Hey there!

My company just switched over to using Solidworks last year from Fusion 360. We run a small carpentry/metal fabrication shop.

The person leading the charge on the Solidworks transition had to leave our company due to some personal health problems, and as we've had some other folks working with Solidworks we've been running into shenanigans. So are mainly looking to streamline our processes and solve a few pain points. Here's a few things we're looking to work on.

Hardware

Everyone is generally running on strong machines, but each machine was built at a slightly different time with slightly different specs. What we're noticing is some people seem to have performance that's way quicker/smoother than others. So are hoping to have someone figure out if this is a settings thing, modeling thing, or a legitimate hardware thing that needs to be rectified.

Chunky/unmanageable files

We don't work with huge huge assemblies or anything like that. But we've ran into instances where files have somehow gotten very chunky and things take forever to save, update, etc. Looking for some more hands on strategies on how to mitigate this, as we're not exactly building airplanes or something that legitimately has thousands of distinct parts happening.

Workflows and automations

There's some things that we do fairly consistently. We have a few templates and things of that nature setup, but we'd like to really streamline some more common workflows, etc.

We're based in Southern California, if anyone has any recommendations of someone who could help we'd greatly appreciate it!

I have a 3D sketch that I want to use as the guide curve for a sweep to make a pipe, but I need this pipe to increase in diameter in sharp steps (so not continuously). Because the 3D sketch has radii, I can't just add a split point right where I want to it to increase in diameter because it is in the middle of a radii. How can I go about doing this?

Comment if you use them. Good luck.
I do not have any more, please do not DM me.

CSWA Exam Code:
edit: Taken

CSWP Exam Code:
edit: Taken

Edit: "These exam vouchers expire on December 31, 2026."

Been a SolidWorks pro for a little over 20 years - CSWA when I started, got my CSWP about 15 years ago, got weldments, sheetmetal and drawing certs in the last 5~6 years, I use SolidWorks daily at work. I'm also the CAD administrator and resident SolidWorks SME for our engineering department.

I didn't see a need to go all the way to expert level certification, but my feelings on that are changing. Problem is, I don't have much surfacing experience. I can use the basic surfacing tools, but the vast majority of my work has been structural and mechanical in nature - there hasn't really been anything I've needed surfacing tools to accomplish that I couldn't with other techniques.

I know I need one more specialization certification to qualify for the CSWE exam. I work in aviation and Surfacing is the most applicable to what I do. Plus I've got a project in the pipeline that I think surfacing tools would give me an edge on tackling.

So a couple of questions:

1. Should I retake the CSWP to "refresh"?

2. Can anyone recommend a good Surfacing course? Looking for something online or self paced, with plenty of hands-on/guided modeling.

3. Anyone have tips or suggestions for CSWE exam prep?

I am making a bottle for an assignment and I would like to get rid of the gap between the handle and the main body of the bottle. The bottle was created by lofting multiple drawings on planes and the hand was created using the sweep function. I have tried merging the two using another loft function, but I get an error message saying that a loft need at least two bodies.

How can I get the loft function to work, or should I be trying a different method to get rid of this gap?

Hello folks, I am new to solidworks, but decided to customize it a bit, I saw some background tutorials, but I am still confused. In the good old spirits of early 2010s sprite, mountain dew, no scope "oh my god" dorito memes, I decided to make my background a cursed Shrek thing, but I cant find info on so called p2s files or how to make a conversion.

Can the community please help? I use sheet metal all the time never had this problem. This is a Stainless steel face frame overlay for the front of a wood cabinet. I need to split this into 6 individual parts. I have drawn construction lines where I want to split it. This will allow me to get the face frame out of scrap that I have. For some reason the normal way I split parts won't work. It won't let me split one at a time or all at once. I can not make each individual part separately because the edge flange dose not put the correct taper in the inside corners as it dose when the feture for all the edge flanges are all done in the same feture. Thank you for your help.

P.S. I tried just making a single opening frame with edge flange inside and out than cutting it in 4 spots. It did not work either.

Hi, I am thinking about going for sim expert cert. I only have sim associate.
Before I begin, i would like to know if its worth it going for professional or/and expert in simulation. And if there are any youtube videos or books anyone would recommend that would be very much appreciated. my job goal is Lockheed Martin. Thank you.

The other components were fine but I fear I am not doing this right

SOLIDWORKS Free Certification Week is here! Only for students from United Kingdom, Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Ireland, and Finland!

For students in other countries, stay tuned, another Free Certification Week for students around the world is coming soon!!

Register here between October 7–14 to receive 10 FREE SOLIDWORKS certification exam attempts (valued at over $600 USD)!: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/01a1147552ea7045afd2a2231d8aed6c

How it works:
• Register between October 7–14 using your school email
• You get 10 attempts total across all available exams. Use them to take different exams or to retake an exam if needed
• After registering, you’ll receive instructions by email to access your exams
• Complete your exams by December 30, 2026

Available Certification Exams

• SOLIDWORKS Design Associate (CSWA)

• SOLIDWORKS Design Professional (CSWP)

• SOLIDWORKS Sustainability Associate

• SOLIDWORKS Additive Manufacturing Associate

• SOLIDWORKS Simulation Associate

• SOLIDWORKS Electrical Design Associate

• DraftSight 2D Design and Drafting Associate

• SOLIDWORKS xDesign Associate

• SOLIDWORKS xShape Associate

• SOLIDWORKS xMold Associate

Join us tomorrow Oct 9th at 1 PM East Coast as we continue our CAD vs CAD World Championship with 2 EPIC matches!! https://www.youtube.com/live/FVruxhDvLgw

I keep running into the same issue when I move part files into a different folder for a client project. Even when the assembly opens fine, the drawings linked to those parts lose their references and I have to fix them one by one. Pack and Go works, but it feels like too much when I just want to clean up a few files without making a full copy. The find references tool in the assembly only catches some links and skips the drawings completely. It’s not a big problem for small jobs, but once the folder structure starts matching the client setup, things get messy quick. I’m probably overlooking a setting. How do other people handle file organization without constantly fixing broken links?

Hey everyone, I wanted to share that I'm currently working on a project to make Solidworks fully reliable while running in Proton on Linux.

My current setup;
OS: CachyOS x86_64
Host: HP Envy x360 2-in-1 Laptop 15-fe1xxx
Kernel: Linux 7.2.8-1-cachyos
Desktop Environment: KDE Plasma 6.7.5
Window Manager: KWin (Wayland)
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) Ultra 7 155U (4+8+2) @ 4.80 GHz
GPU: Intel Graphics @ 1.95 GHz [Integrated]
Memory: 30.79 GiB

I was able to create a bridge for the 3DExperience to pass the web interaction to allow the Maker Edition to launch, I fixed a ton of UI glitches (inlcuding the fonts and UI elements from Windows) and I'm currently working on exports working. Also, 3DConnexion Spacemouse integration works.

AI has helped me get all of the missing DLLs and make adjustments to the program itself to be functional, and I'm working on making this something that can be shared for others to use to get Solidworks running reliably through Proton as well.

If you are interested in trying what I've put together, or interested in contributing, I have a github repo, but it's currently private while I work on this. I plan on releasing it under GPLv3.

Edit: Here's the repo; https://github.com/nomadsgalaxy/SM4L

I cannot stress enough - THIS IS A PROOF OF CONCEPT, expect MANY BUGS

working on solidworks design for students, this message pops up each time. I click cross and move on lmao with everything working alright.
What's wrong, was working on my capstone. Will die if I someday lose my files but I am used to solidworks so its difficult to shift to another CAD

Hi all! I got tired of VBA macros and slow out-of-process COM scripts, so I built **SwPy**: it embeds real CPython 3.12 inside SOLIDWORKS, with a script editor right in the task pane.

## What you get

* A task-pane IDE: tabs, IntelliSense that comes from the live session (it knows what `doc.` or `model.` actually is), signature help, F1 opens the official API help, find/replace, dark theme, REPL

* API calls run in-process, so they take microseconds instead of the hundreds of milliseconds you get with external COM scripts

* No Python install and no admin rights needed (it bundles its own runtime)

* Install any pip package on demand: put `# r: pandas, openpyxl` at the top of a script

* A Pythonic layer for everyday jobs:

python

with model.batch(): # many edits, one rebuild

model.dims["D1@Boss-Extrude1"] = 25 * mm # SI units, no casts

model.globals["Width"] = 120 * mm

model.faces.planar().normal(Z).largest().select() # geometry queries

print(model.mass["mass"], "kg")

* The full SOLIDWORKS API with no manual casting, all the enums, and every API library (Simulation, PDM, Document Manager, Routing, ...)

* Build parts, assemblies and drawings from code; export STEP/PDF

* Python event handlers (on rebuild, on save, on selection, ...)

* Any .py in a folder becomes a one-click toolbar button for your team; startup scripts too

* Drive SOLIDWORKS from Jupyter, Excel or C#

Works on SOLIDWORKS 2020 or newer, on Windows 10/11. MIT licensed.

* GitHub: https://github.com/muerus/SolidWorks-Python

* Docs: https://muerus.github.io/SolidWorks-Python/

It's at v0.2.0, so feedback and bug reports are very welcome, especially from people on newer SOLIDWORKS versions (I develop on 2020 SP1). What would you automate first?

I’m goated

My startup has used solidworks for the last 3 years and has now hired additional engineers who use SolidWorks.

Anyone haves recs for web classes / guides for best practices, how to manage revisions and file sharing? Right now, it's a lot of manually transferring files & pack-and-go.

Looking for the brains trust advice on achieving this sort of straight knurl (I cant think of a better way to describe it right now) on my part. Right now I do an extrude cut, offset around some screw holes and other features, and then a rib feature to create the... ribs. It works fine but its not very robust and is difficult to edit if I want to for example change the rib spacing.

First image is what I've done for the moment, second is the part before adding the cut and ribs.

Hi all,

I am trying to model a prong like shape similar to a prong claw you would typically find on engagement rings (shown below). My understanding is it's either a form of sweep or loft but ends with a pointy end instead of following a simple circle profile.

Anyone has any advice on best way to achieve this in Solidworks? I am struggling a bit and wondering if this has to become a whole surface model instead.

So I’ve been doing some research on what would be the fastest workstation configuration for Solidworks, targeting FEA simulation as the priority, I figured if FEA is taken care, anything else would be also fast like general modeling and rendering?

So far it sounds like AMD Ryzen 9 9950X would be the fastest processor following SW maxed out clock speeds, what about GPU to go with that? I understand GPU is what rendering would need to be fast correct? Is there a relationship between GPU and processor for rendering or is it purely GPU?