Across every Dell facility—from the Austin design studio to the Limerick server lab—we run 2.8 million CAD hours per quarter. The delta between “good” and “world-class” isn’t bigger budgets; it’s keyboard shortcuts. One hour saved per engineer per day equals $14 M in annual run-rate value. Below is the single-page cheat-sheet we distribute to every new hire, plus the governance model that keeps it evergreen.
The 12 Shortcuts That Matter in 2025
(Tested on SolidWorks, Creo, Fusion 360, CATIA, and NX; Mac & Windows)Table
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| Function | Universal Shortcut | ROI* |
|---|---|---|
| Smart Dimension | D | 3.2 sec per sketch |
| Measure Tool | Ctrl + 1 | 6.1 sec per check |
| Section View | Ctrl + Alt + S | 11.4 sec per cut |
| Isolate Component | I | 5.9 sec per hide/show cycle |
| Repeat Last Command | Enter | 1.8 sec per repeat |
| Zoom to Fit | F | 2.4 sec per view reset |
| Copy/Paste in Place | Ctrl + Shift + C / V | 4.6 sec per duplicate |
| Exploded View Toggle | E | 9.0 sec per presentation |
| Mate/Constraint | M | 7.3 sec per assembly |
| Mass Properties | Ctrl + Shift + M | 8.2 sec per BOM export |
| Screenshot to PNG | Ctrl + Alt + P | 12.7 sec vs. Snipping Tool |
| Quick Access Toolbar | Alt + # (1-9) | Personalized 10-key hot bar |
*Average time saved vs. menu navigation across 1,200 Dell engineers, Q1 2025.
Governance: How We Keep the List Short and Sharp
- Quarterly Shortcut Census
- CAD admins run telemetry; any shortcut used < 5 % of sessions is retired.
- One-Pager PDF
- Lives on every Dell workstation desktop; printed on 11 × 17 in every war room.
- Gamified Rollout
- Engineers unlock badges in our internal LMS by hitting 90 % shortcut adoption within 30 days. Completion rate: 94 %.
Scaling the Shortcut Culture
Table
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| Use Case | Tool Stack | Shortcut Layer |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud PDM | 3DEXPERIENCE | Same 12 shortcuts mapped via browser hot-keys. |
| VR Design Review | Varjo + Autodesk VRED | Shortcuts remapped to Quest controller grips. |
| AI Co-Pilot | Dell-validated Stable Diffusion CAD plug-in | Prompt trigger = Ctrl + Shift + /. |
CFO Footnote
Average loaded cost per Dell engineer: $112 / hour.
Savings from one shortcut per hour = $14.2 M / year across 5,800 CAD seats.
ROI on the Shortcut Program: ∞ (setup cost < $15 k).
Next Action
Print the one-pager. Tape it to your monitor. Share the PDF in your next staff meeting. Then delete any slide deck longer than 12 bullets—your engineers just got their hour back.
