Product engineering isn’t just about expertise or innovation. It’s just as much about speed. The business of product design is equal parts business and engineering, making speed to market a non-negotiable factor.

So when you’re working on mastering your team’s productivity, every efficiency counts. Today, we’re tackling 4 productivity hacks to help you work faster in the industry standard design platform SolidWorks.

Tip 1: Using Your “S” Key in SolidWorks

The first tip is one of the easiest and one of the things that is going to make you faster in SOLIDWORKS straight away.

Our humble S key gives you a fly out toolbar, which gives you contextualized icons depending on the task you're trying to achieve. In your sketch window, it gives you access to the most commonly accessed sketch tools. This includes anything from:

• Shape tools
• Slot tools
• Lines
• The dimensioning tool (which is something designers should be using every single day)

This S key works throughout all the features of SOLIDWORKS and all the different subprograms such as drawing simulation, et cetera.

By pressing the S key, it just allows you to call out the most commonly used tools for that particular function. It’s worth the time to customize each of them for parts, assemblies, drawings, and others.

Bonus Resource: SolidWorks Plastics for Injection Molding Prototypes

Tip 2: Leveraging Mouse Gestures

Tip number two brings us to mouse gestures. If you're not using these already, it's absolutely going to change your SolidWorks experience. By clicking and dragging with the right mouse button, it allows you to have a little fly out toolbar.

Now, to follow the same thing that we'll revisit frequently in our workflows, “Tools Customize” allows you to choose what goes on these little pop out mouse gesture windows.

You have parts, sketch, assembly, and drawing, all with different things on, and you can choose anywhere between 2-12 gestures. You’ll probably find that 12 gestures is just way too much and two gestures doesn't give you the functionality you need. Only set what you need, and use them often.

Tip 3: Using Sketch Relations + Design Intent

We’re going to get a little more advanced now. Welcome to sketch relations and design intent.

Picture a sketch with a lot of different circles. Now, if you wanted them all to be a certain size, traditionally you would have to go through and dimension every single one up. On a complex drawing, that can take a lot of time…

Now, if I know that all these want to be the same size, I just simply control click to select all the circles and then choose the “equal relation”, which tells SOLIDWORKS that they're all the same size.

That way, instead of having to change them all individually, you can just change the original and they all pop to exactly the right size. There's lots of different relations and it's worth learning them all if you're going to really master SOLIDWORKS and improve your speed.

Tip 4: Speeding Through Equations & Parametrics

Number four is going to stay quite advanced: equations and parametrics. It may be more advanced, but this is an essential skill (especially if you are thinking of taking the CSWA exam).

In a traditional design, you have to go in, edit your sketch and change the dimensions. Let’s say you get a piece of feedback from a customer or a review team - the whole process can repeat seemingly forever at a slow pace. Instead, there's a better way to expedite these changes.

Simply change the dimension but instead of entering the number, hit {equals} “variable name” and click okay. Then, in the equations menu, you can choose “manage equations” to manage all of the different variables that you've set up simply by changing the values.

We’ve created drawings in the past with 10, 20, or 30 different variables. Changing them all individually would be an absolute nightmare… and would really slow us down every time a change needs to be made. That’s why the use of parametrics and equations is one of the key differences between the amateurs and the pros.

Start Building Your Own Shortcuts

Shortcuts are critical to creating an efficient workflow in SolidWorks. Sometimes, newer engineers don’t take the time to learn the shortcuts, severely limiting their productivity in the long run. Taking the time to learn them well raises your efficiency in a massive way.

If you’re a young engineer, here’s how to get started building your own suite of useful shortcuts.

Start with popular shortcuts. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel (maybe someday…) when it comes to shortcuts. Popular ones gain their widespread use because they provide simple, practical value. These are basic shortcuts like Tip 1 and 2 in this article. Adopt and master the simple shortcuts first.

Then customize your more advanced shortcuts. The more projects you have under your belt, the more you’ll find the specific pain points that slow you down. These shortcuts should serve as pain-relievers for your workflow, adding your productivity and creativity.