SolidWorks 2010 Bible

Chapter 2: Navigating the SolidWorks Interface

Saving custom interface settings ......................................................................

Once you have set up your menus and toolbars, worked out all of custom colors, figured out your

hotkey usage, and connected your macros, you don’t want to lose these settings when you reinstall

the software or move to a different computer. Another user may want to share your settings, or you

may want to transfer them to your home computer (for modeling the new deck or the doghouse,

of course). Fortunately, these settings are very portable.

You can use the Copy Settings Wizard to save these settings out to a file. Access the wizard by

choosing Start ➪ Programs ➪ SolidWorks 2010 ➪ SolidWorks Tools ➪ Copy Settings Wizard. This

creates a file with an *.sldreg file extension. You can restore settings by double-clicking this file on

a computer that has SolidWorks installed on it.

Note
You may need to have administrator access to your computer to apply a SolidWorks registry file. n

The SolidWorks settings are actually Windows registry settings. The file that is saved by the wizard

is just a registry file that has a different extension to prevent it from being applied too easily.

Saved-out Windows registry files have a *.reg file extension, and you can integrate them into the

registry by simply double-clicking them. If you are not familiar with the Windows registry, you

should not make direct changes, because even small changes can cause serious problems with your

operating system, installed software, or even hardware. The settings that are saved out by the Copy

Settings Wizard are safe to transfer between computers. In order for the Copy Settings Wizard to

work, you need to have Administrator-level access to your computer. The Copy Settings Wizard is

shown in Figure 2.34.

FIGURE 2.34

The Copy Settings Wizard