Lets say you’re creating a drawing in SOLIDWORKS and need to add a note which includes symbols such as Micron, or Pi.  Or perhaps you’re designing this logo for my Alma Mater.

If you were using Microsoft Word™ you would go to Insert, Symbols, then find the correct item in the table and click to select it.  Lots of SOLIDWORKS users will simply use Word’s character map then copy and paste the text into their SOLIDWORKS note.  That works for me and is exactly how I got the ™ inserted. 

This works because SOLIDWORKS uses the standard Windows symbol mapping.  Click on Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and Character Map. A table of symbols will appear.  Find and select the desired symbol from the table.  You can then copy and paste just like you’d do from Word.

If you are constantly using the same symbol you probably won’t want to do this every time.  Instead you type in the keystrokes that represent the desired character.  Here’s how:

1. Make sure your keyboard is in NumLock mode.
2. Hold down the ALT key and enter the number on the numeric keypad. (Note that many laptops have a blue FN key that changes a set of keys, also with blue numbers on them, into a numeric keypad.) THIS DOESN’T WORK UNLESS YOU USE THE NUMBER PAD!!!

You can find the shortcuts in the Character Map or use the Chart at the bottom.

I suppose a third option would be to write a SOLIDWORKS Macro that would enter the desired character.  Has anybody tried this method?

Thanks to John and Jan down in Farmington for providing me the material for this tip.  I just had to merge their solutions.

20 bonus points to the first person who posts my Alma Mater in the comments section.  I changed the logo colors, but it should be pretty obvious it was a technical school.

for α 224
for ß 225
for Γ 226
for π 227
for Σ 228
for σ 229
for µ 230
for τ 231
for Φ 232
for Ω 234
for δ 235
for ∞ 236
for φ 237
for ε 238
for ∩ 239
for ≡ 240
for ± 241
for ≥ 242
for ≤ 243
for ⌠ 244 (upper half of integration sign)
for ⌡ 245 (lower half of integration sign)
for ÷ 246
for ≈ 247
for ° 248
for √ 251
for ⁿ 252
for ² 253

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