an easy way to publish PDFs faster than doing a Save As operation and specifying the file name and folder.  If you wanted PDFs published to the same folder the drawing

1. Open a drawing in SolidWorks and start recording a macro by selecting Tools, Macro, Record.
2. Create a PDF by selecting File, Save As.  From the file type list, select Adobe Portable Document Format (*.pdf).  Use the current directory and default file name and click Save.
3. Stop the macro recording by selecting Tools, Macro, Stop and save the macro into your SolidWorks installation directory in a folder named "macros".  Name the file SavePDF.swp.  On my computer that is "C:\Program Files\SolidWorks\macros\SavePDF.swp".  Create the macros folder if it does not exist yet.
4. Edit the new macro by selecting Tools, Macro, Edit and browse to the newly created macro

Adding a custom button to a standard SolidWorks toolbar

1. Open a document in SolidWorks and select Tools, Customize.  Select the Commands tab.  Select Macros from the categories list.
2. Drag and drop the user defined macro icon onto any toolbar to launch the Customize Macro Button tool

Quicker with Dimensioning
System Options, Sketch, Set Driven by default - Set this to automatically turn an over-defining dimension into a driven (reference) dimension.

Quicker with Files
System Options, File Locations, Design Library [in the pulldown] - Add a Local Directory to the Design Library.

Do this so you don’t have to access or load data from a server when you just want to see if a part or library feature will work in your model. I do this a lot to test out Library Features before adding them to the library on the server.

Quicker with Viewing
System Options, View - There’s some default setting in this area that can make things really slow, especially if you have an older graphics card.

the performance of assemblies and suggests actions you can take to improve it. This feature is useful when you work with large and complex assemblies

 is a set of tools that applies dimensions and tolerances to parts according to the requirements of the ASME Y14.41-2003 standard.

To suppress a mate in the active configuration:

2. Right-click the mate in the FeatureManager design tree, and select Properties.

3. Select Suppressed, and click OK

You can change the order in which features are rebuilt by

dragging them in the FeatureManager design tree. (As you drag up or down the tree, each item that you drag over highlights. The feature name that you are moving drops immediately below the currently highlighted item when you release the pointer.)

A coincident mate forces two planar faces to become coplanar. The faces can move along one another, but cannot be pulled apart.

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• Set Distance or Angle to define the starting distance or angle.

• Select Flip Dimension to move the entities to opposite sides of the dimension.

• Set Maximum Value  and Minimum Value to define the maximum and minimum extents of the limit mate.

A width mate centers a tab within the width of a groove ?

Groove width references can include:

Two parallel planar faces

Two non-parallel planar faces (with or without draft)

Tab references can include:

Two parallel planar faces

Two non-parallel planar faces (with or without draft)

• One cylindrical face or axis

The model origin appears in blue and represents ?

When a sketch is active, a sketch origin appears in red and represents ?

The model origin appears in blue and represents the (0,0,0) coordinate of the model.

When a sketch is active, a sketch origin appears in red and represents the (0,0,0) coordinate of the sketch. Dimensions and relations can be added to the model origin, but not to a sketch origin.

Click View, Origins. When the icon next to the menu item is highlighted, origins are visible (except for origins you have hidden individually).

to dynamically click, move, and set certain parameters without leaving the graphics area. The handle color is set in Tools, Options, System Options, Colors, in the System colors box. Active handles are the Highlight color. Inactive handles are the Inactive Entities color.

Handles span the length of extrusions. Drag the handle to the desired extrude depth, and the handle spans that length.

1. Select a line or a point in a sketch to be aligned with another sketch.

2. Hold Ctrl and select a line or a point in the second sketch to which the first sketch is to be aligned.

3. Click Align Sketch  on the 2D to 3D toolbar, or click Tools, Sketch Tools, Align, Sketch.

adding notes and symbols to a drawing, part, or assembly document.For example:

Note, Surface Finish, Geometric Tolerance, Ballon, Datum Feature, Center line, Center Mark, Hole callout, Revision Symbol