Sending SolidWorks Files To an Outside Environment
by Adrian Fanjoy, Technical Manager

 

With the complex nature of file relationships that are created while building assemblies and assembly drawings in SolidWorks; it can be difficult to package the appropriate files to support an assembly or assembly drawing for electronic transfer to a customer, a vendor, or even for technical support.  The following two articles give simple methods for packaging all of the required files for a document to be effectively utilized outside of your environment.

The assembly that we will be packaging is pictured below:

 

Remember to Check your Assembly Statistics of your original model and compare them to the assembly statistics of the new assembly after packaging.

 

Save As Method
 

  1. After the original assembly has been saved, select File|Save as … from the pull down menu to create the copy.
  2. Browse to a directory you would like to use for storing the package and create a new folder in that directory by selecting the create new folder icon referenced below.

  1. Rename the new folder to something that describes your assembly.  In my case I will name the folder Transfer Focus Assembly

  1. Double Click the newly created folder to open it and select References.
  2. In the Edit Referenced File Locations dialog box select Select All to grab all referenced files, then select Browse.  The newly created folder discussed in the previous steps should appear automatically in the Browse for folder dialog box

  1. Select OK in the Browse for folder dialog box then select OK in the Edit Referenced File Locations dialog box
  2. Select Save in the Save as dialog box.  This will send copies of all of the appropriate files to the newly created directory.
  3. At this point you can compress the newly created directory into a .zip file.
     

Find References Method
 

  1. After the original assembly has been saved, select File|Find References … from the pull down menu to create the copy.

  1. Select Copy files …
  2. The splash screen pop up and asks if you would like to preserve your directory structure.  Select No.

  1. In the Browse for folder dialog browse to the Folder you would like to store your assembly in or create a new folder by selecting the New Folder button.  Select OK.
  2. At this point you can compress the newly created directory into a .zip file.