how to create a perfect drawing template

[bp]

I have hundreds of simple flat sheetmetal-parts that need the same type of drawing as they are only going to be lasercut.

Currently I have to create each drawing manually (both my arms hurt from using the mouse), but I have the feeling the whole process could be automated.

The drawing requires:

Sheet 1 containign a front view with the horizontal and vertical outer dimensions (the scale of the drawing is irrelivant, it should just fit nicely on A4-format).

It would be nice if the model would fit nicely on the sheet (instead of having to re-scale because its way too small). see image:

This sheet is going to be exported to PDF to be used as for reference.

Sheet 2 contains the same view but with scale 1:1. It would be great if the template (which does not show borders) size would always be about 20% larger than the model, so that when I press "Refit", the whole model appears on screen.

This sheet is going to be exported to DXF (and goes into the lasercutter). see image:

Can I create a template with already two sheets, which the right scales and dimensions? Any suggestions how to do it?

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[MartinHanak]

BJ,

my suggestion is:

1.] start Creo

2.] create 1 drawing manually

3.] exit Creo

4.] get trail file, rename it, replace information valid for 1-st drawing by information valid for 2-nd drawing

5.] start Creo and run prepared trail file

6.] repeat steps 4. and 5. for all drawings

Martin Hanak

[dschenken]

The second part of your request is the trickiest; selecting a format size based on the part size. There are no conditional statements in templates.

To make sure the border is off, instead of a template, create a base drawing to Save As; I think that drawing could have the Format (outline) not shown. I don't think the template can save the Format status.

If you use the trail file, I suggest changing the suffix to .txa, which is the training file indicator suffix. It prevents unexpected exits due to errors in the trail file. I thought there was a config setting as well, but cannot find it.

If this is a long-term task, I suggest looking at automating with AutoIt, which can be used to examine the part size while it runs. It might take almost as long to set up and debug as you pounding through a few hundred, but it will run so much faster than other inexpensive alternatives, barring your IT department not letting you use AutoIt. Plus it can run when you aren't there.

The next step down the ladder is VBA as part of Excel or Word. It's more difficult to use, but harder for IT to complain about. I've used VBA to generate trail files which generated hydraulic tubes and associated drawings - 200+ drawings in 45 minutes. It took about 2 weeks to get the programming right, split between the tube generation side and figuring out what could be left out of the trail file, so your case could take less time.

[TomD.inPDX]

You do not really need a drawing to output the DXF which would take care of the scale and border problem.

Your template drawing could have a predefined view and scale where this is all you need to change.

The format file would have tables for a title block data. Each part would need the appropriate data to autofill the drawing template's format.

You could also add multiple models to a single drawing and each model will have their own default scale.