Set Annotation Position by Percentage

The Set Annotation by Percentage Position Generation Task sets the XY position of an annotation.

Prior to DriveWorks 20, this appeared in the Toolbox as Set Annotation Position.

Existing implementations that use this Task will not be affected by this rename.

We recommend applying this task in Post-Drive Tasks, Generation Sequence.

This ensures all views are resized and positioned before the Annotations are driven.

Properties

Property Name Description

(Name) The unique name for this task.

Annotation Name The name of the annotation to position.

Axis Specifies which axis to drive the annotation along. For

example, specifying XOnly will cause DriveWorks to
only position the annotation along the X-axis and
maintain the annotation's current Y position.

Sheet or View Name The name of the sheet (or view) the annotation
belongs to, or the address if the view is not on the
active sheet (for example Drawing View2@Sheet4).

X Value The new position of the annotation along the X axis

(expressed as a percentage).

Y Value The new position of the annotation along the Y axis

(expressed as a percentage).

Example Property Values

The following table shows examples of the ‘Annotation Name’ and ‘Sheet or View Name’ Properties
for a range of possible SOLIDWORKS Drawing Annotations.

Type SOLIDWORKS Address Style DriveWorks 'Annotation DriveWorks

Name' Property 'Sheet or View
Name'
Property
Model D1@Sketch1@PartName.Part D1@Sketch1@{Model File Drawing
Dimension Name Result}.Part View1@Sheet1
(1)

Reference RD1@Annotations@PartName.Part RD1@Annotations@{Model Drawing

Dimension File Name Result}.Part View1@Sheet1
(Model)

Reference RD1@Drawing RD1@Drawing Drawing

Dimension View1@DrawingName.Drawing View1@{Drawing File Name View1@Sheet1
(Drawing) Result}.Drawing

Balloon DetailItem120 DetailItem120 Drawing

View1@Sheet1

Balloon on DetailItem120 DetailItem120 Drawing

a View1@Sheet1
Magnetic
Line

Note DetailItem140 DetailItem140 Drawing

(Attached View1@Sheet1
to View)

Note (Not DetailItem140 DetailItem140 Sheet1

Attached
to View)

Note DetailItem140 DetailItem140 Drawing

(Model) View1@Sheet1

Weld DetailItem150 DetailItem150 Drawing

Symbol View1@Sheet1
(Drawing)

Weld DetailItem150 DetailItem150 Drawing

Symbol View1@Sheet1
(Model)

Hole RD1@Drawing RD1@Drawing Drawing

Callout View1@DrawingName.Drawing View1@{Drawing File Name View1@Sheet1
(Drawing) Result}.Drawing

Geometric DetailItem160 DetailItem160 Drawing

Tolerance View1@Sheet1
(Drawing)

Geometric DetailItem160 DetailItem160 Drawing

Tolerance View1@Sheet1
(Model)

Datum DetailItem170 DetailItem170 Drawing

Feature View1@Sheet1
(Drawing)

Datum DetailItem170 DetailItem170 Drawing

Feature View1@Sheet1
(Model)

Surface DetailItem180 DetailItem180 Drawing

Finish View1@Sheet1
(Drawing)

Surface DetailItem180 DetailItem180 Drawing

Finish View1@Sheet1
(Model)

Datum DetailItem190 DetailItem190 Drawing

Target View1@Sheet1
(Drawing)

Datum DetailItem190 DetailItem190 Drawing

Target View1@Sheet1
(Model)

Revision DetailItem200 DetailItem200 Drawing

Symbol View1@Sheet1

Location DetailItem210 DetailItem210 Drawing

Label View1@Sheet1

(1) The SOLIDWORKS Address Style for Model Dimensions linked to Assemblies will take the
form D1@Distance1@AssemblyName.Assembly.

The PartName or AssemblyName in this address refers to the file name of the part or
subassembly that contains the Model Dimension.

Detail and Section Views

When Annotations are linked to a Detail or Section view, the following applies:

Annotation Name
The View number (not the View name) is required in the address of the annotation.

For example:

RD1@Drawing View2@<DrawingName>.Drawing
 The View number can be found by right clicking the View name from the SOLIDWORKS
feature manager.

Alternatively to see the exact address, refer to How To Find The Annotation Name below.

Sheet or View Name

The View Name is required.

For example:

Section View A-A@Sheet1

The above examples of the ‘Annotation Name’ and ‘Sheet or View Name’ Properties will work for
single sheet or multi sheet SOLIDWORKS Drawings.

How To Find The Annotation Name

To find out the ‘Annotation Name’ of an Annotation you can use the DriveWorks Capture Pane inside
SOLIDWORKS;

1. Open the captured Master Drawing file in SOLIDWORKS

2. Switch to the ‘Annotation Text’ tab of the DriveWorks Task Pane

3. Select the Annotation you want to position

4. The dimension address will appear in the ‘Address’ field of the DriveWorks Task Pane

5. You can copy and paste this into DriveWorks for use in rules

You do not need to Capture the Annotation to use the Set Annotation Position Generation Task

The Annotation Name Property can also end in .Assembly (if the Annotation is an Assembly
dimension, such as a Distance Mate value) or .Drawing (if the annotation is a Reference
Dimension).

Creating Rules For The Annotation Name Property

The Part names in the Annotation Name Property need to be the final generated models file
names, not the Master file names.
For example:

By default, DriveWorks gives each model the File Name Rule DWSpecification meaning that your
models will generate with the following naming structure;

MasterName ProjectName 9999.SLDPRT

This means the Rule for the Annotation Name property would be;

"D1@Sketch1@MasterName " & DWSpecification &".Part"

The following are two further examples of potential Annotation Name property rules in combination
with the related Model File Name Rules:

Example 1

Model File Name Rule => "*PartName-" & OrderNumberReturn

Annotation Name Property Rule => "D1@Sketch1@PartName-" & OrderNumberReturn &".Part"

Example 2

Model File Name Rule => "*" & DWSpecificationId & "*"

Annotation Name Property Rule => "D1@Sketch1@" & DWSpecificationId & " MasterName.Part"

For more information on Model File Name Rules: Concept: File Naming

Annotation Name Property Accepted Values

The following is a description of DriveWorks behavior for each ‘Annotation Name’ Property value
possibility.

Example 1

Annotation Name Property Rule Result = D1@Sketch1@{Model File Name Result}.Part

DriveWorks will use the full result to select the required Annotation.

Example 2

Annotation Name Property Rule Result = DetailItem110

DriveWorks will use the full result to select the required Annotation.

Example 3

Annotation Name Property Rule Result = RD1

DriveWorks will compare this with the name component of the address to select the required
Annotation.

Example 4
Annotation Name Property Rule Result = RD1@Drawing View1@{Drawing File Name Result}.Drawing

DriveWorks will use the full result to select the required Annotation.

Positioning The Annotation

Once you have defined which Annotation you wish to position, you will need to define where to
position the Annotation on the generated Drawing. You define this using the ‘X Value’ and the ‘Y
Value’ properties.

The ‘Axis’ property determines which of the ‘X Value’ and ‘Y Value’ properties are used to position the
Annotation.

Property Value Result

Both Will use both the ‘X Value’ and the ‘Y Value’ properties
to position the Annotation

XOnly Will ignore the ‘Y Value’ property and will only

position the Annotation in the X Axis

YOnly Will ignore the ‘X Value’ property and will only

position the Annotation in the Y Axis

The ‘X Value’ and ‘Y Value’ are expressed as percentages. For example, X Value = 50, this will position
the Annotation half way along the Drawing View or Sheet.

The ‘X Value’ and ‘Y Value’ properties accept negative values and values greater than 100.

X Value = 0, Y Value = 0, is the bottom left hand corner of the Sheet or View.

The image below shows how positive and negative percentage values relate to a Drawing View.

If an Annotation is not attached to a Drawing View, the ‘X Value’ and ‘Y Value’ are in relation to the
entire sheet.

If an Annotation is attached to a Drawing View the ‘X Value’ and ‘Y Value’ are in relation to the
Bounding box of the Drawing View.
 This Task works best when placed in Post-Drive Tasks. All views will have been resized and
repositioned before the Annotations are positioned.

There is a Tech Tip example Project that can be downloaded from the Tech Tip Portal on the
DriveWorks Community Website.

This Tech Tip can be used as a reference for using the Set Annotation Position by Percentage
Generation Task.