What’s New in SolidWorks 2013: Orientation dialog and View Selector

This entry is part 3 of 12 in the series New in SolidWorks 2013

Orientation Dialog Box

Switching between views in the SolidWorks modelling environment has always been a fairly painless exercise.  Press the SPACEBAR and choose your view, or use the Normal to command.  The Orientation dialog window has now been improved in SolidWorks 2013.   In addition to icongraphic layout, you can now create custom views and save them for reuse in different documents.

To save views for use in other documents, create a new view same as before using the New View button.  The view will then appear in the Orientation dialog box between the standard views and the view port buttons.  When you highlight that view, a save icon appears.  When saved, a globe icon will appear next to new view indicating that it is now available for use in other documents.


 

View Selector

Another cool addition to the Orientation interface is the View Selector.  To turn on the View Selector, start the Orientation dialog box and click on the View Selector button in the upper right next to the pin.  While this button is depressed, the View Selector will automatically engage when you launch the Orientation dialog box.

The View Selector allows you to quickly and visually select your next view orientation of the model between standard views.  It provides quick access to the opposite views too (the other side of each standard orientation).  That means you can quickly jump to the backside upper isometric view as easily and you can jump to the front view!

 

A little fun today: Which do you prefer to be called as a person of Earth?

Which do you prefer to be called as a person of Earth?

A Twitter posting by other human this morning inspired me to have a little fun today.  The question is simple:

Which do you prefer to be called as a person of Earth?

View Results

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Feel free to leave comments to explain your choice! 🙂

SolidWorks World 2013 Top Ten voting is open!

Over 300 Ideas have been submitted for the SolidWorks World 2013 Top Ten list!  It’s now time to vote for your favorite enhancements!  If you are a user with a current subscription, you can vote (even if you aren’t attending SolidWorks World).  The more users that vote, the better the results will be.  Just sign in once you go to this link: SolidWorks World 2013 Top Ten.  Vote for the items that you want to see in SolidWorks and related products.  Be sure to view the entire list.  There are some gems that were submitted early (near the end of the list) that need your attention.

Tip: to see more Ideas at once, set the number of Ideas per page to be 50 (set in the bottom left corner of each page).

Have fun with it.  Feel free to leave comments on Ideas that particularly interest you.  If you vote down on a particular Idea, please leave a comment explaining your vote to help others understand as many perspectives as possible.

 

SolidWorks User Group Network Technical Summit in San Jose, CA on Dec 18, 2012

Some people say the world will end 10 days from now.  My bet?  We’ll be just fine on December 22, 2012.  That in mind, if you are in the Northern California area (or within an hour’s flight) and interested to improve your SolidWorks skill, networking with others professionals, and meeting SolidWorks employees, I recommend you look into attending this year’s SolidWorks User Group Network Technical Summit in Silicon Valley on December 18, 2012.

I’ve written about the benefits of the Technical Summits in the past.   SolidWorks employees will be attending this year, along with very helpful presentations.  Registration and details are found on the SWUGN site here.

Guessing SolidWorks World 2013 Special Event

The SolidWorks World 2013 Special Event hasn’t been officially announced on the SolidWorks World website just yet (unless we are going to travel across time and space back to Feb 2012 in San Diego, which would be cool in and of itself). People are making a lot of guesses on the forums. Where do you think it will be? Post you ideas here.

Free Certified SolidWorks Associate or Profession exam when you attend SolidWorks World 2013

There are a lot of extra benefits to attendees of SolidWorks World 2013.  One benefit is that when you sign up to attend, you are given the option to take a free SolidWorks certification exam at SolidWorks World.  My advice is that if you do not yet have certification, take the exam!  It’s free with your full conference pass!

There are two entry points for certification on SolidWorks:

  • SolidWorks Certified Associate (CSWA) which covers basic SolidWorks skills.
  • SolidWorks Certified Professional (CSWP) which covers deeper understanding of SolidWorks skills.  This certificate is required to qualify for advanced exam modules as you work your way to earning CSWE.

I’ve heard that some people shy away from taking the exam because they are not confident in their skills.   I’ve heard this from some well experienced individuals.  If you have neither certification and are nervous about the exam, then attempt the CSWA exam.  If you are already a CSWA or have been in industry for awhile, than take the CSWP-CORE exam.   Preparation is still very important in either case.  There are plenty of materials that are available to help get yourself read for the exam.  There’s even a sample exam with which you can practice!

The exams are held on Sunday, January 20, 2013, the afternoon prior to the official start of SolidWorks World 2013 at Disney’s Swan and Dolphin Resort.