User Interface
Overview
This is the screen that greets you whenever you open a document in SolidWorks. You’ll see the following sections:
- Graphics Area - Where you can see and work on your model
- Toolbar - Where you’ll find most of SolidWorks’ functions
- Tabs - Switch between different sets of toolbars
- Sidebar - A very versatile menu - more on that later
- Floating Toolbar - A collection of quickly accessible tools
- Right Panel - We mainly use this panel for the design library
- Triad - Displays the axes
Most of these are quite straightforward and you’ll learn as you go, but we’ll take a deeper dive into the sidebar and its many functions next.
Sidebar Modes
There are a few tabs on the sidebar, but we commonly only switch between the first 3:
- Feature Tree - Displays the things that make up your model
- In a part file, this displays your planes, sketches, and features
- In an assembly file, this displays your components and mates
- Property Manager - Where many user inputs and options appear
- Generally pops up automatically when needed - this will be referred to a lot!
- Configuration Manager - Create, delete, rename, and switch between configurations
SolidWorks will automatically switch between the feature tree and property manager as you work, so don’t worry about when you should be working in either tab. Just know their names and where to find them and you’re set!
Other Buttons
These buttons are either at the very top of your screen or on the left side of your toolbar. Some are worth mentioning:
- Rebuild - This acts like a refresh button that recalculates all your features, components and mates
- Options (aka. Settings) - Where most SolidWorks settings can be found, many SolidWorks Setup things are done here