SolidWorks Tutorial 0: The SolidWorks User Interface

Link to: CAD Main Page

Link to: Tutorial 1a (next)

Introduction

SolidWorks is a very powerful CAD system, which is also to say that it can be very frustrating at times. This page summarizes some of the most important features of the user interface to help you learn to navigate through it.

Loading SolidWorks

In the past at AA, there have been some tricks. As of this writing, all of the earlier glitches with license management seem to have been solved and starting the application is quite easy.

Double-click on the SolidWorks 2024 icon on the desktop. It takes a minute or so to load, and then it will display a dialog box like the one shown below.

On the starting dialog there is a button that says "Log In." You can ignore this. IT is only if you have a Solidworks account on the cloud where you store your work. If you store your work remotely you can ignore the button. At AA it is best to have a USB flash drive for storing your work. This allows you to move from computer to computer and save and resume your project at different times.

If you are just modeling a single part, click on the button that says "Part" to create a new document for a single 3D part (i.e. not an assembly or a 2D drawing.)

Windows Menu

Click on the () small arrowhead next to the SolidWorks logo at the top left corner of the window. This will open up a conventional Windows menu bar.

Mostly this is needed for saving and opening files. These are accessed through the "File" menu on the left end of the menu bar.

To save a file, pull down "Save" or "Save As..." The second option will allow you to save files in a large variety of formats.

Regardelss of the format you wish to end up with, you should also save the file in the .SLDPRT fromat. This is the native format of SolidWorks and it allows you to reopen a design and continue working on it in SolidWorks is exactly the form it had when you saved it. It is recommended that you save files to a removable drive rather than the internal drive on the computer. If you need to come back to work on a design and that computer is busy, you are out of luck. With a portable drive you can work on any computer with SolidWroks.

If you wish to export data to a 3D printer, then you need to save the file as .STL.

If you want to export a 2-D sketch to be used on a laser cutter or CNC plasma cutter, then the preferred format is .DXF.

Tool Bars

Rather than run down the complete set of toolbars, here is an example of one. You can explore the various instances for the different tools at your leisure.

This is the toolbar used for sketching. It will appear very frequently.

In the upper portion there are icons for the collection of tools available for sketching. Notice that the left-most button is selected, and it shows "Exit Sketch" which indicates that the sketching mode is active. To exit the sketching mode, you would click on that button.

Notice also that the button for sketching a rectangle is selected.

In the lower portion there is a set of tabs that shows the features that are available. Notice the the tab labeled "Sketch" is selected.

Design History List

In SolidWorks each operation in the design sequence is added to a sequential list as it is completed. An example is shown below.

Entries correspond to distinct 3D features of the part being designed. Since each 3D feature is derived from one or more 2D sketches, these sketches are stored as members of the feature. Hence, the list has a "tree" structure to it, with members accessible through a triangle icon in the left margin.

Notice that about 3/4 of the way down the list, the feature named "Boss-Extrude 4" has been opened to reveal the member sketch named "Sketch 7."

In this illustration, there is an open sketch named "Sketch 11" at the bottom of the list. Notice that there is a divider line between this sketch and the rest of the list. This indicates that the sketch is still in process.

At any point during the design process you can open up any feature in the list and change the parameters associated with the feature. For example, if you decide that a rectangle is the wrong size that is the basis for an extruded shape you can re-open the sketch and edit it rectangle's dimension.

To do this, click the RIGHT mouse button on the entry for the feature or sketch. A popup menu will open. One of the items in the menu will be an icon showing a pencil. Click on this item to send the program back into the tool mode where the feature was designed. If it's a sketch, you will return to Sketch mode. If it's a 3D feature, you will reopen the feature tool for that part.

NOTE: It is possible to edit a sketch in a way that causes errors in subsequent operations. SolidWorks will warn you when this happens, but fixing errors like this can be very challenging at times.

Navigation

SolidWorks runs on PCs not Macs. You need to be handy with the standard three-button mouse on the PC. Further, you need a mouse in which the middle button is actually a wheel, not a button. This is shown below.

On the PC, the LEFT mouse button is used for selection.

The MIDDLE button (actually a wheel) is used to move the part rendering around in the graphical space. The wheel functions as BOTH a button and a track-wheel, so there is a lot you can do with it.

If you spin the wheel, that causes the image to zoom in and out.

If you click down on the wheel and drag the mouse, this causes the image to rotate in the window.

If you hold down the -CTRL- button, click down on the wheel and drag the mouse, it causes the part to pan around the screen rather than rotate.

There are a few other features too, but these should suffice for most users.

Tool Modes

When modeling a part in SolidWorks there are many different features that become active to perform the many different operations. These tend to be MODAL. This means that when one tool is active, it takes over the operation of the program so that the action is confined to the use of the tool.

Frequently you will find yourself trying to use some feature that doesn't seem to be working. Most likely it's because you are still within some active tool mode and you need to exit it before the application begins to cooperate again.

Here are a few methods:

• Click on the () green check-mark or the () red X to exit the tool.

• Hit the -ESC- button to back out of a mode and return to a higher level.

• You may have a sketch open and not know it. Click on the "Sketch" tab to see if this is the case. You may need to click on the "Exit Sketch" button to restore normal operation.