SolidWorks 2011 Parts Bible - Matt Lombard [27]
Add-in flyouts, such as the FeatureWorks flyout, are controlled by that specific add-in and again keep the same icon always on top.
The flyouts used for tools of similar function are split between using the most recently used tool icon on top and keeping a consistent icon on top. The only tools that appear to follow the latest icon method are the Sketch Entities tools. Sketch tools and other flyouts use a hard-coded top image.
Exploring the Context toolbars
Context toolbars are toolbars that appear in the graphics window when you right-click or left-click something. When you right-click, a context toolbar appears at the top of the RMB menu and shows the functions that SolidWorks deems the most commonly used functions. This is a static list and does not change as you use the buttons. These functions are removed from the RMB menu and replaced with the Toolbar icon in a toolbar above the abbreviated RMB menu, as Figure 2.10 shows.
FIGURE 2.10
The right-click menu and context toolbar
An identical toolbar appears when you click (left-click) an item on screen. When this toolbar appears with a left-click, the rest of the RMB menu does not appear. Tool tips are available if you do not recognize the icons on the toolbar. For reference, the icons in the context toolbar atop the RMB menu (the icons without text) shown in Figure 2.10 are in order from the upper-left: Edit Feature, Edit Sketch, Suppress, Rollback, Select Other, Sketch, Hide Body, Zoom To Selection, Normal To, and Appearance Callout. Notice that these selections do not reappear in the main RMB menu.
These context toolbars are not editable, but you can turn them off and put the RMB menu back to its complete configuration. To turn off the context toolbars, click the context toolbar and choose Tools⇒Customize. Use the options on the right side of the main Toolbars tab, as shown in Figure 2.11.
FIGURE 2.11
Context toolbar settings
I find that the RMB context toolbars are distracting because they force you to read a two-dimensional list of icons and a one-dimensional list of text. To me, this is just too confusing. I turn these off so that the RMB menus look like they always did. However, I do find left-click context toolbars useful for things like Hide Sketch, Edit Feature, Edit Sketch, Appearance Callout, sketch relations, and so on. When I use the RMB menus, I'm looking for a more general function. When using the left-click context bars, I'm looking for something specific that I know is there. In Figure 2.11, the Show on selection check box option simply refers to the left-click toolbar, and Show in shortcut menu check box option refers to the RMB menu.
The purpose of the context toolbars is to save space by condensing some commands into a toolbar without text instead of a menu with icons and text. The left- and right-click toolbars are the same, but they work differently. The left-click context toolbar fades as you move the cursor away from it and becomes darker as you move the cursor toward it. Once it fades past a certain point, you cannot get it back, except if you have Ctrl+selected multiple entities. The context toolbar does not appear until you release the Ctrl key. To get a context menu to show up again after it has faded, you can just move the cursor back to approximately where the toolbar would have been and press Ctrl again. This works only for multiple selection menus where Ctrl was used to multi-select. The functionality is probably a bug, or unintentional in any case, or else it would also work somehow for single selections.
Exploring the Shortcut “S” toolbar
The Shortcut toolbar is also known as the “S” toolbar because by default you access it by pressing the S key. You can customize this toolbar for each document type and another for sketches, so it can have different content for sketches, parts, assemblies,