SOLIDWORKS EDU 2025: Simplified Interface for Teachers and Students

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Educators and their students are an integral part of the ~8 million people that make up the SOLIDWORKS Community.  That is why we take feedback from educators and our commercial customers, implement enhancements, and make changes to SOLIDWORKS. One major enhancement released in 2025 SP2 last month was the SOLIDWORKS Simplified Interface option.

Why is the SOLIDWORKS Simplified Interface important to teachers and students? The CommandManager, FeatureManager, and Task Pane display only the most important options – for the new learner.  The new interface is also great for the experienced user that designs with a subset of the SOLIDWORKS sketch and feature tools..

The SOLIDWORKS Simplified Interface is important to teachers, especially when they are teaching a 1-day, once-a-week lesson, or extruded components. Students focus on one workspace and the most important tools, working from left to right in the CommandManager, using Sketch, Feature, and then Evaluate.

To display the SOLIDWORKS Simplified Interface, Select View from the Main toolbar.  Select Workspace. Check Simplified Interface.

When first learning about 3D computer aided design (CAD), students concentrate on simple sketch tools.  The most common sketch tools are Line, Rectangle and Circle.  The Simplified Interface shows the most common tools – compared to the Default Interface. After you create the 2D profile, the next step is to use Smart Dimension and Add Relations to create a fully defined sketch.

As you sketch, applied sketch tools (Sketch Fillet, Trim Entities) are displayed along with the Extrude Boss/Base feature. After the first Extrude feature, other sketched features and applied features are displayed in the CommandManager.

The Simplified Interface also reduces entries in the FeatureManager and SOLIDWORKS Task Pane.

Educators, on subscription, can download 2025 SP2.0 to see the new Simplified Interface. What’s New and SOLIDWORKS Help contain information about new functionality and the Simplified Interface.

Thank you SOLIDWORKS R&D for this great new enhancement in 2025 SP2.  And thank you teachers for teaching SOLIDWORKS to your students.

Design well.  Marie

 

Marie Planchard

Marie Planchard

Senior Director, Early Engagement, 3DEXPERIENCE Works at Dassault Systemes
Marie Planchard is an education and engineering advocate. As Senior Director of Education & Early Engagement, SOLIDWORKS, she is responsible for global development of content and social outreach across all levels of learning including educational institutions, Fab Labs, and entrepreneurship.