When I have the photoworks add in turned on I can not use any
textures or apply colors to model. I read where this may be because
real view is turned on. My graphics card doesn't support real view
so the real view option in the view menu is grayed out. Is there
anyway around turning off photoworks any time I want to add a
texture to the modeling?
Why not just use appearances and not SolidWorks Textures or Colors? In the PhotoWorks options dialog, system options tab there is a checkbox labeled "Display PhotoWorks Appearances in SolidWorks OpenGL". If you enable this option you can use appearances to add textures to your model without using Real View. Appearances are much more powerful than SolidWorks textures and you get the added benefit of seeing all the applied appearances listed in the Render Manager (makes it easy to edit or delete). The only caveat is that if you share the model with someone else they will need PhotoWorks or a graphics card that supports Real View.