SolidWorks Tutorial 0: The SolidWorks User Interface
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.
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.)
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.
