SOLIDWORKS 2016 Beta Arriving Soon!!

Each new release of SOLIDWORKS is preceded by a beta program. The idea is to allow users to try the new functionality, and lets SOLIDWORKS gather the feedback before the release is finalized. DS SOLIDWORKS is gearing up for releasing SOLIDWORKS 2016 Beta (will be launched in late June 2015).

You are under a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) during the Beta period. You cannot share any information about the prototype SOLIDWORKS products during this period.

SOLIDWORKS 2016 includes hundreds of new user-driven enhancements that will help you:

• Design – Focus on your design, not the software
• Validate – Solve complex problems faster and easier
• Collaborate – Streamline your parallel design processes
• Build – Fast-track your designs to manufacturing

But “Why one should Participate”??

The Beta Program is your opportunity to influence the quality, performance, and usability of SOLIDWORKS products. The R&D and management teams want to hear from you, and they are available to listen and react to your feedback in the Beta Forum. SOLIDWORKS beta team appreciate the valuable time you invest in testing SOLIDWORKS software. And as a way of thanking you for your efforts, there are several exciting contests where you can win valuable prizes.

DS SOLIDWORKS‘s Team’s objective is to provide you with early access to the next version of SOLIDWORKS so you tell them about issues specific to your environment, data and workflows that would impact your migration experience.

But what Else??

• Test-drive new & enhanced products
• Connect with the community
• Interact with the R&D and management teams
• Show off your skills & gain recognition – over 100 prizes!

How to Participate

SOLIDWORKS 2016 Beta programs will be listed on this page as they become available. Register for Beta by creating a Customer Portal account or update your existing account settings to join Beta. Select “Notify me of Beta Programs” in your Customer Portal profile.

Your SOLIDWORKS Subscription Service status must be valid and active in order to participate in Beta Programs.

What is included?

1. Access to Beta Downloads
2. Beta Forum access where you can contribute to public discussions with other participants and SOLIDWORKS staff
3. Problem reporting

Get more details here and join today. If you have any questions then please email the SOLIDWORKS Beta Team at beta@solidworks.com or visit http://www.solidworks.com/beta

Take a Chance* at Winning a DraftSight Prize Pack!

Take a Chance* at Winning a DraftSight Prize Pack!

Fifteen lucky winners will be randomly selected to win a DraftSight Prize Pack from the group of respondents that answer the 4 questions correctly. The prize pack includes a DraftSight OGIO® Backpack, a t-shirt, a mouse pad, pen, and post-it note pack (see contest terms and conditions below for more details).

Start the contest* now by answering the 4 questions. Good luck!

DraftSight™ is a free* 2D CAD product that lets  professional CAD users, students and educators create, edit and view DWG files. DraftSight runs on Windows^®, Mac^®, and Linux^®. 

* This challenge is sponsored by Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS Corporation. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT IMPROVE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. Open only to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, 21 years and older. Void elsewhere and where prohibited. Challenge ends May 11, 2015. Subject to complete Official Rules. Click here to see the contest’s terms and conditions. Click here to see the Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS Corp. privacy policy.

Fixing eDrawings SOLIDWORKS Document Manager Issue

eDrawings is free software that lets you view and print eDrawings (eDRW, ePRT, eASM), native SOLIDWORKS documents (sldprt, sldasm, slddrw) , DXF, and DWG format files.

The eDrawings Viewer is intended primarily for people who do not use CAD software and thus do not need to publish eDrawings files themselves. This means people can use this program even if they don’t have SOLIDWORKS. But some people might see following error while running eDrawings on their machine.

If you get similar error then it is possibly related to either SOLIDWORKS Document Manager older version or SOLIDWORKS Document Manager is not installed on your machine. As per SOLIDWORKS Knowledge base* (SPR #: 627955), this issue is related to mainly x64 machines. To fix simply install the latest version of SOLIDWORKS Document Manager. You can download latest version of SOLIDWORKS Document Manager here.

Please report back to your VAR if you’re still getting the error message even after installing/updating SOLIDWORKS Document Manager.

*Active subscription required to access SOLIDWORKS Knowledge base

SOLIDWORKS 2015 SP 3.0 EV (Early Visibility) is available for download

SOLIDWORKS 2015 SP 3.0 EV is available for download

This service pack is now available to Subscription Service customers. To download, click here or log into the SOLIDWORKS Customer Portal at https://customerportal.SOLIDWORKS.com and click Download Software and Updates to get access to the update.

Also make sure you’re registered for Early Visibility Program*

For registering for Early Visibility Program, log into your SOLIDWORKS Portal account, go to my profile and select the option “Notify me for EV (Early Visibility) access” under My Preferences.

*P.S: Login required for access. Full access requires an active Subscription Service contract.

Notes:

– Performance reporting is turned on for EV releases.
– Report critical problems to SOLIDWORKS Technical Support at evis@SOLIDWORKS.com
– The full version is scheduled 3-4 weeks after the EV version and is subject to change without notice.

Fixing Diameter Symbol Displaying As MOD-DIAM instead of ø in SOLIDWORKS

I have seen that lot of people are having issues where symbols have changed to the scripts instead of display as symbols specially the Diameter symbol which instead of showing as ø, show up as <MOD-DIAM>.

OR even getting error message for missing Gtol.sym file.

Where as this is the correct behavior.

So let’s talk about different options to fix it.

1. Save and close all active files in SOLIDWORKS and restart it. This should fix the issue.

2. If you’re seeing the issue again then make sure there is no another instance/session of hidden SOLIDWORKS running in the background (could be a session that didn’t closed completely).

3. If 1 and 2 doesn’t help then either Gtol.sym file is missing OR corrupted.

For system running versions older than 2014, make sure that Gtol.sym is under C:\Program Files\SOLIDWORKS Corp 20XX\SOLIDWORKS\lang\English folder (path may vary in different version of SOLIDWORKS but make sure it located under \SOLIDWORKS\lang\English folder).

For versions 2014 and above, the default path is C:\Program Data*\SOLIDWORKS\SOLIDWORKS Corp 20XX\lang\English folder but you can opt for any folder location and map the path under Tools > Options > System Options > File Locations > Symbol Library File. In case there are multiple users, once can place the file in a common place that everyone can access.

* Program Data is a hidden folder by default. So make sure you’ve “Show Hidden Files, Folder, drives” checked as shown below.

 

In case you’re unable to find the file in the location mentioned above then you can copy it from different machine OR download here and copy to your machine in appropriate folder. Further make sure that you’ve mapped the file path correctly under Tools > Options > System Options > File Locations > Symbol Library File

SOLIDWORKS Macro: Open Model From Active Drawing

Name/Size:	Open Model From Active Drawing	31k
Version/Date:	1.0	03/27/2015
Programmer/Copyright:	Deepak Gupta	www.gupta9665.com
Description:	Macro to open/activate part/assembly model from current active drawing similar to open part/assembly option when you click on a view. The macro will open model being referenced by first view.

All macros will be updated/made for SOLIDWORKS 2015. In case you’re running a different version then update/correct the macro reference as suggested here (don’t worry on the fact that video is for fixing missing library error but check the process to update your macro library) : Fix-Update SOLIDWORKS Macro References

SOLIDWORKS World 2015 Presentations are available now!

I hope every enjoyed their time at SOLIDWORKS World 2015 at the Phoenix Convention Center, Phoenix, AZ.

It was great to be a part of the event and meeting lot of friends from all over the world.

This year also there were lot of interesting presentations and hands on sessions were conducted by various professionals including SOLIDWORKS employees, SOLIDWORKS Users and SOLIDWORKS VARs. A total of 162 sessions, wow this is enormous. And like everyone, I was also waiting for them to get these presentations upload for access to everyone.

So the wait is over now and the SOLIDWORKS World 2015 presentations are available now:.

Be sure to take full advantage of this year’s proceedings site. View General Session highlights and event highlights, watch breakout session videos and download breakout session PowerPoints, as well as share and see photos from this year’s event.

I hope to meet you again at SOLIDWORKS World 2016 in Dallas from January 31st – February 3rd, 2016.

P.S. The copyrights of the video content on this website are owned by Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. Unless otherwise specified, Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. only grants you the right to view the video content on this website

Show Off your SOLIDWORKS Skills with these cool Certification T-Shirts

SOLIDWORKS certifications can be used as a benchmark to measure your knowledge and competency with SOLIDWORKS software. Earning a SOLIDWORKS certification helps you stand out among your peers.

Now you can stand out even more with a shirt that shows everyone that you are indeed SOLIDWORKS Certified.These high quality shirts feature a high quality embroidered certification logo on a Dark heather 50/50 Cotton/Poly blend t-shirts.

Pick up out of CSWA, CSWP, or CSWE shirts which suits your style and skills.

All you need to do is select your certification level, enter your certificate ID number, and then place your order. With just $20 price, only one shirt is limited to buy per order.

Get SOLIDWORKS Certified today and grab one of these cool T-Shirts!!

SOLIDWORKS World 2015 Model Mania powered by NVIDIA

Model Mania is a SOLIDWORKS modeling contest for the resellers and users held during SOLIDWORKS World. This is a timed event that tests the ability to model a part then make some engineering changes to the model.  Usually, each contestant has 20 minutes to model the part and make the changes.  Prizes (sponsored by NVIDIA ) are awarded for the top 3 contestants in each category (Resellers and Users).

All of the entries are judged on accuracy first, and time second, because in the real world, it doesn’t matter how fast you get something done if it’s not right.

Here are the Stage 1 and 2 drawings for this year’s SOLIDWORKS World Model Mania contest.

The awesome prizes sponsored by NVIDIA

And finally congrats to all the winners

I enjoyed and had a great time at SOLIDWORKS World 2015 and I hope to meet you again at SOLIDWORKS World 2016 in Dallas from January 31st – February 3rd, 2016.

SOLIDWORKS World 2015 Top Ten List

Every year SOLIDWORKS users around the world submit their ideas on how SOLIDWORKS software can be improved further to meet their needs and requirements. Users are allowed to submit as many idea as they want. This year close to 972 ideas were submitted (almost twice than what was done last year) and then users are requested to vote for best ideas. Based on the voting, top ideas are picked for the SOLIDWORKS World Top Ten list.

 

I always try to add ides/enhancement request based on what I feel can be used by most SOLIDWORKS users. Bruce Holway, SOLIDWORKS R&D Application Define Director, introduced the results in a video featuring cameos from SOLIDWORKS World 2015 keynote speakers.

This year’s Top Ten ideas include:

1. Support zero thickness geometry

2. Bidirectional sweep

3. Export sheet metal parts of an assembly to dxf/dwg in flat state

4. Selection list box is too small; should be bigger or flexible in size

5. Display the exact item causing the error

6. Ability to make the inferred relations permanent in sketch

7. Selecting inner loops on a selected face

8. Both direction pattern

9. Topology optimization from Tosca for all engineers

10. Variable pull direction draft

I enjoyed and had a great time at SOLIDWORKS World 2015 and I hope to meet you again at SOLIDWORKS World 2016 in Dallas from January 31st – February 3rd, 2016.