DISQUS

SolidSmack: 16 SolidWorks Tips to Make the ‘S’ Key Work For You

  • Kyle Mason · 11 months ago
    I would like to see an Auto-hide option for the feature manager, similar to the windows task bar.
  • Ricky Jordan · 11 months ago
    Kyle,

    That is a great idea! You should submit this to the SolidWorks World Top Ten List if you haven't already.

    Ricky
  • Josh M · 11 months ago
    Yep Kyle, mr. diverso is correct. Up on #6 in the image is tells about using F9 to do the FM auto-hide thang. rock ON.

    oh, you can go completely FULL-Screen by hitting F11.
  • Facebook User · 11 months ago
    I've hidden all my menus and have been using heavily customised shortcut bars a lot recently and find its great, much faster and almost relaxing! Although, I did have to re-do a large customisation session after SolidWorks crashed! I've found it's well worth closing and restarting the software if you do any major menu mods.
  • diverso · 11 months ago
    I recommend at least a 7 button mouse(Logitech Mx Series). I have all thouse buttons customized (Ctrl, Esc, Delete, Shift, and the ShortcutBar Function). That plus a SpaceNavigator has me working almost keyboardless.
  • Ricky Jordan · 11 months ago
    Thanks for the link Josh :-)

    I still have the CommandManager and all the Toolbars turned off! I don't know why I didn't try it sooner.

    Ricky
  • Josh M · 11 months ago
    no problem, thanks for the inspiration. It really takes an effort to go through with it, but I keep seeing the benefits daily.
  • Rod_Uding · 11 months ago
    I would say of all the 16 items listed, #4 is the most important tip of all. I still like HUV toolbar and have left it in place. Everything else has been turned off. Productivity has gone up. Would go up more it I could find a driver for the Dell 5 button mouse. The driver supplied with it wreaked havoc with my system when I installed it. With a good driver, I could reprogram one of the side buttons to the "S" key.
  • Anna Wood · 11 months ago
    Great post Josh....

    The S-key Short Cut Toolbar is a big mouse mile saver for me. I am so used to hitting the S key, that I try to use it when I am working on legacy drawings in AutoCAD 2000.

    This is a great UI improvement that SolidWorks has implemented.

    Cheers,

    Anna
  • designer · 11 months ago
    we have two or more part drawing , assem template.But SB are same in this template.we can't make its different
  • Josh M · 11 months ago
    Hi. The SB for drawings will be the same whether it's a drawing for a part or an assembly. You can have a different SB setup for part, assembly or drawing documents (templates), but not for different drawings. I hope this makes sense! Let me know if I'm misunderstanding. Thanks!
  • designer · 11 months ago
    for example there are two part template mold.prtdot and sheetmetal.prtdot.When I want to design in mold template , sb have to only mold commands.When I open the sheetmetal template , sb have to only sheetmetal commands.
    is this possible?
    thanks.
  • Josh M · 11 months ago
    Nope, sorry, the SB is going to be specific to the part template (.sldprt, .prtdot) In this case I suggest using the flyout commands for sheet metal and mold. That way they take up less space. I use a flyout on the SB for sheet metal, because I use those features less than my other commands.
  • Josh M · 11 months ago
    Thanks Anna. It's a great answer to the, in my opinion, poor usability of ribbon-style toolbars. To me it shows that SolidWorks development is really thinking about how/where the user works.
  • ckeen · 11 months ago
    I recently started hiding my toolbars to force use of the 'S' command. Although simple, hiding the toolbars is a great method to train your brain. I have been thinking about getting a 3D mouse like a SpaceExplorer. How well do those products fit into the whole UI/navigation performance? Are they worth purchasing?
  • Josh M · 11 months ago
    Hi. the 3d mouse is a bit more of an adjustment in improving interaction with the program, but it's worth it. The important thing is to stick with using it, like you did with the 'S' command. People that don't like them, from my experience, didn't stick with them long enough to really get the workflow down.
  • diverso · 11 months ago
    Definitely worth it. Like Josh says, you have to stick to it and mess with the settings and configurations until you find what you like. If you do modeling all day long it would save atleast 1/2 an hour out of your day from zooming in and out and navigating thru parts and assemblies.
  • Matt · 11 months ago
    Absolutely 100% worth it. Even the basic model without the extra buttons is a huge improvement in 3D navigation. It does take a little getting used to but within a week you will probably forget how you did things without it.
  • JJacob · 11 months ago
    Great post; already seeing the benefits of using the SB after only a few weeks...

    Question: is there a way to import/export the SB settings?
  • Josh M · 11 months ago
    Hi, you can save your SB settings by using the 'Copy Options Wizard' - located in the start menu, under SolidWorks, SolidWorks Tools usually - I make regular backups of my settings, just in case I loose it, need to give it to someone else or have roll back to some previous setting.
  • JJacob · 11 months ago
    Excellent. Thanks Josh. This is going to help me out immensely as we regularly use conference room PCs and their settings are the crummy default ones.
  • JJacob · 11 months ago
    Another Q: Anyone aware of a way to customize the SB with drop down boxes or grouping? My SB is getting pretty cluttered, and I'd like to make it pretty :)
  • Josh M · 11 months ago
    you can use Flyout Toolbars that can be added via the customization option.
    It's the first in the list. I use these for sheet metal and surfacing
    commands - commands I don't use as often as the others.
  • John · 6 months ago
    Thanks for the info. I am new to SWs and I hope to get a little better at it. Maybe you can answer a couple of questions:

    1) SW 2008, is there a way to remove duplicate items/entities?

    2) I just through with a radiator header and the file is really big. Is there a wap to decrease the file size?

    Thanks.
  • Josh M · 6 months ago
    John, Hi. keep going at it. you'll get better asking questions for sure.

    1) There's currently not a function to recognize duplicate features.

    2)There's many ways to decrease file size. The best way is to limit the number of features/patterns/curves. Depending on what you're modeling and what your needs are, you can create models in such a way that will allow you to use configuration or create features to reduce filesize. If you have a specific example, let me know and I can address it.

    Thanks!
  • John · 6 months ago
    Josh,

    Thanks for your comments. I design thermal products. Like radiators, charge air coolers.......
    I was using SW 2008 to draw a radiator header plate. The drawing just seams really big when compaired to others.

    John