SOLIDWORKS Video Tech Tips

When creating a sketch, the geometry is just the first step. You will still need to add definitions like size and position to complete the sketch. This could be done manually by adding dimensions and relations to each individual sketch entity or it can be done automatically using the Fully Define Sketch function. In this week’s Video Tech Tip, we are going to share with you how to use this function. It is a great time-saver when you want to quickly add definition to sketch geometry. Although with SOLIDWORKS your sketches don’t need to be fully defined, it is a best practice to add dimensions and relations to your sketch geometry. Fully Define Sketch offers a one- click way to do this. It’s also known as the auto dimension button.

Lines come together at a point. But it’s not always that straightforward in SOLIDWORKS. Sometimes the point is made by “virtually extending” lines to their intersection. This is known as a virtual sharp. In this week’s Video Tech Tip, Elite Application Engineer Chang Lee, shows you two ways to add virtual sharps in SOLIDWORKS. 

One SOLIDWORKS model can look or function in different ways. In this week’s Video Tech Tip, our Elite Application Engineer Chang Lee walks you through step by step how to leverage this command. He explains how to showcase various positions of your models using alternate position views in SOLIDWORKS. 

Every day it seems like we have to do more and more in less time. Well, the only way to do that is to get better and quicker with the tools you have. In this week’s Video Tech Tip, we show you how to use two great keyboard shortcuts to help you make drawings in SOLIDWORKS quicker than ever before.

So, you want to move a sketch from one face to another? There are two ways to do it. One is a basic lesson taught in the beginning of the SOLIDWORKS Essentials training, while the other is a slick trick only power users know. In this week’s Video Tech Tip, we’re going to show you both ways so you can easily move a sketch (or feature) to a different face

There’s no doubt that copy/paste is a beloved productivity enhancer. It’s something that we all use daily to help save time in applications like Word, Excel and even SOLIDWORKS. But SOLIDWORKS takes copy/paste to the next level with derived sketch. Think of derived sketch as copy/paste on steroids. In this week’s Video Tech Tip, we share with you how this works and why it’s so great.

The power trim tool is a favorite among SOLIDWORKS users. It’s a handy tool to cut away, trim or sketch geometry quickly. We affectionately call it the SOLIDWORKS weed wacker, because it works in mostly the same fashion. In this week’s Video Tech Tip, we show you a little-known function of the power trim tool so you can leverage all of its functionality.

In your SOLIDWORKS designs, you can take advantage of pictures by inserting them into a sketch that can help you create your designs. But that’s nothing new. This functionality has been in SOLIDWORKS for many years. In this week’s Video Tech Tip, we show you how to take advantage of the scale tool to accurately size the picture so that it is more useful as a design aid.

When it comes to successfully navigating around the 3D space and modeling environment in SOLIDWORKS, viewing and orienting your model is vital. As you use commands like pan, zoom and rotate to orient the model to take a measurement or add a feature, you are creating model views. We all know the feeling when you create the perfect model view-it’s the best. In this week’s Video Tech Tip we show you how to capture these views and save them so you can easily use them again.

Selecting items and geometric features in SOLIDWORKS used to often be tedious. With one misplaced click or unexpected move, you could lose all your selections. Fortunately there’s a tool in SOLIDWORKS that can help you get right back to where you were – Previous Selection. In this week’s Video Tech Tip, we show you how to use this selection tool.

In SOLIDWORKS, there are two different ways to make selections: box and lasso. These selection tools make up a fundamental concept of working in SOLIDWORKS. Unfortunately, not everyone got the news that the lasso selection tool was added a few years ago to the SOLIDWORKS toolset, so, in this week’s Video Tech Tip, we show you how to use this tool and some tips on how to make the most of the selection options.

The status bar in SOLIDWORKS is one of those tools that has been staring users in the face since day one but is often overlooked. It’s potentially the most underutilized tool in the software. It is the area of the interface in the lower right-hand corner that has all sorts of useful information that can help you speed up your design workflow, if you know how to use it. In this week’s Video Tech Tip, we show you how to use the functionality of the status bar to instantly take measurements of your designs.