Do You Filter?
A couple of months ago I was giving a "Drawings Tips & Tricks" session at the Boston SWUGN Summit. During the session I was asked about my use of filters. The person asking the question didn't realize SolidWorks even had filters. His question spawned a few others and before you knew it "filters" were part of the tips & tricks session.
I was a bit surprised there were SolidWorks users out there not using the filter functionality. I use filters constantly for making selections while using SolidWorks. Filters allow you to select only certain types of entities depending on the type of SolidWorks file you're working with and the tools you're trying to use. You can filter out many types of entities, blocks, lines, points, edges, planes, etc and this really becomes helpful when your graphics area becomes busy. The more complex your files, the more useful filters are. Like most SolidWorks tools, filters are context sensitive. This means SolidWorks only allows you to select the appropriate filters for the tool being used or the mode you're in. There's more too filters than what I've explained here but I'll leave you to explore them on your own. If you're not currently using filters in your daily SolidWorks life you should definitely give them a look.
Hi
I do not use part creation filters much. I am interested in selection filters; filter out part components from subassembly components. Maybe filter components inside patterns.
What I am needing right now...
Posted by: Doug | September 07, 2006 at 01:01 PM
SolidWorks already has hotkeys programmed for the very basic filters:
x = surface
v = vertex
e = edge
Click the key again to turn it off. You can also make more than one filter at a time active with this method.
Posted by: George Tylinski | August 29, 2006 at 07:16 PM
Nop, filter are not turned on -> Zoom is more convinient.. I think I've used filters last 6 months ago..
Posted by: Timo Laaksonen | August 29, 2006 at 01:01 AM
I use filters all the time for selecting mates, and making drawing changes. Now I need to look into loops and tangent face selection.
Thanks Rob and Ken
Posted by: Diego | August 28, 2006 at 04:02 PM
I rarely filter. It's been so long since the last time I used a filter I can't even remember. With the advanced selection of Loop and Tangent Faces I don't need to use the filter.
Posted by: Ken Maren | August 28, 2006 at 03:02 PM
I filter my emails, phone calls and comp.cad.sw posts, but I don't use the Selection Filter.
I do have some hotkeys for filters, which I do use, Shift-F for Faces, Shift-V for vertices and Shift-E for edges.
Posted by: matt | August 24, 2006 at 08:58 PM