It is a very frustrating time when you want to open a file in SolidWorks and the program crashes. Luckily, I believe to have pinpointed why this issue occurs and how to prevent it. It seems to be exclusive to non-native SolidWorks files such as STEP files but could happen to native SolidWorks files as well. The crash seems to occur when files are dragged straight out of Outlook or other programs directly into Window’s Explorer. The reasoning for this […]
A freezing issue like no other. When borrowing a network license to work remotely, some users have reported a specific performance issue during their SOLIDWORKS sessions that can slow productivity. In this particular scenario, it is stated that every so often, the session will freeze for about 10-15 seconds regardless of features, commands, or specific clicks. Testing the waters for a recent support issue, an early suggestion was disconnecting the internet altogether to discover that the freezing had stopped. Drawing […]
It’s here! SOLIDWORKS 2021 Beta 1 is now available. It’s time to take SOLIDWORKS 2021 for a test drive, check out the new enhancements and participate in the Beta program. What is the Beta Program? Participating in the Beta program is more than just taking the next release of SOLIDWORKS for a test drive. It’s about connecting with the BETA community, interacting with the SOLIDWORKS R&D team to provide your feedback on the new functionality and flexing your SOLIDWORKS skills […]
A common question we get on tech support is what to do if you have multiple license servers and can a client computer have access to more than one server’s licenses? The answer is YES. In this article, I’ll explain how to set this up as well as answer some other common questions that arise when connecting to multiple license servers. Tech Tip: This guide will walk through setting up the client computers to connect to multiple license servers and […]
Since the launch of SOLIDWORKS 2020, our Technical Support team has gotten multiple reports of a very strange-sounding behavior: After installing SOLIDWORKS 2020, double-clicking a part, drawing, or assembly file from File Explorer will not properly open the file, and instead it will send that file to a nearby printer. This is still an issue we are learning about, so we don’t yet know all of the causes, but we have at least found a couple fixes that can get […]
Combine Tool – How to Utilize Multibody Design Tools Multibody design has a great list of benefits: greater performance because every component is represented in a single file, the ability to represent a purchased part as a singular entity, and achieving complex geometries. With designing complex parts, the combine tool is especially useful because it allows users to seamlessly get to their end product. The Combine tool has three options: Add, Subtract, and Common. Add Option The “Add” option allows […]
With the arrival of SOLIDWORKS 2020 SP3, we have seen an increase of installations and questions come into Tech Support. Users are noticing a few subtle differences in the SOLIDWORKS user interface but DON’T WORRY, this is not like Icon color-gate from SW 2016! These changes are much easier to overlook. Vanishing Help Menu Let us start with the following screen of SOLIDWORKS 2020 SP3. Notice anything missing? The traditional Help menu is removed from the Menu Bar in service pack […]
When installing SOLIDWORKS software, oftentimes the following warning appears: Have you seen this message? Quite often(myself included) we click OK and keep going with the installation. If everything installs without error, why is it even there? Here is the reason: To help assure a successful installation of the SOLIDWORKS software, the Installation Manager checks to see if there are any pending reboot requests on your system. A pending reboot request occurs when a program or installation makes a change to […]
I’ve recently received a few questions about animation and the Animation Library in SOLIDWORKS Composer and since I don’t receive many animation questions in Composer, I thought I would share them. Below are a few tips that came out of these conversations. Before I get into any tips about the Animation Library, I have the most important Composer tip of all. Increase the Undo history size. Out of the box the Undo history is only 20 and I can run […]
I’ve heard this, or a similar, question many times over the years. “I sent a coworker my Composer file but when they open it in the Player, they don’t see the same thing I do. Why is that?” What I want to talk about are a few easy to overlook settings in Composer that help you control what the user experiences when they open your Composer document. For example, here is my file opened on my computer in SOLIDWORKS Composer. […]