Additional Features of Section Views in Drawings

You can create:
  • Section views of section views. A new section is calculated from the original solid model, and the view updates if the model changes.
  • Section views from orthographic (front, right, left, top, bottom, and back) exploded views.
  • Part cutaway views that create a section in a pictorial (isometric, trimetric, or dimetric) view.

You can show hidden edges in section views.

Section views expand in the FeatureManager design tree so that all components and features are available.

You can add dimensions to section lines without editing the section line sketch. You can dimension between a section line and another line or edge. You can also add dimensions to the parent view to anchor the section line. You can then hide the dimension using Hide/Show Annotations.



You can pre-select sketch entities that belong to the drawing sheet to create section views. The sketch entities do not have to belong to an existing drawing view.

When you create a Section (or Aligned Section) View of an assembly drawing, you can:
  • Specify the distance of the section view cut so the entire drawing view is not cut (not available in aligned section views).
  • Exclude selected components.
  • Exclude fasteners (leaves most items inserted from SOLIDWORKS Toolbox or designated as a fastener uncut).
  • Control auto hatching so that adjacent components have alternating hatch patterns.
  • Change the view orientation to isometric.

You can move the section arrow by dragging it. You can move each arrow independently.



You can resize and reposition the section line by dragging it. If you used geometric relations when sketching the section line, the relations might prevent you from repositioning the section line. For example, if the section line is coincident with the center of a hole, you cannot reposition the section line. However, the section line will move if the hole moves.

You can create rotated section views if the Section View tool is not appropriate. You can also combine a break view with one or more section views to create a rotated (revolved) section view.

You can cut and paste a section view to a different sheet than the parent view.

You can set an option to reuse the letters from a deleted view in a drawing without manually re-lettering the views.