The best practice for populating a SOLIDWORKS title block is to have the fields linked to model custom properties. So when your part or assembly model is dropped into the drawing the title block will be populated automatically.
But not everyone wants to work this way, so let’s assume that you have a part or assembly that does not contain custom property data and you need to make a drawing for it.
One option is to edit the sheet format, double-click on each text box, and type in the information directly. However, editing the sheet format always carries the risk of moving the text around, using the wrong font, and messing up the template settings. Fortunately, there is a better way to fill out the title block without going into the sheet format.
How to Setup the Template
The following steps provide the method to create a template without custom property linking.
Step 1: Right-click on the drawing sheet and select “Edit Sheet Format” from the shortcut menu as shown in the following image:
Edit Sheet Format
Step 2: Build up a title block table with all the required fields and probably your company logo. Then, add text boxes using the Note command to all fields and leave them empty (see following image). Place the text boxes where you want the final text to appear. You may need to align them properly to be in a column or in the center of each field.
Add Text Boxes Using the Note Command
Step 3: Now right-click again on the drawing sheet and select “Title Block Fields…”.
Activate Title Block Fields
Step 4: Add the text boxes created in the last step to the title block table. The order of selected boxes is important and for that reason, there is a set of up/down arrow on the left side of the selection space under “Text Fields” to re-arrange the order of the selected text boxes. The order is important because the boxes could be filled out one after the other starting the first text box by hitting “TAB” key.
The settings for scale, sheet number, and other drawing document related information could be set the same way as settings for any other drawing templates. Finally, the drawing template and sheet format could be saved to be recalled later.
Add Text Boxes to Title Block Table
How to Use the New Template
Once the drawing views are in the new template, there is no need to worry about the properties settings at the part/assembly level. Also, there is no need to go into the sheet format. All you need to do is double-click on of the boxes that you added to the Title Block Table. Then, start filling in the boxes and hit the “TAB” key to jump to the next field until. Once all fields are filled out, hit the green check mark to complete the modification. The following images show the steps right after double-clicking on one of the text boxes, filling out the field, and the completed title block.
Text Boxes are highlighted by double-clicking on one of them
Note that the whole editing happens in the drawing sheet level. The drawing views are shown but the sheet format content is inaccessible.
The Title Block is filled out at the Drawing Sheet level.
The Title Block after populating the fields
Link to Custom Properties
In this technique as well, the content of the text boxes could be linked to custom properties in the part or assembly file that is inserted into the drawing. For that purpose, when the text boxes were created in the template (step 2), do not leave them empty. Add the custom property text: $PRPSHEET:”NameOfCustomProperty“. The result is that every time you fill out the title block, the custom properties are generated in the associated part/assembly and become updated with the information provided at the drawing level.
Use $PRP Commands in Text Boxes
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