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Step 1: Restart SolidWorks Immediately Attempt Recovery.
Start SolidWorks back up right away. If you can recover your files, you’ll want to do that and save the data where it belongs. This isn’t always possible but it is always worth trying to recover if possible.
Step 2: Close SolidWorks.
This step and the following are all about getting SolidWorks to the most stable state we can. If you continue to work with SolidWorks at this point, it will be more prone to crashing so it’s a subjective call. If you want to minimize crashing again keep following the steps below.
Step 3: Close All Other Applications
We’re going to be rebooting the computer so shut all the other applications down now.
Step 4: Open The Temp Folder.
Browse to the following folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\<user login name>\Local Settings\Temp
Note: This should be a hidden folder and you shouldn’t see it normally.
To change this temporarily, in Windows Explorer, pick Tools, Folder Options, View tab, select Show hidden files and folders.
Tip: Copy the above folder and paste it as a “Shortcut” to the desktop. Rename the shortcut to something like SW TEMP. Also, change the icon to something more visual.
Step 5: Delete This Stuff.
Everything in this folder should be deleted. Select anything with the mouse then hit Ctrl-A on your keyboard. This will select all the files and folders. Then pick Shift-Delete on your keyboard. This will delete everything “and bypass” the recycle bin. Be aware that there may be some little applications still running in your system tray (lower right by the clock) that have a file in this temp folder and you may not be able to delete them even when you try. Don’t worry, leave them be. Try to delete everything else, use the shift key and the mouse to select a range of files then Shift-Delete to remove them. The more stuff in this folder, the more likely SolidWorks is to become unstable.
Note: Now you can change the Windows Explorer, Tools, Folder Options, View tab, select Do not show hidden files and folders. Otherwise you’ll see files that have a ~ in front of the file name when browsing for files in SolidWorks. If you have the shortcut on your desktop per the Tip above, you won’t need to change this back and forth anymore.
Step 6: Reboot The Machine.
Start, Shutdown, Restart, Ok
Step 7: Start SolidWorks Try It Again.
Log back in, start SolidWorks and get back to doing what you where doing. If you’ve done all the steps above SolidWorks should be much less likely to crash again.
Note: If it does crash again you’ve probably found a bug. Then it would be time to call CATI’s support department and send in a SolidWorksRx zip file capture of the problem.
Other Things To Keep In Mind:
Defrag The Hard Drive Regularly
Set your defrag software to defrag daily or weekly at least. You might not have the computer on to run the defrag all the time so if it’s set to daily it’ll happen more often. The more often it runs, the quicker it finishes. You should think about deleting your cached files from your internet browser and emptying the recycle bin prior to defragmenting your hard drive.
Memory Creep
SolidWorks’ memory usage just keeps going up and up. When you start SolidWorks 2007 it uses about 180MB of ram depending on the add-in you have selected to start with SolidWorks. Note: Don’t have any set to start each time unless you tend to use them, you’ll have less elbowroom in ram otherwise. When you open a drawing, part or assembly the memory usage goes up, makes sense. However, when you close any/all of those items, the memory usage doesn’t go back down to where you started, it stays higher. As you open more and get more done it keeps going higher and higher, even if you close the files before going onto the next one or group. Eventually memory usage “creeps” up and up and then when SolidWorks seems to have used a large percentage of the physical memory your machine has (according to the Windows operating system) SolidWorks will become unstable and crash. Then we need to go back to the beginning of this document and go through the steps, doh! If you do a lot of this opening, changing, closing and repeating because of what you’re doing you’ll be more likely to see this phenomenon then someone who opens a large assembly and works adjusting those items to work together better. So doing a lot of engineering changes versus design work will have a higher rate of seeing this. To reduce this, after a while instead of after closing the stuff you just changed and going on to the next, close SolidWorks down to the desktop. You don’t need to reboot, just close to the desktop then restart SolidWorks. This will kick Windows into thinking everything should be dumped from memory and it will start over from the minimum of about 180MB.
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