How to Attach Annotations to an Existing SOLIDWORKS Drawing View

Do you ever find yourself looking at SOLIDWORKS drawings where annotations are NOT linked to views, but should be?

It is simply there on the paper sheet … floating … without a drawing view ‘home’… doesn’t move when you move any drawing views… Why would someone do this? Why I ask…WHY?

Cause of Detached SOLIDWORKS Annotations:

Over dramatic questions aside, there are actually several ways one could have ended up in this situation:

• New drafters forgot to place annotation within a drawing view
• Original intent was to have the annotation not linked to any drawing view
• Staple annotations could exist within drawing templates that can be used

Attach to View Solution:

Regardless of how the situation came about, we will learn a quick SOLIDWORKS ability to link existing annotations to a required drawing view (and how to unlink from a drawing view — scroll down to read extras).

Below we see a simple drawing and two annotations to the right that are currently not attached to any drawing views.

Annotations Currently Not Linked to Any Drawing Views

If we want an annotation linked to a specific drawing view, we are going to follow the 4 simple steps below:

1. Right click the annotation
2. Go to “Attachment”
3. Choose “Attach to View”
4. Choose the desired drawing view

4 Simple Steps to Link Annotations to a Drawing View

That’s it, you’re done! Move the drawing view and you’ll see the annotation move with it.

Extras:

Multiple Annotations Linked to a Drawing View:

If you require multiple annotations linked, you can choose all the annotations required at once, right click any one of the selected annotations and repeat the steps 2 to 4.

Unlink Annotation from a Drawing View:

We can unlink annotations from a drawing view by simply linking it to the sheet instead. When you right click the annotation that needs to be unlinked and go to “Attachment”, you will see “Attach to Sheet”.

“Attach to Sheet” to Unlink from a Drawing View

Change which Drawing View an Annotation is Linked to:

Simply follow the same 4 steps to attach an annotation to a drawing view. Yes, you heard me! Once you select “Attach to View” and click on the new drawing view, it will automatically unlink from the previous one.

NOTE: This method does not work for revision symbols in SOLIDWORKS. Subscribe and look forward to an upcoming article for an amazing workaround.