shown on the drawing by going to Table, Repeat Region, Sort Regions, and then pick on the repeat region.
This brings up the following menu.
Page 29 of 29
To create your own sorting, you would click on Add and then define the type of sort (ascending or descending), and
then pick on the cell to sort by. There is a Default Sort, which is already selected. This default sort is what is
currently controlling our table. We also can see an option called No Default, which will show the table columns in
the same order as they appeared in the family table itself. We will click on this option, followed by Done, which will
make our table appear the way we want it.
LESSON SUMMARY
Tables are used frequently in drawing mode, especially for assembly drawings where Bills of Materials are
common. Take advantage of repeat regions to make your tables dynamic.
You can save out your tables and retrieve them in later. The report symbols in the tables will automatically read
from whatever model is currently active at the time the table is created or updated.
Use BOM Balloons in conjunction with BOM Tables to get the maximum automation out of your drawings.
There is a lot more functionality with Report Tables and Balloons that wasn’t covered in this fundamentals course.
Feel free to contact your CAD Administrator to learn more.
EXERCISES
None
Page 1 of 4
Lesson
52
Lesson Objective: In this lesson, we will learn how to add additional drawing sheets, and finalize the
drawing.
MULTI-SHEET DRAWINGS
Most of the drawings we create are multi-sheet drawings. There just isn’t enough room on one sheet for the
drawing format, BOM Tables (for assemblies), revision history blocks that grow over time, and all of the views,
dimensions, notes, symbols and balloons necessary to detail out the drawings.
You can create drawings with as many sheets as you need to clearly define your product. As you have learned
over the last 10 lessons, it is easy to add views, show/create dimensions, move those dimensions around to other
views, create geometric tolerances, etc. It is often easier to do these steps on one sheet and then move views
(completely detailed) to their final residence – even if that means it is five sheets into the drawing.
Therefore, we will look at a drawing example to learn how to add sheets and move views to other sheets.
Adding Sheets
Page 2 of 4
To demonstrate this, we will open up the drawing entitled Multi_Sheet.drw, which currently has one sheet with
many views that are detailed. A lot of these views reside outside of the boundary of the first sheet. The following
figure shows this drawing currently.
Most of the views that are outside of the sheet boundary are detailed or sectioned views. There is an auxiliary view
as well. In preparation for moving the auxiliary to a different sheet, view arrows have been shown, and a view note
is currently related to the view to indicate which view it is. This is a good practice to get into, because otherwise,
someone may not understand how the auxiliary view was projected.
The first step is to add an additional sheet. Therefore, go to Insert, Sheet. A new drawing sheet is added to the
drawing. Notice how the drawing format is different for the second sheet. All other sheets added will use this
format.
At the right end of the drawing toolbar, use the up or down arrows to switch back to sheet 1. Back on sheet 1, we
will use the Ctrl key and select all of the drawing views that are outside of the border. Once all are selected, go to
Edit, Move Item to Sheet. In the message bar, you will see the following prompt: “Destination sheet number (you
can start a new sheet) [Quit].” We will enter 2 in this field, and then press <ENTER>. When we do this, we are
placed back into sheet 2, and we can see the views where they were previously.
Page 3 of 4
We will now move these views into the border for the second sheet, as shown in the next figure.
Save this drawing.
FINALIZING THE DRAWING

The biggest thing you can do to make sure your drawing is ready to go is to make sure your parameters are filled in
completely. You can tell by looking at your title blocks, revision history block, and drawing margin blocks to ensure
the data is accurate.
Check your weight on your drawing and make sure it is reporting the correct mass. If not, you may have to adjust
your density (if you hadn’t already).
If you use more than one model for your drawing, then make sure the active model is the primary model for your
drawing.
Be sure all of your views have been regenerated and refreshed, and ensure your layer status is set to blank the
necessary items. This is critical, because if you just turn off the display of datums on your computer, the next
person might not, and they will see screen clutter.
LESSON SUMMARY
Add additional sheets to your drawing as necessary to fit your drawing views clearly. It is easier to detail your views
Page 1 of 10
Lesson
53
Lesson Objective: In this lesson, we will learn about some additional miscellaneous system functions,
such as the configuration files, model setup, feature operations, color and appearance, model player,
cosmetic sketches, analyses and how to obtain floating modules.
CONFIG.PRO
As we have mentioned throughout this guide, there is a configuration file that drives the behavior of
Pro/ENGINEER. This file is called Config.pro. When you launch Pro/ENGINEER, the software automatically
reads in this file from two locations, in the following order:
• Loadpoint\text Directory (C:\ptc\proewf2\text, for example)
• Start-In Directory (C:\Data\proewf2, for example)
If you launch from a batch file, as we typically do, a global config.pro file gets copied to the first location listed
above. This file may get updated periodically to ensure consistency throughout the user base.
If you choose to add mapkeys, or other options to your environment, you are encouraged to create a brand new,
blank config.pro in the second location.
IMPORTANT: Do NOT simply copy the one from the first location to the second location, and then make changes.
Page 2 of 10
The reason for this is because any option that is listed in the first file will be overwritten by the second file if it
contains that same option. For example, there is a bell that beeps every time you execute a command in Pro/E.
We turn this bell off. If the global config.pro as the option BELL No, and the one in the start in directory has BELL
Yes, then the bell will always be on.
This might seem trivial, but if we change a global setting because of potential issues that we have seen in the
software, and your start-in config was a copy of the global before the change was made, then the net effect will be
that the change was never made for your computer.
To access the Config.pro file options, go to Tools, Options. You will see the settings that are currently read into
your session. If you make any changes, it automatically saves it to the location indicated in the upper left corner. In
addition, a Session.pro file is created that only lists the changed options.
CONFIG.WIN
There is a second configuration file that defines the look of the tool. This is called Config.win. The Config.win file
is used to define what icons you see in the different modes, the location of model trees, dashboards, browser
settings, etc. There is a global config.win file as well, and I recommend using it.
To access the Config.win file options, go to Tools, Customize Screen. If you need assistance in customizing one
of these files, please see your CAD Administrator.
MODEL SETUP (Units, Density, etc.)

To get to some setup options for the model, go to Edit, Setup from the menu bar. You will get the following menu.
Units
When you select Units you will get the following window.
Page 3 of 10
The red arrow and highlighted row show you what unit is currently set. We would pick on the units that we wanted
to change it to, and then click on Set. This brings up another window, which is shown at the top of the next page.
You have two options, which are:

• Convert Dimensions – This will keep the overall size of the geometry the same, and do a straight
conversion on the numbers. For example, suppose you had a cube that was 1.0 inches in size. If you use
this option, the cube will still be 1.0 inch in size, but if you were to edit the feature, you would see 25.4 if you
switched to millimeters.
• Interpret Dimensions – This does the reverse. This keeps the dimension value the same, and turns it
into a different unit. In the same example, the 1 inch cube would become a 1 millimeter cube with this
option, since the value of 1.0 stayed the same.
Density (Mass Property)
To set the density for the part, pick on the Mass Props menu choice. It brings up the following window.
FEATURE OPERATIONS (Copy, Group, etc.)

When you select Edit, Feature Operations you get the following menu.
Page 4 of 10
Copy
Use this command to copy any solid feature by either translation, rotation or mirroring about a selected plane. This
is the only way to mirror a solid feature. To mirror, click on this command, then pick the feature(s) to be copied.
You will get the choice to make the copy dependent on the original for size and shape, or make it independent so
you can modify it separately. Once you have picked the feature(s), click on Done, then pick the mirroring plane or
planar surface. The feature will be mirrored.
Group
When you click on this command, you will get a File Open window to go out and try to retrieve a user defined
group. In the menus, you will select Local Group, and then enter a name for the group in the message window.
After you enter a name for the group, pick on the features in the model tree that are going to be grouped together.
The features should be modeled sequentially. To ungroup, right mouse click on the group in the model tree and
select Ungroup.
Reorder
You can and should reorder in the model tree by dragging the feature up or down to its new place. If you have a lot
of features, you can save some dragging time by going straight to this command. When you use this command, it
asks for the feature(s) to reorder, then it asks you to select the feature that you wish to reorder after. Assuming that
there are no problems with parent/child relationships, it will reorder then regenerate the model.
Insert Mode
You can and should drag the red arrow that says “Insert Here” in the model tree to the location where you want to
insert a new feature. If you have a lot of features, you can save some time by using the command here. After you
select this command, click on Activate. You will be asked to pick on the feature to insert after. To cancel out of
insert mode, click on Cancel. This will regenerate all the features that were currently suppressed, and take you
back to the end of the model tree.
Read-Only
Be careful using this. When you click on this command, you will pick a feature in the model tree. All features
before the selected one become read-only. You can’t edit a dimension or redefine the features if they are read-
only. You will need to use Clean in the Read-only menu to clear this status.
Suppress
Suppress is used to turn off features from the regeneration sequence. They disappear from the model. You should
only use suppress in the following cases:
• Family table features. Use suppress in the generic and instances to turn of features that are not in that
instance.
• Failure recovery. Temporarily suppress failing features so you can go in and fix them or other features one
at a time.
• Design Iterations. Temporarily suppress a feature to try a different possibility. Delete the ones you end up
not using.
Other than in family tables, there should never be any suppressed features in your model when you go to release it.
COLOR AND APPEARANCE
Adding color to your models is a great way to visualize them. To add colors, go to View, Color and Appearance
from the menu bar. It will open up the window shown in the next figure.
Page 5 of 10
If you have a saved color file, then you can load it in, or it may already be loaded. We can see from this figure
above that there are no pre-defined colors in this session. To add a new color, click on the “+” symbol at the top.
A name appears in the bottom field of this portion of the window. You can and should edit the name to something
meaningful, as shown below for a bright red color that we are adding.
Once you add the new color, go to the Properties portion of this window, click on the Color swatch and define your
color, as shown in the next figure.
When you click on Close you will want to change other settings, such as brightness, transparency, etc. These
choices are in the tabs at the bottom of the window, as we can see below.
Page 6 of 10
When you are ready to assign the color, go to the Assignment portion of the window. Use the pull-down to select
the scope. By default, Part is chosen. This means that we will assign the selected color to the whole part. You
can also choose surfaces, components (in assembly mode), etc.
The following figure shows the assignment of this color to one of the parts we have been working with in the past
lessons.
PARENT/CHILD RELATIONSHIPS
Because Pro/ENGINEER is a feature-based modeling tool, we are bound to have features that rely on other
features to exist. Every time we pick a surface as a reference, or an edge, or a plane, etc. we are creating these
dependencies.
These dependencies are classified as either parents or children. For example, suppose we create an extruded
protrusion. Then we round an edge on that protrusion. The protrusion is the parent, and the round is the child.
You can delete the round and the protrusion won’t care. But, if you try to delete the protrusion, the round will be
directly affected.
To view existing parent-child relationships for any given feature, select that feature, and then right-mouse click on it
and go to Info, Parent/Child. You get a window that looks like the following.
Page 7 of 10
At the top, it shows the feature that we are running the report on. In the bottom left, we get a list of all of the parents
of this selected feature. On the right, we get a list of all of the children of this feature.
Can you reduce parent child relationships in your model? Sure you can. The easiest way to reduce the number of
relationships is to try to use the default datum planes as much as possible for sketching planes, sketching
references, and dimensional references. But, the moment you use a Use Edge or Offset Edge or select a vertex
or edge or surface as a reference in the sketch, you have created that parent/child relationship. It is unavoidable.
My advice is to never delete or suppress a feature until you have run this query. Then, at least, you will be
prepared to see things disappear.
MODEL PLAYER
Whenever you get a model to work on that you didn’t create, you should immediately use the model player, found
under Tools, Model Player in the menu bar. This will bring up the following window.
You will use the arrows at the top to step through the model from start to finish. As you pick on the “Next” arrow,
the feature that is displayed will appear in the working window. You can pick on the Show Dims button at any time
to see the dimensions used for that feature (if any).
COSMETIC SKETCHES
A cosmetic sketch is used to convey information on the part without creating a solid or datum feature to do it. A
great example is a logo or part marking. There are a few restrictions when using them.
The first is that the cosmetic sketch can not cross over surface boundaries if projected. The other is that you can
not hatch a projected cosmetic sketch.
Cosmetic sketches are either sketched directly on a surface similar to a sketch feature, or they are projected onto a
single surface, similar to a projected datum curve.
Page 8 of 10
The following figure shows a cosmetic sketch for our logo on a part.
Cosmetic sketches are accessed through Insert, Cosmetic, Sketch in the menu bar.
ANALYSES
There are a lot of different analysis tools in Pro/ENGINEER. We went through a draft check analysis back in
Lesson 15, and we saw the results of a Gaussian Curvature analysis in Lesson 22.
There are three additional analysis that are used widely.
Mass Property Calculation
Use Analysis, Model Analysis then select Model Mass Properties from the pull-down. This gives us the
following window.
Most of the time, you can just hit the Compute button. The analysis results include (but are not limited to): Mass,
Volume, Density, Center of Gravity, Total Surface Area, Moments of Inertia, etc.
We need to run this analysis before our mass parameter will show the correct value in the drawing title block.
Global Interference Check
In an assembly, you can run this analysis to check for interference between parts. Go to Analysis, Model
Analysis, then select Global Interference from the pull-down. It will look like the following.
Page 9 of 10
Measure
Use this to take measurements between surfaces, planes, points, vertices, axes, or other entities. This is found
under Analysis, Measure. It brings up the following window.
FLOATING MODULES
To access any floating modules, go to Tools, Floating Modules. Floating modules are applications that we have
with the software, but they are not tied to any particular license. They float on the network, and can be accesses on
a first-come-first-serve basis. Two are shown in the window that pops up.
LESSON SUMMARY

Pro Detailing PDF

Încărcat de

Informații document

Titlu original

Drepturi de autor

Formate disponibile

Partajați acest document

Partajați sau inserați document

Opțiuni de partajare

Vi se pare util acest document?

Este necorespunzător acest conținut?

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

Pro Detailing PDF

Încărcat de

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

Page 1 of 3

Practice Makes Perfect

The typical steps to creating a drawing are:

FORMATS, TEMPLATES AND SETUP FILES

CREATING A NEW DRAWING

The New window currently looks like the following:

ADDING A DRAWING FORMAT

DRAWING SETUP FILES

We will pick Drawing Options, which brings up the following window.

English Paper Sizes (inches) Metric Paper Sizes (millimeters)

Save the drawing.

DRAWING MODE TOOLBAR

From left to right, these icons do the following:

Currently, it looks like the following:

GENERAL VIEW PROPERTIES

We can also add perspective to a general view.

The alignment category window looks like the following.

THIRD ANGLE PROJECTION

FIRST ANGLE PROJECTION

Save the drawing.

The options are:

Save this drawing.

Save and close this drawing.

Save the drawing.

We want to change all of these things at this point.

Save and close this drawing.

In the Filter region of the tool we have the following options:

This will bring up the following menu manager.

When we do this, the axis rotates as expected.

AXES AS SET DATUMS

PLANAR SET DATUMS

Save and close this drawing.

SHOW VS. CREATE – THE GREAT DEBATE

The reality is that it depends on several things:

Another possible manufacturing scheme might be…

If we zoom in on the TOP view, we can see the following.

MOVE ITEM TO VIEW

Just Flipping the Arrows

Flipping Arrows While Moving

EDIT MODEL THROUGH DRAWING

Standard Created Dimensions

Pick once on the arc shown in the next figure.

When we do, it highlights in a bold red, as shown in the next figure.

Save the drawing.

CREATED REFERENCE DIMENSIONS

Save and close the drawing.

BACK IN THE MODEL

Close this part.

Close these models without saving.

So, what is the difference between a Basic and an Inspection dimension?

If we click on OK you will get the following.

From a conversion standpoint, the equivalent in metric would be:

DIMENSION TEXT TAB

TEXT STYLE TAB

Close out of this properties window, and save the drawing.

Upper Tolerance: 0.05

Our window should look like the following:

TOLERANCE STACK-UP ANALYSIS

Save and close this drawing.

CREATING THE BROKEN VIEW

Click on OK to complete this view, and we will see the following.

S-Curve on View Outline

Heartbeat on View Outline