Show Surface Body in Drawing Solidworls
I was asked if I could accept the surface area of selected faces in SOLIDWORKS and have that value be referenced in a drawing file. When this problem get-go came across my desk I causeless it was going to exist an easy chore, just boy was I mistaken.
My kickoff thought was using the SW-Surface Area Custom Holding, but that calculates the entire surface area of the function. My next idea was to create a surface body of the selected faces, isolate it in its own Configuration, and and then apply the SW-Surface Expanse Custom Property. Subsequently that experiment, I speedily recalled that the SW-Surface Surface area Custom Property ignores surface bodies. My adjacent hope was to create a measurement sensor of the selected area and link that to a Custom Property.
Creating a Measurement Sensor
A measurement sensor tin can be created in ii ways: from the sensor Property Manager or from the Measure tool. With both workflows, the sensor is created subsequently selecting the desired faces and so clicking the Create Sensor button within the Measure Tool.
This will create a sensor that is visible in your Characteristic Manager Blueprint Tree and will update alive as your geometry changes.
My programme was to and so link this sensor to a custom property and then voilà, trouble solved. Unfortunately, I was wrong over again – you cannot link a sensor to a custom property, no affair how difficult you endeavour. At this point, the easiest solution would be to write a macro to solve this issue using the SOLIDWORKS API functionality. This was out of my wheelhouse, only easily doable by the HAWKWARE squad here at Hawk Ridge Systems if you desire the easiest solution to this problem. If not, proceed reading for the not-then-slick workaround I created for this.
Making Custom Properties
To create a custom property from a selected expanse, you accept to follow the following seven-footstep process.
Create a New Configuration
The first thing I had to do was create a new configuration where I will isolate the faces I desire to select for the custom property. You tin create a new configuration from the Configuration Manager past right-clicking the part and selecting Add Configuration, as seen in the graphic below.
Make a Surface Body
Once that configuration is active, we need to create a surface body of the desired faces we desire the expanse for. This can be done using the Knit Surface command.
Afterwards you lot knit those surfaces you volition have a solid body and a surface body in your role model.
Deleting the Solid Body
The next stride is to use the Delete Body command and delete the solid body. This tin easily exist done by correct-clicking on the solid body and selecting Delete/Keep Body from the menu.
In one case the solid torso is deleted yous are left with only a surface body.
Using the Thicken Command
Our next step is to make the thinnest possible solid trunk from this surface trunk of our desired faces. The Thicken command will do just that. The goal of this step is to create the thinnest body so we can presume the surface surface area created past the thickness is negligible when nosotros think virtually significant digits. For this example, I could get abroad with 0.00004 in, but the smaller the better. The value you tin can actually use volition depend on your geometry and units and call back SOLIDWORKS smallest feature tin can be 1e-7 m so don't commencement whatever smaller than that.
Once thickened, the surface body will become a solid torso and if you got a small plenty value it should look similar a surface body when viewed macroscopically.
Create a Configuration Specific Custom Property
The next step is to create a configuration specific custom property for this configuration. This can be done in the File Properties window of the part file under the configuration specific tab. I decided to call this property "DSA" for "double surface area," but the name does non thing, just ensure you know what it is. For the value, you want to select SW-Surface Surface area.
This "DSA" custom holding is double the surface surface area we actually want assuming the sliver faces contribution to the full surface expanse is negligible.
Dimension the Line
Our adjacent pace is to divide this number by ii. Unfortunately, functions cannot exist expressed in file properties so we need to create a dimension to exercise the math in. An capricious sketch with an arbitrary sketch line will be created and the dimension of the line will exist set to "DSA/2." This dimension value is going to be the driving force for our desired surface expanse value. You can too reference the SW-Expanse within the dimension bypassing the need for the configuration specific property.
Create a Custom Belongings of Dimension Value
The results of the dimension should be the surface area of our selected faces, so the concluding footstep is going to be to create a custom property the reads this dimension's value. The concluding custom property can then exist referenced in a drawing file and be fully associative to minor changes that do not completely remove some of the selected faces. Since the custom holding is created in the custom tab information technology will be bachelor for all configurations.
Now that we have created this custom belongings, permit'southward compare it to the sensor value. Both read 1.97 foursquare inches merely start to slightly deviate later that due to rounding. Opening upwardly the dimension gives you an unrounded value that matches even closer.
And finally, this video will show the associativity of this method. In society for the custom holding to update, both configurations have to be rebuilt. It's a footling clunky, only it gets the job done. Of class, if you don't demand an associative custom property y'all can ever copy the value from the measure tool and paste it wherever y'all would similar information technology or become a macro to do exactly that.
For more data on SOLIDWORKS or if you take any questions, contact u.s.a. at Militarist Ridge Systems today. Thanks for reading!
Source: https://hawkridgesys.com/blog/creating-custom-property-selected-surface-area-solidworks
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