CATI Technotes: How to use the SOLIDWORKS Design Checker

Checking Against an Existing File

The Check Against Existing File tool validates the active document against checks created from existing files.

Supported file formats are:

DWG files (*.dwg)

Part (*.sldprt, *.prt)

Assembly (*.asm, *.sldasm)

Drawing (*.drw, *.slddrw)

Template (*.prtdot, *.asmdot, *.drwdot)

Drafting Standard (*.sldstd)

Here we have 2 similar documents. They don't have to be identical but these images are for illustration purposes. In these pictures some of the fonts and styles were changed. We will use the first document to be our standard. The second document needs to be checked.

Activate the document that we want to check and go to the design checker. Where do we find the tool?

When you run Check Against Existing File, Design Checker creates a new standards file based on the file you selected, opens the file in the Build Checks module, validates the active document, and shows the results in the Task Pane as seen in the following images.

WHOA!! That's a lot of checking!!

You can specify which items are important and which are minor. To see the results of the active comparison return to the drawing being checked and look at the task pane for the results.

Each of the checked items that didn't pass show up in the task pane and can be dealt with on an individual basis or auto corrected all at the same time!

We hope this series has given you an insight to how to access the tools in the SolidWorks Design Checker. Please check back to the CATI Blog as the Dedicated Support Team will continue posting new series of articles every month that go further into the details of many of the SolidWorks tools. All of these articles will be stored in the category of Daily Dose.....of SolidWorks Support and links to each article with their release date are listed below: