EZ SOLIDWORKS Watermark

I’ve seen quite a few strategies for putting a watermark on SOLIDWORKS drawings….putting them on their own layer, embedding a Word document, special fonts, etc. However they all have the common weakness of requiring either API or a manual process of removing them.

My favorite watermark method is to use file properties instead:

1. Open your SOLIDWORKS drawing template and create a file property called “WATERMARK”. Assign the value “FOR REFERENCE ONLY” for the value of this property.
2. In your sheet format, add an annotation and link it to the WATERMARK file property
3. Make the annotation good and big so those old coggers in the machine shop can see it

Now the value of the watermark property will always appear on your drawing. If you want to remove the watermark all you need to do is change the value of the property to a space character! (You don’t want to delete it so you can put the watermark back on for future revisions.)

This means you can now remove your watermark without even having to open your drawing…or even your PDM package can update your watermark as the document goes through a workflow!