Tag Archives: Sketching

Double-click to exit a sketch

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Quinton Rocke

Sketching is the core of everything we do in SolidWorks.  For this reason shaving a few seconds off this functionality can add up to quite a bit of time saved over the course of our day to day SolidWorks activity.  To quickly exit a sketch just double-click out in an empty spot of the graphics area with the select tool active. In case your not familiar with the terminology the select tool is the default tool when no other commands are active (hint: Esc key).  However please note that this functionality only works if you have enabled Instant3D on the Features tab of the CommandManager.

In contrast you can also quickly entering an existing sketch by double-clicking on any sketch entity from the graphics area.  Again its important to note the functionality described in this article only works if you have enable Instant3D.

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The Power of the Power Trim Tool

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Maurice Cherian

In this tech tip we we discuss some rarely used functionality of the Power Trim tool in SolidWorks.

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Convert sketch entities from internal edges of a face

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Joseph Richter

When using the Convert Entities sketch tool, selecting a face to convert results in the outside edge(s) of that face are converted into  sketch entities.  Sometimes, however, you may wish to convert edges that are internal to that face.

There are two ways to accomplish this:

1) When in a sketch pre-select a face and use the CTRL key to also select an edge of the internal loop, then select the Convert Entities command.  This will result in the internal loop edges being converted to sketch entities.

2) From the Convert Entitles Dialog box, if you select the face and one of the edges from an internal loop (dialog box will show Loop, not edge) then click the green check box. This will result in the internal edges becoming sketch entities.

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DDi CADcast 2013 What’s New: Sketching

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Enrique Garcia

This DDi CADcast covers the new features and enhancements to the sketching functionality in SolidWorks 2013.

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What is this Filter icon on my cursor for?

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Joseph Richter

A common issue that we hear about in Tech Support is that the filter icon  randomly appears over your cursor.

Why?
This means that a filter has been activated.  In this case it may have been accidental which means that it prevents you from selecting areas of the part, sketch, or assembly.

How?
This happens because the default keyboard shortcuts are assigned to filters as follows:
X – Face filter
V – Vertice filter
E – Edge filter

Solution:
To restore the cursor by removing the filter click [F5] to toggle the filter toolbar on so you can deselect the filter(s) that have been activated.


Final Thought:
If you do not use filters often you may consider removing these common keyboard shortcuts from filters by going to Tools > Customize > Keyboard.

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