Solidworks Sequential Numbering

[MJuric]

Most of this was pulled from other sources to credit must go to Marc-Xavier Bilodeau for figuring this out.

Often times you will have an array of holes, features etc that you want marked sequentially. There are a number of manual ways to do this including entering the numbers manually into a Sketch Text, array the text and manually changing each one etc etc. All of this gets rather tedious if you either have a large number of features or have to do this regularly with various combinations. Here is Marc's solution.

1. Make a sketch with two lines or one line and shape you plan your text to placed on or formed with.
2. Dimension the reference line that the text will not be tied to. The units do not matter. The dimension should be equal to the amount you want the markings to index. For instance if you want 1,2,3 you will dimension the line 1.0. If you want .5,1.0,1.5 you will dimension the line .5
3. While still in the sketch create a custom property and name it something reference the index. "Sequential", "Sequence" or whatever you want, name is not important.
4. While in the Value/Expression column click on the dimension you added to the reference line.
5. Place the Sketch Text on the non dimensioned line.
6. Click the "Link to Property" icon and link it to the previously named custom property.
7. Extrude the text. Not sure if this works with Split, etching etc., having tried it.
8. Array the feature created in step 7.
9. Under the array feature select the "Instance to Vary" check box.
10. Select the dimension that you dimensioned in the sketch with the incremental number you wanted in step 2

When you exit the array the numbers should now be sequential.

If you are actually using this technique to mark a grid pattern or set of features you can also tie the two arrays together which will cause the markings to update as the grid pattern or feature pattern is modified.

To make the quantities the same
1) Double click the array you want to match.
2) find the two numbers representing the qty in the array. These are typically ridiculously tiny, on top of each other and at the origin of the seed feature. You will probably have to click one and drag it to get to both of them.
3) click on the number representing the direction you are marking.
4) Copy the sketch name listed in the primary value.
5) Edit the array that you created above marking steps and paste this value into the as ='xxxxxxx' into the quantity field.

To make the feature spread the same follow the same steps as above but click on the dimension between the features rather than the qty number and enter that value in the spacing field.

Doing this will allow you to modify the original feature pattern, spacing or quantity and the marking will update accordingly, 2 features or 2000.

[DennisD]

@MJuric

You are smarter than you look!

Thanks for posting with such clear steps. Perhaps you could show an example to get more people's attention.

[MJuric]

@MJuric

You are smarter than you look!

Thanks for posting with such clear steps. Perhaps you could show an example to get more people's attention.

I've actually posted something I'm working on where I'm having some weird behavior with this function here https://www.cadforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=484

This works fine in a normal application but for some reason it's not playing nicely with Driveworks.

[MJuric]

Part with everything set up. Should be able to change the array and numbers will update. Might have to rebuild.

SEQARRAY.mpg

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[linsd]

Very interesting technique!

[MJuric]

Very interesting technique!

One thing I've not found a work around for is that the numbers are based on the units for length in the model. So unless you change the units to [None] which ends up rounding everything to the nearest whole number when displayed, you get "1.000" in the number/Cut.

Anyone know a way to apply the [None] just to a particular font text?

[Maha Nadarasa]

It looks like a magic. Closing the PM of Linear Pattern converting array 1, 1, 1..... into Sequential Numbering 1, 2, 3.........
Could you tell me which data in the PM of Linear Pattern doing this?

[palee0]

One thing I've not found a work around for is that the numbers are based on the units for length in the model. So unless you change the units to [None] which ends up rounding everything to the nearest whole number when displayed, you get "1.000" in the number/Cut.

Anyone know a way to apply the [None] just to a particular font text?

Made an account just to reply to this!
My workaround on SOLIDWORKS 2020 is to navigate to the document properties and change Basic Units decimals to None. However, you can navigate to Dimensions and change the primary precision to whatever decimal precision you wish.

This way, I can still see dimensions to the proper decimal places, and the number is cut/extruded with no decimal places.

[SPerman]

I'm compacting our gauge pin storage and I'm going to 3d print new containers. (Maybe this should be in the OCD thread.)

This feature has been a real time saver. I can only get it to work in the X direction, so it's still a bit of work to setup, but it's better than doing it all by hand.

Here's where I'm stuck.

The problem I have is that if I use the actual dimensions, I get leading zeros, and I don't get trailing zeros. It eats up way too much space for no value. I found a thread on the old forum and the answer was "You can't change it." I've switched to using integers. I can fake it by adding a "." or a ".0" at the beginning of each row, but what do I do with the 99 row? I think I'm just going to have to live with integers.

[SPerman]

I wanted to add that this method works, but is all but unusable. Any changes to the model shown above requires a 15-20 minute wait while the model rebuilds.

[JSculley]

Part with everything set up. Should be able to change the array and numbers will update. Might have to rebuild.
SEQARRAY.mpg

Hmmmm. When I open this part (SW2023 SP2.1), make no changes and CTRL-Q rebuild, all the numbering reverts t o1.