SOLIDWORKS Inspection Productivity Tips

SOLIDWORKS Inspection is a simple and intuitive application that reduces the time needed to create inspection documentation by up to 90%, and virtually eliminates errors inherent to any manual process, thus improving quality and reducing time to market.

Although the software is very easy to use, this article provides a few SOLIDWORKS Inspection productivity tips to improve your performance. These tips will allow you to better capture dimensions by changing the font of the Optical Character recognition (OCR) tool, set properties for multiple characteristics simultaneously, duplicate balloons, and capture diagonal dimensions.

Capture dimensions more effectively by changing the OCR font

SolidWorks Inspection allows you to modify the font used by the OCR tool to capture your dimensions, GD&Ts, Notes, etc. Go to Project Options/ Imaging/OCR and modify the font and adjust filters to better suit the drawing you are working with.

Changing the OCR font

Set properties for multiple characteristics simultaneously

When adding  inspection properties to your dimensions such as the type of operation, classification or inspection method, you can always select multiple characteristics from the Bill of Characteristics table and specify the property for your entire selection.

Applying multiple characteristics to selected dimensions

Once you have your characteristics selected, specify the type of operation from the “Operation” pull down menu in the Characteristics window.

Specifying an Operation Type

Duplicate balloons, characteristics and capture rectangle

In some cases, you might need to duplicate balloons without capturing another dimension such as in the example below, where we have one balloon for both radii. Adding balloons to your drawing can be done by copying the characteristic from the Bill of Characteristics and pasting it onto the drawing. You are then presented with the option for pasting the balloon and characteristic or the capture rectangle. Chose “Balloon” and “Characteristic”. Once you hit paste, click on the drawing where you want your balloon to appear. In the case where you need to re-arrange or move the balloon, make sure you click on the “Selection Tool” in the Commands toolbar.

Copy Balloons

Select and Move Balloons

Capture diagonal dimensions

The OCR tool in SOLIDWORKS Inspection allows you to capture dimensions in all orientations. Where horizontal and vertical dimensions are very easy to capture, diagonal dimensions may seem harder. SOLIDWORKS Inspection allows you to have full control on the orientation of the dimension captured as shown below. Once you have selected the dimension, use the “Rotate” buttons to rotate your dimension in 90 degrees increments in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. When dealing with diagonal dimensions, use the slider to rotate the dimension into a horizontal position. Use the “Zoom” buttons to zoom in and out of your selection.

Zoom when selecting a dimension

Then, window select the dimension and use the “Perform OCR of Selected Region” button to recapture the dimension in the correct orientation.

Perform OCR of Selected Region