Page 79 - Mastering SolidWorks

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makiNg the iNterface Work for yoU 47

SolidWorks Search enables you to search the SolidWorks Help, Knowledge Base, commands,
or community forums for information (some of these require an Internet connection and login)
and to look for SolidWorks models on your local or network drives.

Searching for Files
The file searches include 3D ContentCentral, SolidWorks Explorer, and SolidWorks PDM, if it is
installed.
To configure where SolidWorks is going to search for files, you can use the options at Tools ➢
Options ➢ File Locations ➢ Search Paths. Remember that SolidWorks follows search rules that
force it to look in directories that may not be obvious to you, including recent folders where you
have saved documents and other directories.
You also can select custom properties to search from the drop-down list.

Making the Interface Work for You

As engineers and designers, we all like to tinker with things to optimize efficiency and to apply
our personal stamp. When the SolidWorks software is installed, the interface is functional, but
not optimal. Earlier in this chapter, I discussed managing and customizing toolbars and menus.
In the remainder of this chapter, I will focus more on customizing the interface and suggest some
strategies that you might use to help customize your work environment.

Customizing Colors
Before you change the standard colors in the SolidWorks interface, you need to be aware of a few
things. The first is that SolidWorks does not automatically alter text color to contrast with your
background. As a result, if you set the background to black and the text is black, you won’t be
able to see the text. This may seem obvious to some people, but AutoCAD automatically changes
text color to contrast with the view port background, so AutoCAD users may take this function-
ality for granted.
Also, be aware that the colors in the SolidWorks interface have been chosen carefully to offer
good contrast between elements that may be adjacent or superimposed on one another. In most
cases, colorblindness has been factored in to the selections, so you probably won’t see blue and
green right next to one another where it matters in the interface.

Exploring Default Selection Colors
All the interface colors are controlled in the Systems Options Colors dialog box. You can access
the dialog box by choosing Tools ➢ Options ➢ Colors, as shown in Figure 2.24.
NOTE Systems options includes a search box. it has hundreds of settings, and even if you know them
well, finding what you are looking for is sometimes difficult.
Notice that you can set a color scheme. If you want to change the colors used in the interface,
I recommend that you save the settings as a color scheme so the scheme can be re-created easily
later or copied to another computer. Color schemes are stored in the Windows Registry, not as
separate files. To transfer color settings to another computer, you need to either use the Copy
Settings Wizard or manually copy data from the Windows Registry.