SolidWorks Tips

1
SolidWorks Tips Tricks

• Jeff Mirisola
• JRM Consulting Design

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About Me

• Owner, JRM Consulting Design
• SolidWorks user for 10 years.
• CSWP, certified DriveWorks App. Eng.
• Former AE for local VAR
• Member of the Blog Squad

3
Tips Tricks

• Holding Ctrl and dragging a part in an assembly
  will copy the part.
• Holding Alt and dragging a part allows you to
  mate the part with selected geometry.
• Hold Ctrl and drag a plane to create a quick
  parallel plane.
• File management In Windows Explorer, RMB on a
  SolidWorks file and select the SolidWorks menu.
  Pack n go, rename and replace files without
  opening SolidWorks.
• Use Ctrl plus view number to orient your
  model/assembly. 1-Front, 2-back, 3-Left, 4-Right,
  5-Top, 6-Bottom, 7-Isometric, 8-Normal to.

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Tips Tricks

• Ctrl8 will make model/assembly Normal to.
  Hitting it again will flip it to the opposite
  side.
• When working in large assemblies, RMB on a plane
  in the FM and select Auto-size.
• F9 will hide the FM. F10 will hide toolbars. F11
  hides all.
• F5 turns your filter toolbar on/off. F6 Clears
  enabled filters.
• Box select L to R selects whats in the box, R
  to L selects in and what it crosses.
• Dynamic Line/arc creation Hover over line
  endpoint to switch to arc tool or press A to
  alternate between the two.

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Tips Tricks

• Holding down Shift, while dimensioning arcs,
  will automatically dimension to Max.
• Quick slot creation Create slot centerline,
  offset entities, bi-directional, cap end.
• If you use the Shell command, without selecting a
  face, youll create a hollow part.
• The S key is your best friend. Use it
  frequently and dont be afraid to make it your
  own.
• Use Multi-mate to speed up mate creation in
  Assemblies
• Did you know you can rotate, in 3D, a view in a
  drawing?

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Tips Tricks

• Quick copy of sketch entities box select or
  ctrl select entities, hold ctrl and drag.
• To create geometry without snapping, hold down
  ctrl before or after dragging to disable
  inferencing.
• Repair broken sketch relationships by dragging or
  manually repair using view relations.
• Use surface cut to quickly remove half of model.

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Best Practices

• Always use fully defined sketches.
• Name your features. Itll make your life easier
  down the road.
• Center parts around origin/planes as often as
  possible.
• If working in a multi-user environment, enable
  multi-user environment (Tools-gtoptions-gtcollaborat
  ion).
• If you use variations of the same part (excluding
  toolbox parts), you owe it to yourself to check
  out DriveWorksXpress.
• Everyone should be working off of common
  templates.
• Make sure your IT department gets it.
• Use online help. It tends to be much quicker than
  your VAR.

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Useful Resources

• www.solidjott.com great addin for SolidWorks.
• www.forum.solidworks.com SolidWorks forum to
  get answers.
• www.eng-tips.com SolidWorks specific forum.
• www.twitter.com social networking in 140 words
  or less.
• www.swugn.org/pages/resources/SolidWorksBlogs.html
  - a dozen or so bloggers who provide tips,
  tricks, opinion and commentary on SolidWorks.