These Tips Make Working In Solidworks Easier

2023 Author: Hannah Pearcy | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 11:39

Every new software release usually includes many additional functionalities, which are often based on suggestions and requests from the user - this also applies to the Solidworks 2016 software from Dassault Systèmes. As with the previous releases, the focus was on enhancing user productivity. However, in order for users to really benefit from this in practice, they must know and use the new and old functionalities. Therefore, a number of tips and tricks are presented and explained below that support the designer in his daily work and make it more efficient.

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Tip 1: user interface

The interface between users and functions has a decisive influence on productivity. Mouse gestures, for example, provide quick access to frequently used commands with just one mouse movement. If you hold down the right mouse button z. B. a quick movement to the left, the command specified there is immediately activated. This saves mouse paths to the menu, searching and pressing the icon.

A search field makes it easier to find commands: the user enters the command they are looking for or even a part of it in the search field and receives a list of hits. The letter sequence "abwi", for example, lists the "Unwind surface" command. This can be carried out immediately from this point by clicking on it. If you want to know where this command is located in the menu, press the glasses icon. The software now starts menu operation as if by magic, opens the corresponding submenus and shows the position of the command with a red arrow.

Breadcrumbs are new in Solidworks 2016. After selecting an object in the graphics area, they offer immediate access to the context menu and functions with the right mouse button. At the same time, all parent or child dependencies to which you have access as described above are listed hierarchically. The breadcrumbs therefore help to avoid long mouse paths and time-consuming navigation in the feature tree and thus speed up the construction.

Tip 2: sketches

Most features are based on sketches in which the design intent is stored using parametric dimensions. It could be problematic in the past when a sketch had to be changed in a finished component with many features. Because then it could be that with such a design change, the subsequent features were not geometrically correct due to a possibly emerging topology. But there is a command that prevents this error when changing the design: This is called "Replace element" and is in the context menu. Another important function was added in Solidworks 2016, the "equating" of different geometry types. Depending on the element type, the same curve length relationships can be used between any two elements, such as a line, spline or circle.

Content of the article:

• Page 1: These tips make working in Solidworks easier
• Page 2: Tip 3: Modeling
• Page 3: Tip 6: Document

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