Defining Balloon Settings

Before you insert Mechanical Toolbox balloons and generate Bills of Materials from them, you can customize balloon settings to specify how the balloons appear in your drawing.

  1. Click Settings (Mechanical Toolbox toolbar) or Mechanical Toolbox > Settings.
  2. On the right side of theSettings dialog box, select the Annotations.
  3. On the left side of the dialog box, expand Balloons.
  4. Under General:
    • Select Auto increment to have Toolbox automatically populate each balloon you insert with the next sequential item number.
    • Select Count items to have Toolbox automatically populate balloons and BOMs with the number of items in the drawing that are identical to the one you select when you insert the balloon.
    • Select Verify item data to open the Toolbox - Edit Balloon dialog box when you click in the graphics area to locate balloons you are inserting.

      When you insert Mechanical Toolbox hardware or holes with Create as block selected, the software automatically populates the Description field in the Toolbox - Edit Balloon dialog box. This option lets you specify an assembly name and part number, and modify the block description or provide a description if you did not create the component as a block.

      The Toolbox - Edit Balloon dialog box is always displayed when you add balloons to any entities that have not been generated by Toolbox or that do not contain verified BOM data.
  5. Under Style:
    1. Select the balloon Shape from the drop-down list.
    2. Use the Size list to specify the balloon size based on how many characters can fit into the balloon, or select User Defined and type the size.
    3. Select whether balloons should be stacked, whether the balloon should have a leader, the type and size of leader arrows.
  6. Under Text:
    1. Select the Text style for balloons and BOM headings.
    2. Type the Text size for balloon text.
  7. Click OK.