Part I: SolidWorks Basics
l (^) PropertyManager skins
l Task pane location
l (^) Hotkeys
l Macros
l (^) Custom application programming
Whether or not you should customize each of the previous items depends partially on how much
time and energy you have to spend, as well as how much money you are ready to dedicate in the
case of custom programming.
Considering hotkey approaches .......................................................................
Some of us old-timers prefer to use the keyboard instead of the mouse. If your hand-eye coordination
is as bad as mine is, you may also choose this approach. I can type without looking at the keyboard,
but when I use the mouse, it takes me a few seconds to aim at an icon and hit it accurately. This
means that I customize SolidWorks to use as many hotkeys as possible, and remove icons from the
interface if I have them on hotkeys. Unfortunately, my memory is as bad as my eyesight, and so
remembering 75 hotkey commands is a bit of a problem. I admit to having a printed list of hotkeys
taped to the side of my monitor. While I know that needing to read the list to find a particular hotkey
defeats most of the purpose of using them in the first place, I just accept it as a learning aid. This is a
self-solving problem, because the hotkeys that I use the most are the ones that I learn most quickly.I generally do not advocate trying to standardize a hotkey scheme across multiple users, unless the
users all agree to it. The underlying reason for writing this section is that everyone remembers
things differently in the first place.Any command that I use more than a few times an hour is worth assigning to a hotkey. I like to
use alliteration when assigning keys to help with my faulty memory. The most frequently used
commands are assigned single-letter hotkeys, and the less frequently used commands are assigned
combinations. Thus, Tools Options is linked to O, Measure to M, Select Vertex to Shift+V, and
Curve Projected to Ctrl+J (Ctrl+P is the Windows standard for the Print command). Other people
like to group keys into easy-to-reach combinations; this is why the Q, W, A, S, Z, and X keys are
often assigned first for right-handed mouse users.Organizing hotkeys .........................................................................................
Hotkeys are assigned and organized in the Keyboard dialog box (Tools ➪ Customize ➪ Keyboard),
as shown in Figure 2.31. This interface enables you to see all the hotkeys (called shortcuts in the
list) easily. If you try to enter an existing hotkey, SolidWorks issues a prompt, telling you that the
key is assigned to another command and its name. The prompt asks you whether you want to clear
the other instance of the hotkey and make the new one active. You can also print out or copy to
the Clipboard a list of only commands that use hotkeys.Because the list of commands is so long, a Search function is available, and a drop-down arrow
makes only the commands from a selected menu visible. The list of commands is organized by
menu name, and the menus are listed as they occur in the interface. Fortunately, on the Keyboard