On the last ‘Standards Tuesday’ I mentioned flagnotes and using the Symbol Library to insert them into your notes. For those who are not familiar with it, the Symbol Library is a library of commonly used symbols ranging from dimension symbols to weld symbols, also the most common flagnotes are available. The Symbol Library can be accessed in the FeatureManager by clicking the Add Symbol button, the one the looks like the centerline symbol. Also to refresh your memory, flagnotes are symbols listed with the General Notes that only apply to specific points and regions in a drawing. The Symbol Library should have just about every symbol you might need for your notes but there may be times, depending on your company standards, you may need additional symbols. Luckily, adding symbols to the symbol library is not as hard as it may seem.

The Symbol Library symbols are vector based using lines of code rather then images. This allows each symbol to be completely scalable with no distortion but does make adding symbols a little tricky. To add symbols to the Symbol Library we must modify the Gtol.sym file located in the …\SolidWorks\Lang\English folder on your computer. In order to make any changes you must have administrator privileges to your SolidWorks installation folder. Before proceeding any further, make a copy of the Gtol.sym file.

Open Gtol.sym in your favorite text editor, I use notepad.

The first few lines of Gtol.sym give you the basic instruction for creating library entries.

;; Format:
;;
;; #<Name of library>,<Description of library>
;; *<Name of symbol>,<Description of symbol>
;; A,LINE xStart,yStart,xEnd,yEnd
;; A,CIRCLE xCenter,yCenter,radius
;; A,ARC xCenter,yCenter,radius,startAngle,endAngle
;; A,FARC xCenter,yCenter,radius,startAngle,endAngle
;; A,TEXT xLowerLeft,yLowerLeft,<letter(s)>
;; A,POLY x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3
;;
;; Units:
;;
;; All x, y, and radius values are in the symbols grid space (0.0 to 1.0),
;; where 0,0 is the lower left corner and 1,1 is the upper right corner.
;; The grid space is considered to be the height of a character squared.
;; All angle values are in degrees.

Scrolling through the file you will see many lines of text all corresponding to existing symbols. I recommend really studying each entry and comparing it to the actually symbol, this by far the best way to learn how to create symbols. Besides, why spend the time figuring out symbols when the hard work has already been done for you.

Flag Squ-Cir A-Z

Flag Tri 1-99

Now we are going to add our own symbol to the library. For this example, we will adding a downward pointing triangle flagnote per our company standards. First we must create a new library entry, this is the name you select in the Symbol Library pull-down.

Each Library must have a unique identifier, starting with the pound sign, #, we will name the library #DWN#. This name is the code that SolidWorks will use when referencing the library. Following the name, put a comma then the title of the library, Flag Dn Tri 1-99. This is the description that is displayed in the pull-down, so choose a title that makes sense to you. Next we will name the symbol being created.

As with the library name we must assign a unique name to symbol but this time it only needs to be unique within the library. Starting with a star, *, we will name the symbol *1. This is the code for the symbol that SolidWorks will use when referencing the symbol in drawings. Following the name, put a comma then the title of the symbol, Dn Triangle 1. This is the description that you will select in the library, so one again create a name for the symbol that makes sense to you. Now we are ready to create the triangle symbol.

There are six available elements of a symbol; Line, Circle, Arc, Farc, Text and Poly. The requirements of each are listed in the header of the Gtol.sym file. We will be covering all of these elements along with examples of each at a later date. Instead, for this example we will only be needing the Line and Text elements.

The line command uses X,Y coordinates of both endpoints of the line. You can use graph paper to figure out your coordinates or create a sketch in SolidWorks, as I do. Once you have the X,Y coordinates of each endpoint, enter them into Gtol.sym. The order of each segment does not matter but it would be a good idea to enter them in order as if you were drawing them, this will make edits easier since all you have is a bunch of numbers to look at. Below is a break down of the first line, A,LINE -.3,1.65,1.90,1.65:

A, LINE = draws a line

-.3 = X Coordinate of first endpoint

1.65 = Y Coordinate of first endpoint

1.90 = X Coordinate of second endpoint

1.65 = Y Coordinate of second endpoint

With the triangle drawn it is now time to insert the number.

To insert text into the symbol, Follow A, TEXT with the X,Y of the text and the actual text. This symbol will have the number 1 inside of the triangle.

Lastly,Using the same coordinates as the first symbol, create all the symbols you require and modify the symbol name and number.

Once all the modifications have been made save the file and restart SolidWorks. When SolidWorks restarts your new library will be available for use.

Select the new library and select the desired symbol from the list.

Your new flagnote can now be inserted into your drawing notes.

When creating symbols you may need to make changes and restart SolidWorks many times before you get it perfect, but that is half the fun of it. Also, in order for other users of SolidWorks to see the custom symbols you created in a drawing they must have the same Gtol.sym installed on their systems.

I know this was a long post but as you can see there was a lot of steps to cover. As I mentioned earlier, in the future i will cover creating more advance symbols including commonly used symbols in medical packaging per EN980:2003.

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