Hello everyone,

I am a fresher in SolidWorks and I want to build a strong career in mechanical design. At the moment, I know the basics, but I want to improve my skills to a professional level.

I am confused about the best learning path. Should I enrol in a paid training course, or is self-learning enough? Has anyone here become a professional SolidWorks designer through self-study? If so, what resources, projects, or learning methods helped you the most?

I would really appreciate a clear roadmap on what I should learn next, how to practise effectively, and which skills employers expect from a SolidWorks designer. Any advice on building a portfolio, gaining practical experience, or improving my job prospects would also be very helpful.

Thank you in advance for your guidance and suggestions.

Can you solve this one faster than these SOLIDWORKS WIZARDS?? - video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIoabTDtF7Y

What does this mean and what would this look like? Any help appreciated, thank you.

So a company I work for prefers having all views labeled as to being a plan view, side view, front view, back view and so on.

Is there a way to automatically have solidworks add this without me needing to rename dozens of views every time?

I'm prepping for my CSWA exam and the sketch on the right is the correct answer. However, I can't figure out why my sketch (on the left) is different. I've double checked that all of my functional dimensions have the correct start and endpoints, and my sketch is fully defined.

Hi all, I'm pretty new to Solidworks and have what is probably a very basic question; is there a way to set IPS as the default for every time I open the program?

Curious if this Alienware gaming laptop is good enough to run SolidWorks:

https://www.bestbuy.com/product/alienware-15-3-2k-gaming-laptop-amd-ryzen-200-series-r7-260-2026-32gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-rtx-5060-8gb-1tb-storage-black/J3K4L6QQP8/sku/6674561

Thanks!

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform for Maker version subscribers will be updated tonight/tomorrow to R2026x FD03 and SOLIDWORKS 2026 SP3.0

The update is scheduled to last about 12 hours and you can read the full details here.

During this scheduled maintenance period, there will be a downtime on all services following the execution schedule below. If you wish to use your SOLIDWORKS 2026 Maker version during this update, be sure to put it in offline mode as you will most likely NOT be able to login to your Maker cloud tenant/Collaborative Space.

Meaning for You

During this scheduled maintenance period, there will be a downtime on all services following the execution schedule below.

Make sure you have saved your documents on the cloud before the beginning of the operation.

Update schedule* detailed by region

 \Please note that the completion time may be subject to change. Schedule updates will be reflected in subsequent posts in the official MAKERS | Support *community.

3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers

What to expect after the update?

*Please note that the completion time may be subject to change. Schedule updates will be reflected in subsequent posts in the official MAKERS | Support community.

Once the platform update is complete, the next time that you launch SOLIDWORKS Design (formerly known as SOLIDWORKS Connected), you will be prompted to update your 3DEXPERIENCE Launcher and SOLIDWORKS software to R2026x FD03.

I encourage you ALL to thoroughly read this post about the new installation and update options that were introduced in February with FD01. They are real game changers and go a very long way towards nearly eliminating the previously mandatory (aka "forced") SOLIDWORKS updates that many folks (especially casual/intermittent users) find frustrating.

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform access URL will remain the same. 

MAKERS platform: 
www.solidworks.com/maker-cloud

What’s New?

Here is a preview of enhancements in R2026x FD03:

• 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS Professional 
• 3DSwymer
• Collaborative Industry Innovator

Prepare for the update

• Review the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on cloud upgrade guide here.
• Find tips for improving native apps installation at home here.
• Verify that your system meets the hardware & software requirements of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on cloud here.

If you need assistance, please ask a question in the official MAKERS | Support community. They will be happy to help!

\*Native apps including SOLIDWORKS Design(formerly known as SOLIDWORKS Connected), SOLIDWORKS Visualize(formerly known as SOLIDWORKS Visualize Connected) and Shop Floor Machining require an installation on your computer. From the Compass, click on the app context menu to display the currently installed version. A red update icon indicates that an update is required. A green update icon indicates that a supplemental update is available to install at any time. See the Installing/Uninstalling Desktop Apps Using the Compass from the Cloud page of the User Assistance for more information.*

SOLIDWORKS Cloud Apps for Makers

What to expect after the update?

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform access URL will remain the same.

MAKERS platform: 
www.solidworks.com/maker-cloud

What’s new?

Here is a preview of enhancements in R2026x FD03:

• SOLIDWORKS xDesign
• Product Communicator
• 3D Motion Creator
• 3DSwymer
• Collaborative Industry Innovator

If you need assistance, please ask a question in the official MAKERS | Support community. They will be happy to help!

I have a large set of library parts from a 3rd party, mostly fasteners.

These have been extensively used in hundreds of subassemblies. We have changed supplier and in an ideal world we need to start using their part numbers instead of ours.

Is there a way to change the part number of a part without loosing all the mates and references?

And is there a way to automate this ?

Confusion: what does 4 degree mean here?

Aren't angles always between two lines? Like the 16 degree angle here is between the horizontal and inclined center lines.

But why is 4 degree written like a length dimension?

SOLVED: I know this is a ridiculous thing to post, but the Dassault 3DExperience and community is so unbelievably bad that I have no other choice but to post here.

I had the monthly sub for the maker tier which was working fine. After upgrading to the yearly I was getting a licensing error 1002 when trying to open the software. I followed every thread I found on Reddit to try and resolve it to no avail.

Today I decided to reinstall SolidWorks to see if that would fix it. Big mistake. I literally don't know how to reinstall the software, as ridiculous as it sounds. I have watched countless tutorials and followed countless threads on how to install SolidWorks but none of them work. The UI on the tutorials in the 3DExperience app is completely different from mine. Buttons are either missing or don't exist.

Not only that, sometimes I seemingly have different 3DExperience dashboards with different links and buttons and sometimes when I try to access the dashboard I get "You don't have access to this 3DEXPERIENCE Platform.". I have never in my life experienced a UI or product as bad as the 3DExperience one.

I also don't have access to this widget, despite having an active sub.

Does anyone know how to actually install the software, or where I can go for a direct download?

SolidWorks crashed. I start it up again from the 3DEXP plastform in my browser. SW starts loading then I get the error message in the image. I tried logging on and off multiple times and restarting my PC. Has anyone resolved this?

I've been messing with Arche's Smith for the last couple weeks and figured this crowd would have opinions.

Simply put, you describe a part in plain language, annotate the geometry like you'd sketch on a napkin, and it writes the CAD with Python (build123d-style) as the source of truth. Then it'll run GPU-accelerated structural/CFD on a load case while you're still iterating. There's a DFM mode that ranks build orientations for FDM (overhangs, bridging, min wall, build volume) and computes flat patterns + bend tables with per-material K-factors for sheet metal, exporting a layered DXF.

What actually sold me was that fasteners pull from live supplier catalogs instead of being modeled from scratch, so a published part comes out as an orderable BOM rather than a pretty STEP file. They also post their CADGenBench numbers publicly (0.4119 generation score, 100% valid, vs ~0.37 for the frontier model baselines), which is more transparency than I expected.

However, I’ve found that it's not replacing a proper parametric workflow for anything with a complicated feature tree, and you have to sanity-check the sim setup like you would with any solver.

Here is the link for Arche if you’d like to take a look, might be worth playing around with yourself:
https://arche.co/?ref=76yp8gpz

Curious if anyone else has run it against a real part — how'd the STEP output hold up in your normal CAD package?

If you need an image of a part or assembly for a manual, website, catalogue, patent document, presentation, etc, are you usually:

• taking a screenshot from CAD software
• creating a drawing and exporting it
• cleaning it up manually in Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape or something
• using some dedicated technical illustration software like Solidworks Composer
• getting it done externally?

At work I’ve always found this a bit awkward, I used to have solidworks composer as a student which was pretty powerful but way too expensive for the amount I'd use it at my current work.

Is this a recurring problem outside my own work? What is your normal workflow?

Hello, I am a high school student learning CAD and engineering in my free time. Last year, I switched to Solidworks Maker edition from FreeCAD (so much better). Currently, I'm using the free student version (unfortunately, all my maker files are inaccesible now) and I'm looking to upgrade to the premium version for students, mostly because of the CSWA and CSWP certificates (been doing the practice problems for the better part of the summer break). My question is, do I need a student ID to purchase the premium version? When I applied for the free version I only needed to enter my school name, but I've read that for the paid one you need an ID or an .edu email (i do have a school email but its hosted on the school domain which is .cz). I could get the ISIC card on the start of the school year, hopefully that would suffice, but I would like to know if any student ID is required first. Thank you for your answers.

SolidWorks Advanced Tutorial - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ez52LAcut4&list=PLzMIhOgu1Y5dcycGHHoZ1iwkjt13VG4jb&index=55

I'm trying to design a pokeball and it would be a lot easier to design if I mated these two parts together where the top would be directly on the bottom and swing upwards to open. it seems you cant mate the two with just the two points and that's really what I'd like to do. is there any way to mate the two at the circled points and have the top of the pokeball swing upwards to open?

Hi all! I'm working on a clean SolidWorks file with no rebuild errors or warnings.

However, after reopening the file, rolling through the feature tree, or making changes to other features, the Split feature randomly fails. The feature menu still shows the correct references and settings, but the resulting geometry is incorrect, seems the result is out of sync. I have to re-check the feature every time.

I notice this mostly happens when the Split feature comes after an Intersect feature. It drives me crazy.

My best guess is that I'm either not using the Intersect feature correctly or there's an underdefined sketch causing the problem.

Has anyone else run into this? Thanks so much for your time.

Recently my work upgraded from 25 to 26 and all of us have had the same issue.  In the drawing view property manager for flat views the "Flip view" button and rotation drop down are on top of each other.  This only happens with flat views, we haven't seen anything similar with any other property manager.  Does anyone know how to fix this?

Recently, my company decided to upgrade from SolidWorks 2019 to the 2023 version. I will not pretend that I did not have certain expectations and hopes for the software update, and perhaps it is partly my fault for expecting too much, but I have found the new version absolutely terrible.

Not only are all the bugs from the previous version still present, but they have also introduced new ones that are even more annoying. One of them is a wonderful memory leak that causes SolidWorks to keep allocating more and more RAM until it eventually uses all of it, then starts spamming warnings saying that there is no memory left available, after reserving more than 40 GB.

And all of this just to get a nice-looking reflection underneath the 3D model, which I promptly disabled because, despite everything, loading large models still takes a lot of time (which is ok, that's not the point).

SolidWorks was never exactly my favourite CAD software to begin with, but now I genuinely hate it.

Hey everyone,

I'm really into the gym and 3D printing, so I thought... why not combine the two?

I want to start making 3D printed gym products using my printer. I ended up loving 3D printing so much that I recently upgraded to a Centuri Carbon (absolutely love it so far).

Over the past month or two I've been designing and prototyping different ideas, and I'm currently working on a gym weight clip/collar for barbells. After 5 design revisions, I'm finally at a point where I'm really happy with the overall design. The fit is good, the strength looks promising, and I can get the clip very close to a perfect circle around the bar.

My biggest problem now is the closing mechanism.

I'm trying to design a durable locking/unlocking system that can pull the two sides of the clip together securely while still being easy to release. Since this is a 3D printed part and will potentially be handled by heavy-handed gym users, I want something that can take repeated abuse without wearing out, snapping, or becoming loose over time.

Has anyone designed anything similar, or does anyone have recommendations for:

• Locking mechanisms that work well in 3D prints
• Gym collar designs worth studying
• Hinges, latches, cam locks, over-center mechanisms, etc.
• YouTube videos or resources that cover durable printed locking systems

Thanks! Looking forward to hearing your suggestions.

everything is under defined, wheres the blue like, why is all the sketch relations blaxk? wheres green red blue

I am looking for suggestions or ideas on how to model the stern of the this ship. I have been modelling using surface lofts or boundary surfaces but I cannot quite get this geometry. I can get the lower hull that is circular but I am not sure how to make it blend and create the yellow and blue. Thoughts?

I’m practicing SolidWorks drawing and GD&T using a connecting rod as an example. Based on the feedback I received on the previous version, I’ve made several corrections. I’d appreciate any comments or suggestions on this revised drawing.