5 New 2016 SOLIDWORKS Features

From what I’ve experienced of the newest release of 2016 SOLIDWORKS features, SOLIDWORKS was focused on decreasing design time by reducing distractions in the interface. And, for an added bonus, make your mouse seem a bit lazy.

Earlier, I discussed a few Tried-and-True SOLIDWORKS Features to Help You Design Faster.
Below, you’ll see some of the 2016 additions that complement the prior quick tricks.

New 2016 SOLIDWORKS Features:

1. Auto Resize Property Manager Selection BoxesThere are times when the smallest of things make the biggest differences – this enhancement is definitely one of them. When you have selection box in the property manager that is too small for all the selections, SOLIDWORKS will now automatically resize it for you.  And, if you don’t like the new size, change it by dragging on the little dot under the box and auto size it back with a double-click. It’s a small change, but noticeable.
2. Foreshortened DimensionsFor some time now, you have been able to foreshorten an angular dimension in SOLIDWORKS. Now, that capability has been extended to linear dimensions.  If you have a dimension that is too long for your drawing view, SOLIDWORKS can clip it to fit the view with a right-click->Display Options->Foreshorten.
3. Moving Confirmation CornerSometimes when you are working in a feature, your mouse cursor will change up and let you know that you can just do a right-click to accept the command; many times you have to move to the far right or far left to select the check box.  In 2016, SOLIDWORKS has completely eliminated your mouse from having to move to accept a command by first pressing the ‘D’ key and the confirmation corner will come to your mouse! Hence the lazy mouse mention from above.
4. Tab/Shift-Tab to Hide/Show Components
   To expand on the very handy tab/shift-tab shortcut in assemblies, SOLIDWORKS uses the same keys to hide/show bodies and surfaces inside of parts. This can save tremendous amounts of time without having to click and select hide/show on each body.
5. Midpoint HighlightMidpoints have been on center stage for the last few years with the new mid-point line in 2015 and now midpoints being selectable with the mouse. You have always been able to select a midpoint while sketching a new entity or with a right-click->select midpoint. Now, you can just select them. A big advantage, you can select two midpoints and make them coincident without having to pull tricks out with points, right-clicks, or some other obscure method you found.

These are just some of the very handy tidbits that SOLIDWORKS has included in 2016 to help make your design efforts more productive. For your reference, here’s a quick overview of What’s New in SOLIDWORKS 2016.