Learning to master SolidWorks can make a huge difference in the productivity and quality of your design projects, whether you are a beginner or an advanced user. Tricks and tips for this powerful 3D modeling software not only saves time, but also helps avoid errors and make the most of its capabilities.
In this article we compile and develop in depth The best strategies and tricks you can apply in SolidWorks to optimize sketches, parts, assemblies, and technical documentation. This is a comprehensive, updated guide adapted for users in Spain. You'll discover options and techniques that often go unnoticed but can make a difference in your day-to-day work as a designer.
Optimize your sketches from the start
Efficiency when designing in SolidWorks begins with sketch management. Any improvements you apply here will directly impact the time and quality of the final project.
- Use polylines and chained lines: Use the left mouse button to create quick line chains by clicking and releasing for each point. This is perfect for defining complex profiles.
- Switch between lines and arcs easily: If you need to switch between straight and curved strokes, return to the last point you drew and describe an arc by moving the pointer. You can also press the "A" key to instantly switch between a line and an arc, making it easier to create mixed geometry.
- Visual relationship management: Alignment, perpendicularity, and verticality symbols can be visually distracting. You can hide them and work more clearly using the "Hide/Show Elements" option.
- Smart commands to define sketches: Take advantage of the “Fully Define Sketch” feature to automatically add relations and dimensions, making your design more robust.
- Quick Captures: Activate snaps to the center, midpoint, or endpoint of other entities using the dedicated toolbar. This will facilitate precise positioning of new elements.
Select and edit like a pro
Fast selection management is essential for working on complex sketches. SolidWorks offers alternative methods to optimize the process:
- Selection window: If you select from left to right, only the entire area is included; from right to left, it only touches the window.
- Selection of chains: Right-click on an entity and choose “Select Chain” to select an entire connected sequence, useful for editing closed or open profiles in one go.
- Tiebreaker of overlapping entities: When multiple entities overlap, right-click and choose “Select Other” to select the exact entity you need at that point.
Tips for modifying and reusing sketches
With these tips, SolidWorks lets you get the most out of your work by reusing previous work and editing sketches flexibly:
- Editing on different planes: If you created the sketch on the wrong plane, select the sketch and use the “Edit Sketch Plane” option to quickly move it to the correct plane.
- Copy and paste sketches: Don't waste time recreating geometry. Select your sketches, use CTRL+C and then CTRL+V on the new plane, or use the Edit > Copy and Paste menu.
- Derived sketches: Work with linked derived sketches, which update automatically if you change the main sketch. This way, you can ensure consistency between different parts or versions.
- Blocks in sketch: Insert predefined blocks into your sketches to reuse mechanisms, links, or any repetitive shape, and even simulate rotating chains between circular elements.
Customize shortcuts and the work environment
Speed in SolidWorks depends largely on how you customize the commands and shortcuts.
- Mouse and gestures: Assign up to 12 different commands to the right mouse button and access them with a small gesture. This saves a lot of unnecessary scrolling through menus.
- Shortcut bar “S”: Press “S” in any environment (sketch, part, assembly, drawing) to open a pop-up bar next to the pointer with your favorite commands and an integrated tool finder.
- Keyboard commands:
- Tabulator: Easily toggle the active drawing plane in 3D sketches.
- A: Change a line to an arc on the fly.
- S: Instant access to favorite features.
- Spacer: Open the 3D cube view to quickly choose the desired orientation.
- Q: Temporarily display planes, origins, and coordinate systems for selection in parts and assemblies.
- Control: Duplicate entities by dragging, both in sketches and assemblies.
Get the most out of editing and design tools
In addition to these tricks, SolidWorks has advanced utilities for areas such as sheet metal, welded structures and documentation, which are often little known:
- Replace entities: You can replace elements in a sketch without breaking subsequent relationships, maintaining integrity in dependent operations.
- Intersections: Facilitates the creation of crossing points between lines, ideal for defining key geometry automatically.
- Sheet metal management:
- Surface flattening: Unfolds curved or complex surfaces for easy manufacturing.
- Deploy cones: Use the fold tool to virtually open your cone, calculating the required surface area and seeing the result in real time.
- Edge tab: Joins sheets using flanges precisely, taking advantage of the referencing between assembly components.
- Connection of welded elements:
- Tab and slot: Simplifies connections in weldable structural profiles, creating joints ready to manufacture.
- Board management: Modify the trimming order at joints for complete control over the final result.
- Alternative views in assemblies: Represent alternative positions of your mechanisms to validate their operation and show different stages of movement in technical documentation.
- Note bank: Create, number, and reuse annotations at different points in the design to document each part without duplicating work.
System options and advanced customization
SolidWorks is highly configurable, and some lesser-known settings can greatly influence your workflow:
- Image ghosting on drag: Visualize the original location of entities when moving them, crucial when editing complex shapes.
- Entering numeric data on screen: Allows you to set the exact length of an entity when drawing it, without additional steps.
- Automatic creation of dimensions: Automatically generates dimensions when you enter a value, speeding up sketch definition.
- Automatic rotation of view to the sketch plane: When editing or creating a sketch, the camera is positioned directly in front of you, avoiding repeated view changes. It's best not to activate it if you work primarily with sheet metal due to potential discomfort.
- Dimension Preview (SolidWorks 2024): By selecting one or more entities, you can view suggested dimensions and apply them with one click, avoiding having to use the smart dimension tool manually.
- Instant 2D: Modify dimensions directly from the screen by dragging blue dots and adjusting values with a visual numeric ruler.
Property management and assembly efficiency
SolidWorks offers specific tools to control large projects or complex assemblies.
- Properties tab: Use this tab to efficiently edit any custom item properties, classifications, or identifiers.
- Mass Relationship Management: The “View/Delete Relations” command allows you to manage sketch constraints in bulk or in a filtered manner, ideal for cleaning up or redefining the structure of a large sketch.
- Automatic relationships: You can disable automatic relationship generation if you need to create free or more flexible geometries.
Tips for daily work and system configuration
Finally, let's look at some SolidWorks tricks to speed up and improve the quality of our work:
- Customization by environment: Each environment (sketch, part, assembly, drawing) supports its own commands and configurations, allowing you to adapt the S bar, mouse gestures, or quick commands to the context.
- Temporary preview of entities: By pressing “Q”, you can quickly view reference plans and elements, speeding up their selection for new sketches or positioning.
- continuous improvement: SolidWorks introduces improvements with each release; for example, dimension preview when selecting entities is new in SolidWorks 2024, speeding up dimensioning of complex sketches.
We hope that this complete compilation of Tricks, shortcuts, and work methods allow you to increase your productivity and take advantage of every SolidWorks feature.No matter your skill level, internalizing these tips will improve your agility, reduce errors, and allow you to spend more time on what really matters: designing quality parts and assemblies.