Step 1: Deactivate the license

Load up the Solid Network License Manager on the Server machine that is hosting your licensees.

It’s important to return all the borrowed licenses (if any) to the server from the user machines using

the SolidNetwork License Manager Client application.

From the ‘Server Administration’ tab, select “Stop” (before doing that you must make sure no one is using the license).

Deactivate the license:

• On the server, launch the SNL Manager of the previous version. (Start -> All Programs -> SOLIDWORKS -> SOLIDWORKS Tools -> SolidNetwork License Manager Server
• Select the Server Administration tab and click Modify.
• Choose the option to Move your product license(s) to a new/upgraded computer and click Next.
• Choose the option to transfer the license Automatically over the Internet, > click Next.

You will be advised of the successful license transfer and then click Finish.

Once you have full access to your Server Machine on the second machine, you can then navigate to

Windows Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> SOLIDWORKS SolidNetWork License Manager.

Step 2) Add the SolidNetWork Serial Number(s)

Launch SOLIDWORKS SolidNetWork License Manager Setup and hit the Next button.

Note: If you have SOLIDWORKS SolidNetWork License Manager installed and need to change the serial,

then you can modify install and add the serial number.

Navigate to Control panel > SolidNetWork License Manager > Right click > change and follow Step 2.

This will take you to the Program Maintenance step, where you can modify, repair, or remove the program.

Since we are adding a new serial number, make sure “Modify” is selected and go “Next”.

This will take you to the License Information screen where you can enter your new serial number(s).

Multiple serial numbers can be entered by separating them with a comma. Hit “Next” once you’ve entered your number(s).

Click Next and select Install.

The last step is to Activate/Reactivate your licenses on the SNL

Activating/Reactivating the SolidNetwork License Manager Server is the last vital step you need to do to use licenses.

Navigate to Windows -> SOLIDWORKS Tools {year} -> SolidNetWork License Manager Server.

This will launch the SNL Manager Server where you will have access to the “Server Administration” tab.

Select “Modify” under License Information to start the process.

This will take you to the product activation screen. Choose the option to “Activate/Reactivate your

product license” and click “Next”.

This will take you to the SolidNetWork License Server Information Screen. Select ‘Next’ to continue

using the same firewall ports and options file settings as you had before to proceed.

When you get to the “Activate/Deactivate Your SOLIDWORKS Product” window, click on the “Select All” button and click “Next”.

NOTE: You should verify that all the network serial numbers you previously entered are listed on the serial

numbers window and reactivate them all. This is extremely important if your serial number includes products

such as Visualize and CAM that are subscription based. After you renew your subscription, please ensure you

perform this step so that the products reflect the correct Entitlement End Date, and your users can continue

using these products seamlessly.

You should see the Activation/Reactivation Succeeded page after a few seconds. This means your additional

SNL serial numbers are now activated, and you should have access to the newly added assets.

If you do not receive this message or receive an error, please contact your VAR. Click “Finish” to complete the process.

Ravi Solanki

Application Engineer

At Central Innovation, we can provide all – or part – of the solution. Including SOLIDWORKS, ARCHICAD, and many more industry-leading tools.

It’s something we’ve been doing for almost 30 years. Our commitment to customer service is second to none: we help you get the best out of your technology.

For a truly unique solution to your unique challenges, please contact us. Or read about some of the great services and

There are several places you can change the colour of entities and there is a hierarchy which controls which colour is used.

Most of us are familiar with the first 2 but often users are not aware of the third.

1.   System options

Access: Tools-> options-> System Options tab-> Colors section

2.  Layers.

Layers will override system options colours

Access: View-> Toolbars-> Turn on the layer toolbar.

The toolbar indicates which layer is activated so any new entity added will be in this colour.

Click layer properties for the list of layers and their colours.

3.  Line format.

This overrides both System Options Colours and Layer Colours.

This is the one that sometimes eludes users

Access: View-> Toolbars-> Line Format toolbar-> Line Color

You can change the colour of any entity by selecting it and then selecting the colour here.

If you select a colour without any entity selected then new entities created will be in this colour

If you tick default it will use the layer colour or colour in the system options

Also on the Line format toolbar, you will find the Color display mode.  This will switch between the line format colours/layer colours and the system option colours.

Bianca Roberts
Applications Engineer
Central Innovation, Melbourne

At Central Innovation, we can provide all – or part – of the solution. Including SOLIDWORKS, ARCHICAD, and many more industry-leading tools.

It’s something we’ve been doing for almost 30 years. Our commitment to customer service is second to none: we help you get the best out of your technology.

For a truly unique solution to your unique challenges, please contact us. Or read about some of the great services and solutions we offer.

If you open a STEP file that has multiple parts, you have undoubtedly experienced this problem. Follow these easy steps after you’ve opened the collection:

• In SolidWorks, click on the background and choose “Advanced Select.”

• Select “Category = Document name — SolidWorks Special” and “Condition = contains” and “Value = sldprt”.

Click on “Apply”

• Close “Advanced Selection” using the cross in the upper right corner
• Right-click again on the background and select Material as well as the material you want.

• SolidWorks takes some time to apply the material to all your parts if you have a lot of them.
• The chosen material has now been applied to all parts.

Tauseef Ahmed

Applications Engineer Central Innovation

At Central Innovation, we can provide all – or part – of the solution. Including SOLIDWORKS, ARCHICAD, and many more industry-leading tools.

It’s something we’ve been doing for almost 30 years. Our commitment to customer service is second to none: we help you get the best out of your technology.

For a truly unique solution to your unique challenges, please contact us. Or read about some of the great services and solutions we offer.

For example, you can deactivate your license on your office workstation and activate it on another machine when working from home.

To use this functionality you must:

• Enter your SOLIDWORKS path into the installation path textbox, E.g. “C:\Program Files\SOLIDWORKS Corp\SOLIDWORKS”. in the #TASK License settings
• If you have multiple SOLIDWORKS versions installed, please use the installation path of the latest SOLIDWORKSversion. Higher version licensing takes precedence over the lower version.
• Enter an email address associated with your SOLIDWORKS license.

You can configure #TASK to automatically deactivate/transfer your SOLIDWORKS license when you shut down SOLIDWORKS.

NOTE:

• SOLIDWORKS license activation/deactivation can be performed a limited number of times, please see your SOLIDWORKS license agreement for more information.
• Activate/deactivate functionality is only available for standalone licensing.
• If you have multiple SOLIDWORKS versions installed, please use the installation path of the latest SOLIDWORKSversion. Higher version licensing takes precedence over the lower version.
• “Automatically deactivate license after closing SOLIDWORKS” will work only if #TASK is running.
• To avoid unintentionally affecting your transfer count, consider disabling the option to “Automatically deactivate license after closing SOLIDWORKS” or set the “Always ask me before deactivating the license” if you encounter multiple inconsistencies that result in Solidworks crashing or closing abnormally.

Mithilesh Kapre

Integration Specialist NSW

At Central Innovation, we can provide all – or part – of the solution. Including SOLIDWORKS, ARCHICAD, and many more industry-leading tools.

It’s something we’ve been doing for almost 30 years. Our commitment to customer service is second to none: we help you get the best out of your technology.

For a truly unique solution to your unique challenges, please contact us. Or read about some of the great services and solutions we offer.

In this example, the unit is set to millimeter in the properties.

But when using the measure tool, it is displayed in meter.

The issue is related to the settings in the measure tool.

To fix it, click on Units/Precision and keep the measure tool active.

Make sure the ‘use document setting” is selected.

The unit should display correctly.

Tauseef Ahmed

Applications Engineer Central Innovation

At Central Innovation, we can provide all – or part – of the solution. Including SOLIDWORKS, ARCHICAD, and many more industry-leading tools.

It’s something we’ve been doing for almost 30 years. Our commitment to customer service is second to none: we help you get the best out of your technology.

For a truly unique solution to your unique challenges, please contact us. Or read about some of the great services and solutions we offer.

By default #Task will appear like this

If you go into settings

On the Plug-ins Manager tab you will find the “Task Items Groups Manager”

Tick this on and you will be prompted to restart #Task

Now you will see a tab at the top of the tasks with the option to create new groups

Click the green + symbol to create new groups.  Slow click on the tab name to rename it and then add the desired macros from the online library by selecting the  symbol

You can then set up multiple groups with specific tasks

Bianca Roberts
Applications Engineer
Central Innovation, Melbourne

At Central Innovation, we can provide all – or part – of the solution. Including SOLIDWORKS, ARCHICAD, and many more industry-leading tools.

It’s something we’ve been doing for almost 30 years. Our commitment to customer service is second to none: we help you get the best out of your technology.

For a truly unique solution to your unique challenges, please contact us. Or read about some of the great services and solutions we offer.

Before performing the repair it is a good idea to log on with the admin account or at least an account with full administrative permissions.  You should also disable antivirus and malware/spyware, and set UAC (Windows User Account Control) never to notify.

To start the repair, use the Windows search and type in “Add or remove programs”

Apps and features then list the programs installed on your machine.  Type Solidworks in the search bar, click on the version required, and select “Modify”.

If you don’t see any option to modify then Solidworks was installed via an admin image which can not be repaired through this interface.  You can uninstall and reinstall or contact technical support for an alternative method.

If you get the following message click “Ok”

Select “Repair your installation”

Tick the programs to repair and click “Repair”

Note: The Solidworks repair program will need to access the original installation files.  During the repair, if the files can not be located the installation manager will give you the option to browse to the required files.  If they have been deleted you will need to download the files.

The repair will verify all the files required by the program are present, fix any problems that may be found, and register all the files needed.

After the repair is complete reboot if prompted

Now you can check if your Solidworks problem is fixed.  If not contact Solidworks technical support for further assistance.

Bianca Roberts
Applications Engineer
Central Innovation, Melbourne

At Central Innovation, we can provide all – or part – of the solution. Including SOLIDWORKS, ARCHICAD, and many more industry-leading tools.

It’s something we’ve been doing for almost 30 years. Our commitment to customer service is second to none: we help you get the best out of your technology.

For a truly unique solution to your unique challenges, please contact us. Or read about some of the great services and solutions we offer.

This blog will give you step-by-step instructions to create an RX capture.

How to Access RX?

1. Solidworks RX can be accessed through the “SOLIDWORKS Resources” task pane as seen below.

2. If Solidworks is not open you can access Solidworks RX from the installed programs list in windows or you can use the Windows search as seen below.

The Solidworks RX program provides a lot of useful tools.  This blog will cover the Problem Capture tool.  To Access it please select the “Problem Capture” Tab.

There are 3 steps to creating the RX capture.

Step 1: Capture

Choose the source that you want to record.  By default, it will be your SOLIDWORKS window, but if there are other programs that will help show the problem you can select specific monitors.  After selecting the source click “Record Video”.

You will then be prompted to either “Use Current Session” or “Restart SOLIDWORKS”. If it is possible to reproduce the problem after restarting Solidworks please click “Restart Solidworks”.  Otherwise, you can use the current session

Click record and show the issue.  If possible start with opening the file so the workflow can be followed from start to finish.

At any time you can pause or restart the recording.  When completed click “finish”.

Step 2: Package the files.

After recording the video you need to package the files

You can click “add files” to either add or remove files from the package.  Note: Solidworks RX by default will include all the references from the entire session so you may wish to remove some files that are not relevant to the problem.

Once satisfied the required files are included click “package files” to save the .zip onto your hard drive.

Step 3: The package is now complete.  You can optionally “Continue to step 3” which allows you to describe the problem and impact level or alternatively you can skip this step and put this information in the email.

The files are now ready to be sent to technical support.  If it is under 10MB you can email it to support@intercad.com.au.  If it is over 10 BM upload it to our hightail account https://spaces.hightail.com/uplink/centralinnovation and make sure to email us advising you have uploaded the RX.

Please ensure you include any additional information as this will reduce the time it takes us to solve the problem.

Bianca Roberts
Applications Engineer
Central Innovation, Melbourne

At Central Innovation, we can provide all – or part – of the solution. Including SOLIDWORKS, ARCHICAD, and many more industry-leading tools.

It’s something we’ve been doing for almost 30 years. Our commitment to customer service is second to none: we help you get the best out of your technology.

For a truly unique solution to your unique challenges, please contact us. Or read about some of the great services and solutions we offer.

Is this the time of year to upgrade SolidWorks to the new release?

Well, I am not going to go through the upgrading process because it has been covered in many and several blogs.

This blog is all about the Solidworks Electrical Schematic upgrade process. Solidworks Electrical Schematic may be a part of your full Solidworks installation or a standalone installation, it may also be installed as a server/client in your working environment.

So, what do you need to do?

Before upgrading Solidworks Electrical

You need to back up your work. This process is quite easy and straightforward. It is also your fail-safe guarantee in case something goes wrong.

From the Solidworks Electrical Schematic, File menu go to Archive Environment.

On the Welcome Screen click next

The Selection Screen is where you can choose the field you want to back up. It is recommended to back up your projects and any customised libraries.

That’s it. Depending on the size of your projects and libraries the archiving feature will work to compress everything into a single file. Make sure to keep this file in a safe and accessible location.

Before you start the upgrade process, please note:

SOLIDWORKS Electrical 2021 and later require Cumulative Update 4 or higher when using SQL Server 2019. For more information on Cumulative Updates, visit the Microsoft Support page and search for the Knowledge Base article 4548597.

During upgrading Solidworks

Just as per the normal upgrade process, follow the on-screen instruction till the Summary Screen.

On the Electrical Options Setting Screen, go to the SQL Server section and make sure the following is set:

• Use an existing SQL Server database
• Connect using SQL Authentication
• Login = sa
• Password= SQLpwd4ew (if not changed during initial installation)

Finally, follow the on-screen instructions to complete the upgrade process.

I hope you enjoy your new Solidworks upgrades.

Keep watching this space for more tips and tricks.

Amgad Yacoub

Technical Solutions Consultant

Central Innovation

At Central Innovation, we can provide all – or part – of the solution. Including SOLIDWORKS, ARCHICAD, and many more industry-leading tools.

It’s something we’ve been doing for almost 30 years. Our commitment to customer service is second to none: we help you get the best out of your technology.

For a truly unique solution to your unique challenges, please contact us. Or read about some of the great services and solutions we offer.

Lofted Bends in SOLIDWORKS are a tool that has been in the software for years and a tool that I think a lot of time gets over looked for the abilities of what it can do for a user.

When we look at the Property Manager for Lofted Bends we are presented with quite a few options. Typically, when I want to know more about the feature that I am working on and what it can do for me I hit the? mark in the upper right. In the case of Lofted Bends, it takes me to a general help page for Lofted Bends telling us the basics of how to build a part with Lofted Bends.

https://help.solidworks.com/2022/English/SolidWorks/sldworks/HIDD_SM_LOFTED_BEND.htm

To find out more about Lofted Bends you need to dig a little deeper into help and do a search for Bent Lofted Bends, unfortunately at this current time I am only able to find information about Formed Lofted bends in the SOLIDWORKS Training Manual for Sheet Metal.

Lofted Bend Requirements

There are some characteristics of Lofted Bends that are unique from a standard Loft or Sheet Metal Part and they are:

• Cannot be mirrored.
• Only open contours may be used as sketch profiles.
• The gaps in the profiles should be aligned for flat pattern accuracy.
• No more than two sketch profiles are allowed.
• Use of guide curves is not supported.
• Use of center line curves is not supported.
• K-factor applies to flat patterns of lofted bends only if the lofted bends are created from sketches that meet specific conditions.

Bent Lofted Bends

You can use Bent Lofted Bends to create physical bends, rather than formed geometry and approximated bend lines in a flat pattern. Bent Lofted Bends form a realistic transition between two profiles to facilitate instructions for press brake manufacturing.

With Bent Lofted Bends you have four different options as to how the bend regions are defined be selecting one of the Faceting Options, then specifying the values for the chosen option in the Facet Value field.

Faceting Options

You can also control the individual bend regions by selecting the pink spheres in the preview.

The last option is for Refer to endpoint to specify whether the created bends refer to a sharp corner in the profile or whether the sharp corner is replaced with adjacent bends to form an approximated arc in the corner.

Refer to endpoint = Checked            Refer to endpoint = Cleared

The rest of the options in the property manager are the same as any other Sheet Metal part.

The resulting Flat Pattern looks like what you see below (Bend Lines Sketch selected to show detail).

Formed Lofted Bends

Formed Lofted Bends have a rolled or drawn look to the bend regions instead of being separated by bends and flats like in Bent Lofted Bends.

To create a Formed Lofted Bends, the profiles must meet an additional requirement:

• Profile cannot include sharp corners.

You can see with the Property Manager and the resulting preview that we have fewer options and a Message about the difference between a Bent and Formed Lofted Bend.

The resulting Flat Pattern looks like what you see below, note there are no Bend Lines like in the Bent Lofted Bends example.

Jeeno Chandrasekaran

Applications Engineer Central Innovation

At Central Innovation, we can provide all – or part – of the solution. Including SOLIDWORKS, ARCHICAD, and many more industry-leading tools.

It’s something we’ve been doing for almost 30 years. Our commitment to customer service is second to none: we help you get the best out of your technology.

For a truly unique solution to your unique challenges, please contact us. Or read about some of the great services and solutions we offer.

New South Wales – Head office | CAD software supplier

The best solution is one tailored to your needs. Let’s discuss your options, at our New South Wales Central Innovations head office. Or call us or email us.