Catch Up on the Best of SOLIDWORKS

Discover hundreds of parts, assemblies, drawings, and user experience enhancements added to the last five SOLIDWORKS releases

Each year SOLIDWORKS introduces significant enhancements focused on improving your daily design productivity. With so much to learn each year, it’s understandable to miss a feature or two.

Not to worry, the below videos have you covered with the best parts, assemblies, drawings, and user experience enhancements included in the last FIVE SOLIDWORKS releases.

Parts Catch-Up: 2020-2024

Check out part modeling features and workflows, including Stud Wizard, 3D Texture, and Color Picker

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Drawings Catch-Up: 2020-2024

See new drawing workflows and capabilities, including BOM Filters, GTOL interface, and Detailing Mode

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Assemblies Catch-Up: 2020-2024

View new assembly workflows and increased performance, including Atomic STEP, Magnetic Mates, Faster Open, and Graphic Times

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User Experience Catch-Up: 2020-2024

Explore enhancements to everyday user experience, including S-Key Command Search, Hide/Show reference geometry, and Comments

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Learning about new features is just the beginning. Contact us to take your design skills to the next level.

Part description missing from "Save as" menu in SolidWorks

Some may have encountered a problem in SolidWorks where in the “Save as” menu, the description for the part is missing.  To fix this you must have administrator privileges on the computer.

Search for the file “sldpropertyhandler.dll”.  This file is typically located under Program Files, SolidWorks Corp, SolidWorks.  Once found, note the location

Open the command prompt.  For Windows 8 users, press the window key and type “command” and it should appear on the right hand side. 

Once the command prompt is open, type the following:

 regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\SolidWorks Corp\SolidWorks\sldpropertyhandler.dll"

Press Enter.

A pop-up window will appear stating the action has succeeded.  That command ensures that the target file is registered in the Windows Registry.

Now when you try to save a file in SolidWorks, the description box should appear.

SolidWorks Patterns and Pattern Enhancements (New in SolidWorks 2014)

Highlight Seed Feature

To identify a seed feature in a pattern more easily, click the pattern in the Feature Manager Design tree. The seed highlights in a different color from the pattern instances as shown below. Pattern instances are highlighted in Selected Item 1 color, and seeds in Selected Item 2 color. You can change these colors by clicking Tools > Options > Colors.

 

Display Tooltips with Pattern Information

You can display a tooltip about a pattern as shown in the image below. When you set this system option, information displays when you hover over the pattern name in the Feature Manager Design tree. Information about the pattern includes:

•   Pattern name
•   Pattern type 
•    All seeds used to create the pattern
•    Spacing and number of instances for Direction 1 and Direction 2
•     Instances skipped
•     Instances varied

Click Tools > Options. On the System Options tab, click Display/Selection and select or clear Display pattern information tooltips.

Multibody Support for Pattern and Mirror Features

When pattern or mirror features split single bodies into multiple bodies, you can select which bodies to keep using the Bodies to Keep dialog box as shown below. You can also specify which configurations to keep up to date. Previously, the SolidWorks software randomly selected bodies to keep.

Pattern enhancements for Assembly

Curve and Sketch Driven Patterns

You can define curve driven and sketch driven patterns for assemblies. Curve driven patterns can contain tangential lines to locate components driven by a curve. Sketch driven patterns can contain a centroid or a selected point to locate components driven by a sketch. Previously, these patterns were available for parts only.

Pattern Driven Patterns

You can create a pattern using an underlying component pattern. The Feature Driven Pattern has been renamed to Pattern Driven Pattern because it is no longer limited to

features. You can use a component, in addition to a feature, to drive a pattern driven pattern. The component can be in the same assembly or within a sub-assembly. The component can also be driven by an assembly-level pattern such as a Linear, Circular or Hole Wizard series, or by a feature driven pattern.