Solid works ui tips and tricks

Editor's Notes

• #2: I apologize for the lack of notes on this slideshow. I have tried to apply a few notes to at least give you the idea of where I was going. Enjoy.
• #3: Progression of interface:2001: Toolbars that could be resized. Started to allow for customizations to menus and toolbars. No fly-out menus. No Task Pane!2005: RealView Graphics. More customization. Updated Icons. Appearances2007: Not much changed. SolidWorks Search. View selector in bottom left. Better Task Pane Integration. Appearances2008: UI Overhaul – Mimics what Microsfot is doing with its Office products. Ribbon-based Command manager. Tabular FM tree. Collapsable menus. Easier to customize menus, toolbars and right-click menus. Smart FM tree. Heads-Up View Toolbar. Instant 3D. In-Context Menus. Motion Manager interface. Appearances.2012: Shortcut Toolbar, Options Selector. More reliance on Task Pane (Costing, Sim Xpress, DWX Xpress) Command Search, Cleaner Interface. Appearances. Mouse Gestures. Actual dual-monitor support.2013: More of the same. Cleaner interface. Advanced visualization modes. Tools, options Search.Progression to make tools more easily accessible and easier to customize. Will almost certainly continue especially as touch technologies become more prevalent.
• #4: In SW 2013, there are many parts of the interface which we can choose to use, modify, or completely ignore.
• #5: If you leave the software as it was out of the box, do not be surprised if it isn’t organized for the way you work.Just make sure you at least customize things before you go ballistic and start smashing your computer with a baseball bat.
• #6: We’re going to focus on configuring a few of these items to make them work for us.
• #7: I’ve picked one item from (almost) each tab in the system options. Search Options is a favorite of mine.
• #8: More options I recommend you read up on.
• #9: The right click menu can be customized to only include the items you use most. You can still get to the other items, so get those rarely used items off the screen.I’ve also listed a few items that you may have not tried before.Isolate is just cool, so make sure you give it a try.
• #10: I visit clients all the time that do not use Mouse Gestures. We’ll look at how to set them up and then just make sure you use them.
• #11: Okay, not everyone likes the Command Manager. So, turn it off, or modify it to suit your needs. If you absolutely hate it, just undock it, collapse it, and then you can still get to it when you do want to use it.
• #12: Like the menu? Pin it so it’s always on the screen, as long as your monitor has the space.Floating toolbar, heads up toolbar, whatever it’s called, it gets modified just like the other toolbars (via Tools, Customize).You can click in the Command Search to help find those commands that you know exist, but you just can’t remember where. Of course, you can also use this area to search for other items if you use the drop down. The View Selector was added to 2013. You can select on the faces of the bounding box to switch to specific views.
• #13: Select Other is an old favorite way to hide faces and select through to hidden faces or edges.Or, if you want to hide an entire component, you can use the tab key to hide and shift-tab to show components.A left to right selection is an inclusive selection, while a right to left selection is a crossing selection. This works in sketches all the way to assembly components.
• #14: Just a recap of some of our favorites. Compliments to Kevin Zich of TriMech for making this top ten list.
• #15: 5. So important to be sharing information across your entire design group.4. Did you say “Don’t tell me.” Turn those messages back on.3. SolidWorks shouldn’t be crashing much but please protect yourself.2. Huge performance benefit.1. Often misunderstood. Can improve performance but most often used during troubleshooting.
• #16: Thanks for watching. Now, go set up your user interface!