Adding Surface Finish Symbols

Add Mechanical Toolbox surface finish symbols to specify the surface texture for manufacturing.

  1. Click Surface Finish Symbols (Mechanical Toolbox toolbar) or Mechanical Toolbox > Symbols > Surface Finish Symbols.
  2. In the dialog box, in the Style drop-down list, select a symbol style.
    The Preview shows the selected style and additional information you add to the symbol.

    The style you select determines the fields that are available for edit under Properties.

  3. If you selected Basic, Machining Required, or Machining Prohibited for Style, under Properties, use the Lay Direction drop-down list to select a lay symbol.
    Lay symbols are not available for JIS styles.
  4. Use the fields provided to supply the details that are included in the surface finish symbol.
  5. To change settings such as the leader display and text style and size, click Settings.
    The Settings dialog box opens to the Surface Finish Symbol page of Annotations.
    1. Under General, to include a leader in the symbol, click Leader.
    2. For Leader display, select Straight or Bent.
    3. To modify the default layer, linecolor, linestyle, and lineweight for surface finish symbols, beside Layer preferences, click Change.
    4. Under Text, select a Text style from a list of DraftSight text formats.
    5. In Text size, set the value that Toolbox uses as the text size and to compute the symbol size.
    6. Click OK to return to the Toolbox - Surface Finish Symbols dialog box.
  6. Click OK.
  7. Do one of the following to place the symbol in the drawing:
    • Click in the graphics area to specify the destination of the surface finish symbol.
    • In the Command window, type P (for reference Point), and press Enter.

      Type the coordinates of the reference point for the surface finish symbol and press Enter.

  8. Do one of the following to specify the rotation of the surface finish symbol around the reference point:
    You cannot rotate surface finish symbols with leaders.
    • Rotate the surface finish symbol using the tracker and click to place the symbol.
    • In the Command window, specify the rotation angle and press Enter.
    As the symbol rotates, the software realigns the text so that it remains readable.
  9. Press ESC to exit the command.