solidworks 2010…mouse gestures

There have only been a handful of enhancements that you will notice when going from SolidWorks 2009 to SolidWorks 2010 but this is probably one of the biggest ones you will see.

SolidWorks 2010 offers a new feature called “mouse gestures” that allows you to simply RMB click and drag your mouse in 1 of 8 directions to activate this new feature.

Now to be honest with you when I first saw this in the “What’s New in SolidWorks 2010” manual I was a little skeptical.  My initial thought was that it was more eye candy and it was another thing to have to remember what commands you have mapped to these directional shortcuts.  However, after visiting SolidWorks earlier this month I saw that the employee doing the hands on session had some of his views (top, bottom, right, left, etc.) mapped to these mouse gestures and I immediately began to really like this new feature.

So let’s see exactly how this new feature works and what some of your options are.

The image that you see to the left is the new mouse gesture wheel that will pop up when you RMB click and drag in one of the 8 directions shown (as shown above).  For each of the 8 directions you have the ability to now assign a command shortcut.  These shortcuts are the same ones that you can add to toolbars, keystroke, or your shortcut bar.  No limitations (at least I don’t believe there are).

This wheel is available in 4 different modes that can be mapped completely independent of each other.  These situations are part, assembly, drawing, and sketch.  This acts a lot like the shortcut bar does being somewhat context sensitive allowing you to map different commands for whatever situation you may be in.

The wheel itself is somewhat customizable allowing you to select whether it is a 4 command wheel or an 8 command wheel.  You can see this in the upper right hand corner of the screenshot below.  You can also see that the spot to customize this is in the same location that you would use to customize your keyboard, menus, and toolbars.

Like I mentioned before, I was a little skeptical of this new feature when I first saw it but I am beginning to see more and more areas where it would be very nice.  So in closing I would like to encourage you to check it out when you switch over to SolidWorks 2010 and see how you could use this new tool.