Keyboard shortcuts

Press ← or → to navigate between chapters

Press S or / to search in the book

Press ? to show this help

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A tour of the window

  • Title bar. On Windows and Linux the application bar is the window’s title bar: File, save, undo and redo, the start page, the theme, Help, and one tab per open design (each with its own undo history, selection and camera).
  • Toolbar. The workspace switcher (DESIGN) sits on the left. The tabs (SOLID, SURFACE, SHEET METAL, PLASTIC, UTILITIES, and SKETCH while you sketch) hold panels of commands. Click a panel’s name for all its commands.
  • Browser (left). The design as a tree: document settings and units, named views, the origin, bodies, sketches, construction planes, canvases, joints and components. The eye shows or hides an item, a component’s radio button makes it the active component, and right-clicking any row gives that item’s menu. Rows drag into groups and other components.
  • Viewport. Click to select, Shift or Ctrl to add, drag for a window or crossing box. The wheel zooms at the cursor, the middle button pans and right-drag orbits freely (the mouse preset in Preferences switches to SolidWorks or Inventor style). Shift+middle orbits freely in the default and Inventor presets. Shift+right-drag snaps to the nearest standard or diagonal view; Shift does not request snapping when the preset already requires it to orbit. The axis view shows the world’s X/Y/Z directions in SolidCraft’s colors. Click a signed axis tip to look along that axis; click the aligned tip again to look from the opposite side. Drag the axis view to orbit around the view centre, with Shift for snapping. Top and bottom keep the nearest quarter-turn heading. The house and navigation bar’s Home button go home. Right-click for the marking menu: eight commands around the cursor, plus a menu for whatever is under it. Shaded views omit certified smooth joins between spline spans on extruded walls. Real creases, cap outlines and authored face splits remain visible. Wireframe retains its edge presentation, and hiding a join does not remove its CAD identity or change the exported solid. Unsupported or uncertain wall geometry keeps its existing edge presentation.
  • Dialogs dock on the right with a live preview. Most features also show drag handles and a value box in the viewport.
  • Timeline (bottom). Every feature in order. Double-click to edit, drag the marker to roll back, and drag features to reorder them.
  • S box. Press S anywhere for a command search at the cursor. Pin the commands you use most to its top.

Preferences (File › Preferences) hold the theme, the units of new designs, the mouse preset, the visual style and autosave. Help › Keyboard Shortcuts lists every key, and File › Keyboard Shortcuts changes them.

Navigation › Smooth wheel zoom is on by default. Turn it off to apply each wheel or trackpad event immediately, with no smoothing tail. It is independent of Animate view changes, which controls axis views, Look At, Home and Fit. Re-enabling smoothing during a wheel gesture takes effect after that gesture ends, avoiding leftover zoom being replayed.

Shift-orbit snapping includes 45-degree edge views and isometric corner views, with a lightly damped spring transition and a small boundary margin to prevent flicker.