Creating an Incrementing Numerical Pattern in Solidworks – Hawk Ridge Systems Support

The following process does not work in SOLIDWORKS 2023 and SOLIDWORKS 2024 SP0.1, as described in the bug report BR10000360821 - The option Instances to vary and increment in the Linear Pattern feature is not working using custom properties to specify the starting number. It works properly starting in SOLIDWORKS 2024 SP1.

This article describes the process of creating a pattern in SOLIDWORKS with increasing numerical value. This can be useful when trying to add many numbers into a model and you do not want to create all of the sketch text features by hand. The steps below can be used with any pattern type.

incremented numbers extruded on a block, from 1 to 50

Creating the Pattern

Follow the steps below to create the numerical pattern.

Start a sketch and create the base for your sketch text. If you are using construction lines to position the text, you can dimension them here.
Add an additional construction line into your sketch, or anywhere out in the space, and dimension it to the value you want the first number to be. The units do not matter here.
With the sketch still active, go to File > Properties. Add a property and name it. Link the value of this property to the dimension of that construction line by clicking on the dimension in the viewport. We will use this property value as the driving property of the sketch text feature.
Add the sketch text and select the option to link to property. You can also set font and size here if you want something other than the default.
If the number comes in with trailing zeroes, go to Tools > Options > Document Properties > Dimensions. Select the option to remove trailing zeroes from properties.
Create any extrude or cut feature using the sketch text as needed in order to create the pattern seed.
Pattern your extrude feature with a patterning command such as Feature > Linear Pattern
Check on the option for "Instance to Vary" at the bottom of the PropertyManager.
Select the dimension we set as the initial sketch text value and then choose an increment. Because the sketch text value is linked to this dimension, it will update in every instance. If doing a bidirectional linear pattern, you can increment in a second direction as well.
Select the green check mark to complete the pattern feature. Each instance should now be increasing by the increment we just set in the last step.