Managing Annotation Visibility in SOLIDWORKS Drawings

In our earlier article, we demonstrate how to hide and show dimensions: How to Hide SOLIDWORKS Drawing Dimensions and make them reappear (javelin-tech.com)

Building upon that functionality, we now introduce a few new skills to help with managing annotation visibility:

• How to quickly identify where all the hidden annotations in a busy drawing are
• How to immediately locate new annotations that were imported from the model

Annotation Visibility

First, we need to make the hidden annotations flash! This is because the default color of hidden annotations is a very light grey, and it’s not always easy to spot those in a busy drawing. To overcome that, we want to assign a hotkey to do the same thing as View > Hide/Show > Annotations. So that’s Tools > Customize > Keyboard > Search for “annotations” > for View Annotations > Select a key. “B” is available, by default.

Let’s say we mapped it to B. Now spam (repeatedly press) the B key, and you will see all of the hidden annotations flashing in light grey. To achieve this using other methods than hotkey would be very difficult, because our attention would be required for repeated menu navigation and clicking. But with the spamming of the B key, we can keep our eyes on the drawing, to spot all the flashing annotations. In a busy drawing, with annotations everywhere, it’s easier to spot things that are flashing than things that are not, especially when they are light grey.

Now let’s say we added some new features in the model and want to import their dimensions into the drawing. So we Insert > Model Items. Here is more on that subject: SOLIDWORKS Model Items Tech Tip (javelin-tech.com)

But what if those newly-inserted dimensions are not readily apparent? Even after they are inserted, in a busy drawing it might not be obvious where they are. So, we use layers of different colors! See this article for how to set that up: Using Colour & Layers to make SOLIDWORKS Drawing detail stand out (javelin-tech.com)

We can use layer color to make the newly inserted dimensions stick out like a sore thumb. For example, make a layer called Red and assign it the color red. When doing Insert > Model Items you can choose which layer will receive the newly-added dimensions. So choose Red, and those new dimensions will arrive on layer Red, in red, and should be very easy to spot. Now that we have spotted them we can relocate them to the correct view, position them correctly, and reassign them to the desired layer.

Remember to update your template after adding frequently-used layers to the document.