Watermark in drawing

You can select the text and change it's colour OK - I have been doing it for years - check out the help. Alternatively, you can put the watermark on it's own layer and assign a colour for it (this way you can turn it on and off). You could also make it a block so it is quick to insert into a drawing.

Another way is to get your printer to add the watermark (many of the new printers have this as a printing option).

Merry :-)

Alternative: Use Windows Excel to create discrete files with formatted text and more. Then insert these as objects into your drawings. The advantage is that you have a resource that can be shared between drawing documents.

Kman

Andrew,

The best solution I could think of would be to add the watermark to your sheet format as you had alluded to originally. You can easily create the watermark in another program and then save the image as something like a bmp or jpeg. Next, go to your sheet format and choose Insert...Object...from File... and then pick the image file that you created. Then resize accordingly in SolidWorks. Save the sheet format. You should have the image now on your custom sheet format. You can eaily reload the sheet format on any older drawings that were started with your new sheet format. I have put logos on several of my sheet formats using a bitmap image inserted on the sheet format. It has worked well for me, and is something the SolidWorks has advertised in the past and shown in some training manuals that I have seen. One of David and Marie Planchard's books on learning SolidWorks has a good example on this. This capability has been in the software for quite some time now. I'm kind of shocked that more people don't know about it.

Andrew,

I start with empty drawing template. Layers are stored in the Drawing Template.

1. Create a new layer named "Watermark" on an empty Drawing Template. Save the empty Drawing Template. Example: Template-A-Empty.

1. Insert your existing Sheet Format with no watermark. Select the Watermark Layer to be your current layer. Right-click Edit Sheet Format.

2. Select Insert, Object. Browse and select your watermark picture file.

1. Utilize the drag handles to size your picture.

2. Right-click Edit Sheet. Change your layer back to your default. Do not save with the Watermark layer selected for all you dimensions will be inserted onto this layer.

1. Important - Save both the Sheet Format and the Drawing Template. Save the Sheet Format with the File, Save Sheet Format option. Example: Enter Sheet-Format-A-Watermark.

1. Save the Drawing Template with File, Save As. Select Templates from the Files of type list. Example: Enter Template-A-Format-Watermark.

1. Now you can use the same empty Drawing Template for other sizes. Open the empty drawing template with no sheet format. Right-click Properties and change the paper size to B. The Layers and other Document Property setting will be save. Save this template as Template-B-Empty.

2. Repeat for the B size Sheet Format.

Regards, Marie

Thanks all for your replies. I have had luck changing the note colour so it comes out almost transparent, but it is still printing over the top of drawing views. I have the same problem when I insert bitmaps and jpegs. Does anyone know how to order these items to the background? I am also not keen on seeing the black outline around the inserted file. I am at a disadvantage because I can only use SolidWorks at work, and don't get a chance to experiment as much as I like!