Today’s post is a perfect example of a reader’s question having a direct affect on the content of the site. Earlier last week, I had a brief email exchange with a reader regarding the merits of the Design Library. The Design Library is a subset of folders, available in the Design Library tab in the Task Pane, that is used to store reusable items like models, blocks & annotations. In the past, I touched briefly on the Design Library in famous posts such as All These Notes and No Where to Put Them and Building a stapler – Arm Bracket (Forming Tools) but today we go over the various uses for the Design Library.

What are the Benefits of Using the Design Library?

The Design Library can be a very helpful tool, regardless of your organization size. The Design Library is perfectly suited for one seat of SolidWorks to 500 Seats. Its all in how you use it. Here are some benefits, that I can think of right now, to using the Design Library. If anybody has more benefits to using the Design Library let me know so I can add onto the list:

• Provides your library of standard components an easy to access user interface directly in SolidWorks.
• Reusable  items such as parts, blocks and annotations can be easily added to the Design Library.
• Items in the Design Library can quickly be added to SolidWorks documents with drag-and-drop.
• Items in the Design Library with mate references can quickly be mated in your assembly using SmartMates.
• Folder with parts and assemblies can be filtered to only display the assemblies.
• Various Forming Tools for sheet metal can be stored locally or shared with other users in your organization.
• Can easily drag and drop common drawing notes from the Design Library directly onto your drawing.
• Create and store component bundles (such as mounting plates with nuts, bolts and washers) already assembled and ready to be dropped into assemblies.
• Create a library of components from various vendors.
• Works perfectly as non-revision managed components in PDMWorks Workgroup and PDMWorks Enterprise.
• Multiple Design Libraries can be created and stored in different network locations.
• User Access can be controlled on shared Design Libraries without creating issues with SolidWorks.

Where is the Design Library?

In order to access the Design Library you must first ensure that the Task Pane is enabled. If, for some reason, you do not have your Task Pane enabled, click View -> Task Pane.

When enabled, the Task Pane is usually anchored to the right side of the graphics area. To access the Design Library, click the Design Library tab (the one that has a stack of books, how fitting?).

In the top pane you will have access to the tree structure of the Design Library and it the bottom pane you will have access to the files available in the Design Library.

Although it may appear to be, the Design Library is not actually a part of SolidWorks. It a set of folders usually located on your hard drive. If you are not sure as to where your Design Library resides, hover over the Design Library folder to see the tooltip displaying the folder path.

The folder that contains the Design Library, or any other sub-folder, can also be opened directly from the Design Library by right-clicking the folder and select Open Folder…

As you can see there is no real magic to the Design Library. It is just a normal set of folders that is displayed from within the Task Pane.

Can a Design Library be Shared Over a Network?

Yes it can, and in fact this is where the Design Library shines. Sharing the Design Library over a network enables all users in your organization to share a standard set of library components. In my company, we have a library of vendor supplied components; such as McMaster-Carr, Grainger, SMC, & Bosch. All the files are named to match the vendor’s PN and all the custom properties are already populated with the pertanate information. Whenever possible, I make sure to add Mate References to certain components to aid the users in their assemblies.

To add a network folder to SolidWorks as a shared Design Library, click the Options button in the Standard toolbar.

In the Options window go to the File Locations view then in the pull-down select Design Library. To add a folder location click the Add button.

In the window that follows input your UNC path for the folder location or browse to the folder location and click OK.

To Be Continued…

As always, the information is too much to fit on one posts. Today was just a quick introduction as to what the Design Library is, how to access it and how to add more libraries. Next week, I will show you how to actually use it. We will go over how to add components to the library and how to use the components in your documents. In case your wondering, I will even briefly go over adding Mate References to your components prior to adding them to the Design Library. So make sure you come back next week, or better yet, subscribe to my RSS feed.

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