Hey everybody

I thought I would create a quick discussion to see how people are using shortcuts within SolidWorks?

There's quite a few ways that you can quickly access your most commonly used tools, using keyboard and mouse customisation.

The  "shortcut bar" ('s' on the keyboard) is a great way to access in-context tools, saving you mouse travel by giving you the tools at your cursor:

You can customise what is showing by either RMB on the toolbar when it appears, or within Tools/Customize.

They are even context sensitive, meaning you only get the tools you need at that time. Mine are shown below...

My SKETCH shortcut bar:

My FEATURE shortcut bar:

My DRAWING shortcut bar:

Mouse gestures are also a great way to initiate commands without having to find the tools on the toolbars.

Just by holding down your RMB, you can quickly access your most commonly used tools. Mine is shown below...

My gesture wheel has (starting at 12 o'clock), 'new document', 'shortcut bar', 'view selector', 'zoom to area', 'hide all types', 'new drawing', 'perspective'.

As you can see, I actually use a mouse gesture to bring up my shortcut bar, which then saves keyboard interaction.

'Perspective' is another tool which is great to be able to quickly toggle on and off, showing a more realistic representation.

I also find that the 'hide all types' tools is a great one to be able to rapidly access, quickly hiding of all planes, sketches, reference geometry etc. with a right drag diagonally down and left.

I spend the majority of the day in SolidWorks, and find that using these shortcuts really does speed things up! There are also some great improvements in SolidWorks-2017. Can't wait!

Looking forward to hearing peoples comments and views.

Jamie

Pre-Sales Applications Engineer | Cadtek Systems | UK Elite Reseller.