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Part manipulation in a SolidWorks Assembly with a 3D Mouse

Tuesday June 11, 2013 at 10:45am

I’m always on the lookout for interesting tips and tricks to pass on to our customers and this is a lovely one that will save valuable time and therefore cost.


I picked this one up recently….. There is a function available to users of a 3D mouse that is hardly known but great for speeding up your work flow.


Toggle Sub-Part Movement allows you to freely manipulate the placing and positioning of individual parts while dragging and dropping into an assembly without the whole assembly rotating.


How to set this up…


Got the standard pull down menu > 3Dcontrol > Toolbar

SOLIDWORKS 3Dcontrol toolbox

Above is the 3Dcontrol menu.

SOLIDWORKS ToggleSubPartMovement button



The second from last icon is the Toggle Sub-Part Movement button. You can manually select this to rotate the parts you are placing in the assembly.  Its really handy for aligning parts before you commit to mating them.


However, to speed things up even further, allocate this function to one of your buttons on your 3D mouse.


How to set this up…

SOLIDWORKS ShowMappingPanel

The third from last icon is Show Mapping Panel. 

Allocate SOLIDWORKS function to mapping panel

From the right hand list, expand 3Dcontrol > at the bottom you will find Toggle Sub-Part Movement, drag and drop this onto the preferred button to initiate from the mouse speeding up your workflow.


Try it and let me know what you think. Coming from a design and manufacturing background, I’m always excited about nuggets of information that can make things slicker and faster.  I know first-hand the deadlines and pressure you are under.  I’m always on the look-out so feel free to drop me a line with anything you’d like me to investigate, maybe a particular problem or even a suggestion on  improvements for me to share with other like-minded people to make life as a designer that bit easier and more productive.

Barry Chatham

Large Accounts - Pre Sales

 

 

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