Drawing Automation

[CT-Simo]

Hi all! I'm new to this forum. I'm the Product Manager of CUSTOMTOOLS for SOLIDWORKS and I'm here every now and then trying to lurk what kind of tedious routines you guys are dealing with and what I should maybe attempt to introduce to my product.

Not sure if this topic should have been in 2D Drawing, API or in this SW General section but mods can move if they will.

We are about to launch Drawing Automation feature with our next release (CUSTOMTOOLS 2023 SP0), here's a teaser video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDYD9X7JJwQ . We are not attempting to create production ready drawings, at least initially. But you will be able to create multiple drawing automation rules based on e.g. Custom Properties etc if a component should actually have a drawing or not, where it should be located and how it should be named. In addition each rule can use different drawing template (with predefined views if you will), sheet format, and you can also have some basic Model Item importing (dimensions etc) to the views. Standard 3-view is inserted if the drawing template has no predefined views, and you can stamp all drawings created by the automation routine with any Custom Property (so you can find and finalize them easily).

We will of course introduce also scripting capabilities (we have well documented open API), so you can have your own sheet creation routines embedded to the otherwise well-defined process.

I already made a mistake as I though BOM tables could be used with predefined views in drawing templates. So, I'm slightly annoyed we will not have this very basic feature for the first release (although it can be added with embedded script), but we will very likely introduce BOM inserting & anchoring (using BOM template) with next service pack. The first release will also only create a sheet for the referenced configuration, but we'll likely introduce option to create sheet for each (root) configuration as well as capabilities to supplement existing drawings with such sheets.

Obviously this is a bit of an ad, but I'm also here to ask what else do you think we need? And if there are super enthusiastic testers, I guess I could ship some sort of alpha build, too.

[AlexLachance]

Hi all! I'm new to this forum. I'm the Product Manager of CUSTOMTOOLS for SOLIDWORKS and I'm here every now and then trying to lurk what kind of tedious routines you guys are dealing with and what I should maybe attempt to introduce to my product.

Not sure if this topic should have been in 2D Drawing, API or in this SW General section but mods can move if they will.

We are about to launch Drawing Automation feature with our next release (CUSTOMTOOLS 2023 SP0), here's a teaser video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDYD9X7JJwQ . We are not attempting to create production ready drawings, at least initially. But you will be able to create multiple drawing automation rules based on e.g. Custom Properties etc if a component should actually have a drawing or not, where it should be located and how it should be named. In addition each rule can use different drawing template (with predefined views if you will), sheet format, and you can also have some basic Model Item importing (dimensions etc) to the views. Standard 3-view is inserted if the drawing template has no predefined views, and you can stamp all drawings created by the automation routine with any Custom Property (so you can find and finalize them easily).

We will of course introduce also scripting capabilities (we have well documented open API), so you can have your own sheet creation routines embedded to the otherwise well-defined process.

I already made a mistake as I though BOM tables could be used with predefined views in drawing templates. So, I'm slightly annoyed we will not have this very basic feature for the first release (although it can be added with embedded script), but we will very likely introduce BOM inserting & anchoring (using BOM template) with next service pack. The first release will also only create a sheet for the referenced configuration, but we'll likely introduce option to create sheet for each (root) configuration as well as capabilities to supplement existing drawings with such sheets.

Obviously this is a bit of an ad, but I'm also here to ask what else do you think we need? And if there are super enthusiastic testers, I guess I could ship some sort of alpha build, too.

Hey Simo, give a high five to François, Tero, Marko and Vesa. Greetings from Deloupe in Quebec

[SPerman]

The attached picture is too small for my old eyes. When I click on the picture it just takes me to a blank imgur web site.

[AlexLachance]

The attached picture is too small for my old eyes. When I click on the picture it just takes me to a blank imgur web site.

I scaled it to 150%

[CT-Simo]

The attached picture is too small for my old eyes. When I click on the picture it just takes me to a blank imgur web site.

Weird. The same happened for me too first time, but then it loaded properly on the second try. It's quite a bit better resolution than the previous upscaled one.

EDIT: Finally found how to attach pictures

[CT-Simo]

Hey Simo, give a high five to François, Tero, Marko and Vesa. Greetings from Deloupe in Quebec

Delivered!

[CT-Simo]

It's probably not very easy to understand the whole concept just from that teaser video and one messy picture. Maybe I need to make a quick video explaining it properly. I'd really value your input on this

[Frank_Oostendorp]

It's probably not very easy to understand the whole concept just from that teaser video and one messy picture. Maybe I need to make a quick video explaining it properly. I'd really value your input on this

Please show some detailed views of the created drawings, including automatic inserted dimensions in your video. The user interface is shown a lot, but the end result is what I am interested in.

[AlexLachance]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, CustomTools is an awesome tool with awesome people working on it. It's proficient and keeps on evolving. They are very open to idea suggestions and deliver a product that is very stable.

It helped make the transition from 2D to 3D and also is a great tool similar to PDM with very customizable features. I do not know PDM so I wouldn't be able to do the comparison, but I'm sold on CustomTools.

[Frank_Oostendorp]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, CustomTools is an awesome tool with awesome people working on it. It's proficient and keeps on evolving. They are very open to idea suggestions and deliver a product that is very stable.

It helped make the transition from 2D to 3D and also is a great tool similar to PDM with very customizable features. I do not know PDM so I wouldn't be able to do the comparison, but I'm sold on CustomTools.

What releases of SolidWorks have you been combining with CustomTools? Are they quick to adapt to new versions without a half year overlap with problems?

[AlexLachance]

What releases of SolidWorks have you been combining with CustomTools? Are they quick to adapt to new versions without a half year overlap with problems?

We're using CustomTools 2021 SP2.0 but should be moving to CustomTools 2022 SP2 or CustomTools 2023 while still using SolidWorks 2019 SP5. The one time we updated our SolidWorks following the SolidWorks schedule, their release followed shortly after, about 2 or 3 weeks I could say if my memory is correct.

For instance, this is the property interface we built

We can create projects and assign them.
We can link the part to something in the ERP if needed.
We have a "dictionnary" built for our descriptions, to ensure having the same names across.
We have a section for an AutoCAD number, which is pretty much to grab an existing item in the ERP and rename it to the new part number in SolidWorks.
We have a section for operations such as plama, bending, cutting, etc..
Every list that has an arrow is a drop-down that I can manage to add/remove options.
The date thingy is an actual calendar

You can set options to have whatever removed upon creating new parts. For instance you could remove every operation to make sure that people reassign operations every time a part is created.

It's pretty frickin sweet!

[Frank_Oostendorp]

Thanks Alex. I am curious about their sheet metal procedures. However, the demo shows simple DXF generating of blanc drawing sheet with unfolded product. That is a bit to simple in many cases.

[AlexLachance]

Thanks Alex. I am curious about their sheet metal procedures. However, the demo shows simple DXF generating of blanc drawing sheet with unfolded product. That is a bit to simple in many cases.

IMO, the drawing generation creates default views and brings in dimensions that were marked for drawings, I could be wrong though. The video seems to show no dimensions or annotations being added to any of them at first glance.

It can be customized a lot, I know our reseller has a client that uses CustomTools to generate most of it's drawings because they are basic. It's pretty much Insert view with model objects and all model objects are set to shown, so everything shows up and if needed they remove the excess.

[CT-Simo]

What releases of SolidWorks have you been combining with CustomTools? Are they quick to adapt to new versions without a half year overlap with problems?

We release new major version every year (e.g. CUSTOMTOOLS 2023) usually within 2 weeks from new major version release of SOLIDWORKS. E.g. now we are waiting for SW 2023 SP0 to be officially released, then we do the final testing against the official version, and then ship our SP0. We always support four latest SW versions so e.g. for SW 2023 you need CT 2023, but CT 2023 supports also down to SW 2020. We also release 3 Service Packs each year.

[CT-Simo]

Thanks Alex. I am curious about their sheet metal procedures. However, the demo shows simple DXF generating of blanc drawing sheet with unfolded product. That is a bit to simple in many cases.

Sadly many of our videos are very outdated, but we have started working on those now.

For sheet metals we have some batch creation automation, DXF Sheet with additional dynamic notes, Bend Sheet + notes, DXF merging by thickness and material, and also some special cut-list property handling and automatic properties. We actually have a Sheet Metal specialized CSWE working in our team and I could ask him to contact you if you like? Just message me your details and I'll ask Tim to drop you an e-mail.

[CT-Simo]

Here's a video explaining the whole Drawing Automation concept:

[m2shell]

I've been "Trial-ing" Custom Tools for a few weeks now; even though I only slightly understand all the functionality, I find it extremely useful! Some very helpful features with part numbering and custom property management etc.!