Clean up your SOLIDWORKS Drawings with the Auto Arrange Dimensions Tool

A helpful SOLIDWORKS tool for organizing dimensions and annotations in a drawing is the Auto Arrange Dimensions tool. This can be activated several ways:

• By selecting the tool from the Align Toolbar (enabled by right-clicking the CommandManager and selecting Align from the Toolbar drop-down menu).
• Through Tools > Align.
• By right-clicking a group of dimensions and selecting Align from the heads up menu.
• Or by box-selecting a group of dimensions and selecting the tool from the Dimension Palette.

This is particularly helpful for organizing dimensions and annotations brought in as model items. In the drawing below, the sprocket has horizontal and vertical dimensions, circular pattern spacing callouts, fillet radii, and hole wizard callouts in their default placement after importing as model items.

Sprocket after importing model items

We can use the Auto Arrange Dimensions tool and with one click organize the dimensions and annotations to make them more readable. The various tools on the Align Toolbar can also be used to organize balloon annotations.

Sprocket after using Auto Arrange Dimensions