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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Jamil Snead Jun 5, 2014 5:53 PM (in response to Matthew Lorono)The thing I would love and I see people asking for over and over again is the ability to easily reference a balloon item number in a note. Right now you need to have an extra view with balloons that have no border, then click on those while you are writing the note. Then when you are done hide the view. When you want to add more notes you need to find the view and unhide it and etc. It is way more work than it should be. Plus that method isn't seamless in the notes. It adds extra space before and after the number and changes the line spacing between that line and the row above and below.
I wish you could just select a balloon from your normal exploded view, even if it has a round border or whatever, and just add the item number into text as a single character.
Also it is not really balloons but related to my request above, I wish you could link text to the item number of a manually created row in a BOM. So if I make a row manually for epoxy or something, I wish I could link text to that item number so that if I reorder the row it will update the text.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Matthew LoronoJun 6, 2014 8:48 AM (in response to Jamil Snead)
Jamil,
About using the item number in the notes. It seems to me that this isn't necessarily related to balloons, as long as you has some ability to show the item number as just regular text in notes. For example, perhaps selecting it from a BOM row. Do you have cases where you have BOM balloons when there is no BOM table?
As to you second request, please let me know which text you are referencing too when you say "I wish I could link text to that item number"? Is your end goal to be able to include manual rows in the sort, or do you have something else in mind?
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Jamil Snead Jun 6, 2014 10:52 AM (in response to Matthew Lorono)Matthew,
I guess you are right, the ability to add notes linked to item numbers is not necessarily balloon related, but since the only way to do it right now is with balloons that's what came to mind. I have never had a balloon without a BOM row.
For the second request I meant that if I manually create a row in the BOM it has a certain item number. I wish I could link text in a note to that item number just like I can do for rows with balloons. It doesn't have anything to do with sort, it's just about referring to item numbers in notes and having them update if the rows are reordered.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Robin Saniewski Sep 25, 2015 11:54 AM (in response to Jamil Snead)I would like to see from the balloon selection shape as none (no under line) so I can add a note when stacking balloons so I would end up with the balloon then the next balloon would end up as a note.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Jamil Snead Jun 5, 2014 6:02 PM (in response to Matthew Lorono)Oh and along the same lines it would be nice to be able to add a balloon linked to a row in the BOM that was manually created. So like in my example above if I manually created a row for epoxy, and I want to attach it as a stacked balloon, it would be nice if I could tie it to that BOM row instead of manually typing the item number in the balloon.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Ian Worrall Jun 6, 2014 3:24 AM (in response to Matthew Lorono)I too would like to be able to "Add to Stack" from my BOM. Also, how about circular "Magnetic Lines" for detail views?
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Matthew LoronoJun 6, 2014 8:49 AM (in response to Ian Worrall)
Ian,
What other magnetic line shapes might you need?
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Kelvin Lamport Jun 6, 2014 9:03 AM (in response to Matthew Lorono)How about allowing any sketched entities to be used as magnetic lines?
For multi-sheet drawings, being able to include the sheet number the item is detailed on, in a split balloon.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Christopher Estelow Jun 6, 2014 9:04 AM (in response to Kelvin Lamport)Ditto on what Kelvin said!!!
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Ian Worrall Jun 6, 2014 9:35 AM (in response to Kelvin Lamport)Sounds good to me!
Draw a sketch, then RMB on it & have the option "Make Magnetic".
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Elmar Klammer Jun 6, 2014 10:10 AM (in response to Matthew Lorono)1) Make the add jog point easier. Not just for balloons but all leaders incl. weld symbols. The current scenario needs so many clicks.
a) point to leader with mouse
b) RMC select "add jog point"
c) select new point with mouse and drag
modify to:
eliminate step c) and have the new jog point attached to the mouse so in can drag it. If i add a jog point i most likely wanna use it i.a.w drag it somewhere
2) Allow me to select sub-assemblies to balloon
a) Attach the balloon to a part of a sub-assembly (BOM: indented style) and link the balloon the parent sub-assembly instead.
Thanks
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Mark Kaiser Jun 6, 2014 10:42 AM (in response to Matthew Lorono)We don't use any SW functionallity for balloon numbers related to SW bills. So, when I start adding balloons, I would like the first one I add to be numbered 1, then 2, 3, etc.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Jamil Snead Jun 6, 2014 10:56 AM (in response to Mark Kaiser)I would find that useful too. Sometimes I make ballooned exploded views for our spare part manuals and these are not based off of the BOM, we manually make the spares table separately.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
John Burrill Jun 6, 2014 11:24 AM (in response to Matthew Lorono)Thanks for opening the topic, Matt
What I've needed for a long time now, is the ability to create a balloon for an item that's hidden or occluded in the view. There's that little panel in the balloon property manager that's supposed to list invisible components for you to link your annotation to, but there's no rhyme or reason to what's in the box and what's excluded and there's no topic for it in the online help.
In all seriousness, I would be happy if I could link a balloon directly to a BOM table item
Regaurding quantities, another long-standing request I've had is for the ability to specify a quantity by selecting a component pattern, or a common mating reference or if I type ina discrete value for quantity, I'd like to see the default count changed to the number of remaining instances in the drawing when you discount the user-specified quantity.
When it comes to linking balloons to notes, I'm going to echo Jamil's request, that it be possible to retrieve the text of the balloon only and preferably to be able to retrieve individual fields for ballons
Finally, and this is a monster, I want to be able to define my own baloon shape and fields. More precisely, I want a components find number in a bom to be an attribute I can invoke to construct an annotation block with those crazy aerospace balloon notes that include sprues for flag notes, finish specifications and field notes.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Matthew LoronoJun 6, 2014 11:28 AM (in response to John Burrill)
John,
Do you have examples you can provide that represent the aerospace balloons you mentioned?
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
John Burrill Jun 6, 2014 12:04 PM (in response to Matthew Lorono)-
Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Steve Rauenbuehler Jun 6, 2014 2:42 PM (in response to John Burrill)YES!
Aerospace style balloons. I've been wanting those (even if I didn't know what to call 'em) for as long as I've been doing Aerospace style drawings. I've always had to build up my own "sprues", which has been very time consuming. It would help a bunch if it was just possible to group Sprues and Notes with the Balloon so they would move as one.....
And, as long as we're on the subject of Balloons, my DER really likes the idea of single level drawings; Installation, Assembly, Subassembly and Detail all in one drawing number - might be several sheets, but it cuts way down on the paperwork he has to submit to the FAA. But one of the time consuming aspects of that style drawing is the work-arounds that I have to go through to accomplish a very simple need: putting a balloon on a Subassembly. Either attach the Ballon anchor to the Subassembly origin, or create a subassembly level sketch just to have an entity to attach a Balloon. What a pain!
And, as long as I'm having this dream.....along with Subassembly balloons, how about being able to LIST said subassembly as a single component in the Bill of Materials AND still keep the BOM at Top Level so that I can also list each subassembly part at the same time. I need this so that I can use confiigurations of my top-level assembly to create multiple columns in the BOM.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Steven Dod Jun 6, 2014 3:02 PM (in response to Matthew Lorono)I would like to be able to sort the stacked balloons. The example above shows 3, 6, 7, 4, 5. I want 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 but sometimes you just cannot pick them in the right order.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Jamil Snead Jun 6, 2014 5:10 PM (in response to Steven Dod)X2
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Matthew LoronoJun 8, 2014 9:41 AM (in response to Jamil Snead)
In SOLIDWORKS 2014, you can reattach any balloon (stack, by-itself, dangling/not dangling). It's not the same as dragging the balloons around within a stack, but it's the next best thing. Right-click on the balloon, then select Reattach command.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
John Lhuillier Jun 6, 2014 6:27 PM (in response to Matthew Lorono)Another change to the magnetic line is to not have the balloons move when you lengthen the line. Seems like you get the balloons placed & need to add a few & have to lengthen the magnet line. Then you have to go back & reposition the balloons along the line because they've moved. This would be when the magnetic line is set to FREE DRAG
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Paul Marsman Nov 20, 2014 8:22 AM (in response to John Lhuillier)John (and everyone else),
You'll want to vote for this idea then: Change magnetic line length without balloons moving
Paul
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Brandon Kennelly Nov 14, 2014 4:10 PM (in response to Matthew Lorono)It would be nice to be able to add a fill color to the balloons, such as the one in yellow below, as opposed to the one underneath. Currently the only way I've been able to get the colored balloon is to make the box a block, then copy it where I need it, explode it, change the # to the appropriate Item #, and then add a leader pointing to it. Which is a bit cumbersome and time consuming.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Brandon Clark Dec 10, 2014 10:42 AM (in response to Brandon Kennelly)
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Mark Schwandt Nov 14, 2014 4:24 PM (in response to Matthew Lorono)I would like to see you be able to reorder the balloons, drag and put in the order you want.. And be able to attach a stacked balloon item to an item in the bill that may not be visible, or a virtual part, and then when the BOM updates, the balloon number follows.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Wendy Mark Nov 19, 2014 4:20 PM (in response to Matthew Lorono)When I add a balloon to an item which already has a balloon attached, it needs to be a "reference balloon". Our last software program did this automatically, but I haven't been able to find out how to do it in SW. Our work-around is adding a free-floating note, and then grouping the balloon and note together. It works, but there are a lot of non-value-added steps involved...
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Glenn Schroeder Nov 20, 2014 8:02 AM (in response to Wendy Mark)Wendy,
Would you mind explaining what you mean by "reference balloon"?
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Robert D. Nov 20, 2014 8:10 AM (in response to Glenn Schroeder)I'd like to see helium in my balloon.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Matthew LoronoNov 20, 2014 11:22 AM (in response to Robert D.)
I've been considering this possibility. However, we have been advised that Helium is a rapidly diminishing resource that has to be preserved for military/scientific uses and Macy's Day Parade Balloons.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Wendy Mark Nov 20, 2014 10:43 AM (in response to Glenn Schroeder)HI Glenn,
It's not good practice to put multiple balloons on the same component. But sometimes you have an alternate view or detail view where it would make things clearer if there were also balloons. For us, we try to get most of the BOM balloons shown on the same sheet where the BOM itself is, but not infrequently we have to have extra sheets to show the different areas. When we put balloons on the extra sheets for components that we already flagged on the 1st sheet, they are reference balloons. As I mentioned, out last program (Pro/E) did this automatically, but because we haven't been able to find out how to do it automatically in SW we have been adding a note like this (not that this drawing actually needs a reference balloon )
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Jody Holm Dec 10, 2014 12:21 PM (in response to Matthew Lorono)I wish you could edit the balloon numbers and have the row in the BOM adjust accordingly. I like all my baloons in consequtive order, or at least close. It is much easier to locate a component on the assembly drawing when you don't have to search all over the drawing for the correct balloon. I did it like this before CAD.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Jamil Snead Dec 10, 2014 12:50 PM (in response to Jody Holm)-
Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Jody Holm Dec 10, 2014 1:10 PM (in response to Jamil Snead)Thanks Jamil! I never knew that was there. Thanks to Matt too for prompting me to give this a thought.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Alice Caspari Dec 11, 2014 2:04 PM (in response to Matthew Lorono)
It would be great if auto balloon could be set up for the magnetic lines to be a specific (modifiable) distance from the outermost visible component line on each side of the drawing view. -
Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Kyle Lami Jul 14, 2015 10:27 AM (in response to Matthew Lorono)It would be great to have split balloons available in additional shapes, text doesn't fit very well in a circle. We like to use split oval balloons.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Daen Hendrickson Jul 14, 2015 12:57 PM (in response to Matthew Lorono)+1 to the balloon moving when the magnetic line is stretched.
And +1 on Alice's suggestion of a setting to offset the magnetic lines.
I am using SW2013 SP3 and currently the magnetic lines snap to horizontal and vertical. I would also like to see them snap to ISO view angles - 30° and 150°. Perhaps they would snap to these additional angles only when placed on an ISO view.
Also, the lines always default to "Equal Spacing". I would like this default editable - perhaps have SW retain the last used type.
Daen
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Alice Caspari Sep 25, 2015 11:14 AM (in response to Daen Hendrickson)Daen,
the lines always default to "Equal Spacing" --- this is a sticky setting beginning in SW 2014
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Ed Gesch Sep 25, 2015 10:02 AM (in response to Matthew Lorono)Attach points for notes on balloons!
Currently I am doing this by creating blocks and aligning them as best as I can to the balloon. One thing that is annoying is that If I need to move the balloon, I cannot group anything else besides balloons together so I have to re-position them every time the balloon moves. So this and group with entities.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Kenneth Barrentine Sep 25, 2015 10:41 AM (in response to Matthew Lorono)Have balloon (flag) dynamically link to Note #
If a new note is inserted, the balloon # would update.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Matthew LoronoSep 25, 2015 10:50 AM (in response to Kenneth Barrentine)
Kenneth, please see SW2016 Flag Notes capabilities.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Bob Van Dick Sep 25, 2015 11:04 AM (in response to Matthew Lorono)Currently when a subassembly is listed in a BOM you can have it list the components that make up the subassembly. When one goes to attach the balloons to the entire assembly, Solidworks will give the subassembly and all of it components the same item number. So you end up with the subassembly and all of it components displaying the same item number, let's say item #3. This subassembly consists of several different parts, all with unique part numbers. If somebody is trying to identify a specific part in a subassembly using the BOM, it cannot be done because all the components will have a #3 balloon attached to them. Could it be possible to have components in a subassembly be listed with a unique item number and corresponding balloon number? For instance, subassembly (item #3) would list its subcomponents in the BOM as 3a, 3b, 3c, etc. and could have corresponding balloons attached in the assembly. If this ability is currently possible in SolidWorks, somebody please let me know, maybe I have missed the boat on this one.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Alice Caspari Sep 25, 2015 11:12 AM (in response to Bob Van Dick)-
Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Bob Van Dick Sep 25, 2015 11:14 AM (in response to Alice Caspari)Many thanks Alice, I will start using that.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Brian Stranyak Sep 25, 2015 11:14 AM (in response to Matthew Lorono)I agree with Jamil. I would like a method of linking a balloon to a specific note number. For example, if I have a note that says "3) assemble washer as shown", sometimes we'll place a blank balloon shape over the #3 of the note, and create a new balloon w/ text "3" and have the leader point to what we're talking about.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Matthew LoronoSep 25, 2015 11:41 AM (in response to Brian Stranyak)
Brian,
You can add balloons around your paragraph numbers with any version of SOLIDWORKS since 2010, I believe. You don't kneed to create blank shapes and eyeball them in place. As of SOLIDWORKS 2016, you'll have the ability to link those ballooned notes to flag notes in other places on your drawing.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Brian Stranyak Sep 25, 2015 11:55 AM (in response to Matthew Lorono)Thanks. I wasn't aware of placing a balloon around a note number. I tried it and it works. That's also good new about linking to a flag. Can't wait for '16
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Chris Saller Sep 25, 2015 11:35 AM (in response to Matthew Lorono)I would like to see an option to change font size/type of the Qty text attached to the balloon. Right now it's default is the same size/type as the balloon text.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Tom Helsley Sep 28, 2015 12:32 PM (in response to Matthew Lorono)How about:
- The ability to add balloons by clicking on a row in the BOM table? For example, if the balloon isn't attached to anything, then the 1st click places the balloon where the user wants it, then a second click in the BOM table selects the item number to show in the balloon.
- Balloons linked in notes don't hide when the balloons are hidden in views. This way, users don't have to create a separate view just for hidden balloons linked by notes, then hide the view.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Glenn Schroeder Sep 28, 2015 12:37 PM (in response to Tom Helsley)Tom Helsley:
How about:
- The ability to add balloons by clicking on a row in the BOM table? For example, if the balloon isn't attached to anything, then the 1st click places the balloon where the user wants it, then a second click in the BOM table selects the item number to show in the balloon.
- Balloons linked in notes don't hide when the balloons are hidden in views. This way, users don't have to create a separate view just for hidden balloons linked by notes, then hide the view.
+1
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Elmar Klammer Sep 29, 2015 9:31 AM (in response to Matthew Lorono)Hello,
Get the BOM to filter & show only the parts that are ballooned. That would be great. Being able to filter, sort the BOM in general would indeed be a great feature.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Anthony Macke May 31, 2016 4:01 PM (in response to Matthew Lorono)When trying to put a balloon on the spiral/helix of a part, balloon magically moves to a different part of the helix.
Attaching a balloon to a round edge with the intent to callout the item #, is a nightmare, red question marks all day every day.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Robert Adair May 31, 2016 4:20 PM (in response to Anthony Macke)Similar to the requests to attach notes to a balloon. Allow a revision (we use triangles), note to be attached to a balloon. If you move the balloon, the revision flag & notes move with.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Chris Saller May 31, 2016 4:27 PM (in response to Matthew Lorono)I would like to see the option to resize the QTY font with the balloon, and not stuck with the same size of the balloon font.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Robert Adair May 31, 2016 4:31 PM (in response to Chris Saller)-
Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Chris Saller May 31, 2016 4:46 PM (in response to Robert Adair)Robert,
Yes, you can change the font size, but both the balloon font and the qty font are the same size.
For example, I would like to see the balloon font .19, and the qty font .125.
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Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Robert Adair Jun 1, 2016 8:29 AM (in response to Chris Saller)-
Re: What would you like to see in Balloons?
Chris Saller Jun 1, 2016 9:42 AM (in response to Robert Adair)Robert, thanks. This still makes both the "balloon font" and the "balloon qty font" the same size.
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