Customize the New CommandManager

The CommandManager was introduced in SolidWorks 2006. The CommandManager was redesigned in SolidWorks 2008. Here are a few things you can do to customize the CommandManager.

Display or Hide a Tab
Right click on any of the CommandManager tabs. A menu appears listing the available toolbars. Check the toolbars in the list that you want to be displayed. Uncheck the ones that you want to be hidden. For example, in the menu pick Evaluate.

The Evaluate tab is now hidden.

To display the tab, just right click on any of the CommandManager tabs and pick Evaluate.

To toggle the display of multiple tabs, right click on any of the CommandManager tabs, and pick Customize CommandManager.

When the Customize dialog box is open, you can fully customize the CommandManager. The individual display of each tab is easily seen. The hidden tabs are grayed out. To toggle the display of any of the tabs, just right click on the tab and pick either Hide Tab or Show Tab.

Reorder a Tab
When the Customize dialog box is open, you can easily reorder the tabs by simply dragging and dropping them to the desired position. A small arrow will appear to indicate where you are placing the tab.

Add a Tab
There are a couple ways to add tabs to the CommandManager. One way is to click the far right tab and type a name for the custom tab. Another way is to right click on a tab and pick Add Tab. A tab is added to the right of the selected tab.

Rename a Custom Tab
When the Customize dialog box is open, right click on a custom tab and pick Rename Tab from the menu and edit the text of the tab.

Delete a Custom Tab
When the Customize dialog box is open, right click on a custom tab and pick Delete from the menu and the tab is deleted. Note that all of your customizations to that tab are deleted as well.

Customize a Tab
All of the tabs in the CommandManager are toolbars that can be customized the same way that toolbars are customized. In the Customize dialog box, on the Commands tab, pick a category and drag the button to the CommandManager tab. Remember that you can add buttons from multiple categories on your custom CommandManager tab or the default tabs.

Change Button Labels
When the Customize dialog box is open, right click a button. When two or more buttons are in a tab, the Begin a Group option appears.

If you pick Begin a Group, a divider line is added between the buttons. This is useful for grouping together certain types of buttons.

Right click on a button and uncheck Text Below.

This will place the descriptive text to the right of the button rather than below it. Check Text Below to position the text below the button.

Right click on button and pick Show Text to toggle the display of the tool name.

This will remove the descriptive text and just display the button.

Right click on a button and pick Delete.

This will remove the button from the tab.

Once you are familiar with the buttons that you use, you can free up more space by turning off the button descriptions. Note that the Show Text command works for individual buttons only.

To turn off all of the button descriptions, uncheck Use large buttons with text on the Toolbars tab of the Customize dialog box. You may also right click on the CommandManager and any time and check or uncheck Use Large Buttons with Text.

When you are done customizing the CommandManager, click OK in the Customize dialog box.

And remember, the CommandManager is different in an assembly and a drawing, so you will want to take advantage of it in those documents as well.

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