SolidWorks Tutorials - View Manipulation, Part 1

Welcome back. We're continuing with the SolidWorks interface in this SolidWorks Tutorials series, and in this tutorial, we'll be learning about View Manipulation in SolidWorks. View manipulation refers to how you can reorient your models on screen.  SolidWorks gives you lots of tools for this. They are located on the Hang-Up toolbar, right under the command manager (that's the ribbon of commands at the top of your screen).

Figure 01 - The Hang-up Toolbar under the SolidWorks command manager. Here's where the commands that let you adjust your view are located.

Before we can manipulate our model, let's create a model! Right-click on the Top Plane in the Design Tree, and select Sketch:

Figure 02 - To build a model, we start with a sketch, of course.

I'll activate the Rectangle Tool and place the geometry in the graphic area:

Figure 03 - The Rectangle Tool on the Sketch Tab.

I'll click to place the first corner, then place the second corner when the feedback displays dimensions that are about 50mm x 50mm, as shown below:

Figure 04 - A rectangle about 50mm x 50mm.

When I release the mouse, SolidWorks' intelligence thinks I want to create a square and automatically applies Equal relations to the sides. Thanks, Dassault! Let's click Accept in the confirmation corner to save our work and exit Sketch mode.

Figure 05 - SolidWorks applies an equal relationship to all sides automatically. Confirmation corner is in the top right of the window.

When we accept the sketch, we land on the Features tab. We are now in part-modeling mode. Let's activate the Extruded Boss/Base command so we can create a simple solid:

Figure 06 - Here's the Extruded Boss/Base Property Manager. Click the up-arrow to increase the depth by 10mm increments. (You can change the default increment number in Options).

The first tool on the hang-up toolbar is the Pan tool. This is how you can drag your model around the screen, left and right, as well as up and down. It doesn't rotate your model (3D movement); it only moves it on one plane (2D movement). Notice how and when the Pan Tool is active, the cursor icon displays the pan symbol, as shown below.

 Figure 07 - The Pan Tool is active, since the cursor now displays the Pan symbol.

You don't have to hold down the left mouse button to pan; once you left click on the tool, it's active until you left-click on it again to deactivate it. The cursor icon will change, so you'll know that the tool is no longer active.

There are numerous mouse short-cuts that let you activate the view manipulation tools like this, without actually clicking on the hang-up toolbar. So, this is just another shortcut provided by Dassault to help you speed up your work, reduce your mouse movements and overall increase your productivity.  

When you hold down the CTRL key and the scroll wheel / middle mouse button at the same time, you activate the Pan tool without having to click on the hang-up toolbar's Pan Tool. 

You can use your middle mouse button, or your scroll wheel, for zooming in and out at any time, without activating the Zoom tool in the SolidWorks interface. When you're zooming this way, keep your cursor on your model, otherwise you'll zoom in on empty space in the graphic area.

When you select an edge with the middle-mouse button or scroll-wheel, you activate the rotate tool. The cursor icon changes to the rotate symbol, as shown below. This is how you can rotate a model around the selected edge:

When you press down and hold the scroll wheel or middle-mouse button at the same time, you activate the rotate command. This lets you move your model in 3D space, "turning it" the way you want to see the "other sides."

This concludes part 1 of our tutorialon View Manipulation, in this SolidWorks tutorials series.