Shift key and Ctrl key are powerful tools!

Many people are unaware of how powerful and yet simple the Shift and Ctrl keys are when using SolidWorks.

In a previous post I’d told you how to use the Shift key to quickly override the selection through transparency option, simply hold down the Shift key as you make your selection. Note that this option works both ways, to override when on and override when off.

I’m going to share some more tips for the Shift key and Ctrl key. I’d appreciate it if you would share others with me if you have more tips that you are aware of than those that I have posted here. I know there are may be a dozen others, but if some users suggest something that I think many users would take advantage of, I’ll update this post at another date with them.

When dragging a main drawing view to a different location on a sheet, you often times already have the child views positioned just where you want them relative to this main view. But if you drag the main view a little bit, the child views get screwed up. Simply hold the Shift key while dragging the main view and the child views will maintain their original position from the view being dragged.

When working in a model, holding down the Ctrl key and pressing the middle mouse button allows you to quickly pan your model.
When working in a model or a drawing, holding the Shift key and pressing the middle mouse button allows you to dynamically zoom in and out very quickly.

When working in a model, hold down the Shift key and press one of the four arrow keys if you want to rotate that model precisely 90 degrees.

When working in a sketch, sometimes you want to override the SolidWorks automatic relations and automatic inferencing setting that automatically make a sketch line vertical, or that automatically snaps to specific items such as endpoints or quadrants or circle centers. To do so, simply hold the Ctrl key down to override this automatic inferencing for that selection. Remove your finger from the Ctrl key and you’re back to automatic inferencing.

When selecting items in the feature manager tree, the Ctrl and Shift keys work exactly as they do in Windows Explorer.
Select multiple consecutive items by holding the Shift key while you select.
Select non-consecutive items by holding the Ctrl key while you select.
Remove specific individual items from your selection one at a time in the list by holding the Ctrl key and clicking that item.

You may be in a sketch and find that for whatever reason you want to have several identical circles in your model in some non-linear or non-cylindrical pattern. Simply hold the Ctrl key down while you click on the edge of a circle and copy it to multiple locations.

Now for the most obvious one that hopefully 99% of folks know about, but just in case, or for those 1% that don’t know this vital tip that everyone definitely needs to know and use:
When in a sketch, selecting on an endpoint of a line will bring up the PropertyManager. Holding down the Ctrl key and picking another endpoint of another line will add to this selection so that they are both selected and the PropertyManager will now show more options in the Add Relations box than you had when only a single entity was selected.