Five Favorable Features of SOLIDWORKS

In every new version of SOLIDWORKS there is always some new features that steal all of the attention.

In this post i will highlight five favorable features in SOLIDWORKS that may not be as known, but still can help you in your everyday with solidworks.

1.Tab settings

In SOLIDWORKS 2019, this button appeared in top right corner of the Task pane,

When you press this button, a setting window opens which gives you the following options

1. You can use the radio buttons to dertermine which pane is to be used as default pane
2. Use the checkbox to hide the panes you do not need to see
3. Rearrange the different panes (drag and drop)

Please see the below video for demostration.

2. Recent documents.

In SOLIDWORKS 2019 “Recent documents” got a couple of improvements.

1. if needed you can change the number of recent documents to as high as 100. Earlier this number was 16.
2. You now have the option to include/exclude models opened from another model.
3. SOLIDWORKS can be set to open the last documents you have worked with

You can access the “Recent documents” options in the “General option” tab-

Bonus tip: The shortcut for recent documents is “R”,

3. Create silhouette

Since SOLIDWORKS 2020 it has become much more simple to create a Silouhette of your part or assembly. The feature is particular useful for when you create packaging or are trying to figure out how much space a model uses on the producton floor.

Once you have started a sketch go to “Tools”->”Sketch Tools”->”Silhouette Entities” and select the parts you want to be part of the silouhette.

If you update your assembly or part the sketch will also update.

4.Dimension Arc

You easily can dimension an arc with the arc length instead of the radius.

To do this select “Smart dimensions” then select the two endpoints of the arc you want to dimension as well as the arc itself,

You can easily identify an arc dimension by the little arc above

5.Changing converted edges

When you create a converted edge of a line, it is as a default fully defined, you can however change the length by dragging the endpoint in the direction needed.

However, dragging the point is not possible if it is attached to another point