What’s New SOLIDWORKS 2018: Callouts for Advanced Holes

The Advanced Hole command made its debut in SOLIDWORKS 2017, allowing users to create complex multi-step holes in a single feature. Despite already being an impressive time saver in the design process, the command has seen significant improvements this year. New in SOLIDWORKS 2018, callouts can now be added to Advanced Holes with minimal effort. In this article, we’ll investigate how to add these annotations to an existing model. It should be noted that Advanced Holes created in SOLIDWORKS 2017 will not be capable of generating callouts, and must be recreated in SOLIDWORKS 2018.

The process begins at the part level. The main component of the assembly shown in Figure 1 contains a single Advanced Hole in place of multiple Hole Wizard features. When creating or editing an existing Advanced Hole feature, a new group box at the bottom of the PropertyManager (in the Type tab) can be found, aptly named Hole Callout. These callouts are created automatically, but can be customized if desired. Click the Customize Callout radio button in the PropertyManager to enable editing. Single clicking a callout string will select it, and the Move Up/Move Down buttons can be used to adjust the callout position in the stack.

Double click a callout to modify the displayed text. While editing the callout string, additional symbols found at the bottom of the group box can be inserted as needed, and the Callout Variables button can be used to insert specific design elements from a list.If the callouts have been modified, confirm the command to save any changes (if you intend to use the default callouts, editing the feature is not necessary). These callouts will now be available for documentation purposes.

To apply an Advanced Hole callout in a drawing, first create the drawing and insert a view that includes an edge of the hole. Navigate to the Annotation tab, click Hole Callout, and select an edge of the hole. The callout can be further modified through the addition of text in the Dimension Text group box of the PropertyManager, along with the options to reverse the callout order or switch the near and far side messages if necessary. It’s important to note that if more advanced callout customization is required, the Advanced Hole feature will need to be edited at the part level.

The addition of automatic hole callouts for Advanced Holes adds even more value to the command, shaving down design and documentation time even further and allowing designers to focus on what really matters. Advanced Hole callouts are just one of many improvements this year, so be sure to check out our What’s New series for additional blogs and videos on all the new features included in SOLIDWORKS 2018. For more information, check out our YouTube channel, get a SOLIDWORKS 2018 3D CAD quote or contact us at Hawk Ridge Systems today. And don’t forget to sign up for one of our SOLIDWORKS 2018 Launch Events! Also check out The Ultimate SOLIDWORKS Bundle: SOLIDWORKS Premium + HP Z2 Mini with Intel® Xeon® processors, big performance at a small price. Thanks for reading!