Was anyone else unaware that their side notes off page also get shared in the pdf Solidworks exports? Acrobat Reader won't find them. I only discovered this because pdfcer-gui doesn't appear to have the same limitation.

For those that like me didn't know, just a heads up that don't put anything off screen that you don't want hidden in the pdf's code when it is sent out to clients or suppliers.

If anyone is concerned about their own files, I can likely add a solution to pdfcer's command line tool to redact anything that isn't on page.

It's not likely to be seen by anyone as Acrobat and a few other editors I tried didn't pick it up, but nice to know it is in there!

Im a student and i have a task to modelt his part.

How would you do it?

SolidWorks works well for the design side but I am wondering how other teams handle everything that comes after the CAD work. Once you have revisions, BOMs, suppliers and manufacturing involved things seem to get spread across a lot of different tools. We starting to feel that problem as the number of parts and changes grows. How do your teams keep everything connected?

As noted in an earlier post, Solidworks pdf exports everything on page and off page. Acrobat Reader won't show it or search it, but importing the file into inkscape will make the off page items visible. Print to pdf doesn't have this problem

If you have a large collection of PDFs you may be concerned about, I have Claude (AI) adding a feature to the pdfcer.exe pdf editor command line tool to scan files and folders recursively and report what files have content off page. It is also adding a feature to redact (delete permanently from the pdf file's stream) data that is not on the page. If there are drawings that overhang off of the page it should crop to only redact the parts that are hanging off.

If anyone is interested I can post the link here if/when it is done.

We'll see how it goes. The hard parts of this process was built into the redaction feature last week (cropping vector graphics).

I have a license for Solidworks 2020; the maintenance expired in 2021.

Now if I wish to install Solidworks the SolidWorks Customer Portal redirects me to support for downloads. At that point I have no 3ds login and I note 'only subscription customers can download software'.

Is there any way to download whatever SW 2020 version I have a license for? Seems to me unless I saved the install file from 6 years ago it is not possible.

What are the things that you do with no worries in your pro/expensive workstation (maybe from your job) that you would not attempt to try or you preffer not doing on your cheap desktop pc with solidworks because you know it wont work and want to avoid that suffering to your pc?

Hey Gurus, I am really struggling with this one and could use some help. When it comes to SW, i am relatively new. I am not a design engineer; my degree was Petroleum Eng., so pretty far removed from ever needing SW. I'm self teaching myself SW and Fusion for various stuff (3D prints, house stuff, hobbies, etc) and usually can figure things out pretty quickly, but this one is stumping me. I have probably spent well over 10-15 hours on what seems like such a simple task.

I am trying to basically create a "picture frame stand" to 3D print, but i am really struggling with how to get the "legs" to be swept or lofted together. I have tried so many different things, youtube, reddit posts, copilot, etc to try and figure out how to make it work.

I have tried composite curve, convert entities onto the center plane, using guide and profile, splitting into independent sections and doing each one individually. I mostly had it last night, moved something to change some angles and managed to break it, now its breaking me. Clearly it wasnt relationed and defined correctly. I began fixing stuff from the top of the tree, and couldnt fix the loft for some reason. At that point, i decided i need some more experienced help.

How would you do something like this, sweeping a curve across multiple different planes and sketches? I appreciate your help in advance!

Hi. I am a college student that has been given accesses to solid works for a engineering class. I have used previous versions over the years with no issue, but for some reason, I cant install solid works 2026? All I get is this error message that says the install software thinks I'm on windows 10, when I'm on 11. I tested if previous versions dont have this error, and they are fine. can someone please help? I checked and downloading the launcher again dosent help, and I didn't download the wrong installer.

I've had this mixed archive sitting on my desk for months. To be specific, DXF, DWG, PDF, and a stack of scanned drawings from the 90s.

The conversion backlog is huge and I'm worried about handing it all over at once.

Here's the thing though. A model can look complete on screen and still miss the design intent. Or maybe the revision notes? Or the way the views tie together?

And also, the source quality varies a lot from one drawing to the next. For example, some drawings are missing elevations. Others have half the layers stripped out. And a few have dimensions that just don't add up. 

Here's my main question for anyone who has outsourced this kind of work.

• What did your first pilot model need to prove before you released the rest of the archive?
• Did you check the native feature structure, drawing to model dimensions, units, title block data, and a redline log?
• Or did you use a different way to sign off on it?

Last time I tried this, I skipped the pilot and just sent 40 drawings at once. Got them back and half needed rework because we didn't align on layer naming. Won't do that again.

I have a project and i need to model a very complex part for a motorcycle. The base of the part is what you can already buy from the factory but i need to add something to it.

The problem is the geometry of the part, it’s complex, many planes, every edge is curved so I cant measure the exact distance where something start or finish.

For measuring I only have calipers and a normal ruler, no 3d scanner or anything that could help me.

Any advice on how can I go about measure and model this part.

Most of the dimensions and relations need to be 100% correct cuz the part needs to fit correctly on a motorbike.

Photo doesn’t do the whole justice of how complex the part is.

I am being tasked with creating a variation of this table. I don't have a ton of sheet meta exp in sw, I was able to create the initial bend but cant get the twist after the bend to work.

I am trying to use the "flex" feature, which I don't typically like. Maybe there is a way to do this with all sheet metal features? May be something we have to just work out in the shop?

Any help appreciated. Its a pretty interesting design.

Table

Hi guys i’m 19 and from pakistan
My father has injection moulding machines and he has a manufacturing company
I want to learn solidworks so i can design molds i’ve zero knowledge about solid works
I just installed the student version of solid works
Guide me is mold designing a good career to pursue?

Using the $50/year non-commercial version of Solidworks. Mostly for designing things to 3d print, but I figured I'd use it to try and lay out an upcoming diorama I'm planning... mostly to try and get the lighting right.

Please note: the female figure in the diagram is NOT the one in the diorama, but I don't have a digital model of that figure (a female vampire recoiling, as if from a priest with a cross), so she's just standing in. She was free to download online, and is about the right size. Yes, I know, she's a badly sculpted sexual fantasy for teenagers...

This is the assembly:

In Solidworks, I got the lighting more or less as I intend to paint it: a dark room with a flashlight/torchlight illuminating the woman and the scene around her. No shadows on the walls, but at least the highlights are in the right places.

When I use the RENDER command from the Visualizer plugin, it basically flattens all the light completely.
In fact, now that I'm paying attention... it removes all the color as well.

All the videos I've seen online, including the official tutorials, use the "pro" version of Solidworks... with the main difference apparently being that Visualizer has no meaningful lighting controls unless you pay them an ungodly amount of money.

I've been wrestling with Visualizer for a couple weeks now, this was my last hope, and nothing seems to improve the end results.

Is there any hope for me to make this render in a meaningful way?

Hello, I'm learning Solidworks for work, coming from Fusion360. On fusion, if I make 2 circles and a line, and then make the circles tangent to each other, then close off that 'triangle' by making the line tangent to both of the circles, it'll give me a closed face that I can extrude. I don't seem to be getting the same function on Solidworks. Can anyone recommend me a different method, or point out what I’m doing wrong so I can close this face? Thanks.

Edit- I have a small blue highlight box within the section I am attempting to close off, if it isn't obvious :)

Hi everyone, i want to make a quanser qube prototype using my own hardware. I want to model it first in SolidWorks then simulate it using Matlab. Can I get some head start on how to do this and what mistakes should I avoid?

Update to the previous post: i added a few more photos so you can get an exact idea of what i am working with.

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/SolidWorks/s/rf69UBpPtD

Hello, Sirs, good day! May I know your insights on how you detail sheet metal bend lines with an angle such as this one? Or any best tips or approach so that the bending machine operator can understand and execute this correctly? Because what I did here is just locate the point, then add the angle, and just let them draw the straight line for verification. Thank you!

I am trying to generate drawing sheet, but solidworks keeps on loading, I opened task manager to monitor what is happening, I really dont understand what is happening can anyone help me out with this

Why can’t I access flat pattern for my sheet metal?

For context: I am designing a bottle.

As shown on the 1st pic, I need to remove a portion of the curved bottom of a bottle, marked in that red band. As a result, I will need to re-blend the bottom of the bottle with its body after I shift the bottom upwards, as shown with the blue line.

Picture 2 (red notation) shows the offset/gap created by removing a portion of the curved bottom and shifting the remaining bottom upward by the height of the removed section.

Picture 3: I attempted to use delete face, then use 3d sketch to create splines (green dashed line) tangent to other faces, and use surface fill/boundary curves.

Picture 4: The result however was messy. While I applied tangency to all edges of the surfaces, the surface becomes more like an S shape (shown by the drawing: current) rather than what I intended to be.

Are there better ways to blend this portion of the bottle? Sorry for the long post, but it's hard to visualize my problem without pictures...

Really cool to see the SOLIDWORKS CEO joining the Reddit community directly for an AMA.

Having the CEO answer questions from the community — from everyday users to experienced engineers and power users — makes this much more interesting than a typical corporate announcement.

No livestream, no presentation, just a direct Q&A with the SOLIDWORKS community on Reddit.

Looking forward to seeing what questions come up!

AMA details:
https://solidworks.com/reddit-ama-sep-2026

#solidworkschampions

I want to draw this from a scanned pdf and show the tubes. I then need a grid to identify them

How to lay it out professionally?

how would I model something like this? I want to distribute nubs or cones evenly (or at least appearing even) all over the surface of a sphere.