Displaying textures in eDrawings
Tips and Tricks • Bill • 19 May 2016
So, you’ve spent all that time applying the required textures to your parts in SolidWorks and they look perfect. Then you view the file in eDrawings (as a native SolidWorks file or eDrawings format file) and the textures don’t display. Grrrr!!!! 🙁
Model in SolidWorks
Model in eDrawings
This is a known problem in SolidWorks under SPR 523598.
What isn’t so well known, however, is that there’s a work around. And it’s really easy. 🙂
In summary, you:
- Add a decal to any face of the part
- Delete the decal
- Publish or save the file again to eDrawings and the textures will be shown
Here is the process in detail for those who, perhaps, have never used decals.
Open the model.
Go to the “Appearances, Scenes, and Decals” tab in the SolidWorks Task Pane, as shown below. Expand the Decals icon to show the logos folder. You will see a selection of decals in the bottom section of the pane.
Please note, these are not the only decals you can use. If you have your own decals you can use them, of course. I’m using these because they are standard in SolidWorks and everyone should have them.
Drag and drop any decal onto any face of the model. When the decal properties appear in the PropertyManager, click the green tick. The decal will look something like this on the model:
Now to delete the decal. There are two ways to do this.
Via the DisplayManager
Go to the DisplayManager tab.
Expand the “Decals” icon to see the decals that have been applied to the model.
Right-click on the decal and select “Delete” from the menu. The decal will be deleted.
Via the decal itself
Left-click on the decal and then click on the Appearances icon triangle, as indicated below.
Click on the red X symbol next to the decal, as shown below. The decal will be deleted.
When the decal has been deleted, save the model in SolidWorks, then publish or Save-As to eDrawings format and the textures will appear in eDrawings.
About the Author:
Bill Murch
Technical Support Engineer
CSWP, CSWE, CDWP
Based in Sydney, Australia
