- [Instructor] Project templates are really just projects
that have been saved out at a specific state.
They can contain as much,
or as little data and information as required.
Generally, project templates hold information
such as general options and settings,
that you would use across multiple projects
and are created as time savers.
For example, if the majority of your projects
are using ANSI standards and printed on ANSI B size sheets
with some specific title block,
using some specific wire numbering formulas,
you would probably want to save out
all of that information into a project template,
rather than having to input this information
for every single new project you create.
So, if I want to generate a new project template,
I first just jump into the file tab
and into my project manager.
And here, just as I was starting a completely new project,
I'll just click on new.
And, it's asking me to create a new project.
And, it's also asking me to select whatever project
template I'd like to use.
I can hit the drop down here and notice I have,
these are the Solidworks Electrical default,
so an ANSI template, IEC, and so forth.
So, I can use any of these if I'd like.
Or, most companies may actually create their
own templates with their own options and settings and so on.
So, if I'd like to do that,
I can just click on empty project, and say OK.
It's going to warn me, are you sure you want to
create a completely empty project without any template?
In this case, I'm actually creating a template,
so of course I want to continue, I'll say OK.
And I can rename this template as whatever I'd like.
I'll call it Justin's ANSI
template, or something like that.
Again, generally named after whatever your company may be
or whatever the specific template may be.
I can throw in a whole bunch of other information as well,
but I'll just leave it as is and say OK.
And, so what that's done now, it's opened up
really just a new project,
but a completely empty project.
So, what I would maybe first do here
is customize or change whatever options
and settings I'd like.
So, to do this, I can jump into the project tab
and just hit these project configurations button.
This opens my project configurations window,
which is essentially just all the options
and settings for this specific project.
So I can throw in for example,
the languages I'd like to use,
the unit system, maybe I'll change to imperial,
use gauge standards, the dating standard,
wire numbering a whole bunch of things
I can control here.
And, notice I have a whole bunch of tabs as well.
So I can go through each and every one of these
customize the size of my text,
the color of my wires, the type of symbol information
that would be coming in,
the types of tags and attributes, formulas,
everything like this I can completely customize
to my exact needs.
And then once I'm happy, save out and say OK.
So that's just options and settings,
but you can actually add however much information
you'd like to a project template.
So say for example, almost all of my projects
will use a cover page,
and then we'll have a couple schematics, and so on.
So I can actually add that information in as a template.
So, say I want to add a cover page,
I can just jump over to my documents panel here.
I can right click on this book,
and I can go to new, and add however many sheets I'd like.
So, maybe I'll start with a cover page.
Throw in a cover page here.
And, maybe I want to rename that as well.
Again, just right click on it here
and I can go into properties
and change the properties of this page.
And, I'll give it a name or description of
maybe Justin's cover page.
And say OK.
I can do the same for a whole number of other sheets,
maybe I'll just add one other schematic,
and again rename that, right click,
jump into properties,
call this maybe Justin's schematic,
or whatever names make sense for you.
Also, you might notice,
that it looks like these files, or these pages,
don't really have a title block in them quite yet,
so maybe I want to insert a title block as well,
maybe I can right click on one of these,
go to title block,
and update, replace, remove, open, whatever it might be.
In this case, it looks like I don't have one,
but I'll try to replace with an existing one.
I'll go into, maybe I want to use ANSI B size here.
So I can see these are all the existing title blocks
that Solidworks Electrical has available.
Again, you might create your own for a specific company,
but I'll just use maybe B without columns here.
And, now I see my title block coming in.
Same idea with the cover page.
Looks fairly empty to me.
So maybe I can right click, go to title block, replace,
and maybe I want to use a cover page.
Also note, I can also set up all of that information
right within that project configurations tab
when I'm setting up all the other options and settings.
I can also set up my default title block.
So, I don't have to insert each and every title block
every single time.
I would just have my default company title block
that would come in with each new page.
Finally, once I'm happy with this,
I might want to save out this new template.
So, I'll jump back into my file tab,
the projects manager, and here's my Justin's ANSI template.
Right now it's just a project,
but what I actually want to do is
save this out as a template, so I can use it again.
So if I click on this project here,
notice up at the top, I do have a button called
save as template.
It is currently grayed out,
so I can't really use that right now.
What I have to do before archiving, duplicating,
or saving as a template,
I have to close out of that project first.
So again, I can close out of this.
Again, notice that I really haven't saved
anything up until this point.
A very useful and strong component of Solidworks Electrical,
everything's updated automatically to a database,
really almost never have to save again.
So I can just close out of this.
So I no longer have that project open.
Now I can click on the project,
I can archive, duplicate, or in this case,
save as a template.
I'm going to give it that same name, Justin's ANSI Template
and say OK.
Once it's finished, It's going to say
archive complete, do you want to open the folder.
You can say yes if you'd like.
It's just going to show you where
all of your templates are saved out.
And here I see my new Justin's ANSI Template.
What's important about this now,
is now, anytime I go to create a new project.
So again, I'll go to projects manager, new.
It's going to ask me to create a new project
with some existing template.
So I have my default ANSI, IEC, and so forth,
but I also have my new Justin's ANSI Template
that I just created.
Of course, I can choose that and say OK.
First project cause the project's unnamed.
And then once this opens up,
of course, I should be able to see that all of those
settings and options that I saved out are coming in,
as well as I should have those two drawing documents
coming in with those specific title blocks
and everything else.
So if I open my book here, there's those two drawings
and with my Justin's Cover Page, Justin's Schematics,
you're going to open, they're just empty,
but they have the title block that I chose
and everything like that.