The global origin for SW is X left and right, Y up and down and Z forward and back. In my opinion Y and Z should be the other way around so Z is up and down and Y is forward and back. To me this makes much more sense when you are drawing parts to go on a CNC mill or using other CAD/CAM software.

I think the global origin should be adjustable and you should be able to set the global origin yourself, whether it prompts you to set the global origin during an install or when begining a part I think this would be of value. I will add a poll to see what people's preference's are with global origin.

Below, continued from zebra stripes thread

https://forum.solidworks.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=20&threadid=14873&enterthread=y

(Paul) Setting your templates so Z is pointing up. The downside's for me seem to be 1. the way "normal to" snaps to a part. Normal to will snap to the global origin and not to your template orientation, which is a shame because i use to like the functionality of normal to. Example - If you select a face that is in X (right plane/view) and then click "normal to" it will snap on its side to the global origin. If you click on a face that would be your back view it snaps upside down. etc... 2. Applying text to a face, you'll spend a lot of time rotating text and so forth, it basically has the same problem as normal to. 3. i dont know if this just me but lighting, i always have trouble with lighting and and i dont know if this is how i have set my lights up or the fact that in have changed the orientation. This is most likely the way i have set up my lights as i have never been good at that.

I'll post up my template so people can have a look at it, hopefully there maybe something i am missing with "normal to" or the lighting issue.