SOLIDWORKS 2017 improved the view manipulation on touch screens so that you can follow your natural behavior to zoom, pan and rotate the model using hand gestures. SOLIDWORKS 2018 takes it further to improve the usability for modelling with Pen and Touch.

What you can do

• A new Touch Mode has been introduced to optimize the user interface for touch interactions.
• The Touch Toolbar provides an easy access to some of the most common commands.
• New logic has been added to improve the selection of vertices, edges, faces, sketch entities, lines, arcs, points… with finger.
• The new touch Magnifier shows dynamic highlight and the context specific cursor in the zoomed area for a precise selection.
• The dynamic highlight also works for the hover over with Pen/stylus.
• Similar to double click with mouse, the double tap with single finger on an object will let you edit the object.
• The new Touch Number Pad provides a quick and easy way to enter value in the numeric fields.

Touch mode

You can activate touch mode in the menus at: View > Touch Mode. This will bring up the touch toolbar on the left side of the application.

Touch Toolbar

Since touch users will not always have the keyboard, this toolbar has some of the most common commands.

1. “Escape” Key
2. “S” key
3. “Multi-Select” button. When this button is ON, tapping on objects will add them to selection, similar to clicking on objects with mouse while holding “Ctrl” key on the keyboard.
4. “3D Lock” toggle button. Locking the 3D rotation disables 1 finger rotate and allows you to drag objects with your finger. When you enter sketch mode, it will automatically turn ON.
5. “Delete” button shows up when some entity is selected in the graphic area.

This panel appears on the left side of the screen so that you can use your right hand with or without pen, to model in graphic area and use this toolbar with your left hand. For people who use left hand as the dominant hand, it can be placed on the right side of the screen. You can specify your dominant hand for writing under system options: System Options > Touch > Touch Mode.

Workflow for the Touch Magnifier

1. Long press in the graphic area with 1-finger shows an animation - a circle that completes in 2 sec.
2. If you drag your finger before 2 sec then it invokes the mouse gesture ring.
3. If you drag your finger after 2 sec, it shows the magnifier. You can drag your finger to drag the magnifier around.
4. The magnifier is off-centered on the top left side of the finger for Right Handed Users and top right side of the finger for Left Handed Users.
5. You can use the buttons – Zoom up and Zoom down in the touch toolbar to dynamically change the zoom level inside the magnifier. These buttons appear in the touch toolbar only when the magnifier is evoked.
6. The objects under the cross hair show dynamic highlight and the context specific cursor.
7. When the finger is released the object in the center of the cross-hair stays selected.

Workflow for the Touch Number Pad

1. If Touch mode is not active, enable it under View > Touch mode.
2. Using finger or stylus, tap on any number field with the spinner control.
3. It brings up the touch number pad below the input field.
4. 
5. You can tap in the new value.
6. Alternately, you can tap the ellipses button to view parameters associated with the selected field. For example, Equation input fields should show the following properties:
   • Global Variables
   • Functions
   • File Properties
   • Units
7. Select the new value and then tap anywhere in the graphic area to dismiss the number pad and accept the new value.

New behavior for the Split Buttons

It is difficult to select very narrow buttons with touch therefore split buttons work as drop down buttons when Touch mode is active:

Beta Testing and reporting Issues:

• Try out these new features with Touch and Pen and let us know your feedback.
• Let us know how easy or difficult it is to select entities with fingers.
• Please give us feedback on the process to evoke the magnifier.
• Try out the Number Pad and let us know if any commonly used key is missing. Also, please give us feedback on the workflow to update the value and dismiss the number pad.
• Let us know what you think of the split buttons in touch mode.
• Does the Undo button work fine with this new behavior or each tap should undo the last action?