SolidWorks Orientation Window
Have you ever been working with an assembly or part up close and wanted to zoom out and rotate to a different view? One way to do this is to click the mouse wheel and drag across the screen to rotate the part until desired view is found. This can get complicated if the part is rather large. Instead of spending time searching for the desired view, SolidWorks has shortcuts to skip to your desired view by using the Orientation Menu.
The Orientation Menu can be accessed by clicking the View Orientation icon, located in the top middle of the graphics window.
Figure 1: Orientation Menu
The Orientation Menu can also be accessed by pressing the spacebar, which is the default setting for SolidWorks. However, this shortcut key is customizable. Customizations for this key are accessible via the Keyboard section of the Options menu.
Once the Orientation Window has been opened, click on the desired view and the model will rotate to show that view.
A very useful standard view is the Normal To option. This view is positioned directly perpendicular to a selected face and allows for sketching directly on that face. Normal To view is accessed in the orientation menu.
If a specific view of the model is necessary to show the features properly, a new view can be added. This new view can then be added to SolidWorks Drawings. To do this, rotate to the desired view, then click “New View” in the Orientation Menu, then give the new view the desired name.
Figure 2: Add New View
If the current standard views are not correct, they can be updated. First, rotate the part to the view you would like to make standard. Next, click “Update Standard Views” in the Orientation menu, as shown below. Lastly, select the view that the current view should be changed to. This will update each related view as well.
Figure 3: Update Standard Views
An additional feature of the Orientation Menu is the Split Window feature. Split Window allows the user to see multiple views at once. It allows for two horizontal, two verticals, or four square windows. Split Window is accessed via the Orientation Menu, as shown below.
Figure 4: Split Window
The Orientation Toolbar can save a lot of time zooming and rotating trying to find the desired face to work on.
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