My SolidWorks 2008 interface set up
This may be tough to see because it is so large. Click on it for a better view. My monitor is a 24″ wide aspect. I’ve spent a fair amount of words criticizing the new interface, but here’s how I set it up. Anything that is a “feature”, I put into the CommandManager. If it is a control or tool that doesn’t make a feature, I have it on a separate toolbar. The reason for this is that you can use the tools at the same time as the features without flipping the CommandManager tabs back and forth, but you can only make one feature at a time. It would be an interesting enhancement if SW allowed multiple CommandManagers. I’d use one for tools and one for features. I added my own tab for Body Tools, things like Move Body, Split, Move Face, etc. stuff that doesn’t fit with either solid or surface features. Adding tabs is a very useful function. I don’t use the Desktop Search. I know where my files are, and it is too obtrusive with the function of the computer. I use large icons (the SW setting, not the Windows setting), because at 1920×1200, the icons get pretty small, even on a 24″ monitor.
Summary of my wish list for the new interface:
– get rid of that heads up View toolbar in the graphics window
– move the Minimize, Restore, Close controls up to the title bar (out of the graphics window)
– allow other toolbars on the same row as the CommandManager
– allow the CommandManager to be placed vertically on the sides like it used to be
– make the default CommandManager more organized (no blocks of icons on the toolbar row)
– eliminate the toolbar on the title bar – it is completely useless and duplicates only portions of the Standard toolbar
– leave the menu on the title bar, but put it there permanently, eliminate the push pin
– reassemble the RMB menus so they are easily readable again – a single column of text (leave icons where they exist, but get rid of the “commonly used” toolbar), or at least if you have to have the commonly used toolbar of icons, put the menu back together.
– put the most recently used icon on any fly-out toolbar button like the rectangle
In general, where SW has removed flexibility options, they need to be replaced. A less flexible interface is NOT an improvement!