How to Leverage Detailing Mode

The release of SOLIDWORKS 2020 brought a new mode for accessing drawings called Detailing Mode. Detailing Model allows users to open massive drawings in seconds regardless of how complex or large the drawing may be and make changes to annotations or dimensions. With SOLIDWORKS 2021 users can now do hole callouts, edit any type of dimension or annotation, or add a detail, break, and crop view. Detailing Mode is the perfect tool to make quick revisions to an already existing drawing or to immediately open a drawing for a quick design review.

Using Detailing Mode

To open a drawing in Detailing Mode, open SOLIDWORKS 2020 or newer and press the house icon on the top left of the screen. After clicking the house, a pop-up will appear prompting users to select a recently opened file or browse through the computer’s folders to find a file. Regardless of which route is taken there is a path to open the file up in Detailing Mode. If the drawing to be opened is displayed in the recently opened area simply hover over the icon for the file and click on the arrows in the bottom right of the icon. It will expand the file’s icon and select the box next to the word Mode and change it to Detailing.

Figure 1: Opening a Drawing in Detailing Mode from Recent Documents

If opening from the file explorer, then once the drawing’s file is located click it once and within the browsing window pop up there will be a slider with a blue arrow to select mode type. Pull the blue arrow up or down to point to get the blue arrow to point at the word Detailing. Once Detailing mode has been selected, click open and the drawing will open in detailing mode.

With the drawing opened in Detailing Mode any command that is not greyed out on the command manager can be performed. Drawing views can be moved and rearranged. Balloons can be moved or added to assemblies. Any dimensions or annotations can be added, removed, or rearranged just like in Resolved Mode. Detail, cut, or cropped views can be added to the drawing. Nearly everything can be done within Detailing Mode to tidy up a drawing all without having to load a robust assembly that will bog down how fast annotations can be performed.

Conclusion

The addition of Detailing Mode in SOLIDWORKS 2020 and improved upon with SOLIDWORKS 2021 is a proper tool to make any updates to large assembly drawings as it moves along the testing and revision process. Previously, opening twenty-plus drawings that may be needed to annotate a large assembly was tedious, and once the file was open all the rendering would bog down SOLIDWORKS and make edits take far longer than one would hope. Thankfully, Detailing Mode is here to fix all that so give it a try!

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