2 D and 3 D Drawings

Maybe you are referring to 2D & 3D drawing views?

A 2D view would be like what you are used to seeing. A 3D view is where you are allowed to rotate the model directly in the view. Go to "3D drawing view mode" in the SW Help.

If this isn't what you are asking about, please rephrase your question.

WT

"1 d"

Mark

and 4d drawings are those that change every time you open them.... unfortunately sometimes solidworks produces those.

It may be that the 3d reference you may have heard was actually about 3d models (or solid models), which can be viewed with the native software or with various viewer gadgets. A drawing made with a 3d modeling software does not necessarily look any different from that produced with 2d software, but rather how the drawing views were created.

I think that there is a technical difference between 2d and 3d views. A 2d view reguardless if it generated from a 2d drawing or a 3d model is a "flat" representation of the lines projected onto a 2d drawing. Whereas a 3d view "looks" flat but if the drawing could be rotated, (such as rotating the camera around) part of the 3D part would be below and above the surface of the drawing. But, since the camera angle of the drawing can not be tilted from only the straight on view all looks to be a 2d in a drawing. From the way that SW treats certain functions I believe that SW drawings are 3D views which makes some of the entities un-available for dimensioning etc. I would like to see a "flatten" function added.

Ed