Wrapping Attribute Text in SOLIDWORKS Electrical

In SOLIDWORKS Electrical, attributes are used to represent pertinent information about components. Typically, this information is represented in a single line of text, but occasionally, the text becomes unreasonably long and requires multiple lines. This article explains how to to wrap attribute text in SOLIDWORKS Electrical using the Multiple Attribute command in the Symbol Editor.

Using the Multiple Attributes Command

In SOLIDWORKS Electrical, there are fields of information that may require more space for relevant information than is available. Below is an example of a component where the description exceeds the bounds of the component. (Note: This process can be used for any Attribute.)

Figure 1: Example of Text Exceeding Length of Component

To access the Multiple Attribute command, start by editing a symbol.

Go to the Library tab and open Symbol Management.

Figure 2: Library Tab and Symbol Management

From here, select the symbol to edit. In this example, we will modify “Motor Example 1”.

Figure 3: Select Symbol

Double-click to open the symbol or RMB and select open. With the symbol open, you can see the attributes. In this case, the concerned attribute is #COM_TZ_0_L1.

Figure 4: Opened Symbol 

Select the Multiple Attributes command.

Figure 5: Multiple Attribute Command

With the command open, you can select the attribute you want to add lines to, but first, select how many lines to add and the distance between attributes. For this example, we will select 5 lines and leave the default spacing values.

Figure 6: Multiple Attribute Command Selections

From here, select the attribute and you will see that a total of 5 attributes will be shown.

Figure 7: 5 Total Attributes

Once the attribute lines are added, close the command and the symbol. Select Yes to save.

After saving, the symbol is ready to go, but the description is not. You must update the description to let SOLIDWORKS Electrical know where the line breaks need to happen.

To do this, return to your drawing, RMB the component, and select Component Properties.

Here we can see our description. To tell SOLIDWORKS where the line breaks are, add a vertical bar “|”. (Example: This is an example of too much |information for 1 line.)  

Formatting note: There should be no space between the vertical bar and the following word.

Once added, select OK.

Figure 8: Adding Line Breaks

Notice that the component is still not appearing correctly. This is because we need to update the symbol.

To do so, RMB the component, expand the symbol, and click Update.

Figure 9: Update Symbol

Now that the symbol has been updated, the description is now wrapped between 2 lines. Just like we wanted.

Figure 10: Updated Symbol 

I hope you found this article for wrapping attribute text in SOLIDWORKS Electrical helpful. Check out more tips and tricks below.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published in September 2018 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

More SOLIDWORKS Electrical Tutorials

SOLIDWORKS Electrical Manual SQL Instance Creation

Removing Combs from SOLIDWORKS Electrical PLCs

SOLIDWORKS Electrical 2D: Changing the Automatic Root Value for Symbols

Component Marks in SOLIDWORKS Electrical

SOLIDWORKS Electrical 2024: Auto Balloons, Part Data, Ranges & More

VIEW ALL SOLIDWORKS ELECTRICAL TUTORIALS