SOLIDWORKS Drawing Note Error Message: Favorite with this name already exists in this document

Have you ever stumbled across this error message when trying to add a SOLIDWORKS Drawing Note to your Design Library?

SOLIDWORKS Error Message: “Favorite with this name already exists”

This can be frustrating to come across but quite simple to resolve. To understand how to resolve it, we must first understand what is happening when we save notes to our Design Library.

I will be discussing the steps at a basic level. If you would like to learn more about creating and saving notes to the Design Library, please see the link below.

How to create a SOLIDWORKS Notes Library (javelin-tech.com)

What happens when we add Notes to our Design Library?

When we add a SOLIDWORKS Drawing note to the Design Library, we are saving the Note to the Design Library AND we are also saving an associated Style Favorite…both with the File Name entered, as seen below.

Right Mouse Button click on an Existing Note and Select Add to Library

‘Add to Library’ Property Manager > File Name field

Using notes in a NEW drawing file

When we simply drag and drop the note from the Design Library into a new drawing…

Drag and drop a note from the Design Library into a New Drawing

…it will place the note on the drawing as expected AND also log that specific note’s style as a Style Favorite in that active document.

Note’s Property Manager displaying the ‘Note1’ style

Why do we see “Favorite with this name already exists in this document”?

So this issue would arise if you are trying to add a note to an existing document that already has a style name matching one that you are trying to bring in. Think back to moving files into a folder with the same name…not possible right? Same issue here.

You can see what style favorites currently exist in the active document by simply clicking ANY note in the document and taking a look at the Style drop down list.

SOLIDWORKS Note Property Manager showing the different styles available in the drop down list in this Active Document

In the image above, we can see the document has a few styles in the list. One of them being ‘Note1’. In this example, ‘Note1’ represents a different note that we previously saved and used in this drawing file.

So if we brought a different ‘Note1’ (also with the style called ‘Note1’), then we will get this message.

SOLIDWORKS Error Message saying “Favorite with this name already exists”

The error message finally makes sense!!! Now that we know the problem…the solution is just a few quick steps away.

SOLUTION

All we have to do, to resolve this issue is to remove the old ‘Note1’ Style Favorite.

1. Click the new Note button (or go to: Insert > Annotations > Note)
   

   Note button on Command Manager Annotation tab

2. The Note Property Manager will be visible
   

   Click the drop down list to view the existing Styles

3. Select the old unwanted Style Favorite
   

   Select the unwanted Style from the list

4. Click the ‘Delete a Style’ button
   

   Click the ‘Delete a Style’ button

5. Use the Design Library to insert the desired note
   DONE!

Workaround

If the above-mentioned solution does not work for you, then it might be time you reach out to your VAR. However, as a workaround, you can add the SOLIDWORKS Drawing note in a new drawing document and then copy it over to the desired document. It will be pasted without a style thus avoiding the issue.

Preventative Measure

Like most things in SOLIDWORKS, you can avoid problems by having unique names. This is true for file names, global variables, custom properties and so much more.

Instead of generic names such as Note1 and Note2…if you created a unique name such as ‘OutputProject_FinalNote_101’, it is less likely you will run into this issue.

Learn more about SOLIDWORKS Drawing Notes

If you want to learn more and become a PRO with SOLIDWORKS Drawings, take a look at the SOLIDWORKS Drawing training course.