- [Instructor] In this video, we're going to be looking
at system options, units, and templates.
Now, up at the top of your screen,
you more than likely have this little icon here
that looks like a gear,
and that is where your system options are hiding underneath.
So go ahead and click on that right there.
You can see in here that we've got a lot of system options.
So this tab at the top is your basic system options,
which are universal,
so no matter which part you're opening or working with,
these are always going to be there.
And then you also have Document Properties,
so that's pertaining only to the part
you have open right now,
or the template that you use to start with.
If you want to modify these for the next part you open up,
has the modified values,
you need to switch to a different template
or save a template.
So first things first,
let's take can look at system options.
Right over here, we can see a bunch of things here
as far as how you want SolidWorks to actually operate.
Like, do you want to input your dimensional value?
Do you want a single command per pick?
How do you want this to happen?
So I don't want to go through all these things,
but definitely take a look
and read through these things here.
Same thing with drawings, you know,
it's asking you how do you want to input the information?
Do you want to have to prompt yourself for it,
or have SolidWorks automatically just pull up a box for it?
Colors, how do you want the environment to look?
Sketch environments, what do you want to have defined?
Like, do you want to use fully defined sketches?
All of this stuff is right in here.
Auto rotate view in normal, I love this.
Turn that on, turn that on for sure.
Display, how do you want it to look?
Performance, also important thing here,
especially if you're working with large assemblies.
You can modify how SolidWorks will work with those things.
But now getting down to the nitty gritty here
of what we actually really want to focus on,
so External References is important.
but we want to take a look at which templates get used
automatically when I create a brand new part
or a brand new assembly or brand new drawing.
And you can define that right here.
Now I've already put a templates folder
in the exercise files,
and that is what I'm using right now.
So if I click in this box right here,
you can choose which one of the templates you have linked
to use as your default template.
Now, I have a default LinkedIn part template.
That's what I'm using.
So go ahead and choose that one there,
and it shows up in that list.
You can do the same thing for the assemblies
as well as the drawings.
Same thing with file locations.
This is where SolidWorks is looking for that information.
Where are my default templates stored?
And if you want to add a new location,
it's pretty straightforward.
So just click on Add, right, you're going to go and find it,
so in this case, I have Desktop, Exercise Files, Templates.
That's the folder I'm using.
But if you want to actually use a specific folder,
so maybe it was chapter two, and 2.2,
and inside of there, you had a template,
you could say Select Folder,
it would add it to the list.
Now, I don't actually want to use that,
so I'll go ahead and delete it,
but that's how you would add something in there.
Also, if you look at this scroll down
or this drop down list here,
you can see there are a whole bunch of things
we can modify here for your installation of SolidWorks.
So if you have a design library, some specific location,
you can come down here,
take a look at the design library, and point SolidWorks
to where that location is on your file system.
And I'd recommend if you're using SolidWorks
with a big user environment
with multiple users who are hitting it,
you might want to have one repository for your design library.
Where do you want to keep your features?
Where do you want to use your templates?
Where do you want to pull that information from?
So if the company modifies one of the templates,
all the people who are using SolidWorks
will all automatically get that latest
and greatest new template, okay.
Feature Manager, couple of other things in here.
Definitely take a look at all these things.
There's a whole bunch of information here,
a bunch of options you can work with.
Okay, Document Properties is another one, right?
You've got how you want things to look
as far as annotations and dimensions and so on,
virtual sharps, tons of information here, units.
This is a big one.
So how do I want, or which unit system
do I want to be working in?
So if you are in the United States,
you more than likely are using inches.
But if you're pretty much anywhere else
in the rest of the world,
you're probably using millimeters,
and you can switch your template
from inches to millimeters right here,
or any of these other systems you'd like to use.
You can also define how many decimal points you want to see.
So I generally like to see three decimal places,
and you can change that right here.
Click OK, and then all that information has been changed.
Now, we're in a different unit system.
And we can actually switch between unit systems very easily
right down here at the bottom of the screen.
Click on that one here.
Notice that it's millimeter, gram, second
If I want to switch back to inch, pound, second,
quickly change it right there.
So you can swap back and forth
between the two different systems very easily.
So anyways, those are the main features
or how to get at those system options inside of SolidWorks,
how to get at those units,
and how to apply or actually use a template folder
for either the design library,
the individual templates you start with
for a part assembly or drawing,
and you have options to use and apply templates
for any of those other things you might be using
in your company, as well.