How To Get Windows Alt Codes Into SolidWorks

by Josh on January 7, 2008 · View Comments

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

Last week we talked about naming features to improve your design. Sometimes, on very rare occasions, when your feeling especially detail oriented, you may want to add a special character to a name or note.

Fortunately, Windows has a bunch of obscure numbers you can use to add some symbols to you descriptions and it all starts with the magic Alt button. The button next to the spacebar you may be most familiar with when SolidWorks locks up and you resort to pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete.

For instance pressing Alt and 0177 will insert a ±.
pressing Alt and 0188 will insert a ¼.

Now isn’t that unusually handy?

Here’s a Windows Alt Code Quicksheet I created for quick reference.

You can find more details on Alt Codes here at Wikipedia.

{ 16 comments }

Jason Raak January 7, 2008 at 12:54 pm: Josh, you are amazing! What a great thing to get out into the community. Great job on the Quicksheet you created, very nice. Keep up the great work and I look forward to meeting you in San Diego.
Josh January 7, 2008 at 1:15 pm: Thanks Jason! glad it helps. I always hated having to go to the Character Map program to get the special character I wanted. Hopefully this will help in many situations.
Jason Raak January 7, 2008 at 12:54 pm: Josh, you are amazing! What a great thing to get out into the community. Great job on the Quicksheet you created, very nice. Keep up the great work and I look forward to meeting you in San Diego.
Josh January 7, 2008 at 1:15 pm: Thanks Jason! glad it helps. I always hated having to go to the Character Map program to get the special character I wanted. Hopefully this will help in many situations.
Bruce Buck January 7, 2008 at 7:28 pm: I found out about those many moons ago in high school writing papers for my Spanish class. ¡Yo quiero Taco Bell!

Cool sheet, though. I’ll definitely pass this one around the office.
K Mason January 8, 2008 at 7:41 am: ô¿ô
U

Thanks Josh
K Mason January 8, 2008 at 7:41 am: ô¿ô
U

Thanks Josh
Albert Whatmough January 8, 2008 at 5:53 pm: Josh,

I love the tip… the only Alt code I have had memorized is is ALT 0176 for the deg symbol. ° But this cheat sheet is great!!! I think I might use some of them on the cheat sheet I am having printed if that is ok!!

Al
Albert Whatmough January 8, 2008 at 5:53 pm: Josh,

I love the tip… the only Alt code I have had memorized is is ALT 0176 for the deg symbol. ° But this cheat sheet is great!!! I think I might use some of them on the cheat sheet I am having printed if that is ok!!

Al
code August 23, 2008 at 3:39 pm: More alt codes here: Alt Codes
Jared October 31, 2008 at 7:18 am: Mmmmm. Might be being obtuse here, but why not just use the insert symbol command in Solidworks?
Syd.ney November 5, 2008 at 4:50 pm: I love alt codes. and my favorite saying of all time is , « Life is what happens, while your busy making your excuses. »
Andrew February 14, 2009 at 2:03 am: The suggestion was specifically about naming features or adding comments in the FM

If you know some way of using that command for this, please enlighten us !
Andrew February 14, 2009 at 3:03 am: The suggestion was specifically about naming features or adding comments in the FM

If you know some way of using that command for this, please enlighten us !
Butterfly December 17, 2009 at 12:55 am: Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
Butterfly December 17, 2009 at 5:55 am: Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ