Auto-Rotate SOLIDWORKS View On Sketch Creation [VIDEO]

When teaching the SOLIDWORKS Essentials training course one habit that I try to instill in any new (or not so new) SOLIDWORKS users is to always, always, rotate the view normal to the sketch plane when creating a new sketch or when editing an existing one.  This helps them to get a clearer picture of their 2D sketch in the 3D world of their SOLIDWORKS part.

Normal to Sketch Plane View

Now, a new option added to SOLIDWORKS allows users to automate, at least, part of that practice.

For many years SOLIDWORKS has automatically rotated to a Normal To view orientation when creating the first sketch in a new SOLIDWORKS part, however it did not rotate automatically when creating any subsequent views.

Auto-rotate view option

Within the SOLIDWORKS System Options (go to Tools > Options), in the Sketch section there is now the option to “Auto-rotate view normal to sketch plane on sketch creation”.  As the name implies this option will automatically rotate to a Normal To view orientation when creating any 2D sketch, not just the first one.

Watch this video for a demonstration of this technique: