In this post, I will demonstrate the easy way, which is simply to create a Block using Sketch tools. Sound like fun? If you’re someone who would prefer to make this using coordinates and put it into the library file, follow these instructions from the SOLIDWORKS Help website. This is the example from the SOLIDWORKS Help website of a completed custom symbol:įigure 1: Example format of creating a 3rd angle projection symbol The downside is it can be time-consuming and tedious to correctly create a custom symbol, and it is likely that the process will involve a lot of “guess and check.” The only real advantage of creating a custom symbol in the gtol.sym file is that it will be consolidated with the other default symbols. For instance, this is the format of the information you would enter into the gtol.sym file: You will then need to enter that information without mistakes into the library file using Windows Notepad or a similar program. The hard way requires obtaining and understanding the language of the library file (gtol.sym) and determining the X-Y coordinate information (from 0.0 to 1.0) of the endpoints, arc radii, and the start and end angles of each entity you wish to be in your symbol. The easy way utilizes SOLIDWORKS Sketch tools to create a block and may take 1-2 minutes. There are two ways to create custom symbols in SOLIDWORKS: the easy way and the hard way.

However, it may be useful to create a custom symbol for proprietary or other use. Symbols are useful tools to simply convey valuable information in a SOLIDWORKS drawing.

Solidworks hexagon