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12 SolidWorks Features You Don’t Need—And How to Turn Them Off

Started by Josh M · 8 months ago

SolidWorks has a TON of useful features and ways to model the most amazing chunks of 3D your nimble fingers can sketch and extrude, but some features are a fiery heap of performance hindering options that just get in the way.
We’ve put together 12 features you can turn off righ ... Continue reading »

22 comments

  • Adam Scheible

    8 months ago

    Great post as always.
    #8 - Status bar. I use this as a quick replacement for Tools, Measure. It tells me exactly what I need to know 90% of the time: Length, Distance to Centers, Offsets, etc. I love it.
    -Adam Scheible
    reply
  • Josh M

    8 months ago

    Good point Adam, it's useful for that, but I sure wish it was up on the screen when you selected something. They've got the context menu popping up now. I don't think I would mind an option to display data about the selection on the screen. Needs to be an option though. Thanks!
    reply
  • Jason Raak

    8 months ago

    AWESOME post man! I love it and did 75% of them. Thanks for doing this topic!
    reply
  • Josh M

    8 months ago

    Thanks Jason! Let me know how it works for you.
    reply
  • adam

    8 months ago

    How do you turn off the animation when you hide a part in an assembly? I've looked and I can't find it anywhere. Sometimes it can take seconds to complete the hiding process.
    reply
  • Josh M

    8 months ago

    Adam, those are the 'Transitions' and can be found under Tool, Options, System Options, View - just set Hide/Show Component to Off.
    reply
  • Jeff

    8 months ago

    Very useful post...thanks
    reply
  • Brian

    8 months ago

    I would also add that any add-ins that are not being used should be disabled too. If it's enabled, it's taking up resources and potentially cluttering up the UI.

    It amazes me to have users complain about performance and then to walk up to their box and see just about every installed add-in turned on.
    reply
  • Josh M

    8 months ago

    ooo, that's a good one Brian. I wonder if a macro could be set up to toggle add-ins on when you need them, link it to a toolbar, so you don't have to go to the Tools menu each time. Thanks for mentioning that one!
    reply
  • jlewis30

    8 months ago

    this wouldnt effect a 64 bit system any differently than a regular system correct?
    reply
  • Rod_Uding

    8 months ago

    Good list Josh, I did not know about the feeds being updated. My new thing I learned today.
    reply
  • Ivan

    8 months ago

    Nice list. I had a lot of these options done already, great minds think alike? One exception is (#1) thumbnail graphics in windows explorer. It's a handy dandy preview if you're viewing files as thumbnails in windows explorer, especially if you use part #'s that mean nothing. But the graphic can take a long time to refresh if it's over a network. So I balance the pros/cons....
    reply
  • fcsuper

    8 months ago

    This is one of those watershed postings. I think you hit on something here. Did you have any source, or is this mostly organized personal experience (or both?)?
    reply
  • TX80

    8 months ago

    searchindexer.exe

    how do we kill that?
    reply
  • Bradley Grzesiak

    8 months ago

    You can at least snooze indexing for predetermined amounts of time. I like to snooze it for 12 hours each morning, letting the index catch up at night. Right-click on the Windows Search icon and select "Indexing Status." You should be given a drop down box and a snooze button (along with "Index Now" and "Close" buttons).

    This, of course, may be specific to WinXP users. Vista could be different, since Windows Search is built-in to that OS.
    reply
  • weewilly

    7 months ago

    Absolutely fantastic tips. I even used some of them. Thanks for posting them. I'm not a power user but some of these did bother me and I did not know where to go to get rid of them. Bye.
    reply
  • solidus

    6 months ago

    How I can turn off preview when I am editing sketch in extrude feature?
    I have 120 different ellipses in sketch and when I am changing size or moving I have a preview for extrudes, and this works very slow.
    How I can turn off this preview????
    PLEASE HELP!!!!!
    reply
  • Josh M

    6 months ago

    That's a good one. I'll ask around. I can see where that could cause a lot of problems when editing sketches.
    reply
  • Josh M

    6 months ago

    Ok, just found out. Chris Serran from SolidJott says "Tools, Options, Sketch, uncheck "Ghost image on drag". 4th option from the bottom." - sweetness
    reply
  • Darren

    3 months ago

    Nope. I'd like to hide the preview of the feature so I can more clearly see the sketch.
    reply
  • Karl

    2 months ago

    Finally found it! In Edit Sketch mode, select Feature tab in Commnd Manager an unclick Instant3D button!
    reply
  • Josh M

    2 months ago

    ah, right. that is a function of Instant3D. This is off by default. Thanks for following up on this and posting it Karl!
    reply

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