3DEXPERIENCE World 2021 is quickly approaching: February 8-12, 2021. So, the voting period for your favorite SOLIDWOKRS Top Ten ideas will end soon on February 1, 2021. Your vote may make a difference by helping your favorite idea reach Top Ten status! That is important because historically, Top Ten ideas have a very high rate of implementation within SOLIDWORKS products.
The SOLIDWORKS Top Ten 3DEXPERIENCE World 2021 Community (where you vote) is hosted on the 3DSwym Platform! To participate, navigate to the SOLIDWORKS Top Ten 3DEXPERIENCE World 2021 Community. Check out the pinned article near the top for a video on how to vote. Also, don’t forget to comment on ideas too, especially if you disagree with them.
There’s a lot of great ideas that need your support! Have fun and happy voting!
Yup, it’s that time of year again! The drive for ideas in the annual 3DEXPERIENCE World 2021 SOLIDWORKS Top Ten List is happening right now!
Yup, it’s that time of year again! The drive for ideas in the annual 3DEXPERIENCE World 2021 SOLIDWORKS Top Ten List is happening right now! For example, do you have ideas that address any of the following?
Do you know of a workflow that’s been annoying you?
What functionality just needs one more thing to make you job 100% easier?
Will a shortcut to current functionality help you?
What missing functionality do you need?
Is there a workaround for which you’d like a native SOLIDWORKS solution?
Submit your ideas to let other SOLIDWORKS users see. Learn how your ideas stack up when compared to other submissions! Comment on other ideas that you like or don’t like.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve only been using SOLIDWORKS products for a year or 20 years. Your ideas will be read by other SOLIDWORKS users and the Product Definition team at SOLIDWORKS! When it comes time, SOLIDWORKS user-base can vote on submitted ideas. Also, there’s a great track record for implementation of Top Ten ideas!
Platform for SOLIDWORKS Top Ten
As with last year, the platform upon which the Top Ten List resides is now 3DSwym. So, if you are new or you didn’t submit an idea last year, please see the main SOLIDWORKS Forum article and video. There’s information on how to access the Top Ten. Once you have access to the Top Ten forum, check out the video at the top called “Starting Here: Informational Video!”
Important Dates:
Idea Submission Open
November 10th, 2020 through January 4th, 2021
Voting Open
January 4th through February 1st, 2021
3DEXPERIENCE WORLD
February 8th through February 12th, 2021
You have no ideas? Your input is still important!
This isn’t just for people who want to submit an idea. This for all current SOLIDWORKS users to see what’s on everyone else’s mind! Maybe you don’t have an idea yourself, but you find that someone else’s idea might disrupt your own workflows. Your comment about such is very important! Likewise, perhaps you see a great idea that needs a bit more polishing to better suit your own needs. Your about about that is also very important!
There’s already some great ideas to check out:
Make Face Curves Editable
BOM to Filter Visible Components
Left Hand Cosmetic Threads
In a “Multiple Page Drawing” scenario, Add a Property Tab to Change Drw Format
Have fun reading everyone else’s ideas and hopefully submitting your own as well!
SOLIDWORKS that allows you to quickly view your entire model as transparent mode, like an X-ray of your assembly.
Top Level Transparency is an option within SOLIDWORKS that allows you to quickly view your entire model in a transparent mode. It’s like a quick-access x-ray of your model. You may need this to peer deep into the heart of your assembly. Perhaps you are trying to visually find an obscured part which is buried within your assembly. Even within an individual part, you may just want to see a particular set of features without a section view.
You don’t have to change the transparency of each and every component within your assembly or create special display state. Just turn this setting on, and then turn if off.
To turn it on, right mouse button click on the top line of your Feature Tree. Select the Top Level Transparency option from the shortcut bar or within the list of options of the right mouse button menu. Repeat to turn the mode off.
Use Top Level Transparency on components to quickly get a better look at complex geometry within the model.
Although Top Level Transparency is a mode, it does directly affect the transparency of the assembly and components while active. This means the setting is persistent. If you turn this setting on for a component, when you open the associated assembly, that component will be transparent within the assembly. A component or assembly can also be saved with this mode active.
Besides Transparency, explore changes to Exploded Views
SOLIDWORKS 2014 introduced the All Uppercase option for Note Annotations. Forgetting to use CAPS LOCK is no longer something to fear.
There was a dark time when one had to remember to turn on CAPS LOCK keyboard toggle while they created engineering drawing notes. This was problematic because if you forgot, you’d have to retype everything. If you were creating your general notes, that was a lot of retyping. Even if you remembered to use CAPS LOCK, you’d still have to find workarounds for file properties and certain custom properties that displayed the raw system value, where capitalization wasn’t possible. A light shined upon the world in 2013. That year, SOLIDWORKS 2014 introduced the All Uppercase option for Note Annotations.
However, unlike word processor applications, SOLIDWORKS is smart about how it capitalizes text.
Original text is preserved, so if you turn the setting off, your text returns to its original state.
The setting recognizes the value of file and custom properties and capitalizes these as well.
Where you would want the “mm” in the word “dimmer” to capitalize as “DIMMER”, you wouldn’t want the “mm” in “10 mm” to capitalize. So, along with the new functionality, SOLIDWORKS is smart enough to know the difference by using its Exclusion list.
There is the ability to use the capitalization setting as a Document Property, meaning that any note you create will automatically use the All Uppercase setting. You still have local control for each note, of course.
SOLIDWORKS 2018 introduced this functionality for Tables in SOLIDWORKS. You can change the setting for an entire table, a range of cells or individual cells.
Finally, SOLIDWORKS 2020 introduced this functionality for Dimensions (including Hole Callouts).
You have the ability to set All Uppercase document defaults differently for Notes, Tables and Dimensions, so if you want to automatically capitalize your notes, but not your dimensions or tables, you have that choice.
One more point; a tip:
Select a note.
Hold down SHIFT and press F3.
While holding SHIFT, each time you press F3, you will toggle All Uppercase on and off for the selected note.
This is the same keystroke as MS Word for switching between casing options.