Rob Jensen’s Blog

I love using shortcuts. I think they’re a GREAT timesaver. But, if you don’t use them all the time (like me) you forget. Here are a few that I use a lot and a few that maybe you didn’t know about.

1. In 2008 and up, Hit the ‘Alt’ key on your keyboard to make the SolidWorks Menu bar automatically flyout
2. Use CTRL plus the view number to orient your model. Front (1), Back (2), Left (3), Right (4), Top (5), Bottom (6), Isometric (7) and so on
3. Holding the Ctrl key while placing a drawing view breaks the automatic alignment so you can place the view anywhere
4. Holding the Shift key and select the parent view on a 3 view drawing allows you to move all 3 views at once
5. Holding the Shift key when dimensioning arcs creates min/max dimensions

Here are a few more for thouse of you on SolidWorks 2009.

1. G key brings up the magnifying glass where your cursor is, so there’s no need to keep zooming in and out.
2. Holding down the Alt key while the magnifying glass is on and using the scroll wheel on your mouse, sections the geometry so making picks easy
3. 1. Double click of the middle mouse button zooms the window to fit, in parts, assemblies and drawings.

Got any favorite shortcuts you’d like to share?