Two Useful SolidWorks Shortcuts That Speed Up the Design Process

If you work with SolidWorks on a daily basis, you probably spend a considerable amount of time navigating through menus, changing views, and accessing tools.

However, a few simple shortcuts can significantly increase your design speed.

In this article, we introduce two highly useful shortcuts that every professional designer should know.

1- Ctrl + 1 to Ctrl + 8 for Quickly Switching Between Standard Views

One of the actions we repeatedly perform during design is changing the view (View Orientation).

Instead of going to:

View → Orientation

You can simply use the following key combinations:

Ctrl + 1 → Front

Ctrl + 2 → Back

Ctrl + 3 → Left

Ctrl + 4 → Right

Ctrl + 5 → Top

Ctrl + 6 → Bottom

Ctrl + 7 → Isometric

Ctrl + 8 → Normal To

Why is this shortcut useful?

If you work a lot with sketches, you have probably experienced situations where you constantly adjust the viewing angle to see the sketch plane perfectly flat.

By pressing Ctrl + 8, the view is instantly aligned normal to the sketch, making the design process smoother.

In assemblies, these shortcuts also help you quickly switch between different views without manually rotating the model, giving you better control over the components.

They may seem simple at first, but when you use SolidWorks every day, you realize how much time they actually save.

2- The S Key – The Fastest Way to Access Design Tools

This is probably one of the most powerful shortcuts in SolidWorks.

Simply press the S key.

A circular menu (Shortcut Bar) appears that contains commonly used tools for the current environment.

In the Part environment:

• Extrude

• Cut

• Fillet

• Sketch

• Reference Geometry

In the Assembly environment:

• Mate

• Move Component

• Pattern

• Smart Fasteners

The main advantage of this shortcut is that you no longer need to move your mouse all the way to the top toolbar every time to find the tool you need. By pressing the S key, commonly used tools appear right next to the mouse cursor.

This reduces unnecessary mouse movement and allows the work to proceed faster. When you work with the software for several hours, these small time savings become quite noticeable, and your focus stays on the model itself rather than on searching for tools.

If you work with SolidWorks every day, these simple shortcuts can save a significant amount of time over the long run. Many professional users rely on shortcuts for exactly this reason—they increase working speed and keep the focus on design rather than on finding tools.

Zwei nützliche Shortcuts in SolidWorks, die den Konstruktionsprozess beschleunigen