SolidWorks 2010 Bible

Chapter 2: Navigating the SolidWorks Interface

Before making changes, you might consider saving your initial settings as a separate scheme so you

can get back to them if you need to.

Caution
Making changes to the Windows registry can adversely affect software installation and hardware performance.
You should not attempt changes to the registry unless you know exactly what you are doing. n

Selecting Background options wisely ...............................................................

You should avoid some colors for the background, or you should make some changes if you

choose these colors. Black is used with fully defined sketches, dimensions, FeatureManager text,

and annotations. Blue can mask the underdefined sketch color. Bright green (or blue, depending

on the version you are using) can cause problems with seeing selected items. Bright red, aside from

being a terrible color to stare at all day, also does not contrast well with some of the red highlights

and error colors.

You might think that no matter which color background you select, aside from the default, the

items or features are difficult to see. For this reason, many users choose a gradient background,

which enables them to pick colors where items are always visible on one-half of the screen or the

other. Staring at a white screen all day can be uncomfortable for your eyes, so pick colors that

enable you to see everything with “reasonable” contrast, yet are not glaringly bright. Very high con-

trast is hard on the eyes, and low contrast may make it difficult to distinguish items on the screen.

You have to consider what the purpose of the background is. Some people doing presentations

may want the background to be attractive while otherwise staying out of the way. Others may only

need the background to contrast with whatever is in front of it in a way that does not strain any-

one’s eyes. For writing a book, the background generally needs to be white to match the page. No

one scheme will suit all needs.

In addition to colors and gradients, you can use an image as the graphics window background.

This gives you a wider range of customization capabilities, and several sample images are already

available in the default settings. Also, be aware that document scene backgrounds are document

specific and override system options.

RealView also adds some capabilities with scenes. Scenes can be applied from the RealView tab on

the Task Pane. RealView offers three different types of scenes: Basic, Studio, and Presentation. Of

these, I find the Studio scenes to be the best when I need something with a reflective floor with

shadows, otherwise I stick with the Basic scenes. I describe RealView, along with scenes, in more

detail in Chapter 5.

Customizing strategies

You can easily customize many aspects of the SolidWorks interface, including:

l Toolbars

l (^) Menus
l Background colors or images