When a dimension needs to be moved to a different drawing view, the default attack plan is to delete it and recreate it. While there’s nothing wrong with this, dimensions often include custom formatting, text, or additional annotations that have to be recreated using this approach, and this can take quite a bit of time. Fortunately there’s an easy solution for this, and we’ve detailed it in SolidProfessor’s 2-Minute Tech Tip on Moving Dimensions to Different Drawing Views. Simply hold the SHIFT key while dragging a dimension onto a different drawing view:
SOLIDWORKS will remove it from the original view, reattach it to the corresponding geometry in the new view, and most importantly, preserve all the formatting and associated annotations such as text and GD&T feature control frames so that they don’t need to be recreated. Just remember that the referenced geometry must be visible and normal in the target view, or this technique will not allow you to move the dimension:
This simple shortcut can help you organize your drawings, improve readability, and save time when preparing manufacturing documentation as it’s typically much faster and more reliable than recreating dimensions from scratch. For more drawing techniques, check out our SOLIDWORKS Drawings course for lessons on drawing views, dimensions, annotations, tables, and drawing formats.