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In response to the post about The Vital Key to an Organized SolidWorks Team, one of our readers, Kyle Mason, sent a response about his experience at college where Inventor is really pushed.
I have [created a Reg file for Inventor users] to make SolidWorks a little more “Inventor friendly.” I am going to college right now and… I made these settings to help some of my fellow classmates out because most of the students don’t know how powerful SolidWorks is. It is on the tools section of my website. There is a direct link to the .sldreg [settings file] and also a Word document with the keyboard shortcuts. The .sldreg file sets up the toolbars, buttons and things like that to make everything look like Inventor, however I still can’t figure out how to make the middle mouse button pan instead of rotate. That is the leading complaint that my friends have about using SolidWorks. They are so used to Autocad and Inventor where the mmb is pan.
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Download Here |
What version of SolidWorks was this done in?
The .sldreg file was created in SolidWorks 2006. Settings will copy over though when you upgrade to a newer version.
What about the Middle Mouse Button/Scroll wheel?
You would need a programmable mouse to set the middle mouse button to pan. If you use a regular mouse you won’t be able to, but if you hold Ctrl down while pressing the Middle mouse button everything will pan.
Thanks for making this Kyle and for helping out your classmates. You may have saved them from a painful future of continued Inventor usage. Your experience shows how useful having the right settings for each situation can be. I think a reg file like this would be something helpful for SolidWorks to package with the product as well.
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this is nice to know how to change settings in Solidworks to emulate Inventor, but how can you make the scroll wheel rotate instead of pan in Inventor mechanical desktop?
Baker, sorry, I’m not too familiar with Inventor. Usually scroll wheel functions are set up in the mouse settings can be changed in the Windows Control Panel, Mouse. It may also depend on the mouse you have. Some allow you to set up the mouse to be Program specific. Hope this helps.
“You may have saved them from a painful future of continued Inventor usage.”
You know what this reminds me of?
Like the rivalry between skiers and snowboarders, road cyclists and mountainbikers… Or rather those PC vs. Mac commercials… only it’s nothing like that. Both Solidworks and Inventor are wonderful products, and in my eyes totally equivalent. Both have their idiosyncraties, strengths and shortcomings. I read just yesterday that Solidworks is adding some features I’ve seen in Inventor in 2004 when I took an Inventor class! So please, what good is mudslinging going to do you? It only mars your credibility for being an objective expert (rather than a blind worshipper).
The CAD environment is a heterogenous one. Certain CAD packages are used more in certain industries (and for good reasons at that!), but that doesn’t make them a better package, because I bet you’ll examine another industry’s requirements and your favorite will appear crippled in a few ways.
I use both, and am now learning Catia (because it is used in aerospace up where I am). And I can tell you, THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING PAINFUL ABOUT USING INVENTOR!
Hey Timmi, thanks for your views. I mostly agree. I’m a snowboarder, I don’t mind skiers. I’m a mountain biker, don’t mind roadies… I’m torn on the mac vs. PC.
anyway, it is childish huh. My CAD is better than yours. bottom line though, I’ve use Inventor, tried to re-use it. It was painful. Not fun. just like skiing and road biking are not fun for me. A lot of what I say is meant to be a tad sarcastic also. I know some enjoy Inventor… that’s fine, but I’m also going to give my opinion about things. I’d also be the first to say if there’s something better than SolidWorks, but for now I haven’t seen anything as… here’s that word… robust.
by the way, I’m in Aerospace too. VIP Interiors. Have you checked out V6. Now there’s something that may change CAD.