Have you ever thought to yourself “Why did the SolidWorks developers do it that way?  It should work differently!”  Or how about “Why didn’t they find/fix that bug before they released the software?”  Or maybe you are in the camp that will never install the latest release of SolidWorks until at least service pack 2 because you are “waiting for the kinks to be worked out”.

Now is your chance to help resolve these issues before they affect you and your design team.  Join SolidWorks 2012 Beta today!  This is your opportunity to impact the quality, performance, and reliability of DS SolidWorks products while getting advanced access to the latest version of SolidWorks.

In addition, SolidWorks 2012 Beta Program includes contests where you can show off your SolidWorks skills and get points and valuable prizes for testing the software.  You can also check out the special competitions!

Download Beta today and start earning points and help shape the future of SolidWorks.

http://www.solidworks.com/beta/beta-terms-accept.htm?ref=%2Fbeta%2Fdefault%2Ehtm&qs=fromrss%3D1

Solidworks has many great shortcuts built into the program already, but you can customize it in a variety of ways to fit your specific needs as well.  If you’re not already familiar with the customize dialog where you can set up your own keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures, this is an easy way to modify your settings and make your modeling operations fly.  You can access the customize dialog by going to Tools>Customize, or right-clicking on any toolbar and choosing Customize from the toolbar list. 

But don’t forget about the Shortcut toolbar.  This is a custom toolbar that pops up right next to your mouse pointer when you hit the “s” key.  With all the fancy mice in use today, one tip is to program a mouse button to the “s” key so you can launch the shortcut bar right from your mouse.  You can customize the shortcut bar by right-clicking on it when it’s visible, selecting Customize…, and dragging and dropping commands from the customize dialog just like any other toolbar.

Also, how many times a day do you use the Ctrl key?  Try programming a mouse button to this key stroke and you simply hold down that button while picking entities that you want to add a relationship between or multi-select.  It will work in other Windows programs, too!

Once you get everything set up the way you like, save your settings with the Copy Settings Wizard.  That way you can automatically apply your settings to any other workstation or new installation.  The Copy Settings Wizard is a tool that is automatically installed with SolidWorks and can be accessed through the Windows Start menu, All Programs, SolidWorks 20XX, SolidWorks Tools.

For more tips on customizing you SolidWorks interface, check out the Customizing SolidWorks tutorial available by going to Help> SolidWorks Tutorials.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard accelerators let you perform 3DVIA Composer commands more quickly than graphical commands.

To create and manage shortcuts, right-click the ribbon and click Customize Quick Access Toolbar. In the Customize dialog box, for Keyboard shortcuts, click Customize.

Note: Single-character shortcuts, such as H to hide an actor, are hardcoded in the application and are not displayed in the Customize dialog box.

Default Shortcuts