SOLIDWORKS Walk-Through

Have you ever looked inside your SOLIDWORKS model without sectioning or hiding components?  Maybe you have a building with many rooms or a large machine and want a quick peek inside.  SOLIDWORKS walk-through functionality gives a first-person gaming feel. You can fly around, move through walls, or set up motion constraints to keep you grounded.

Add walk-through

The Walk-through properties allow you to give a vertical direction and specify your height if grounded with a Motion Constraint.  You can reference 2D or 3D sketches, grid features, reference planes, planar faces or model edges for constraints.  Sketches are useful to follow a defined path.

Start SOLIDWORKS walk-through

The controls will feel like a computer game.  Use the arrow keys to move forwards. backwards and sideways.  You can also use keyboard keys W,S,A,D if they are more familiar.  The mouse wheel will also move forward and back, though the keyboard keys will give more control.  Click and hold either the left or middle mouse buttons and drag around to have a look.

Constraints drop-down

By default, you will be in free-flight and move wherever you are looking.  The Constraint dropdown allows you to select one of the constraints previously assigned.  Speed control is useful to change between tortoise and hare speeds.

The Record tool provides an exported video of all your movements.  Click the Record button and go for a journey.  Once accepted, it brings you back to the PropertyManager where you have an option to Generate Video.

Various options are available for the exported video file such as the filetype, aspect ratio, resolution, and frames per second.  Results tend to be better with MP4 filetype, 16:9 aspect ratio, HD resolution such as 720p, and more than 20 fps.  A higher frame rate gives a smoother video though the file size will be increased.

Have fun!