Definately one of my favorite SolidWorks enhancements in the past few years has been the Shortcut Toolbar. It makes for such a faster interface experiance. SolidWorks 2010's new Mouse Gesture feature takes it to a whole different level.
So what is a mouse gesture? In SolidWorks 2010 you simple right-click, then drag just a slight amount in any direction to get the following item:
Then by continuing to hold that right mouse button down, you simply move your cursor to the tool you want and it activates. What I have shown here is my mouse gesture setting for Sketch Mode. Notice that I have added the Shortcut Tool bar to the right quadrant of the Mouse Gesture Wheel? Now I no longer have to hit the "S" key on my keyboard, or hit the coresponding button on my Space Pilot Pro. That is a time saver.
Of course you can customise the Mouse Gesture Wheel to have different commands in four different modes: Sketch, Part Mode, Assemblies, and Drawings. You access the customization by right clicking on any tool bar and then clicking customise. At the top there is a tab for Mouse Gestures:
This is where I think the User Interface Team did an excellent job of designing a very easy to use, intuitive interface to change the options for the Mouse Gesture. You can search for toolbar items, and look at the drop down you get so you can assign the command, very easy and straight forward.
Is eight available commands too many for you? Well as you can see at the top of that menu, you can select for instead of eight and get this:
The reason I want to point this out is because the suggestion to offer two options here came directly from a post in the Beta Forums. Thats why it's important to participate and provide feedback in Beta. This suggestion was made, and it was in the next Beta release.
Much more to come, in fact stay tuned for the next month to see something new everyday!
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