Custom-Properties

The scenario: a supplier sends fifty SolidWorks parts. The files land in the PDM vault. The PDM admin manually fills in the data cards — material, description, part number, revision. Everything is correct in the vault database. But the files themselves have no custom properties. Any downstream tool that reads properties directly from the file (a drawing, an ERP integration, a batch export macro) sees blanks. The natural fix — run the built-in Task Scheduler “Add/Update Custom Properties” task — breaks the data cards. The task adds the file properties and then syncs them back to the data card. Because the file properties were blank when the task ran, the sync writes blank back over the values the admin entered. ...

A Reddit thread on r/SolidWorks recently asked how to get the title block Description field to pull from the part’s custom properties automatically. The answers ranged from “use a macro” to “you need PDM” to “manually copy it every time.” No one mentioned $PRPSHEET. This syntax has been in SolidWorks for well over a decade. It links a drawing annotation directly to a named custom property on the model, without any macro, without PDM, without add-ins. When the part’s Description property changes, the drawing title block updates on open. If you’re manually typing part numbers, descriptions, and materials into title blocks, or using a macro to copy properties from model to drawing, this is the feature you’re missing. ...

You’ve spent an hour adding custom properties to each cut list item — part numbers, supplier codes, cost-per-unit. You modify a structural member, hit Rebuild, and they’re gone. Not obviously corrupted. Just attached to the wrong items, or pointing at stale folders that no longer exist in the tree. This is the cut list auto-update problem, and it’s not a bug. It’s the expected behavior of a consolidation system that doesn’t know you cared about those specific folders. ...

A supplier discontinues a product line. You need to find every SKF bearing in a 600-part machine assembly and evaluate alternatives. With the standard Select menu you can hunt them down individually — or you can open Advanced Component Selection, type vendor = SKF, click Apply, and have every matching component highlighted in 3 seconds. Most SolidWorks users have never touched this tool. It sits one click off the cursor menu and handles property-based selection that would otherwise require a macro or a full PDM search. ...

A Reddit post asking about converting solid bodies to individual part files got 77 upvotes. The top comment pointed to Insert → Features → Save Bodies — and multiple replies said they’d never heard of it despite years of SolidWorks use. CSWP holders included. This is not a niche feature. It’s the correct way to extract individual part files from a multi-body part, and it does things that Insert into New Part and manual workflows cannot match. ...

A question on r/SolidWorks last week: can you make flag note ⑤ in a drawing appear automatically in the BOM cell for line item 1? The answers suggested balloons, linked notes, and custom properties — all partially right, none complete. SolidWorks does not have a native mechanism for this. What it has is a custom property workaround that approximates the result, with specific limitations that trip people up. What flag notes are (and are not) A flag note in SolidWorks is a drawing annotation with a bordered symbol — typically a circled number like ①, ②, ③ — stored in a flag note bank. You create them via Insert → Annotations → Note, check Flag Note, and assign a border shape and symbol from the PropertyManager. Once created, a note can be added to the bank with Add to Flag Note Bank, making the symbol reusable across sheets. ...