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S

SOLIDWORKS Tips & Tricks

Every year all resellers have a customer launch event where we showcase the new
version of SOLIDWORKS. At Innova Systems we always try and add a little more val
ue to the day by doing some breakout sessions on a number of different subjects.
This year I was tasked with doing a Tips & Tricks session, which is normally very
well attended. This often causes us a few issues, as things that we use on a da
ily basis, we don t necessarily class as a tip or a trick. We have also done a num
ber of this type of sessions over the years, and it s always nice if you can try n
ot to cover any old ground.
What follows is the written break down of all the tips I went through on the day
, some of them you may know, some of them you may not. But hopefully you will fi
nd them useful.
If you find it easier, I recorded the session with examples, which you can find
here. While there you can take a look at some of the other useful videos from th
e day
or our videos on why 2015 is such a great release! If you want to go direc
tly to our 2015 videos click here.
Model Navigation
We ll start out with some simple tips to help you navigate around your model. Ther
e is a triad (showing X Y and Z) in the bottom left hand corner of SOLIDWORKS. I
f you click this axis with a combination of the following key strokes, you can na
vigate your model in a number of different ways
Select X axis

normal to the screen

Select Z axis to return

If we select the axis pointing towards us, it gives us the reverse normal to
Select X (with SHIFT) rotates around the axis 90
Select X (with SHIFT + CTRL) rotates around the axis in reverse
Select X (with ALT) rotates by the arrow increments
Select X (with ALT then CTRL) rotates in reverse at the arrow increments
If we double click the middle mouse button (MMB) on a face we can rotate about t
hat face
CTRL + 1 will give us a front view, and you can follow those shortcuts in sequen
ce to get all the standard views

If we hold down ALT + MMB we can roll/ rotate normal to the screen
CTRL + MMB will allow us to pan
SHIFT + MMB will allow us to zoom
We can access any saved views by hitting the space bar
SOLIDWORKS so they are available in any model we open

and we can save these to

Pressing F will zoom to fit

Sketch
We all know that you can draw a line using the click click
double click method,
but if you just want a single line, try pressing the left mouse button and dragg
ing and then release. No need to double click
We can access previews views
bar.

using the previous view button on the heads up tool

If you select a sketch tool, you can change the type by clicking A (so if you pi
ck a center rectangle, you can change the style by clicking A)
We can turn a selection into construction lines by clicking the box on the right
, but we can also use the shortcut ALT + C to change entities that are selected.
Suffix dimensions with unit system to convert on the fly (so if your template is
in mm , type in after your dimension and it will convert it from inches to millimetr
es.
But let s say I want to continue in mm, I can use the unit switcher to change my u
nit system from the bottom right hand corner of SOLIDWORKS
Double clicking on a non-active sketch will take me back into edit sketch mode.
You can use simple maths functions in here too 10/2 = 5mm
Double click the screen to exit the sketch
Selecting a sketch and dragging the arrow, will either add geometry or remove it
, depending on where I select. At the top, will add, at the bottom will remove
If you drag the end point of a broken circle or arc, you can create a circle aga
in from the arc we dragged
Holding ctrl and dragging then releasing ctrl will move an entity, and holding c
trl and dragging (keeping hold of ctrl) will perform a copy command
A left to right box select will select everything in the box, but a right to lef
t select will select anything the box crosses.
When adding sketch relations, we may want an additional relation based on the en
tities selected, but the flyout box disappears when you select your first relati
on. If you press ctrl, it will bring it back allowing you to add additional ones
In the dimension box, you can use the MMB to increase the value by the arrow key
increments. If you hold down ALT it will divide this increment by 10, or hold d
own CTRL to multiply by 10
Power trim is a great time saver

here we just need to drag our cursor through wh

at we want to trim, and it trims back to the nearest boundary

If you accidentally trim entities you don t want, you can restore them by going ba
ck through the black (or red, depending on your settings) box
We can also extend entities while being in the trim command, just drag an endpoi
nt and it will extend
Features
When in a feature property manager, like Extrude
to the end conditions

a right click will give us access

Right click now is enter (as long as you don t move your mouse!)
When you
feature
command
nds with

create a feature and accept the property manager, it is selected in the

tree, clicking S will bring up the shortcut key, but it also starts the
search in the top right, I can just fill in circ and it will show comma
that text string it circular pattern is what I m after.

The feature automatically adds itself, and I can select any additional features
in the normal way. Pre-selection is a great way to speed up the modelling proces
s.
Useful Keyboard Shortcuts
Pressing HOME will show the top of the feature tree
END will show you the bottom
Close and save a file (CTRL + W)
CTRL + TAB will allow us to quickly switch between open documents
And SHIFT + C will collapse the feature manager at assembly level, if any struct
ures or folders are expanded.
TAB at assembly level will quickly hide whatever the cursor is over, and SHIFT +
TAB will bring them back
We can tile any open windows in a number of different ways, like vertically from
the window menu
Using the G key (Magnifying glass) you can then select small faces without need
to zoom in and out
Assembly
Copy with mates will allow us to duplicate the components and mates in multiple
locations really quickly
There is a tool called re-organise components which can allow us to reposition com
ponents into different sub-assemblies, even if they are scattered all over your
tree we can select them graphically which makes life very simple.
If you are re-organising just by dragging in the feature tree
TRL it turns off the ability to drag into a sub-assembly.

if you hold down C

Advanced select is another tool that can be used to quickly select components
by
size for example it is available from the S key shortcut menu, it s the cursor sy

mbol
If we want to be more specific, you could the select if toolbox option
which wil
l ensure you only get toolbox components, perfect if you want to place them into
their own folder
Assembly visualisation can help if you want to review properties each of the com
ponents have, for example author or material we can also sort by rebuild time, and g
raphical triangles so if you are suffering from performance problems, this is a
great place to start trying to figure out why.
You can save the selection as a colour coded display state for communication to
others, or just for reference
Drawing
If we hold down shift on one of our views, we can move all of the views around a
s one
When creating a section view
creating

hitting tab will change the type of section you are

On placing the view, if we hold down ctrl, it will break the alignment
n place it anywhere

and we ca

The new section assist is great

but sometimes the section lines are a bit long,
as it uses the bounding box of the model to work out the extents. We can right c
lick on the sketch and edit it then drag the lines closer to the model extents t
o tidying things up a bit
You can double click on a section line and it will reverse the direction
Half sections are a great way to display a model at drawing level
If we add a half section here, and then place the view
o understand as a user and even harder for a non-user.

sometimes they are hard t

You can use the 3d rotate tool to make sure you have everything in the correct o
rientation, but we can also save or use this in the current drawing.
The display is not ideal by default, but we change this by accessing the propert
ies and changing the cutting lines shoulders to not display (toggle box off)
At drawing level, you don t need a BOM to use the balloon functionality
add a balloon that is looking for the filename rather than a number.

so we can

We can also change the properties of the balloon and then apply the style change
s to multiple entities
If we add a note, you can also ctrl + drag one of the points to create the next
instance
Detail views can be any shape you like
es
Just sketch out spline

they are not limited to circles and squar

and then select the detail vie

You can double click on a section line and it will reverse the direction
Some people don t want to show the detail circle around the area, or the perimeter

around the view.

We can setup a custom
-1

blank

layer style within the template, it needs to be A, -1,

You can then set the detail views to use this instead of the normal standard one
There is a fair amount to take in, and I would strongly urge you to watch the vi
deo, as a lot of the tips make more sense when shown in-context.