New in SolidWorks 2012: User interface improvements

This is the first in a series of articles that will cover *some* highlights of new functions added in SolidWorks 2012.  Just as a matter of a reminder, I am an employee of Dassault Systemes.  However, what I’m doing here is talking about improvements that interest me.  User Interface isn’t the most exciting topic to start with.  However, these are good improvements (a couple of which are a long time coming).

Recent Documents

In a recent release, Recent Documents window (accessed via File pulldown menu>Browse Recent Documents… or by pressing the letter R on out-of-the-box installs) was drastically improved with a more accessible interface.  There’s been several minor improvements in SolidWorks 2012.  The one that impressed me the most is the addition of a pin that allows you to pin a document onto the Recent Documents window.   No matter how many other documents come and go, your pinned document will remain on the Recent Documents list until you unpin it.  No matter where you originally pin your document in Recent Documents window, pinned documents automatically reposition themselves to the top-most/left-most available position to allow for best discoverability.

Additionally, the pin function is also available on the list of recent documents in the File pulldown menu itself.  Pinned documents here are the same as in the Recent Documents window. 

Search Commands

Search Commands is a new tool that allows you to nearly instantly type in the name of a command in order to find and run it.  The concept is kind of a throwback to the old days with command line driven CAD.  However, the implementation in SolidWorks provides helpful results that navigate through the CommandManager as choose your command.

Search Commands may be activated in a number of ways, but the quickest out-of-the-box method is the S-Key.  Yup, the S-Key has just been made more powerful with the added function of activating Search Commands tool.  S-Key still brings up the Shortcut bar.  The difference is that now you can just start typing the name of the command for which you are searching.

Additionally, you can assign shortcuts to Search Commands so that tools can now be run with a series of keystrokes instead of being limited to single keystrokes or CTRL/SHIFT/ALT combinations.

Spanning and Fitting to Displays (real multiple monitor support is finally here!)

You can now control how SolidWorks displays itself and individual documents across multiple monitors in a useful manner.   The new span option works with single monitors just as well too.

With two monitors, this option knows how to place two documents so that each on fills one of the two screens.  It even knows how to handle two monitors of difference sizes and resolutions where the SolidWorks window may not fill both equally.  Spanning Displays is a big useability improvement for those of us that frequently need more than one document open.

Author: fcsuper

As a drafter, mechanical designer and CAD engineer, I've been in the mechanical design field since 1991. For the first 8 years of my career, I was an AutoCAD professional. I utilized AutoLISP and many other AutoCAD customization features to streamline drafting activities for 6+ drafters and designers. I authored several custom functions, one of which was published in the March 1997 issue of Cadalyst Magazine. Since 1998, I've been used SolidWorks non-stop. I've worked to utilize the SolidWorks' user environment to simplify drafting and design activities for 20+ engineers. I've created this website to provide current information about SolidWorks from a variety of contributors. More recently, I am now employed by Dassault Systemes as SOLIDWORKS Sr. Product Definition Manager to improve drawing, annotation and MBD related areas. View all posts by fcsuper