What are /r/SolidWorks' favorite Products & Services?

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I just tried this:

https://www.solidworks.com/support/community-download#no-back

Input Hobbyist, select No from the Product Information, and try the code 921MAKER. Seems to have worked for me.

1911 plans are pretty much public domain because it's been manufactured contuiously for the past 100 years by a million different vendors. You can practice your animation skills once you are done with the assembly. Enjoy! Also, guns are cool!

http://brlcad.org/design/drafting/M1911-A1_REDUX.pdf

If you company is on subscription, you're entitled to accessing some of our exams for free. You can find additional information here:

https://www.solidworks.com/how-to-buy/subscription-services-certification-offers

As far as 'tokens' go, they are referred to as Vouchers of which we primarily only issue those to education institutions these days. So if someone if trying to sell you, or give you one, the persons school name will be printed on the certificate and we'll be able to track it. I would avoid using any sort of 'pirated' code because once our system discovers it, any resulting certification will be deleted and the certification will not be able to be verified electronically.

Hi /u/tsjmattar,

From the looks of this EDU/Student EULA, it looks like you have to be affiliated with a university.

If you are concerned at all whether you are eligible for this, and you are just looking for access to SOLIDWORKS and not the 3DEXPERIENCE apps then getting SOLIDWORKS as part of an EAA.org membership would be the way to go. That one is only $40/year.

I've said this to others asking the same question. You generally don't do as much CAD work during an engineering undergraduate program as prospective students tend to expect. Anything you need to accomplish can most likely very easily be handled in the universities computer labs without any inconvenience. On top of that, whatever work you are doing will most likely be extremely simple and not involve large complex assemblies. For this, just about any laptop in your price range would suffice.

Dassault provides all the information you need to make an informed descision here:

https://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/SystemRequirements.html

Also keep in mind that after you graduate, your employer will provide you with a machine that will likely run circles around whatever you'd buy now, if you end up even doing CAD work. There's a lot to engineering outside of CAD.

This isn't meant to discourage you from purchasing a laptop if you just want to have access to SolidWorks outside of campus labs. But you may be able to save some money by not buying an over-specced machine that you won't end up really needing. This leaves far more cash for beer.

Sweaty,

Found your issue. Image 4 shows a 5mm radial offset from the major diameter of 56mm, in Boss-Extrude1 you set up an equation of "=56-5". It should be "=56-10" (5 per side).

Issue image: http://i.imgur.com/PqjmN9r.png Fixed part: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/h8ez496il5g2n4j/XkiQcCsNmO?m

The answer should be 935

https://imgur.com/a/8sM4r

Some Dimensions are missing from the drawing, but here's what I came up with:

1) Base Sketch

2) Extrude Base to 125

3) Create 300mm sphere on back face of boss, coincident with the top of the boss

4) Combine common (or revolve a sketch to cut to size, doesn't matter)

5) Roll back bar and create a copy of the first body, roll bar forward again

6) Create 350mm sphere 40mm from top of boss, combine common.

7) offset perimeter of 300mm sphere body by 40mm and cut outside perimeter

8) Combine bodies together

9) draft faces using parting line

10) add fillets

11) mirror

12) add mid-section fillets

realview is only available for supported graphics cards. i don't see yours on the list, but take a look for yourself. https://www.solidworks.com/support/hardware-certification/
there is a registery edit hack you can do to work around, but i never recommend something like that as it can make things unstable and crash. search on here for how to do it if you need realview that bad. it is a pretty big resource drain though. you'll have better performance w out it on.

You probably want to start by going through all the SOLIDWORKS tutorials then try your hand at the CSWA (here's a practice test) then go from there. It's the introductory modeling test for SOLIDWORKS. If that goes well move up to the CSWP (here's a practice test).

Read through this PDF on Maximizing SOLIDWORKS Performance. In my own informal testing it netted a 38% improvement with no changes to the hardware. These are just OS, and SOLIDWORKS settings.

SSDs will offer a big improvement, do it. Files should never be opened from a network location, Files should be copied to the local PC when working on them.

A computer without a dedicated graphics card is a terrible idea. You won't need a Quadro P6000, but buy a dedicated card which is meant to run the software. Review the supported cards for your OS and SW version. The Quadro K2200 is inexpensive these days.

The number of parts in an assembly is not the best gauge of what defines a "large assembly". If the PC is running slowly, the assembly is large for it. Part complexity plays a big role. 1,000 wooden blocks may not be taxing on a system. 100 intricate parts is a bigger challenge.

Be careful choosing the future hardware. Users are going to love you or hate you based on your choices.

It's no longer Workgroup and Enterprise. They renamed it to Professional and Standard. Which is stupid because Standard doesn't come with SW Standard, it comes with SW Professional.

https://www.solidworks.com/sw/products/product-data-management/packages.htm

It's really not that important to have an extremely powerful graphics card. Just turn realview graphics and all the shading nonsense off. I run it on a cheap R9 270 on my home PC and it works just fine. (I think it cost about $150 over a year ago).

I'm a product design engineer and am on SolidWorks for hours most days. I've ran it on some pretty crappy machines with no issue, and some $3k+ machines where it crashed all the time. It's more about compatibility than power.

Check here:

https://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/videocardtesting.html

And don't let him spend more than $200 or so on a video card.

You might want to run the solidworks performance test (run it as an administrator) (start->solidworks->solidworks tools->Solidworks performance test) and compare your results to the other systems listed here. That should at least help get an idea of where your system stands relative to other users' builds.

*edit: as /u/mtan90 suggested, using featherweight mode could be useful. Also I wonder whether storing the assembly and part files on a local SSD would help at all.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4rlskimzf6wt8tx/surfacing%20model%202.SLDPRT

Done, sorry it took so much longer than expected. Some feedback:

Your surfaces are, sorry to be harsh, terrible. There are quite a few that have inappropriate curvature for thicken/shell features. In the future rather than using 3D sketches and edges to define lofted surfaces, use a team of construction planes and planar sketches, it gives you much tighter control over surface curvature at various cross sections. A tip I picked up when dealing with complex surface modelling like this is to think ahead to what you want your resultant model to be, in an example like a controller here, your trouble surfaces will be convex, not concave. So to offset those convex surfaces inwards encroaches on minimum surface curvature. So lets say you have a part like this controller that may be 100 mm across in a given dimension, and when its all said and done you want 3 mm wall thicknesses. So rather than scale your underlay or sketch picture to 100 mm, scale it to 94 mm to account for your 3 mm wall thicknesses. Then build your surfaces, and instead of creating a solid and shelling, thicken outwards to reach your desired 100 mm dimension. This works great for convex surfaces, and if you have a part with concave surfaces, you do the exact opposite. This technique is an example of modeling with consideration for the downstream features. In the part I've posted for you to grab, I manually rebuilt an inside surface, it took about twice the number of features than you already had. Absolutely not the best way to do it, but I didn't want to modify any of your existing features.

I hope I was helpful, let me know if you have any questions. Cheers!

You have to be kidding. The student version is so inexpensive, and next month there will be an official hobbyist version for the same price - US$100.

Also, the software isn't what costs money - the LICENSE does. Downloading a torrent or crack is not a solution, because it's easy to get it the official way.

https://www.solidworks.com/product/students

You are asking for a problems going that route. If he does SW professionally.... definitely don't get that. Solidworks will run in a crippled mode (no realview, reduced anti-aliasing), you're likely to experience artifacts, be crash prone, have performance issues. If it's for hobby, it maybe ok, but the cost of dealing with issues over the life of the computer is likely not worth it in the professional environment..... trust me I tried it.... a lot

quadro, firepro, or intel p series (less prefered).

https://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/videocardtesting.html

I don't know which programming language was used to make solidworks, but have a look at https://www.freecadweb.org/ . It has similar features to sw and it's opensource, you can look at the code, even browse it.

We used this textbook in the class I did: https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Geometric-Dimensioning-Tolerancing-Krulikowski/dp/1111129827

I though it was pretty good. You can get the 2nd edition for much cheaper, it is based on an older revision of the standard but the basics really haven't changed.

Commenting my experience which doesn't help you at all, hoping to read other responses if they arrive. !remindme 1 week

Every printed resource for GD&T I've come across is so boiled down and simplistic that unless you are doing simple rectilinear plates and brackets, it doesn't translate well to complex parts. The https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-GD-Pocket-Guide-Y14-5-2009/dp/092452023X pocket GD&T guide sits at my desk as a reference.

Honestly, until our work hired a consultant to come walk through easy, medium, challenging, and devilish component drawings, it never really "clicked" how certain decisions led to extremely expensive machining operations. For instance, Profile tends to be over-constrained for most applications - but I've never seen a hard warning for it in any printed documentation.

I took a better look at your part, and I do not believe sweeping your profile is this best way to make this part. Instead try a loft or boundary operation. I had difficulties achieving the sweep, but the loft worked the first time! (You need to add a bottom profile, and a few more guidelines).

Here are my results: (https://imgur.com/a/JhBvm) I can provide the file if you would like to have a look.

Edit: This way, you can avoid having to curve your edges, as /u/mechanically did

If your military or a vet you can get access for $20 USD or $40 CAD a year IIRC (Its generally restricted to US/Canadian veterans though unless you stumble across the right person who is in the right mood.

https://www.solidworks.com/sites/default/files/2018-01/EDU-MVPProgram.pdf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJYl2lB3o-0 this video shows a very quick way to assemble a spring using the method you mentioned. i use these springs quite often for presentations because it just looks fantastic. i also have a masterversion so i don't need to assemble a new one every time.

feel free to change for your needs https://www.dropbox.com/s/ji0l0ezkps635n0/spring.rar

If you're fresh out of school, and on the job hunt, why don't you do some freelance engineering work in the interim? This will allow you to keep your SolidWorks saw sharp! You get to pick and choose the jobs you want to bid for... lots of clients looking for proficient SolidWorks users.

Additionally, you can put this on your resume. :)

I use upwork.com, but there are many out there.

Cheers.

Hi /u/SW_User,

As /u/AZN193684 said, a warning citing memory generally does not refer to GDI Objects but it does not hurt to raise that limit. Run this file on your system to go ahead and raise the GDI Object limit within your Windows Registry then reboot the computer to allow the setting change to take effect:

• GDI Object Limit

If the GDI Object limit has been raised and the warning persists then it is most likely due to the VRAM (the memory on your video card) usage. Errors with memory don’t generally differentiate between RAM and VRAM. Windows also does not have a built in way to measure how much of your VRAM is in use at any given time. There is a tool that you can download and use to observe this though called GPU-Z (https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/). Try downloading this and see how much of the VRAM is in use when these warnings come up.

The GDI Objects limit has been around for a while and could be your low resource but recently low VRAM is much more common. So, this error could be referring to VRAM. Windows also does not have a built in way to measure how much of your VRAM is in use at any given time. There is a tool that you can download and use to observe this though called GPU-Z (https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/). Try downloading this and see how much of the VRAM is in use when these warnings come up. If the VRAM memory used is approaching the physical limit of your card then you found your culprit.

I train others to use SW. but I've found these websites to be of great help! Also, download models off of grabcad in sw form and check out their feature tree and try to replicate their process. (i meant to include solidworker but that site is down) http://www.swtuts.com/ http://grabcad.com/

PM me if you need specific help!

https://www.solidworks.com/support/hardware-certification/ here you can find laptops which are 100% certified to work with solidworks. Of course solidworks runs just fine on things that are not certified, but you might run it to curious visual glitches and such.

But here is a fact about solidworks, if you are a patient person and not going to do any fancy image renders or massive assemblies. If it can run W10, it can run Soldiworks.

I personally use a Thinkpad workstation that I got for about half the price from a company that refurbishes enterprise laptops. I highly recommend considering something like that.

Now you can get a mid-range gaming laptop in your price range. I know lots of people who do that, even professionals. All my mates who are engineers basically get to choose their laptop and they always choose some gaming type to run their CADs on, commonly Solidworks.

Step 1. Check certified laptops.
Step 2. Consider the price range
Step 3. Get the gaming laptop which you really want to get anyway because it can double as a gaming laptop

Especially since you are a student and probably a beginner, you aren't going to do anything so intensive for a long time that you'd need specialised hardware. I think on my student class, only I and 3 others (out of 80) got a workstation laptop, the rest run with gaming laptops.

Seriously. I have seen solidworks run fine on a crappy All-In-One with intel graphics and Mini computers.

With Weldments I'd recommend the inbuilt SW tutorial as a start point. I found weldments much easier to get used to then I thought and after doing this tutorial & the CSWPA test (https://www.solidworks.com/certifications/advanced-weldments-cswpa-wd) just by using it for a few days you can get really good with it.

I found sheet metal tougher and did the SW (paid) training course but I don't use that as regularly.

When I took a modeling class my teacher turned us to the modeling challenges that can be found on YouTube from the Model Mania at the Solidworks conference. Here is an example from 2020, and you can find many more from years past. These parts tend to be slightly more difficult than what you would encounter on the CSWA. You can also Google previous CSWA questions and find the problems from tests of years past. Here is an example of that from the Solidworks website. That’s about as official as it gets

GTX cards are unfortunately not supported by Solidworks. You’ll have to find a laptop with a professional Nvidia or AMD graphics card. Here’s a list of compatible GPUs: https://www.solidworks.com/support/hardware-certification

Neither. You NEED to get a supported graphics card otherwise, Solidworks pushes the majority of the rendering off into your CPU. Your performance will be terrible.

https://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/videocardtesting.html

Pick "Any system vendor", Solidworks 2019, Windows 10, and check the supported graphics card models.

Your graphic card is in the certified list from SolidWorks website?

https://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/videocardtesting.html

If yes, the driver is the same as shown there?

Had to downgrade my driver to improve my performance.

Depends on what you are programming. I believe it is a VERY simple version of CAM. As always is the case with Solidworks, their inclusion of it in the software is not necessarily to help people, but to get people to purchase an upgraded license of the software that actually contains useful functionality.

Here is a link to the official offer of free exam vouchers for customers who have an annual maintenance contract with us:

https://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/certification-offers-subscription-service-customer.htm

VARs do not have access to vouchers unless they contact my team to request them.

With the offer above, you get:

(1) free CSWA – OR – CSWP

(1) free CSWP Advanced Exam

That offer can be redeemed for each seat on subscription one time from Jan through Jun, and then once again from Jul through Dec. The credits that you get by redeeming the offer get placed into your certification account, and they never expire. Additionally, you don't have to wait until you're ready to take an exam before redeeming the offer. When you redeem the offer, it simply delivers the credit to your account for future use.

Hi /u/Commodore_VC1541,

Despite the odd message I believe you are running into a purposeful block. The SOLIDWORKS 2018 suite of software is blocked from installing to Windows Server 2008 R2 environments in general (as noted here: SOLIDWORKS System Requirements). So, if you are installing through the SOLIDWORKS Installation Manager then a block will be encountered. Are you installing through the SOLIDWORKS Installation Manager or from a direct eDrawings download (here: eDrawings Download)?

I believe the recommended minimum requirements for 2015 and 2016 is 8Gb

You can check here

https://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/SystemRequirements.html

I've never tried installing solid works on a workstation with less than 4gb but you could give it a go....it might be terrible slow and crash though especially if you we not running a supported graphics card.

Also keep in mind that after SW2014 , solid works no longer supports 32bit windows so make sure if you are using a newer version that you are in a 64bit environment.

It doesn't sound like you need too crazy of a system or an app, so I would probably recommend SolidWorks PDM (It should be packaged with 2016).

Here is SW's recommendations

If your org has the capability to do virtual servers, I would probably go with one of those... Especially after having production down in one of my remote locations due to their local SmarTeam vault server running out of disc space... Shouldn't be a problem now that I P to V'd it.

I would also check out your connection/port speed, as that can have a big effect on data transfer rates (like in my office, where the Ansys guys are on the only switch we can't upgrade to gigabit... there is a big difference between 100 and a Gig.)

If you go for a SSD solution (solid state drives) you will get a bit better speed with data, I ran a benchmark on a Z230 with a Zdrive PCI-E SSD card, and holy crap did that thing fly. SSD tends to more costly than platters, however.

Addition: After reading your response below, I would check out your data transfer rate and overall network speed, that could be the cause of some of your slowness.

I don't know anything about what you do, so I'm not gonna tell you to run out and spend $X.xx on hardware that you may or may not see a benefit in. Only thing I would highly suggest is to meet the SOLIDWORKS System Requirements for the software you intend to run and to invest in a supported graphics card.

Usually I wouldn't care if you run a gamer card or a CAD card but since this is for business just take my word for it and get the CAD card. No gaming cards are tested or supported by SOLIDWORKS, meaning if you get slow performance, crashing, display issues, etc you're SOL. Time is money, and ain't nobody got time for that shit.

Mechanisms and linkages are complicated. To design them from scratch and understand them, you need to be able to do in-depth analyses and calculations. One of the most basic things to understand is how to use the "Chebychev–Grübler–Kutzbach criterion" or "Gruebler's Equation" to analyze the degrees of freedom of a linkage. I believe the mechanism in that video is a 6 bar linkage. Using Gruebler's equation, we can see that with 6 links, and 7 pins, we have 1 DOF to control the mechanism: 3*(6-1)-2*7-0=1

The structured roles and guidelines are the in-depth analyses that you want to avoid. You might be able to start learning from something like "Mechanisms and Mechanical Devices Sourcebook" by Neil Sclater

I bought a couple of these HPs recently. They run Solidworks great.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CGBYBXM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_SVTXQHVKJNC0GRWD6YX5?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

If you want to do it right grab a low profile Quadro card like this one. Maybe there's something refurbished got cheap too.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VQQMF50/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_NBRSD0GTP52KC9GZCYZT

Hi /u/cai_owen132,

That particular binding in a mouse is hardcoded in SOLIDWORKS so there is no option to change it to something else. If you have a more advanced mouse with more mouse buttons then the mouse software itself would be able to bind the "middle mouse button" to another button of the mouse. If you have a default 2-button+1 wheel mouse then you probably need to be looking at replacing the broken mouse itself. If price is a factor you can get a cheap mouse with all the functionality you need for ~$5 if needed.

Is this for school? If so, may I suggest you not get a bot anchor (and it's HP which - in my personal experience - providea the worst support and design money can buy).

Try a Dell M3800. Amazon had them prime refurbished for the same price.

Dell Precision M3800 15.6" Touchscreen LED Mobile Workstation - Intel Core i7 i7-4712HQ 2.30 GHz - Silver PM3800-17944SLV https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00U6HJLWK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_WbQiCbHSYRV2X

I got one new, and I'm still rocking it today. It's a beast, touch screen, super light, and it has the k1100m graphics (same as the one you showed). And yes... it does solidworks VERY well.

Hi /u/mach_oddity,

Have you looked at eDrawings for Android? It is $1.99 and it should be able to view all SOLIDWORKS native files.

eDrawings on Google Play Store

Probably not the most elegant of creations, but it does give you the desired results. Its a mixture of surfaces and multiple "Extrude to surface".

Here is the part so you can see how it is made..

https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Sdc&open=0&res=25&view=simple&phrase=1&column=publisher

https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Solidworks+learn+by+doing&open=0&res=25&view=simple&phrase=1&column=title

Skill levels are relative though. Some will solve this in minutes, some won't be able to solve it, most won't try.

It took me two tries to get it down to a single feature. But I used a different method from your method. Seeing different ways to make the same "simple" model makes this challenge interesting to me.

How do you model parts with that scene? The yellow is "ok", but rotating the part leads to visual nightmares :)

Great job on completing the challenge! Here's my model if you want to check it out: https://gofile.io/d/R3DbbX

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2008-SolidWorks-Training-Manuals-set-3-manuals-CD-files-/230690880034?pt=US_Texbook_Education&hash=item35b63f7a22

A little expensive, but well worth the money. These are the manuals and files used for the certification training. The one you want is advanced surface modeling, but all three books are great references and tutorials.

Enjoy.

I think I found the issue mate, the pitch at the beginning and end are not consistent hence why it distorts. I had to delete the last revolution (Number 24)

I changed the beginning pitch to 80 instead of 0

Also revolution 24 locked itself to 130 instead of 799 so I deleted revolution 24

Here's the file I generated for you, I converted to millimetres instead of meters tho

Download Link

People are slowly migrating to MMO mice in my department (Razer Naga style). Crazy amount of options to set, as long as you can remember what each button does. I'm using the logitech version of that style, but I'm not crazy about it. My old mouse had a free-spinning scroll wheel (logitech g500s) that I really miss, because it made zooming in and out effortless. Fewer buttons though. I also have a 3dconnexion spacemouse (2 button version) that I use with my left hand...when I remember it's there. It feels really cool to use, but it doesn't make me personally any faster. A coworker recently turned me on to autohotkey. It has a bit of a learning curve if you don't have any coding background, but it opens up worlds of macro options.

Another tip... Sometimes I like to extrude a huge rectangle underneath my object as a floor and set the material of it. This gives a more realistic looking ground. For example this rendering of a gopro mount I made for a friend of mine.

I see this has turned into a fan boy fight of sorts. I will answer your question, get anything better than a GTX 570 or an Quadro 2000 (the quadro 4000 is in your budget). I run both these cards and I have never got the Quadro card to run smoothly, even on single parts. The gtx 570 runs just fine on fairly complex assemblies (~100 simple parts). The only definitive reason to get a quadro is you can use RealView in solidworks, there are hacks to get it to run with a gaming card but it is not perfect (I do this). If you explain your use for the workstation it would be very helpful. For example, gaming card will always have better performance than a workstation card with the same GPU, the game changer is that a workstation card has been tested to run 24/7 for the life of the card at 100% usage. If you don't need real view or 24/7 processing, I don't see much of a point running a workstation card. The average user would have a very hard time using the resources of any modern discrete graphics.

IMO, your best use of money would be getting a new processor (and motherboard). Solidworks is a single threaded application, this is how its modeling process works. It does use multi-threading for opening parts and rendering, there are also specific examples where multi-threading is used but not common for most users. The one exception to this is rendering, which is entirely CPU based. Get yourself a better CPU, the FX-4100 is a good processor, but any process above it in the list of this website should be good. I use a AMD 1100T and a intel i7 960, both are good and have very close single threaded performance. My AMD system is faster, that is due short loading times from a SSD raid as my Solidworks drive. For CPU options out their, Intel offers better single threaded performance. If you tell me your exact needs from your system I can give you some options for a CPU and motherboard if needed.

That warning also denotes when you have run out of VRAM (although it does not differentiate between VRAM and RAM). You would want to download GPU-Z (https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/) and see if you are running out of VRAM. If you are it means that you may need to close up some other extraneous programs or install a graphics card with a large quantity of VRAM.

The only free software that I've found useable is Autodesk 123D, but it is fairly limited. Inventor Fusion is free right now (technology preview) Fusion

Alibre has some very affordable options like Alibre Design PE, but I have not tried it (I've read some good things though.

This post was the easiest to follow in seeing how the concept worked. http://blog.design-point.com/blog/2012/august/how-to-model-a-plastic,-living-hinge-in-solidworks-as-a-single-part.aspx

http://grabcad.com/library/plastic-living-hinge

The hinge's range of motion can be structured under the Configuration Manager.

Once you dimension your arc, go to the PropertyManager and open the Leaders tab. There, under the dia/radius buttons, you will have the "Foreshorten" option. It reduces the length of your radius dim. Then dimension other stuff to get this - which I suppose is the end of your woes.

if you look at the surfaces edges you can see that it starts off as a fair (not faceted) edge/line. Once i knit it becomes faceted. After shelling and doing intersection curves i created the geometry for the first station. That's when i noticed the edges of the station intruding onto the inner face. The fair edges of the station frame predate the Knit feature.indicates to me that the model has indeed physically changed. My apologies about the clarity. I find this stuff really difficult to explain in words.

You can not sell other's seat until you buy their company. And I think ~4k+ is the price you would find across US.

You can look at the maker's version (https://www.solidworks.com/solution/company-type/makers) which would be very low cost.

Considering your reality, it's really dumb of Solidworks not to at least address this one way or the other. It's like they are pretending Windows 11 doesn't exist! Two of the top three posts in a DuckDuckGo search for "Solidworks Windows 11" are Reddit, and the other is a blog post from Hawk Ridge Systems saying "WE HAVE NO IDEA EITHER". This page at least acknowledges future versions of Solidworks will be announcing whether or not they will be compatible, whenever they get around to announcing it.

SOLIDWORKS (up to 2021 SP 4.1) isn't supported to be installed on Windows 11. I'm guessing SP5 (to be released in the last week of October) will have Windows 11 compatibility. Just like it was with the release of 2015 SP5 on Windows 10.

Pre 2015 SP5 releases can be installed on Windows 10, but it goed compared with random issues.

Therfore I would wait a couple of weeks installing this new workstation.

https://www.solidworks.com/support/system-requirements

Look on solidworks website for supported gpus:

https://www.solidworks.com/support/hardware-certification/

The architecture for many 3D modeling gpus is different than your standard gpu. Even though gaming ones are decent computers, once you get into the thousands of parts category, these types of setups will start to run like shit. Honestly gaming laptops spend money in all the wrong places when it comes to 3D modeling. I really wouldn't get a gaming one. I recommend getting a quadro; solidworks really likes quadros in particular which you can see on the recommended hardware page. My work laptop has an rtx 4000 and it does just fine for a majority of situations.

Another thing to consider is that soldiworks cannot run multithread processes, minus a few exceptions like fea analysis or rebuilds I believe. So don't get conned into getting a threadripper or any high thread count. Go with highest clock speed over anything!

Sounds like you have the rest figured out. Best of luck to you in school! Remember to have fun, don't take yourself too seriously, and focus on your strengths, because real life cares about what you're good at!

Sending good vibes for you, sir.

​

Cheers!

GeForce is not certified for Solidworks. Quadro is recommended since they are certified. I have a Dell Precision 7550 with Quadro RTX 4000 myself.

https://www.solidworks.com/support/hardware-certification/

You can use a student version to take any of our exams. The certification will look the same, only certifications that are earned at one of our network of Academic Certification Provider Schools look different as they imprint the name of the school on the certificate.

Student version is $99 available at this link:

https://www.solidworks.com/product/students

Solidworks simulation definitely does have a learning curve to it.
The main thing you're going to have to learn is how to mesh the assembly properly, which can be difficult with very large assemblies.

Solidworks does have training on simulations:

https://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/806_ENU_HTML.htm

Give yourself like a week (two weeks max) to learn and get familiar with it.

Make sure you're very comfortable with statics and dynamics.

Good luck :)

There are differences in the software. Depending on how intense the work you are doing is going to be.

https://www.solidworks.com/sites/default/files/2020-04/EDU_ProductMatrix_2020.pdf

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Technically you are not "supposed" to use it for non-educational work.

But technically speaking, you aren't supposed to wear your underwear on the outside of your pants.

Hasn't stopped me though

As stated. Make sure you avoid the watermark.

Check out the mechatronics add-ons, things like Labview https://www.solidworks.com/partner-product/ni-labview

You can connect SOLIDWORKS models to physical data and do some pretty amazing things.

Agreed. If you’ve been using SW professionally for 6 years, I bet all you’d need is to look at the content that will be covered on the CSWP, brush up on or learn anything you don’t feel comfortable with, take the practice exam to get familiar, and take the real exam.

Good luck!

Sure.

The built in tutorials include surface modelling.

https://blogs.solidworks.com/solidworksblog/2013/05/get-more-with-solidworks-tutorials.html

There is a certification for advanced surfacing

https://www.solidworks.com/certifications/advanced-surfacing-cswpa-su

To be clear, this part is included in the samle exam for the CSWA exam itself and can be found here:

https://www.solidworks.com/sites/default/files/cswasampleexam.zip

This is not an actual exam model, and anyone asking for actual exam models shouldn't expect to find them posted by the original poster of this thread considering it's from a SOLIDWORKS User Group in Columbia which means we know the person understands that's not allowed!

Yeah i know about that site, i just find it very ... randomly distributed.

https://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/shareyourscore.htm

Comparing this to say pugets gpu roundup, https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/SOLIDWORKS-2020-SP1-GPU-Performance-1682/

GTX is 1070 is great for games, and *can* work with SW, albeit unreliably. If you have a SW reseller with tech support, they'll basically stop the call when they find you're using a GTX.

https://www.solidworks.com/support/hardware-certification
Just click on "[All] Supported Cards" and it'll give you a list.

​

Anyone have a good place to buy workstation cards? The selection has been pretty poor on Newegg, Amazon, Microcenter.... my usuals.

https://www.solidworks.com/sw/resources/solidworks-tutorials.htm this will get you started, and practice will teach you most everything else.
the thing to know about sw is there are many ways to create the same geometry with different tools. learning when to use what method for the best results is key. i have been using the software professionally for over 12 year, and there are still tasks that stump me, modules i don't know, and new technicians i am learning. you will probably never know it completely, but you can master the tools that your job needs.

Not a lawyer, but I deal with them. Daily, and at Thanksgiving.

It looks like you could release it as public domain and be ok.

SolidWorks 2015 Educational, etc Rules and Regs

From the 2015 agreement (definition 1a): “Educational Purpose” means classroom or laboratory learning by Qualified Students or instruction or preparation of courses by Qualified Instructors. Educational Purposes may also include Capstone or other student projects if the work is non-proprietary, does not create or transfer Intellectual Property and the results will become part of the public domain. Educational Purposes do not include Research Purposes, Commercial Purposes or Curriculum Development.

It seems like if you were using it to practice your skills, and you are releasing the file entirely into the wilds, you can give it away. You could probably even sell it, so long as you also give it away in the public domain - the "Commercial Purposes" restriction is really for using it in lieu of a real license for a company that would normally need a license to do business as you can see here (definition 1c):

“Commercial Purpose” means professional consulting, hardware production for resale, job shop activities, services performed under a Technical Services Agreement, corporate or government internships, private tutoring or training of anyone other than Qualified Students.

I don't think designs for 3d printing on a hobby forum is a concern of theirs, as there isn't much business to be captures there.

Hi /u/ddoherty958,

The sort of performance drop you describe is something I have come to expect from either 1) an occupied GPU, or 2) and underpowered GPU. It might be something as easy as updating a GPU driver (from here: https://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/videocardtesting.html) to get your performance back to working order.

for network license: If you have more computers than people, and the people change computers. network licence makes sense. if you have alot of computers and alot of people at the same location (or network / VPN) network licence makes sence. if you have a handfull of people all using dedicated machines, than to me standalone installs make sense.

​

use the compare features button (https://www.solidworks.com/product/solidworks-3d-cad)

​

i enjoy the solidworks PDM system (document and model control) and the professional (iirc) comes with a licence to use it.

I got my CSWP just before finishing school. Whether it helps find work is really dependent on the company, but it can't hurt to have it even if they don't care. In my case, my current employer doesn't; but I keep taking more tests; I got Drawing Tools last year, and will take the weldment test soon.

As for studying, just go to the Cert website and build things that use the features listed in whatever test you plan on taking next. The practice exams are helpful too, but the actual tests are harder.

The certification vouchers that you get from an active Solidworks subscription can't be used for the CSWE exam. They can only be used for CSWA, CSWP and CSWP advanced exams. I don't know if an educational subscription is any different.

https://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/certification-offers-subscription-service-customer.htm

Hi /u/stinjoshua,

The general prices of each Simulation package in the United States are these:

You would purchase these through your local reseller (you can find one here: https://www.solidworks.com/sw/purchase/varlocator.htm). If you want to know what comes in each Simulation package this matrix is a good outline of general functionality (https://www.solidworks.de/sw/products/simulation/matrix.htm).

Tech support is definitely not my part of the business, but as a former user one of the things I discovered is that it's not always about having the most current driver as it is about having the certified driver instead. Check this site and use the recommended driver even if it's an older one:

https://www.solidworks.com/sw/videocardtesting.html

If I were in your shoes, I would start with a single sketch to wrap my head around the kinematics. as Elrathias said, start with the fixed points.

This is just a matter of assigning lengths to sketch lines, defining coincidence relationships at their end points, and fixing two points.

If you don't know how to create a sketch, dimensions lines, and add constraints, no one here can convey that better than the introductory tutorials.

They (Solidworks) are discontinuing Workgroup PDM. 2017 will be the last release to include it I believe. WPDM is being replaced by PDM Standard, which as stated above, is based on SQL Express, rather than Windows Explorer. Enterprise PDM or EPDM has been renamed to PDM Pro. PDM Standard comes with SW Pro and Premium, Pro is a separate purchase. Standard can only have 1 Workflow and one location, Pro can have as many workflows as you want and can be multi-site. There are other differences, but those are the two big ones. Source - I'm an AE for a Solidworks VAR.

Edit: Here's the product comparison if interested. https://www.solidworks.com/sw/products/product-data-management/data-management-matrix.htm

Thier website says that only 2015 and 2016 will work on windows 10. So I would assume 2012 is out.

https://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/SystemRequirements.html

Now, i don't know if that means, absolutely won't work at all or just might be buggy and they don't want to officially support it. Only one way to find out.

This is correct. PDM Standard is EPDM "Lite". It will function just like EDPM on Windows SQL Express, but it will be missing the high end bells and whistles. It runs on Widows SQL Express which is free (the full SQL license is the majority of the cost of EPDM as I understand it), but SQL Express is limited to only 10GB of data.

I believe that SW is hoping folks will start to PDM Standard and then run past 10GB of data, and then migrate to full EPDM. Just be aware of that.

Link to the SW PDM Matrix:

https://www.solidworks.com/sw/products/product-data-management/data-management-matrix.htm

Link to the SQL Express Page:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/products/sql-server-editions/sql-server-express.aspx

Literally the only thing that matters is that if it's a supported card. You can run intense graphics-heavy projects with a high-end card all you want, but it doesn't mean that it'll play nicely with SOLIDWORKS. Check the specs:

https://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/videocardtesting.html

PDMworks still exist as a file management system and it is just apart of solidworks package. EPDM is a third party software that solidworks endorses (much like electworks, though they deny any connection).

Here is the office website for PDMworks (officially know as Solidworks Workgroup PDM)

GoEngineer, if I were to target the power generation industry, like gas turbines, steam turbines or turbine blade design and manufacturing, from that ANSYS training list would you still recommend that same course - basic structural nonlinearities? I am targeting the power generation industry, I thought I would like to know your thoughts.

Here is the ANSYS Training link - http://www.ansys.com/Services/training-center/structures

Maybe with the COMSOL suite there is a tool to do it but otherwise i really think you are going to struggle to come up with a way to MODEL fractal corrosion patterns while taking flow meandering and internal surface flow-pressure into account. http://www.comsol.com/corrosion-module

Maybe these examples can point you in the right direction:

>The model performs a static analysis on a piezoelectric actuator based on the movement of a cantilever beam, using the Piezoelectric Devices predefined multiphysics interface. Inspired by work done by V. Piefort and A. Benjeddou, it models a sandwich beam using the shear mode of the piezoelectric material to deflect the tip.

And:

>The change of measured resistance under the longitudinal stress component is called longitudinal piezoresistivity. The relative change of measured resistance to the longitudinal strain is called the longitudinal gauge factor. On the other hand, the change of resistance under transverse strain components is called transverse piezoresistivity. The relative change of measured resistance to the transverse strain is called the transverse gauge factor.

This is an interesting method of sharing files utilizing onshape. https://www.onshape.com/cad-blog/video-using-onshape-alongside-solidworks?utm_campaign=Onboarding&utm_source=hs_automation&utm_medium=email&utm_content=28503148&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9y8ccu4P70pJa1tfYCxtyADVm80w0jeZTy5VG52uTQUfwpbWTO4j4LG...

Glad that's helpful. If your budget allows, a space mouse with assigned buttons on the left hand is the best arrangement I've found yet. https://www.amazon.com/3Dconnexion-3DX-700040-SpaceMouse-Pro-Mouse/dp/B006GPZ17K/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=space+mouse&qid=1623881802&sprefix=space+mou&sr=8-6

i love my Evoluent Mouse. it takes so much stain off your wrist during the Heavy CAD days. https://www.amazon.com/Evoluent-VM4R-VerticalMouse-Ergonomic-Connection/dp/B00427TAIK/ref=sr_1_16?dchild=1&keywords=vertical+mouse&qid=1622556021&sr=8-16

I had to go with a cheap gaming card in ours, but that Quadro will be better.

I paired ours with this TCL TV and it looks like the Quadro I recommended supports 4K@60hz as well. If you can budget the TV it's an awesome upgrade. Just make sure you get a 4K@60hz cable/adapter!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08DHDS4T3/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_PM937B5HCXSJ8H207ANA

Mainly because a sketch pattern leads to a more complex sketch (my main complaint about this frog tutorial).

There are some occasions where a sketch pattern makes sense, but usually a feature pattern is a better solution (same applies to sketch fillets).

But don't not take my word for it. I was browsing through one of Matt Lombard's books recently and came across this advice regarding sketch patterns:

"You should use sketch patterns as little as possible. For many of the same reasons that fillet features are preferred over sketch fillets, pattern features are preferred over sketch patterns. Sketch patterns are not as editable or as flexible as feature patterns. They solve slowly, especially when you pattern many entities. Best practice is to avoid sketch patterns unless there is no alternative." -Matt Lombard

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B53_jDvCShj-eUJQWjBqeEFUaWc/edit?usp=sharing

I uploaded it through drive. Tell me if I uploaded it wrong somehow. So what I'm basically trying to do is get the metal petals to sort of bend upwards to make a flower design. The problem is every time I run the simulation I always get "Large displacement message". But, if I run it with the large displacement setting I always get "solver failed". Thank you for looking at my project!

Maybe look into this. Not sure about AMD or the 1070ti. Just good specs for your money.

https://slickdeals.net/f/12175663-cyberpowerpc-game-master-desktop-ryzen-7-2700x-16gb-ddr4-gtx-1070-ti-1139?src=SiteSearchV2_SearchBarV2Algo1

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/comments/9rws5v/prebuilt_cyberpowerpc_pc_amd_ryzen_7_2700x_37ghz/

I never liked the tutorials personally.

This is a good book...it's a few years old but still covers almost everything you could want to do...and it's like $6 because it's old: https://www.amazon.com/SOLIDWORKS-2016-Advanced-Techniques-Paul/dp/1630570028/

I've spent the last couple of years trying to make a good YouTube channel for learning SolidWorks. Admittedly it's far from perfect but maybe it will help you: https://www.youtube.com/@MAKER_GURU

This one from Matt Lombard would be a good one. based on 2018 version, but guessing nothing much if anything changed, so still highly relevant.
https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-SolidWorks-Matt-Lombard-ebook/dp/B07JZX7K6T/ref=zg\_mg\_3939\_1?\_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=6HDZY22S2SQPSFBH1G5Q

I've been there with pains - Spacemouse . . . believe the hype. Although I'm assuming you have the use of both hands? If so, then transferring all the model-rotating to your other hand with a Spacemouse will help you a lot. Not cheap but they're built like a tank and should last you 10 years, unless it gets stolen.

Also, exercises taken from the e-sports gaming world have helped me a lot. A good example.

Yeah, everything should be fine with it. I can actually subtract it if I scale the part by 1.03%, which is odd. Maybe indicative of some slivers of geometry that arent showing up? Honestly not sure.

Heres the geo in .step: http://www.filedropper.com/rawgeo

Thanks so much man!

I prefer having a num pad. I’ve been happy with the Corsair K55. It’s kinda big, but I like the num pad, macro keys and the RGB lighting is neat I guess.

So I had an MRI done ages ago (don't recall the reason) and asked for the DICOM file of the scan. Then I used <strong>DroidRender</strong> to build & export the 3D model, which was way too detailed for SOLIDWORKS, so I simplified the polygon count in PrusaSlicer before importing that in...