Create fabrication drawings

You can create single-part, assembly, or cast unit drawings depending on the type of the selected model objects, using the desired Smart create option: manual selection (applied settings used by default), the best matching saved settings, or the best matching drawing templates.

You can efficiently manage the creation process, and select the best matching drawing template or saved settings automatically detected in the current model, or alternatively, select settings for every individual model object.

Before you start

This is how the ribbon dropdown menu looks by default with the Create fabrication drawing command, the Creation review checkbox, and the Smart create switches:

Before you start creating fabrication drawings, consider the following:

Use assembly selection switches to control which drawing types are created. If the Select assemblies switch is enabled, only assembly drawings are created. If the Select objects in assemblies selection switch is enabled OR none of the assembly selection switches are active, both single-part and assembly drawings are created. Alternatively, you can use appropriate selection filters or the Object visibility in the list options in the Creation review dialog to define the objects for which you want to create drawings.
Enable or disable Creation review. Enabling Creation review opens the Creation review dialog for more control over the drawing creation process.
Select the desired Smart create switch. Template suggestion is selected by default.

Control drawing creation with Creation review

To have more control over the drawing creation process, select the Creation review checkbox.

Select objects in the model.
On the Drawings & reports ribbon tab, open the Create fabrication drawing menu.
Select the Creation review checkbox.
Select the Create fabrication drawing command on the ribbon, context menu, or contextual toolbar.

After the tool has completed the evaluation of the model objects, the Creation review dialog is displayed with a list of the selected model objects. The best matching drawing templates or saved settings are suggested for the selected objects in the Create from column. If those cannot be found, applied settings are suggested.
Enable or disable the desired Object visibility in the list options to control which objects are listed in the dialog.
- Assemblies: Lists selected assemblies.
  - Associated parts: Lists selected parts associated to assemblies.
  - Associated sub-assemblies: Lists selected sub-assemblies associated to assemblies.
- Parts: Lists all selected parts.
- Objects that have drawings: Lists objects that already have drawings.
To prevent the creation of drawings for some model objects, clear the checkboxes in front of the model objects in the list.
If you wish, change the Smart create selection.
To select the same switch for multiple objects, hold down Ctrl or Shift, click the object rows and select the desired switch.
You will be notified if no drawing template or saved settings match is found.
- Manual selection creates the drawings using the applied settings by default. You can also select any drawing templates or saved settings. The list shows drawing settings located in model, project, and firm folders.
- Settings suggestion first looks for the best matching drawing template and if found uses the saved settings that were used to create that template. If those are not found, the best matching saved settings based on the object name are used to create the drawings. Up to three best matching saved settings are suggested. With this option, you can select another top matching saved settings file or any other saved settings.
- Template suggestion looks for the best matching drawing template based on the object geometry and properties. Up to three top matching templates are suggested. If Template suggestion does not find the best matching template, the best matching saved settings based on the model object name are used to create the drawings. With this option you can:
  - Select any other drawing template from the current or any other model.
  - Use search to find the template.
  - Select in the current model the objects whose drawings you want to use as a template. To do this, select Select from model, and select the objects from the model among the objects that are available for selection.
  - Show drawing template previews. For more information on drawing template previews, see "Preview drawing templates" below.
Use Drawing template overrides to control whether certain drawing objects should be recreated by using the settings of the selected drawing template or applied settings. To do this, open the Drawing template overrides dialog by clicking the button next to the Drawing template overrides option.
- To create a new override rule, select an object type from the Objects list, then select an action type in the Action list, give the override settings file a name, and click the Save button.
- To use the saved settings, select the desired override settings file from the Drawing template overrides list.
  
  If you have added an override rule, but you have not saved it, the rule will not be used.
- If you do not want to use any override rules, select an empty string in the Drawing template overrides list.
Click Create.

Fabrication drawings are created based on the selected Smart create option and the defined settings and added to Document manager. If you used Template suggestion, the Cloning source column in Document manager shows the drawing templates that were used.

If the drawing name is too long, you will get an error message Cannot create drawing file. Name is too long. The default drawing name consists of the following: drawing type + position number + sheet number, for example, "A [P.1 - 1]", where P.1 is the position number. The position number might be too long, check the numbering settings. The maximum number of the characters in the drawing name is 32.

Preview drawing templates

The drawing template preview allows you to better evaluate which of the suggested drawing templates suits your needs the best. The prerequisite for showing the preview is that you have saved a snapshot of the template drawing. Previews are also shown for drawing templates in other models, and you can preview the drawing templates without opening the model.

Settings files cannot be previewed as they are not drawings.

To show the preview, hover over the icon of the drawing template in the Create from column.
To open the preview in the snapshot window, where you can zoom the preview, click the icon.
Preview:
Snapshot window:

To ensure snapshot files are automatically created on drawing creation and drawing editing, check that XS_DRAWING_CREATE_SNAPSHOT_ON_DRAWING_CREATION and XS_DRAWING_SNAPSHOT_CREATION are both set to TRUE.

Create drawings instantly with Smart create only

If you have created some drawings in your model already, you can create drawings using the best matching drawing template automatically detected in the current model. This method is very fast and efficient. You can use Template suggestion also in the beginning of a project, when no drawing templates are available, because the system will automatically look for matching saved settings if no matching template is available.

Select objects in the model.
On the Drawings & reports ribbon tab, open the Create fabrication drawing menu.
Enable the Template suggestion switch only.
Do not select the Creation review checkbox.
Select the Create fabrication drawing command on the ribbon, context menu, or contextual toolbar.

The drawings are created immediately based on the selected Smart create option. If you selected Template suggestion, and the best matching drawing template is not found, the best matching saved settings are used instead. If those are not found, applied settings are used. You can open the drawings in Document manager. If Template suggestion was used in the drawing creation, the Cloning source column in Document manager shows the drawing templates that were used.