How to change the SOLIDWORKS Standard View Orientation

Have you ever imported a model from a vendor, customer, etc. and the part orientation does not make sense? You can change the default view to any rotation that you like. When your part is in the part or assembly environment, press the spacebar to open the Orientation window.  We are going to focus on the update standard view button and change the SOLIDWORKS Standard View Orientation:

Orientation dialog

What we can do is click “*front” and our part will rotate to its default “front” position. Now click on the face that you want to be the new “front” then click the”*Normal To” this will rotate the part so that the face you chose is parallel with your screen. Now single click “*front” then the update standard view button. This will change the view to how you desire. This is extremely handy when you are bring you part in to the drawing environment and the views do not make sense.

I will use Sponge-Bob to demonstrate this tool.

Bad orientation

You can see that Sponge-Bobs “front” view is at a weird angle. I now click on the face that I want to be the “front” view.

Desired front face selected

Then pick the spacebar to open the Orientation window. Now click “*Normal To”. Sponge-Bob will rotate so the face you clicked is parallel with the screen.

View orientation reset

Now click the update standard view. You will get a warning. Click Yes.

SOLIDWORKS standard view orientation warning message

Now you have successfully changed the views on your part. If you do not like what you have done you can always use the Reset default view to go back to the default view the part came with.