Product engineering is much more than technical competence and ingenuity. It’s also about speed. Product design is a hybrid of business and engineering, which makes speed to market a non-negotiable element. Therefore, while PP granules traders attempting to maximize their team’s production, every ounce of efficiency counts. Today, we’re going to look at four productivity tips that can help you work more efficiently in SolidWorks, the industry-standard design software.
Tip 1: Using SolidWorks’ “S” Key
The first tip is one of the simplest and will immediately increase your speed in SOLIDWORKS.
Our modest S key activates a fly-out toolbar that displays contextualized icons based on the work at hand. It provides access to the most frequently used sketch tools in your sketch window.
This includes the following:
- Instruments for shaping
- Slot machines Lines
- The dimensioning instrument (which is something designers should be using every single day)
- This S key operates throughout all of SOLIDWORKS’s features and subprograms, such as drawing simulation.
By tapping the S key, you may quickly access the most frequently used tools for that purpose. It’s worthwhile to spend time customizing each of them for parts, assembly, and drawings.
Tip 2: Taking Advantage of Mouse Gestures
The second tip discusses mouse motions. If you’re not currently utilizing these, they will undoubtedly enhance your SolidWorks experience. It enables you to have a little fly-out toolbar by clicking and dragging the right mouse button.
Now, in a similar vein to what we’ll discuss regularly throughout our workflows, “Tools Customize” enables you to customize the contents of these small pop-out mouse gesture windows.
You have pieces, sketches, assembly, and drawings, all of which are decorated differently, and you may pick between two and twelve gestures. You’re likely to discover that 12 gestures are far too many and that two gestures lack the functionality you want. Set only what you require, and utilize them frequently.
Tip 3: Using Sketch Relations in conjunction with Design Intent
We’re going to make a slight advancement immediately. We’re glad you’re here to learn about sketch relationships and design purposes.
Consider a drawing with a variety of distinct circles. Traditionally, if you wanted them all to be a specific size, you would have to go through and dimension each one individually. That can take a long time with a sophisticated drawing…
Now, if I know that all of these circles should be the same size, I just control-click to pick them all and then choose “identical relation,” which tells SOLIDWORKS that they should all have the same size.
That way, rather than changing each one manually, you can simply update the original and they will all pop to the precise size you choose. There are several distinct relationships, and it’s worthwhile to study them all if you’re serious about mastering SOLIDWORKS and increasing your speed.
Tip 4: Accelerating Equations and Parametrics
The fourth section will remain relatively advanced: equations and parametric. Although it is more advanced, this is a necessary ability (especially if you are thinking of taking the CSWA exam).
In a typical design, you must enter the sketch, modify it, and adjust the measurements. Consider receiving comments from a consumer or a review team – the entire process might appear to continue indefinitely at a sluggish speed. Rather than that, there is a more expedient approach to effect these adjustments.
Simply alter the dimension, but instead of typing the value, click equals “variable name” and then click okay. Then, from the equations menu, select “manage equations” to manage all of the variables you’ve created by simply altering their values.
