Boost your productivity with SOLIDWORKS: discover how to optimize your interface by customizing menus, shortcuts and toolbars, and get instant access to your macros for a smooth, efficient workflow.
1. Why customize your interface?
Personalize your interface to increase efficiency:
- by reducing visual distractions and highlighting the most important elements in your workflow
- Minimizing SolidWorks loading time by hiding what you don't use
- And simply to become a good SolidWorks citizen and enjoy working with the software even more!
2. Interface presentation
The SolidWorks interface is fully customizable. It is made up of different parts:
- In purple : the task manager, visible only when a file is open.
- In red : the creation tree, which groups together the design or assembly history of our file
- Green : the shortcut bar (accessible by pressing the S key on the keyboard)
- Blue : Quick-access tools
Note : We recommend pinning the Task Manager and the "File-Edit-Display" menu that appears when you move the mouse over "SolidWorks Connected".
2. 2. Visual housekeeping
1. Before customizing your menus, you need to clean up your SolidWorks interface.
Right-click on the taskbar > Customize :
2. In the "Toolbar" tab, uncheck all the menus you don't use.
3. Keeping the "Customize" window open, you can remove any unused icon by dragging it out of its toolbar.
4. You can disable tabs you don't use by right-clicking > tab > deselect
3. Customize command bars
Select the toolbar to be customized :
1. In the customization window, click on the "Toolbars" tab.
2. Select the toolbars that correspond to your daily use (e.g. sheet metal work, assembly, etc.).
We recommend that you keep the "View Up" bar for quick access to your favorite commands.
3. Adding or removing buttons : Once you've selected a command bar, you can add or remove buttons by dragging icons from the "commands" tab available in the "toolbar" tab to the command bar, or by dragging existing buttons to rearrange them.
4. Customize button options : Some buttons may have additional customization options. Right-click on a button to see if there are additional options you can adjust.
5. You can customize the shortcut bar (accessed via the S key on the keyboard) in the "Shortcut bar" tab. There are 4 shortcut bars for each file type: part, assembly, drawing and sketch. You can choose the type of bar to customize and add/delete commands.
If you wish to have a larger display screen on SOLIDWORKS, by clicking on Taskbar > Customize,
you can change the size of the icons and remove the associated text by unchecking "Use enlarged buttons with text".
4. Customize menus
In the Customization window,
1. click on the "Menus" tab. This will display a list of menus available in SolidWorks.
2. Select the menu you wish to customize from the list. For example, you can select the "File", "Edit", "View" menu, etc.
3. Edit menu: Once you've selected the menu you want to customize, you can add new commands, delete existing commands or rearrange commands to suit your needs:
- To add a command, click on "Add".
- To delete an order, click on "Remove".
- To reorganize orders, in "Position on menu", you can view the order classification and modify the position in the tree.
4. Save changes
5. Customize design tree display
You can change the default parameters displayed in the design tree.
To do so, proceed as follows:
1. Click on : Tools > FeatureManager > Show/Hide tree objects
2. Modify the desired parameters
3. Click "OK".
A second very useful tip is the display of parent/child relationships in the design tree.
To display them :
1. click on your part title at the top of the tree
2. Select "View dynamic references".
3. Move your mouse over a function to view its relationships
You can also add comments under each function in the tree :
right-click > Comment > Add comment
Comments are date-stamped, enabling you, for example, to point out any doubts about quotations to your colleagues, or to keep track of modifications.
6. Customize mouse movement options
You can also customize mouse movements:With a document open, go to Tools > Customize > Mouse movements > Enable mouse movements
You can select the number of movements you wish, we recommend 4 or 8.
In the graphics area, right-click and drag in the movement direction corresponding to the tool or macro.
The mouse movement guide appears, highlighting the tool or macro icon corresponding to the movement direction.
For example, with an open part, drag with the right mouse button to the bottom right corner, towards the highlighted tool.
7. Keyboard shortcuts
Some useful keyboard shortcuts :
| S | Toolbar |
|
Alt + the first letter of a tab |
Display and select |
|
Ctrl+tab |
browse open files |
|
F or double click wheel |
Close-up zoom |
|
Z / Shift+Z |
Zoom +/- |
|
Space |
View manager |
|
Ctrl+Number from 1 to 8 |
Predefined views |
|
G |
Magnifier |
|
Shift/Alt/Ctrl + keyboard arrows |
Part rotation |
You can view and create your own keyboard shortcuts based on your own workflows:
Right-click on the toolbar > Customize > Keyboard shortcuts
Examples if you're short of inspiration:
-Alt+T for temporary axis display
-Alt+C for construction line
-Alt+L for sketch line
Conclusion
Now you have all the tools you need to optimize your user interface and share it with all your colleagues!
Not satisfied with your interface and want to start from scratch? Don't panic, you can reset menus to default values:
Right-click on the taskbar > Customize > click on Reset to Defaults
On the other hand, are you super proud of your new, ultra-functional interface? Do you want to keep it safe and pass it on to all your colleagues?
Tools > options > Backup/Recovery -> Backup and choose a file location
Want to find out more?
Watch our webinar hosted by Maud Pallaro on XDI Community!
Need some help? We'd love to! Send us an e-mail to support@xdinnovation.eu