5 NEW Updates to SOLIDWORKS Drawings for 2024!

SOLIDWORKS drawings helps designers and engineers produce accurate documentation quickly.

As the industry standard, there’s a lot riding on SOLIDWORKS’ ability to interpret 3D CAD data and convert it into 2D technical drawings and assembly manuals, then pass it through quality assurance checks, while also providing the option for drawingless manufacturing.

SOLIDWORKS 2024 is the latest release of the popular 3D CAD software and offers some great enhancements to help you document and approve designs more efficiently to get your products to manufacture even more rapidly.

There are some really useful enhancements coming to 2D technical in SOLIDWORKS drawings 2024.

It’s true that engineering drawings can sometimes go underappreciated, but we know there’s a real art form in creating readable, concise, and precise technical documentation.

So to help you pursue precision, each of the following features will help you reduce clicks and save you time when detailing and documenting your designs.

1. DIMENSION ENHANCEMENTS

Much like the new preview dimension added during sketching, SOLIDWORKS 2024 boosts 2D technical drawings with several handy enhancements to dimensioning:

• Collinear Chain Dimensions
  Chain dimensions are now automatically aligned on creation, and annotated where there are gaps too small for the text to fit.
• Overridden Dimensions Colour
  Any dimensions that are overridden will now be more obvious. Overridden dimensions in a SOLIDWORKS drawing will be highlighted by default in a palatial shade of purple. This can be changed in Colors tab of the System Options.
  
• X Marks the Spot
  Dangling dimensions are indicated with a big red ‘X’ in SOLIDWORKS 2024. It’s safe to say we can expect this feature to hang around for all future releases of SOLIDWORKS, as it’s quite a handy upgrade to the previously small red square, meaning you’ll be able to spot the offending entities much more easily.
• Referenced Dimensions on Hover
  Hovering over entities in a drawing view will highlight any dimensions that are referencing it. So rather than clicking around various dimensions on a cluttered drawing, trying to find what’s what, it’s easy enough to hover over a line or vertex and display the associated dimensions.

2. SAVE AS PREVIOUS

This new feature permeates through parts, assemblies, and drawings too!

SOLIDWORKS Drawings 2024 allows you to save documents as previous versions (up to 2 years prior) to open in the relevant version. So if you have suppliers or clients who are working in SOLIDWORKS 2022 or 2023, then you can send them files from SOLIDWORKS 2024 that are saved in accessible versions.

Be aware that this is a benefit of active SOLIDWORKS subscriptions, and the files must not contain features that cannot be recreated in previous versions, e.g. sheet metal parts with new stamp tool features.

3. EXCLUDE HIDDEN SKETCHES FROM DXF/DWG EXPORT

Hidden sketches can now be excluded from DXF exports when exporting sketches with a sheet metal part.

Previously, hidden sketches were lumped in with all the sketches and would pull through on a DXF/DWG. Now an extra tick box means these can be excluded more easily, without having to suppress sketches or modify your design intent.

4. DETAILING MODE OPEN

A new system option allows SOLIDWORKS drawings to be opened in detailing mode by default.

This should come in handy when working with large drawings to open them more quickly. This option can be found under System Options > Drawings > Performance.

5. SELECT MULTIPLE LAYERS

I’ll be honest, this one got me a little more excited than it perhaps should have…

But it’s often been a frustration that you cannot select multiple layers in the layer manager to modify line styles, thicknesses, or visibility.

SOLIDWORKS Drawings2024 lets you manage multiple layers at once, in the usual Windows way: CTRL + select multiple individual layers, or SHIFT + select a range.

Simple, effective, and lovely.

To find out what’s new in SOLIDWORKS MBD for 2024, watch the full video at the top of the page to discover new options for drawingless manufacturing.