The Engineer’s Notebook gives you the ability to create notes and store them as part of a model. A note can be attached to an edge, sketch, feature, part, or other selection in the model. Each note consists of a comment box and a view of the model.

To start the Engineers Notebook, select a part in the window, right-click, and select Create Note.

When you add the first note to a model, the program creates a notebook. You can add comment boxes or additional views to a note or add more notes to the notebook.

You can use the Engineer’s Notebook to save the history of development or to provide reminders for project designers. Examples of notes include design strategy, reason for a design decision, manufacturing instructions, or information from a test or FEA calculation. Notes can contain links to external files, such as spreadsheets, word processing documents, graphics, or audio files.

In the Engineer’s Notebook browser, the program assigns each note a name and lists it in the order in which you created it. You can organize the notes as follows:

Rename notes to provide a more meaningful label.
Change the sort order of the notes to sort by name, author, date, or text.
Drag individual notes to change the order.
Create additional folders and move notes into them. You can also specify a folder as the destination for all new notes.

Creating a design history

If you are using the Engineer’s Notebook to maintain the history of a design, you can use several options to assure an accurate record.

Ordinarily, a note is deleted when the geometry to which it is attached is deleted. To maintain an accurate history, set the option to keep notes attached to deleted geometry

When you create a note, the note view captures the current state of the model. As you change the model, the view in the note updates automatically. To keep it from updating, you can freeze a view in the note. The view and its comment then serve as a historical record.

NoteIf you remove the Freeze designation from a note view, it updates to reflect the current model.

Working with notes in part models

As you add notes to a part model, each note is listed in the part browser under the item to which it is attached. For example, if the note is attached to a feature, it is nested under that feature in the browser. Notes attached to edges or other items that are not listed in the part browser are listed at the end of the part.

Working with notes in assemblies

When an existing component is added to an assembly, any notes that are part of the component are listed in the assembly browser under the components to which they are attached. You can also add notes to the assembly.

If you add a note to an assembly, or add a note to an assembly component in the assembly environment, the note is stored in the assembly file. It does not display in the part browser or the Engineer’s Notebook when the part file is open.
If you add a note to an assembly component that is activated in place in the assembly, the note is stored in the component file. It displays in the part browser and the Engineer’s Notebook when the component file is open, as well as in the assembly file.
When you add a note at the assembly level, a folder is created in the Engineer’s Notebook browser for each component in the assembly. Any note that was attached when a component was added is listed in the folder for that component in the Engineer’s Notebook browser. Notes added to the assembly are listed in the main folder. If you double-click a note in a component folder, the Engineer’s Notebook for that component opens.

Notes in assemblies can be organized in the same ways as notes in parts; however, you cannot move a note in a component folder out of its folder.

Procedures

Add a Note to the Engineers Notebook

You can create notes about your design and store them as part of the model. A note can be attached to a part, feature, edge, or other element in the model.

In the model, select the feature or other element for the note.
Right-click and choose Create Note from the menu.
Enter the note in the comment box on the notebook page

NoteYou can add more comments or views to the note.

Print a Note from the Engineers Notebook

You can print or plot a note from the Engineer's Notebook. All comments and views in the active note print.

Set up the note as you want it to print.
Click Print.
In the Print dialog box, enter number of copies. If necessary, you can click Properties to open the Print Setup dialog box, and then change the paper size and orientation.
Click OK to print.

Link an external file to a note

Information from an external file (such as a spreadsheet or word processing document) can be added to a note in the Engineer’s Notebook. You can embed the content of the external file in a comment or add a link to the file.

Select a comment box and click to place the insertion point.
Right-click and select Insert New Object from the menu.
Choose the options to achieve the appropriate result:
- To create a new external file, select the file type, then select Create New and Display As Icon. The application opens so that you can create the file. The new file is embedded in the note.
- To embed the content of an existing file, select Create from File then click Browse to find the file. After the content is added to the comment in Engineer’s Notebook, you can make changes that do not affect the source file.
- To link to an existing file, select Create from File, select Link, and then click Browse to find the file. After the file is added to the comment in Engineer’s Notebook, you can make changes that also change the source file.
- To create a shortcut to an existing file, select Create from File, Link, and Display as Icon, and then click Browse to find the file.

Organize design notes

As you add notes, each one is assigned a name and listed in the Engineer’s Notebook browser in the order in which you created it. You can organize the notes in the following ways:

Rename notes

Click the note name in the browser to select it.
Click the name again to activate the edit box.
Enter the new name.

You can also change the name of a folder, comment, or view.

To change the sort order

Click in the open area of the browser to cancel any selections.
Right-click and select Arrange Notes from the menu.
Select the sort method (by Name, Author, Date, or Text).

To move an individual note

In the browser, drag the note to the new location.

To create additional folders

Select the folder in which to place the new folder.
Right-click and select Insert Folder from the menu.

To specify a folder as the destination for all new notes

Right-click the folder and select Place New Notes Here from the menu.

To cycle through multiple notes

When more than one note exists for a part or an assembly, you can cycle forward or backward through the multiple notes by clicking Previous Note or Next Note on the Notes panel as required.

Set up a design note

You can change the layout of a note in the Engineer’s Notebook. Add comments, views, or arrows to the note, format the text in a comment box, or change the view in a view box.

To change the note layout

To move a comment box or view box, drag it to the appropriate location.
To change the size of a comment box or view box without changing the shape, drag a corner of the box to the create appropriate size.
To change the shape of a comment box or view box, drag one side of the box to create the appropriate shape.

NoteWhen you change the size of a comment box, the text adjusts to the width of the box. You cannot change the height of a comment box to be less than the height necessary to display the text. When you change the size of a view box, the view is scaled to fit in the box.

To add elements to a note

You can add comment boxes, view boxes, or arrows to a note. To add an element to a note, right-click the notebook page (not in a comment box or view box), and then select the element from the menu.

To add a comment box, select Insert Comment from the menu. Click to place the top left and bottom right corners of the box.
To add a view box, select Insert View from the menu. Click to place the top left and bottom right corners of the box.
To add an arrow, select Insert Arrow from the menu. Click to place the points for the arrowhead and leader line. Right-click and select Done to complete the operation.

To format text

To apply formatting to text in a comment box, select the text. Use the options on the Format panel to change the font or color of the text or to apply bold, italics, or underlining. Text justification modes, such as left alignment, center alignment, and right alignment may also be applied to selected text.

You can also use the bullets option to better organize your notes and improve readability.

To change or delete a view

You can change size, orientation, or display style of any view in a note.

Right-click in the view box and select one of the view tools from the menu.
Manipulate the image until the appropriate view appears.
Click the corresponding view command on the toolbar to close the view tool.

If you select Freeze from the view menu, the view no longer update when you change the model. To update the view, clear the Freeze check mark.

References

Engineer’s Notebook browser

Lists all the notes in a part or assembly. The browser provides options for sorting and organizing notes.

Note list

Lists all the notes in the model file. If the model is a part, the notes are listed in the order in which they were created. If the model is an assembly, notes for the component parts are listed under the part name. Notes for the assembly are listed in the main folder in the order in which they were created. Use the following options when working with notes in the browser:
Select Note	Click a note to select and display it. If the note is attached to an item in an assembly component, the Engineer’s Notebook for the component displays.
Rename Note	Select the note, then click the note name and enter the new name.
Move Note	Drag the note to the new location. NoteYou cannot move a note in an assembly component to a location outside its component folder.
Delete Note	Right-click the note and select Delete from the menu.

You do the same operations on folders, comment boxes, and views.

Browser menu

Provides options for organizing design notes in a model. To access the menu, click in the browser to cancel any note selection, then right-click to open the menu.
Arrange Notes	Sets the sort order for the notes. Select the order from the pop-up menu.
Insert Folder	Creates a note folder at the end of the note list.
Place New Notes Here	Sets a folder as the default location for all new notes. Select the folder before opening the browser menu.

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