Solidworks View in Access

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to view a Solidworks drawing file from
within an Access database. If so what is the prosses to do this

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Couray Sheetmetal
9 Apsley Plc.
Seaford
Melbourne.
Australia.
PH 03 97861609

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If you set a field up as a Hyperlink and point it to the Solidworks
Drawing, this will work.
Pete

 

I thought of that but i want to be able to have a preview window and also i
need it to be opened by the solidworks viewer not so much by Solidworks
proper. We have one computer here that has the viewer installed and when you
are in Access setting up a form there is an activx control for the viewer
but control on the computer that is running Solidworks 2004 SP3.0.

 

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to view a Solidworks drawing file from

I assume you mean to view the drawing on a FORM, within an Access database?

if so, on your form, "Insert", "Object", "Create from File", then browse
to your SW drawing. The document opens up at 1:1 scale. Go to the bottom
right of the drawing, grab the size handles, and resize the drawing image to
a reasonable size on your Form. It is now smaller, but clipped.

Right click on the drawing view, select "Properties", select the "Format" tab,
and change "Size Mode" to "Zoom"

 

In all of this is there a way to have it call eDrawings and let it do its
thing?

My example is Conisio, our PDM package. If you have your SW files in the
vault, then the preview mode is handled by eDrawings. This means that in
the preview window, you can zoom, rotate, pan, etc. Even print from there
without opening SW.

I don't have any idea how complicated it is, but I know it happens, and it's
a very nice feature.

WT

 

Check out a program called Fastlook by Kamel Software. They provide
the ability to use the viewer inside of Access. Here is the info from
their website

"FastLook Plus can easily become a graphics engine for any Windows
application. Use direct DLL calls or our ActiveX to project and
control the FastLook drawing window directly in your database
application. All the power of FastLook is at your fingertips. Your
application will have all of the capabilities of FastLook Plus,
including viewing, zoom and pan, print/plot, redlining and linking."
from http://www.kamelsoftware.com

We use Fastlook here and it has been a great help. We have many
solidworks files in addition to old legacy data from HP ME10 which we
still need to view in manufacturing. It's a good program with really
great tech support.

Mike Morris

 

If i have a table with a list of drawing files and 1 of the fields has a
path to the drawing that i want to view that drawing as i cycle through the
table in a form.

 

I wrote a VB program that displays all assemblies, parts and drawings in a
particular folder. The VB code in the form uses Sldwrks_extractBitmap.dll
to extract and displays a preview of the file when the user selects a file
in the list box.. I store the preview bitmap in a temp folder using the
same name so I always replace the previous copy. Then when the user exits
the VB form, it deletes the preview file. After the user selects the
desired file, they click a view button that launches an instance of
Solidworks view with the selected document. Each user has the Solidworks
viewer and program installed. Our purchasing, manufacturing people, process
planners, etc use this program to review changes and print manufacturing
drawings.

You could the same thing form Access using similar VB code.

Tony Noll