Tips & Tricks

SOME USEFUL TIPS WHILE WORKING WITH SOLIDWORKS

1. Try using the 3 default planes as max as possible.

2. Select the proper plane to begin your sketch.

3. Use mouse right click option to select the commands in ease manner, like select from the drop down menu or from recent commands.

4. Always use a fully defined sketch.

5. Make a customized toolbar to use the feature and other options.

6. Use mouse buttons for zoom in/out, rotating and panning the models.

7. Click off the things in the “View” like temporary axes, sketch relations, etc.

8. Keep level of details on lower side and mate animation speed set to fast in Tools>Option>System Option> Performance.

9. Keep Image quality in Tools>Option>Document properties on lower side.

10. Don’t change the default settings for line types, colors, etc.

11. Use design table/ Configurations in parts & assembly.

12. Use equations/ link values to work quicker.

13. Make default templates for metric/ inches settings for part, drawing & assembly.

14. During applying mates in assembly, select the edge, press “Alt” button and drag the part to respective face to get the concentric and coincident mate in one go.

15. Press “Crtl” while reordering parts in the main/top level assembly to avoid them being added to the any sub assembly.

16. Use faces, axes, default planes for mating in assembly.

17. Use design library to create parts/features to be used repeatedly.

18. While making and default plane or axis try using default planes as reference.

19. Ctrl-TAB:  Cycles through open SW documents, Also works in other Windows applications.

20. Alt-TAB:  Cycles through open applications.

21. Turn off the SW Thumbnails

22. Arrow = rotate 15 degrees (settable in Tools, Options)

23. Shift-Arrow = rotate 90 degrees

24. Ctrl-arrow = pan

25. Alt-arrow = spin around screen center

26. Drag a box around items to select.

27. RMB selection options:   Select loops, chains, tangency, partial loops, open loops, Select Midpoint,etc.

28. Move dims / Copy dims: Move = Shift-drag, Copy = Ctrl-drag

29. Don’t rename files from Windows Explorer unless it is a document with no references (part not used in an assembly, assembly not used in another assembly or a drawing), or you know in advance how you’re going to solve the problem which you’re about to create.

30. Use menu File, Save As when the assembly is open to attach renamed file to existing assembly.

31. Use SolidWorks Explorer to copy or rename files and maintain references

32. File naming conventions

* Avoid names like “bracket”, “cover”, “base”, etc.

*SolidWorks can only have one part with a given name open at a time

* The second part with the same name as another open part will use the first opened part

* It is best practice to use sequential part numbers in such a way that you can guarantee that there will not be any duplicate file names.

OTHER THINGS TO BE TAKEN CARE OFF

1. Defragmentation and disk cleanup once in 15 days

2. Remove Temporary Files from:

C:\temp, C:\<Operating system>\temp, <user profile>\Local Settings\temp, swxXXX folders, Swxauto folder (SW Auto Recovery Files).

3. Remove Temporary Internet Files from <user profile>\Local Settings\Temporary internet Files.

General Windows Tricks

How to Take a Screenshot

1)   Press the “Print Screen” button. The button is located on the right top corner of the keyboard.

2)   Open Microsoft Paint. To do this, click Start > All Programs > Accessories > Paint. Click inside the white part of the screen. Alternatively you can open a new word file.

3)   Go to the Edit menu and click Paste or you can press and hold “Ctrl” and press V

4)   Click File > Save As. In the box that pops up, change the “Save As Type” to PNG or JPG. Type in a filename for your image. Choose a place to save, like the Desktop and click on save.

5)   If you are using a word file, then continue pasting in the next page if you want to take more than one screen shot and save in same file. And finally save your file.