The Engineer’s Notebook gives you the ability to create notes and store them as part of a model. A note can be attached to an edge, sketch, feature, part, or other selection in the model. Each note consists of a comment box and a view of the model.
To start the Engineers Notebook, select a part in the window, right-click, and select Create Note.
When you add the first note to a model, the program creates a notebook. You can add comment boxes or additional views to a note or add more notes to the notebook.
You can use the Engineer’s Notebook to save the history of development or to provide reminders for project designers. Examples of notes include design strategy, reason for a design decision, manufacturing instructions, or information from a test or FEA calculation. Notes can contain links to external files, such as spreadsheets, word processing documents, graphics, or audio files.
In the Engineer’s Notebook browser, the program assigns each note a name and lists it in the order in which you created it. You can organize the notes as follows:
If you are using the Engineer’s Notebook to maintain the history of a design, you can use several options to assure an accurate record.
Ordinarily, a note is deleted when the geometry to which it is attached is deleted. To maintain an accurate history, set the option to keep notes attached to deleted geometry
When you create a note, the note view captures the current state of the model. As you change the model, the view in the note updates automatically. To keep it from updating, you can freeze a view in the note. The view and its comment then serve as a historical record.
As you add notes to a part model, each note is listed in the part browser under the item to which it is attached. For example, if the note is attached to a feature, it is nested under that feature in the browser. Notes attached to edges or other items that are not listed in the part browser are listed at the end of the part.
Information from an external file (such as a spreadsheet or word processing document) can be added to a note in the Engineer’s Notebook. You can embed the content of the external file in a comment or add a link to the file.
As you add notes, each one is assigned a name and listed in the Engineer’s Notebook browser in the order in which you created it. You can organize the notes in the following ways:
You can also change the name of a folder, comment, or view.
In the browser, drag the note to the new location.
Right-click the folder and select Place New Notes Here from the menu.
When more than one note exists for a part or an assembly, you can cycle forward or backward through the multiple notes by clicking Previous Note or Next Note on the Notes panel as required.
You can change the layout of a note in the Engineer’s Notebook. Add comments, views, or arrows to the note, format the text in a comment box, or change the view in a view box.
You can add comment boxes, view boxes, or arrows to a note. To add an element to a note, right-click the notebook page (not in a comment box or view box), and then select the element from the menu.
To apply formatting to text in a comment box, select the text. Use the options on the Format panel to change the font or color of the text or to apply bold, italics, or underlining. Text justification modes, such as left alignment, center alignment, and right alignment may also be applied to selected text.
You can also use the bullets option to better organize your notes and improve readability.
You can change size, orientation, or display style of any view in a note.
If you select Freeze from the view menu, the view no longer update when you change the model. To update the view, clear the Freeze check mark.
Lists all the notes in the model file. Notes are listed in the order in which they were created.
Use the following options when working with notes in the browser:
Click a note to select and display it.
Select the note, then click the note name and enter the new name.
Drag the note to the new location.
Right-click the note and select Delete from the menu.
Provides options for organizing design notes in a model. To access the menu, click in the browser to cancel any note selection, then right-click to open the menu.
Sets the sort order for the notes. Select the order from the pop-up menu.
Creates a note folder at the end of the note list.
Place New Notes Here
Sets a folder as the default location for all new notes. Select the folder before opening the browser menu.