What’s New in SOLIDWORKS 2016 (and 2015, 2014 and 2013): Leader attachment and alignment

Over the years, SOLIDWORKS has made substantial quality improvements to annotations in drawings.  One of the areas of improvement focuses on leader attachment to callouts and notes.

In SOLIDWORKS 2013, bent leader attachment of radius, diameter, chamfer and hole callouts were updated to line up to callout text, rather than set positions.

Bent leader alignment

Also introduced in SOLIDWORKS 2013 is the ability to extend the bend leader to the end of text in a callout.  This was previously only available for notes.

Leader extended

There are many other similar improvements in SOLIDWORKS 2013.  Overall, these improvements allow for the creation of drawings with a more professional appearance.

In SOLIDWORKS 2014, we focused on improving leader attachment to notes.  Bent leaders now respect justification of the note by attaching to the center of rows of text.  “To bounding box” option was also added in the note’s PropertyManger for use when you need to take manual control of leader attachment.

Note leader attachment

SOLIDWORKS 2015 allows you to attach the arrow end of a leader to centerlines.

Attached to centerline

What’s new in SOLIDWORKS 2016?  Alignment of hole callouts with dual dimensions was updated to point to the center of the row of text rather than a fixed location on the callout.  This is really a completion of the work started in SOLIDWORKS 2013.

Leader attachment on hole callouts

Not every enhancement for leader attachment is listed here, of course.  However, if you think there is an area that needs further improvement, don’t hesitate to ask.  While the SOLIDWORKS World Top Ten list is open, you can submit your enhancement ideas for everyone to vote upon.  Any time of the year, you can also file your enhancement requests directly via your Customer Portal.

Originally posted by Matt Lorono in the SOLIDWORKS Tech Blog.

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