Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

Register Log in

Hidden Solidworks commands 20

Status
Not open for further replies.
SBaugh

SBaugh

Mechanical
Mar 6, 2001
6,684
0
0
US
Does anyone no where I can find a document with hidden SW commands. There are some key strokes and commands in SW that are not always listed in the help, or if they are they are overlooked very easy.

For example a user call me today asking how can he get normal to but from the opposite direction... solution select "Normal to" again and it flips the direction.

This is just one of those basic hidden commands, and I don't know if someone has made a document of these commands or not already.

Thanks in Advance,

Scott Baugh, CSWP [pc2]
Berry Plastics
Cad Admin\Design Engineer
"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"
Click to expand...
faq731-376
 
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

Sort by date Sort by votes
Here's one that's changed in 2011 and isn't explained in the Help. To add a decal that isn't in the Decals folder (without PV360) go to the Display Manager, click View Decals, RMB beneath the Open Decal Library button, and select Add Decal... I'm sure they could have made that more nebulous, but I'm not sure how.

Dan

Dan's Blog
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
SBaugh: "That is pretty interesting Markku... how did you figure that out?? or were you a SW developer in another life"

Found it years ago from the (surprise!) internet :)

fcsuper:"This doesn't appear to work well with SolidWorks 2010. When is the last time you tried this out."

Propably with 2007, this might be ancient stuff that has not been actively updated by SW and that's why you are getting errors...don't really know.

br
Markku

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Here's a super simple one... If you have SolidWorks files open and want to drag/drop another one open, but don't want it associated with any currently open files... (part into a part, or part into an assembly). You can drag/drop it onto the SolidWorks logo at the top left corner. No need to minimize your open files.

Jack L Tate said:
Right-click. It's friggin' magic!
Click to expand...
FAQ376
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
There is something to the saying "I've forgotten more than most people know." A bunch of these I use regularly. Just picked them up so didn't consider them hidden. Even Markku's trick was one I learned many moons ago and never really used so I forgot it. And that isn't the only one. I think is you search the comp.cad.solidworks archives you might find a few more.

Here are some really hidden ones:

from the solidworks program files directory

sldworks /b "Starts SW. Window is shrunk to about 640x480 size. "
sldworks /d "Starts SW in Developer Mode"
sldworks /m path to macro "Opens SW and runs macro"
sldworks /p "Prints whatever document is given as an argument"

I would say that /b would be useful if, somehow, SW had a window problem where you couldn't get at the edges like when running in a default 640x480 window.

/m can be dangerous or very useful to CAD Admin types. I gave it an argument to a macro that ran and had no way to shut it down. For that SW must be killed (Alt-F4)

And then for some more, that are really windows functionality that almost nobody uses:

On the keypad try + - * when in a fair sized feature tree. They expand and shrink the tree in a context sensitive way.







TOP
CSWP, BSSE

"Node news is good news."
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I haven't seen anyone mention this, but if you double click the MMB it will 'zoom to fit'. This is in the solids and dwgs.

I think this was a feature added on 2009 and above - I don't think it worked in 2008 and below...someone can confirm?

OFS Brands
South Central Indiana
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

drawoh
  • Locked
  • Question
SolidWorks Flexible Parts
2
Replies
20
Views
64
SBaugh
SBaugh
CAD2015
  • Locked
  • Question
SolidWorks Feature Recognition 2
Replies
8
Views
35
ctopher
ctopher
CAD2015
  • Locked
  • Question
SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional 1
Replies
4
Views
32
CAD2015
CAD2015
Jawed62
  • Locked
  • Question
Solidworks VBA with custom property 1
Replies
2
Views
27
Jawed62
Jawed62
RobWard
  • Question
Solidworks 2024 minimising on opening files
Replies
2
Views
21
RobWard
RobWard
Back
Top