To get good productivity out of SolidWorks, you really must use SolidWorks keyboard shortcuts. Working as a mechanical design engineer consists heavily of repeatedly using SolidWorks features to design mechanical parts and produce shop drawings. Any improvement in speed and workflow results in a small time saving that can be accumulated every single day that you use the software. Compared to the beginners way of using cad software, which mainly consists of clicking the command buttons from the top menu.
You should completely customize SolidWorks shortcuts with keyboard keys, pop-up shortcut bars, mouse gestures and toolbars depending on what functionality and features you need for your work.
Here are some commonly set by default in SolidWorks.
| Zoom in | Shift+Z |
| Zoom out | Z |
| Zoom to fit | F |
| View Orientation menu | Spacebar |
| View Selector | Ctrl+Spacebar |
| Repeat last command | Enter |
| Rebuild the model (only new or changed features and their childs) |
Ctrl+B |
| Rebuild the model completely (all the Features) | Ctrl-Q |
| Redraw the screen | Ctrl+R |
| Undo | Ctrl+Z |
| Shortcut bar | S |
| Help menu | F1 |
| Quick snaps toolbar (toggle) | F3 |
| Selection filter Toolbar (toggle) | F5 |
| Spelling checker | F7 |
| Display pane (toggle) | F8 |
| Display Manager (toggle) | F9 |
| Command Manager (toggle) | F10 |
| Command Manager only (toggle) | F11 |
| MECHANITEC DESIGN HOTKEYS – https://mechanitec.ca | |||||||
| HOTKEY | Operation | HOTKEY | Operation | HOTKEY | Operation | HOTKEY | Operation |
| CTRL+1 | Front View | 1 | Rotate Component (A) | SHIFT+1 | Open Existing Document | Ctrl+F1 | Task Pane |
| CTRL+2 | Back View | 2 | Measure | SHIFT+2 | Detail View (D) | Enter | Repeat Last Command |
| CTRL+3 | Left View | 3 | SHIFT+3 | Datum Feature Symbol (D) | Spacebar | View Orientation | |
| CTRL+4 | Right View | 4 | SHIFT+4 | Extrude | Ctrl+Shit+Z | Previous View | |
| CTRL+5 | Top View | 5 | SHIFT+5 | Cut Extrude | Alt+Arrow Key | Rotate | |
| CTRL+6 | Bottom View | 6 | SHIFT+6 | Revolve | Ctrl+Arrow Key | Pan | |
| CTRL+7 | Iso View | 7 | SHIFT+7 | Cut Revolve | F2 | Rename Feature | |
| CTRL+8 | Normal To | 8 | SHIFT+8 | Fillet | F5 | Selection Filter Toolbar | |
| CTRL+9 | Pack & Go | 9 | SHIFT+9 | Chamfer | F7 | Spell Checker | |
| F9 | Feature Manager Tree | ||||||
| CTRL+A | Select All | A | Zoom to Area | SHIFT+A | Edit Component (A) | F10 | Toolbars |
| CTRL+B | Align Collinear/Radial (D) | B | Insert BOM – SolidWorks (D) | SHIFT+B | Customize User Interface | F11 | Full Screen |
| CTRL+C | Copy | C | Circular Pattern – Component (A) | SHIFT+C | Chamfer Dimension (D) | ||
| CTRL+D | Save As | D | Smart Dimension | SHIFT+D | Dowel Pin Symbol (D) | ||
| CTRL+E | Fully Define Sketch | E | Extend | SHIFT+E | Convert Entities | ||
| CTRL+F | Align Horizontal – Text (D) | F | Zoom to Fit | SHIFT+F | Options – SolidWorks | ||
| CTRL+G | Align Vertical – Text (D) | G | Geometric Tolerance | SHIFT+G | |||
| CTRL+H | H | Hole Wizard | SHIFT+H | ||||
| CTRL+I | I | Insert Part/Assembly (A) | SHIFT+I | ||||
| CTRL+J | J | Balloon (D) | SHIFT+J | ||||
| CTRL+K | K | Section View | SHIFT+K | ||||
| CTRL+L | L | Linear Pattern – Component (A) | SHIFT+L | ||||
| CTRL+M | M | Mate (A) | SHIFT+M | Appearance | |||
| CTRL+N | New | N | Add Note (D) | SHIFT+N | |||
| CTRL+O | O | Offset Entities | SHIFT+O | ||||
| CTRL+P | P | Pan | SHIFT+P | ||||
| CTRL+Q | Forced Rebuild | Q | Insert Model Items (D) | SHIFT+Q | Linear Pattern – Feature | ||
| CTRL+R | R | Insert Plane | SHIFT+R | ||||
| CTRL+S | Sheet Format (D) | S | Shortcut Bar | SHIFT+S | Sheet (D) | ||
| CTRL+T | T | Trim | SHIFT+T | ||||
| CTRL+U | U | Center Mark (D) | SHIFT+U | ||||
| CTRL+V | Paste | V | Replace Component/Sub-Assembly (A) | SHIFT+V | Hide All Types | ||
| CTRL+W | W | Centerline (D) | SHIFT+W | Circular Pattern – Feature | |||
| CTRL+X | Cut | X | Pattern Driven Component Pattern (A) | SHIFT+X | Close All | ||
| CTRL+Y | Y | Projected View (D) | SHIFT+Y | ||||
| CTRL+Z | Properties – Active Document | Z | Rotate View | SHIFT+Z | Import Diagnostics | ||
