What’s New in SolidWorks 2019: Interface

Aside from modeling related enhancements, to me the next most important area is stuff that effects the workflow – interface. At the same time, there are no more tedious enhancements than interface enhancements. Six years ago, SolidWorks seemed to be addicted to change for any reason, or no reason. If I hear another advertisement claiming to “change the world”, … I’ll probably just ignore it like I have for the 1000 that came before it. Change always happens, so we shouldn’t really stare at it as if we have never seen change before. Also, as I think we have learned the hard way, some change is better than others. Changing all the icons and colors seemed to me to be counter productive. First of all, they didn’t ask me about it, and I had to recapture over 1000 screen shots for the book. And as I’ve said a couple of times, SolidWorks is getting a little old, so change comes more slowly, or at least more subtly.

Let’s take a look at interface changes in 2019.

Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs were one of those things that we didn’t know we needed until we had it. I don’t think they have gone fully mainstream with established users yet, but people are catching on. The enhancement is a switch in Tools/Options – Show Breadcrumbs At Mouse Pointer. I gotta say, though, it’s getting a little crowded around that cursor. (What’s with that “mouse pointer” thing, don’t we call that a cursor?)

Customizing Task Pane Tabs

The task pane is that thing on the right side of the screen that flies out and sometimes has stuff in it that you don’t find annoying. Anyway, now it will be less annoying, or if it is annoying, it’s now your own fault. RMB on any of the tabs, select Customize, and pick what you want, and what you want to make the default. (How many people get the forum in the Task Pane?  Some people must because they are on there all the time!)

Shortcut and Context Toolbar Navigation with Arrow Keys

The Shortcut (S) toolbar is something I’ve never warmed up to. I prefer hotkeys. But I do use the context bars a lot. Now you can navigate shortcut, context, and RMB menus with the arrow keys once the menu/toolbar is available, and “click” the tool with the Enter key. I’m not sure if I’ll use this or not, but I’ll try it. I tend to like keyboard tools. The catch to this that the Help doesn’t mention, is that it doesn’t work with just the context bar, only with the context/RMB menu combination, and the focus starts on the top item of the RMB menu. The arrow keys will otherwise rotate the view. So if you just click on something, you just get the context bar, and the arrow keys won’t work. But if you RMB on something, you get the RMB menu and the context bar, and the arrow keys will navigate both. Silly or incomplete? Not sure.

Markups for Collaboration

So many crimes committed in the name of “collaboration”. Is this another one? Well, you can turn it on or off, and the default appears to be off, so that’s a good thing. Turn on markups at Tools/Options/FeatureManager/Markups.

The Markup tools appear when you add a markup, which are kept in a folder in the FeatureManager. You can save out a markup view to a static image (which is the part that gets shared). This comes with tools that work with pens, and touch interface.

Measure

Measure now works while other tools are working. Like Section. You can measure and section at the same time!

Microsoft Surface Dial

I don’t have one of these knobs that you stick on your screen. While it’s cool, it’s a little too fancy pants for me. A physical device? For doing things we already have physical devices (space mouse) and virtual devices to do? You can now zoom, pan, rotate, as well as system level stuff volume, scroll, and undo. Sorry. Sounds like a gimmick I don’t need. It’s tough to find a picture of one being used with SolidWorks. I wonder why.

Recent Documents enhancements

You can now see up to 100 recent docs, the default is 50. You can see recent documents opened by other documents (parts from assemblies, external references, etc). You can filter by doc type and name. Recent settings are found at Tools/Options/General/Recent Documents.

Rollback bar

You can now use the rollback and freeze bars in touch mode.

Status for long operations

You know the feeling. You can almost feel it coming. That time when you hit the Enter button, and instantly regret it. You know you’re never going to see this model again. The dreaded “Not Responding” error appears, and suddenly your weekend is shot.

Truth be known, many people misinterpret that “Not Responding” error to mean the software has crashed. It really just means it’s taking a long time to do something (which you already knew), or maybe that it has crashed. So much data has been needlessly squandered by people aborting the process at this point, just because of a warning. Well, SW 2019 reportedly give you the option to wait for the command to finish or to close the software. I couldn’t induce one of these conditions to get a screen capture of the message, but I stole one from Javelin ;o)

Isn’t that so much nicer? That little slider probably has no relationship to anything (except percentage of your life you’ve wasted by watching little green sliders), but it’s so much more comforting to know it’s there, isn’t it?

Touch mode

I have a tablet. I got the first version of the Microsoft Surface Pro tablet when it came out. I also got the chance to evaluate some Microsoft Surface devices when I was with Siemens (most of which I was never allowed to publish because they were too critical honest.

And, I can’t really own up to being a big user of touch interface CAD. I like the concept, but the hardware hasn’t caught up yet. I need a giant touch screen to run CAD. I do think touch CAD is going to catch up with us eventually, or at least some form of computing with fewer peripheral devices (keyboard, mouse, 3D mouse), but we aren’t there yet. Those devices are cool, but still almost $3000.

SolidWorks 2019 allows more stuff in touch mode.

• copy capabilities in touch
• select and drag to move
• selection options with touch
• lock view rotation in touch sketch
• icons around the cursor are moved to the upper-left for right handed and upper right for left handed stylus and touch users.