Welcome
back. This is a SolidWorks Tutorials series for beginners, and in this edition
I'll be talking more about view manipulation. What the heck is view
manipulation? It's the tools SolidWorks gives you to reorient your model in the
graphic area. Panning it, zooming it, rotating, etc.
In
my previous entry I talked about how the Zoom to Fit and Zoom to Window tools
work, and how they make it easier for you to re-orient quickly. In particular,
Zoom to Window is helpful for beginners, because, in the beginning, users tend
to lose their model during the zooming in or out, since often they haven't
trained themselves to keep the cursor centered on the model, ha ha!
By
the way, if you don't see the Hang up Toolbar at the top of your graphic area
(it appears top-center in the graphic area, right underneath the ribbon and
right beside the environment tabs), you can make it visible via the Customize
dialog window. You get to this by clicking the arrow next to Options on the
Quick Access toolbar at the very top of your screen. It's near the right
margin.
On
the Customize window, go to the Commands tab. Click on the View category on the
left hand side. Then, just drag in any tools from the collection of buttons on
the right hand side. If you hover over any button, a small tooltip will appear
that explains what the tool is.
The
next tool on the Hang-Up Toolbar is Section View. This does what it sound likes;
in letting you see a cross-section of your model. You get to choose which part
to remove and which part to keep visible by dragging a handle that appears on
your model in the graphic area, as soon as you click on the tool. Section View
lets you observe the cavities inside your model.
Next
we'll be talking about the many SolidWorks options for View Orientation. Staytuned for the next entry in this SolidWorks tutorial for beginners series.
