SOLIDWORKS is highly customizable, but “why are my ‘already’ small icons suddenly larger than normal?” Well, laptops often have smaller screens than our second monitors; after all, aren’t we all using dual monitors with SOLIDWORKS? If you’re now working from home and notice a difference from your work setup, here’s how to properly scale things back to normal.
Multi-sized dual monitor setups aren’t ideal. On Windows 10, Microsoft does a great job formatting the two, but we need SOLIDWORKS to ignore it on this one. Stay with me.
First, rig
ht-click the desktop and select ‘Display settings.’ Scroll half-way down and verify that both monitors have the same display resolution (1). Data is initially shown for monitor 1, so select monitor 2 back at the top and scroll down again to see its data. Make necessary changes.
Next, verify ‘Scale and layout’(2) is set to (Recommended). This allows Windows to work for you in many cases.
Note: If you choose to adjust the scaling of one monitor to utilize the larger monitor for extra space (i.e. dragging apps from the small screen to the large screen without making everything a lot bigger) then this blog is also for you.
If no changes were made or the problem still exists then:
- Save all work and completely close out of your SOLIDWORKS session.
- If SOLIDWORKS isn’t saved to the desktop then search ‘File Explorer.’ There are numerous pathways to the app but try this one as a generic location: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\SOLIDWORKS 2020
- Right-click the app and select ‘Properties’ to open “SOLIDWORKS 2020 Properties.”
- From the tabs at the top of the pop-up window, choose ‘Compatibility.’
- Located near the bottom of this tab, click the button for ‘Change high DPI settings.’ Note:DPI stands for “Dots Per Inch.”
- At the bottom of the new window, select the checkbox saying “Override high DPI scaling behavior.’ Also, ‘Scaling performed by:’ should read ‘System’ using the drop-down arrow.
- Click OK to close the current window.
- Next, click ‘Apply’ on the Properties window first and then select ‘OK’ to dismiss the window. Relaunch SOLIDWORKS to verify the changes have taken place.
Note: Icons and text are too large.
Note: Icons and text are back to normal.
SOLIDWORKS will now be scaled properly when opened on the larger monitor. If at any point, you decide to move the window to the smaller screen, the size may appear different. This is normal behavior per the DPI Override.
Note: ‘Home’ window will still be a different size depending on the screen it last opened on. Additionally, the SOLIDWORKS loading image will still appear large, so don’t panic after changing these settings.
Overriding DPI scaling may be a temporary fix while working remotely. The goal is to revert graphics to the intended scale and force pop-up windows back to a normal size. As previously mentioned, this solution is also for those who like 1-to-1 ratios between monitors (i.e. using a second/larger monitor for extra space instead of larger images). Hopefully this alleviates some aggravation. Now get back to creating in SOLIDWORKS!
Gabriel Rodriguez
Application Engineer
Computer Aided Technology, LLC
