Michael Lord

I don’t use the desktop version of eDrawings all that much.  To be honest I can’t recall the last time I would have used it at work.  Our main use of eDrawings is on mobile.  I have both iOS (iPhone) and Android (Nexus 7) versions.  My most common use is when I need a reference to review something in the workshop!  Normally it’s a cabinet when I need to see why we haven’t put something together correctly!   Even rarer would be for me to use (or Save a drawing as) EDRW drawings!

So I shouldn’t have been too supprised, when I didn’t know, after I read that you could rotate a model from a eDrawings EDRW!   Who would have thought that!   The question was posted on the SolidWorks Forum.  It was in regards to rotating a view (model) in a eDrawings Mobile version!

The first thing I had to do was see how (and what it did) to rotate a view in eDrawings.   That meant first creating a SolidWorks Drawing. (I had the Logitech Speaker which I downloaded from Charles Culp – SWtuts (SolidWorks Tutorials) the other day in readiness for some computer Benchmarking – buts that’s another story)  By the the logo it looks as if it’s a Rob Rodriguez – Axis Cad Solutions model!

Savings it as a eDrawings EDRW and then opening in eDrawings

Select a drawing view and the rotate icon changes from greyed out to selectable. Select the Rotate icon,

the model opens and can be rotated. (Select the model, Left Mouse Button, Hold and rotate)   To return to a drawing view select Home.   There’s something I didn’t know!

Now that I know that’s what can happen in the desktop version, what about the question of the mobile version?  Send the eDrawings EDRW to my Nexus 7 (Android) via Dropbox

Select a drawing view but there is no rotate icon …………… take a guess and try the Play icon!

The model opens and automatically starts to rotate and runs through the various views (Front, side, end, Isometric)

Tapping either the model or the Pause/ Play icon stops the model.  It can then be Zoomed into and out of, as well as the ability to Pan.  Whilst its can’t be manually rotated as in the Desktop version it does have a fair level of control.  To return to the drawing view, it is, as per the Desktop version select the Home icon

Might just have to start using EDRW!    A drawing and model all in one.

UPDATE:  After I posted this last night I received some feed back and advice on rotating other views. 

In the end that was just a good excuse to go back and see for myself.  Adding the additional Section, Exploded and Detailed Views to the SolidWorks Drawing

Then Saving as a eDrawing EDRW and opening in eDrawingsAs per above, select the view, in this case Section. Select the Rotate Icon and the Model opens which allows a much closer examination of the part

Which is exactly the same for Exploded Views.

The more I look at eDrawing EDRW and its abilities when using the Rotate feature, the more I see the benefits of using over EPRT and EASM!