I’m sure all of us have had this happen before.  You stroll around through the UI of your favorite software package and find a button that somehow you have missed seeing before.  I have never claimed to know everything there is to know about SolidWorks, but I do know my way around a bit.  After serving as Technical Editor for three books on SolidWorks, I somehow have overlooked this little viewing tool, so I thought I would share it.

The viewing tool I’m talking about is the Roll View option.  It is available in the Right Mouse button menu in the graphics area.  It allows you to roll the model about an axis pointing normal to the viewing plane.  (The axis is coming out of your screen.)  Here’s a short video showing it off.

Alright folks, fess up!  If you have never noticed this viewing tool before, leave me a comment.  I’ll bet I’m not the only one!

I’ve got some other stuff in the works and will be picking up a USB microphone this week so I can start posting videos with voice again to the site.  My next “series” of posts will be about SolidWorks Routing.  This is something I have wanted to do for the site for quite some time and I’m looking forward to sharing some tips with you that will hopefully simplify the mystique that seems to surround that product at times.

SolidWorks 2010 Beta testing is going well.  As soon as the NDA is lifted I’ll have some videos ready to roll out that show off the new functionality.

Stay tuned…more to come!