SolidWorks® 2010: No Experience Required™

Chapter 4. Creating Your First Drawing

• Create a Drawing from a Part

• Add Views

• Annotate the Drawing

• Finalize the Drawing

• Share the Drawing

Prior to the introduction of computers to the engineering world, drawings were painstakingly drawn by hand by drafters who were artists in their own right. Using straight edges, triangles, scales, and graphite pencils of varying hardness, drafters would create drawings that could be placed on the walls in any art museum. Not only were they created with a certain artistic flair, these hand-drawn drawings were precise instructions that gave the manufacturer all the information needed to accurately produce the product being depicted.

Gone is the era of hours, days, weeks, and even months of hand-cramping drawings. With ...