Top 10 Uses for the 'Shift' Key in SolidWorks

by: Eman Kim

It seems like the 'Ctrl' key gets all the attention when running SolidWorks. I thought it be fun to focus on the unsung keyboard command, the 'Shift' key. Here are the Top 10 uses for the 'Shift' Key in SolidWorks in no particular order.

10. Move Aligned Views Together.

Aligned Drawing views will usually move along the alignment of their parent view. If you'd like to move a view and all other views aligned to that view together as a single selection, hold down the 'Shift' key with your click-and-drag.

9. Select a Range of Items

Like Windows, while holding the 'Shift' key you can select a range of items in the Feature Manager Tree. Select the first and last item you wish to select and the items in-between will also be selected.

8. Collapse Items

Quickly collapse all items in the Feature manager tree by selecting 'Shift'-'C'. Can be helpful if your Assembly tree navigation is getting out of hand and you need to get back to the top!

7. Zooming In

You can zoom out from the centroid of your model using the 'Z' key. 'Shift'-'Z' reverses this behavior and zooms you into the centroid of the model. Also, holding down the 'Shift' key while you click and drag with your middle mouse button will zoom you in and out of the centroid of your model

6. Rotating 90 degrees

Holding the 'Shift' key with your arrow keys will allow you to rotate the model 90 degrees in any direction.

5. Return to Last View

If you've ever miss rotated or moved out of a desirable view into one you're not to pleased with you can use 'Ctrl'-'Shift'-'Z' to get you back to your previous view.

4. Rotate Routing Components

When initially applying connectors, clips, and other routing systems components you can rotate them using the shift and left and right arrow keys. Of course the file will need a rotational axis in the feature manager tree to rotate the component.

3. Moving a Model Dimension Between Views

If you have a model dimension in one view you'd like to move to another, you can simply drag the dimension to the new drawing view while holding down the shift key. The dimension should just reattach itself to the appropriate edges after the drop.

2. Select Transparent Items

When working with a mixture of transparent and solid objects, selecting a desired edge or face can be difficult. By default, if a transparent object is over a solid object, SolidWorks will want to select the solid object. You can use the 'Shift' key to override this behaviour so that SolidWorks will select which ever item is closest to you regardless of their transparency.

1. Dimensioning Arcs

When dimensioning arcs, SolidWorks will alway default to the center of the arcs. Holding the 'Shift' Key, SolidWorks will snap to the closest min/max(quadrant) position when dimensioning arcs.

Next time, we'll focus on the Top 10 Uses for the 'Ctrl', 'Alt', and 'Tab' keys in SolidWorks! Catch you again.