SolidWorks 2014 Tip-Of-The-Day

Going Around In (Bolt) Circles

The fastest way to add a bolt circle to a drawing view in SOLIDWORKS is the Center
Mark annotation. But there are some tricks to using it effectively. The simplest
scenario is to use Auto Insert. With the “Circular Lines” option checked, the two
small holes and the central arc are recognized.

If you don’t
want to apply
center marks
to all holes,
what do you
do? To apply a
circular line
(bolt circle)
manually,
three holes
have to be
selected which
define a circle.
In this case,
we have only
two holes so that won’t work.

Fortunately, there’s an option to apply the bolt circle that isn’t very obvious. If the
holes are created as a circular pattern feature, a little icon pops up when you click
the first hole. It’s a light gray, and if your drawing paper color is similar, it’s hard to
see. Move the cursor over it and the name pops up: Propagate. This works only for
circular pattern features – sketch patterns are not recognized by this icon.

When you click the Propagate icon,

center marks are applied with optional
circular or radial lines:
SolidWorks 2014 Tip-Of-The-Day

Because the circular

pattern is
recognized, you have
a “two click” shortcut
to apply angular
dimensions: just
click two circle
centers or a circle
center and a radial
line.