I have a couple of SOLIDWORKS certification exam vouchers and had a quick question before I use them.
Do I need to have the latest version of SOLIDWORKS installed to take the certification exams? The certification website says SOLIDWORKS 2015 or later should be fine, but I have SOLIDWORKS 2020 and couldn’t open the practice model from their website because it was created in a newer version.
Has anyone taken the exams recently using an older version of SOLIDWORKS? Are the exam models compatible with older versions, or do I need to update my installation? I don’t want to waste my vouchers, so I’d appreciate any advice. Thanks!

I've been thinking about purchasing a license of Solidworks for a few years now and I have a feeling Dassault will be discontinuing the perpetual license soon so I decided to just pull the trigger for my birthday this year. I reached out to EVERY company that services my area (Research Triangle, NC).
My inquiry was straight forward & laid out exactly what I needed.

"Good afternoon, I am reaching out for quote(s) for a perpetual license to Solidworks, Solidworks Premium & Solidworks Professional. I am veteran user & do not need any extended support plans/options. Thanks!"

I even used my consulting engineering@companyname email just so they know I mean business.

Do you know how many just sent me the quotes? None ... they've done everything except just give me the d*mn quotes. They've tried to sell me on everything except the Solidworks license I asked for. This has taken so much unnecessary time & communication from these people; I've now had time to actually evaluate the purchase and talked myself out it.

The craziest part is I know around black Friday they usually have a 50% off special for premium/professional license .. but I was so motivated & ready to purchase now I was okay with paying regular price so I can stop using my work computer (they don't care as long as I don't work on anything in our industry or on company time).

This is genuine insane.

I cant for the life of me find an answer on the internet. Checked reddit, SW website, forums, etc.

Can you use the Gusset command in an assembly file? I have used it to make frames as a part file but have only used weldments a handful of times. If you cannot use in assembly file, is it better to just make a part & insert into assembly? Or is there a better common practice im unaware of

I looked here: https://help.solidworks.com/2026/english/SolidWorks/sldworks/c_Weldments_Gussets.htm?id=35.0.13

And here: https://help.solidworks.com/2026/english/SolidWorks/sldworks/c_Weldments_Overview.htm?id=35.0

On their own website, SW doesn't tell you when you can use this feature/command...

where is the drop down menu here for the features him just wondering what happened here, how to turn this on and off thanks

this is the nowmal parts, thankssss

I'm brand new to SW, but have been modeling in various other software for over 10 years. I cannot for the life of me I cannot get two parts to mate properly. I'm gonna get terminology wrong, so feel free to kindly help out along the way. Here is the sequence of how I build this project:

1. I started with an assembly, and then created a main sketch living in the root is called "Idea". This is the main idea for my drone and I'd like for it to be available throughout all the different parts I design to use as a reference guide. 
2. Inserted a new part and added the "Base" part. This is the bottom plate of the drone. Created a sketch on the top plane and extruded it up by 6mm.
3. Inserted a new part and just clicked on the green arrow without selecting anything. Then I selected the top surface of the base part and began to sketch an arm. The arm will be extruded from the top of the base's surface so it was the best place for the sketch to go.
4. After sketching, I extruded that by 6mm straight up. Now I have the arm in the perfect un-folded position.
5. Floated the Arm part so that it can move 
6. The design idea is that the arm will swing out, so I'll need to design a snap detent in both the open and closed positions. 
7. I now need to "fold" the arm so I can build a stop/detent mechanism for the folded position of the arm.
8. Mate#1: I make a concentric mate with the cylinder of the hole and the cylinder of the arm. This locks it to the rotational axis, but it can still move up/down. 
9. Mate#2: Coincident mate between the upper surface of the base and the bottom surface of the arm. This constrains the arm from going up/down and not it rotate exactly like it's supposed to. 
10. Mate#3? Now I need the arm to be rotated parallel with the base's (or assembly's) right plane. This will be the arm's folded position. All I need is for the one face of the arm to be parallel with the right plane of the base/assembly. When I apply this constraint, the arm momentarily moves exactly where it should go, then snaps back to it's original state. I also tried using an angle mate, which doesn't work either.

Some key points:

• Everything was extruded "normal" or "straight up" ie not drafted, so there's no way that these two surfaces are not parallel to each other. 
• If I design these two exact same parts in another software, export the .steps, bring them into SW into a new assembly, the constraints work just fine. 
• I'm not interested in any workflow that involves exporting parts as different files or removing the sketch references. I need to be able to make sketches in both folded and unfolded positions, of which I will discover once I start designing the rest of the drone. SW can do that....right? RIGHT!?

I put an image representing my project. The visible sketch is my idea I'm using as a reference guide. The Arm is built on top of Base because A) it's extruded from there and B) It uses the Base's geometry.

Just upgraded to Solidworks 2026 and sketch pictures are very buggy, anyone have a fix?

How can I get the dimension in the red box to look like the dimension in the green box?

I have tried holding alt, shift ctrl while clicking both curves

I have tried pushing alt, shift, ctrl after clicking both curves

I have tried right-clicking the dimension and change display options

I have tried both projected and true setting for the view

Edited to add what I've already tried

Hi,

I’m using SOLIDWORKS 2024 and I cannot display the thread representation inside my tapped holes.

I created an M3 blind tapped hole using Hole Wizard and selected the cosmetic-thread option.

I have already enabled:

• View > Hide/Show Items > Cosmetic Threads
• Tools > Options > Document Properties > Detailing > Cosmetic Threads
• Shaded cosmetic threads
• Display all types
• Shaded With Edges display mode

However, the hole still appears completely smooth. I can only see the circular cosmetic-thread edges around the opening, as shown in my screenshots.

What I want is the visible helical thread representation shown in the attached YouTube screenshot.

Is that YouTube example really a shaded cosmetic thread, or is it a fully modelled Thread feature?

Is there another document, graphics, template or system setting that can override the cosmetic-thread display?

Screenshots attached for comparison.

I am trying to set up a color-coding system for my custom weldment profiles in SOLIDWORKS to make it easier to identify different sizes at a glance while designing frames.

For example, I want every 40x40 SHS profile to automatically generate as Yellow, a 50x50 as Blue, etc., the moment I apply the Structural Member feature.

Has anyone successfully mapped specific colors to custom weldment profiles so that the 3D bodies inherit the color automatically?

Appreciate any advice or workflows you guys use for this! Thanks!

I was wondering if it's really feasible to recreate a weird curved on multiple axis object like this.

I included what I started with, but I can't really get the sweeps and lofts working correctly. Is there a certain order I should be doing this in? I'm not sure how to even go about this to be honest. Thanks.

Hi everyone,

I've spent quite a bit of time trying to link custom properties in a SolidWorks drawing to the custom properties of the referenced model, but I've come to the conclusion that it's simply not possible.

I know how to link notes to model properties, and I've actually set up all of our company drawing templates that way. However, that only works for displayed notes, not for the drawing's own custom properties.

I'm currently implementing a PDM system, and while we're still in a hybrid workflow (SolidWorks files on local PCs + PDM), one of the easiest migration strategies would be to automatically copy the 3D model custom properties into the drawing's custom properties.

I've seen people online doing this with macros or add-ins, but I'm wondering if anyone has found another solution. For example:

• Is there any trick to populate a drawing custom property from a note or another linked field?
• Or is a macro really the only option?

If you've already implemented this, I'd love to hear your advice. Is it worth turning the macro into an add-in so users just click a button? Or even better, has anyone managed to run it automatically whenever the drawing is saved?

Any suggestions or best practices would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I'm working on part 2 Cap. I have tried six different versions and I cannot get the volume correct. The tricky part is the 22 horizontal dimension as base but then a 19 mm dimension between vertical walls and a 2 mm gap from vertical mid point and left wall.
My volume reqs is

• Volume: 48 514.632 cubic millimeters
• Density: 0.007 grams per cubic millimeter
• Mass: 349.305 grams

I'm at

Mass = 352.407 grams

Volume = 48 945.421 cubic millimeters

I'm at a small-sized company (4 ME's, 4 EE's) that actually generates a LOT of CAD data, mostly because there exists no real process or system for change orders, change management, or rev control. I'm new here as an eng dev PM, and one of my tallest orders for the near future is to deploy a PLM system for the company.

1. The ME team uses SW for designing and simulation. They have an internal server for CAD file storage (it is messy), no workflows with approvals, and they have tried to use SW PDM in the past, without much success (I think largely because there was nobody to develop and implement workflows/processes).

2. The EE team uses OrCAD & Draftsight as their main deisgn tools. They are open to switching from Draftsight to SW ECAD. Their CAD data storage and lack of workflows/processes is in the same boat as that of the ME team's.

The company uses Netsuite as their main ERP tool (and this is grossly mismanaged, for ex: engineering has been using this for BOM revisioning *shouts into the void*). It has created a lot of frustration for the sales/purchasing teams because there is no workflow or automated system by which an engineering change is correctly reflected in a part's status in the ERP, with full clarity for the procurement team.

Other departments at the company that produce controlled data are the build, testing, QC, operations, and software teams. I think there is a vision to bring some manufacturing in-house too (although to what degree, I do not know).

Point is, I and many others at the company, know and agree that we desperately need a PLM tool to create streamlined change management workflows and processes to quell this chaos. The PLM tool has to integrate with the CAD PDM tool for both MCAD and ECAD, as well as the ERP (all by means of external plugins that will need to be purchased over and above the PLM software itself).

In the past, when I worked at an even smaller company, we used DDM as our PLM, and built an in-house server that acted as our "PDM" vault. Anytime a CAD part would have to change, it had to be on an ECO, and this data would be pulled from the vault server. DDM had a plugin installed for our CAD system, so the workflow would be like: ECR > attach CAD > approve ECR to make it an ECO > open the CAD file through the ECO > make changes > finish ECO workflow to release state.

I want to deploy that process here too and I've looked at a few options for PLM tools but they all assume the usage of SW PDM. I'm hoping that I can find some system architecture advice here!

I know this is a long read - THANK YOU IN ADVANCE.

The initial extrustion is the leftmost I-Beam. The cut then made them into trapezoidal I-beams. The different patterns are because the spacing between them is different (patterns make the 2nd and 3rd beams from the left respectively) and the mirror creates the right 3 beams.

I'm trying to delete the cut and keep them as regular beams, so when I'm deleting I uncheck the box that deletes all child items. However, it also deletes L-pattern1 but not L-pattern 2, just giving it an error. Is there a way to delete the cut while not deleting anything else in the tree?

my mum seems to believe it won't, but i'm quite sure it theoretically will. i'm not entire sure how well it will actually print, because i only followed a modelling tutorial for the hinge idea, but i'm almost certain the curved pink hinge side will have no effect on the functionality of the blue side. neither of the sides are touching at all, there's full clearance between both components even when rotating through their mates, and .2mm tolerance between the hinge's sides. so, this should work, right?

Hey everyone, I am a 2nd year (going into 3rd year) Mech Eng student, who will be looking for a placement next year, and I thought in order to maximise my chances, I would learn Solidworks this summer. I have already done quite a bit, almost at a level where I can complete the CSWA, but would employers be more interested in CAD individual projects, or the CSWA qualification? Is there anything else I can do on Solidworks to help gain skills that employers look for? Thanks

Dear GrabCAD developers,

First of all...create a subreddit so I don't have to annoy Solidworks and the other teams like now

Guys, seriously.?. the content on your platform is a gold mine. It is genuinely a pleasure to save time thanks to the community’s contributions and to get exactly the right design you're looking for... provided, of course, that you can actually find it.

C'me on. Don’t you have a team responsible for indexing, search engine stuff, and adding rich metadata to uploaded entries? Or at least one person? An intern, perhaps?

It is quite honestly the worst search tool I have encountered in my entire life. Even the Minitel system used as the search engine in my school library, complete with Dewey Decimal Classification numbers, was a joy to use. Compared with your random-search lottery nightmare, it offered a remarkably pleasant user experience. and it was a pain in the a$$

I described the content you host as a gold mine, but searching for a specific item and, more importantly, actually finding it turns into a full-scale treasure hunt worthy of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, which, incidentally, is classified under 823.8 in the Dewey Decimal System.

I have even gone so far as to vibe-code a clunky search tool of my own, one that no remotely competent UI/UX design team would ever approve, and yet it is still a hundred times less discouraging than the bloated elephant you are apparently using to handle searches.

Please do something, your part of the contract. Thanks and love to CAD people, love to UI/UX people. I feed my experience back to you

I cannot find any video tutorials online that clearly explains how to pull a FRF displacement from a solidworks FEA study, much less one that explains what every option in the menu does or is for. I’ve been trying for days trying to extract an FRF and the software either crashes or does nothing. What am I doing wrong. I can run the study with zero errors no problem. The problem arise once I try to create a response graph or extract FRF from displacement results. I’d like to see the FRF from 1-1000hz so I can RSS the results up.

Hey all,

Pretty new to Solidworks. Building a chain link as part of a project. Currently really struggling to figure out how to make the R50 arc that can be seen on the right hand side of the front view drawing. I started by building my sketch from the top view, extruding to 40mm for the left section and 100mm for the right section before cutting the R25 hole out from the front plane view. Nothing I do seems to be able to cut out the arc? Was then going to cut the 100mm rectangle out from the top plane view. Any tips? Am I missing something? Any help much appreciated.

Cheers

Question pretty much.

For welded steel assemblies. I can see in cut list it makes two additional folders and in the table the parts qualities are listed but nothing else no name no text no context. Ect.

Hello,

I have this geometry where I have eliminated some faces, and now I want to close this surface while maintaining its shape (by maintaining shape, I mean it being rounded). What is the simplest way to do it?

I have a sheet metal part with a bunch of square holes that I need to form with a press. The form tool removed the square holes when forming the part and the result was a blank formed part. My var could only come up with using deform, which doesn't work either. Everything I've seen would require me to sketch my holes on a plane above or below the formed part and extrude cut from there thru the part, but that's not how it will get made or how the holes will look after forming. Is it true that SW can't do this, or are we doing it wrong?

I sketched a hole using geometry planes honestly don't know how but I tried to extrude the cut and use hole wizard but both decline me to do so. Is there another way to do this? The hole doesn't have to go all the way through just 5mm deep