Compare images and drawings

Surprise, surprise.

You customer changed their design –again.

He just sent you a new set of drawings…aaaannnnd as typical, did not bother to send you a list of changes.

Now you need to check each dimension, one at a time, looking for who knows what kind of changes you just got stuck dealing with.

Actually, there is a good chance you can use SolidWorks’ DrawCompare to compare the files.

It is true that DrawCompare only compares SOLIDWORKS drawings; there is nothing to say that you cannot turn your bitty brain customer’s files into SOLIDWORKS drawings!

If the files you want to compare are jpg, bmp, tif, png, wmf, or psd files, create a new blank SOLIDWORKS drawing (without a titleblock.) Insert the drawing as a picture and place the image on the origin. Then save the new SOLIDWORKS drawing file. Do this for both files you want to compare.

[Your results will vary. I’ve found black and white images work best, the compare quality diminishes as you get more and more colors.]

If the file is a dwg/dxf file, open the file in SOLIDWORKS and save it as a SOLIDWORKS drawing file.

(use “Convert to SOLIDWORKS entities” option, do not embed as a sheet) Ensure you use the exact same scale for both files, and ensure the entire file fits on the sheet format. Do this for both files you want to compare.

Now that you have two new “SolidWorks” drawings…in Solidworks, Tools -> Compare -> DrawCompare…navigate to the new files you created, and the tool will show you the differences!