Customizing SolidWorks

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.