Home » SolidWorks keyboard shortcuts you must know!

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 Print 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