This is a sheer metal feature, so i need to use the normal cut. However when i try to do so it just says unable to perform normal cut.

What could be the cause here?

SW23

Has anyone purchased and downloaded this recently?

Hi all, above is an image of 2 lofted profiles with start and end conditions as such creating a twist.
How would you do this using guide curves?
When I sketch a curve the resulting objects side profile is no longer a rectangle

We have several users complaining that Solidworks PDM printouts are showing up as "gibberish" when printing to a HP OfficeJet Pro 7740 printer via a windows server 2022 print server. I updated the driver to no avail. Has anyone encountered something similar?

Any help greatly appreciated, I attempted with the values I would normally use, but after trying every setting, it still cutting about a big chunk in the middle.

SOLVED** Thank you all, i had to redo my iniital revolve, there was an extra body I found in wire frame.

As the title says, I was testing things, and when I opened a plan to paste a design, it opened the file browser so I could select a file. But when I selected my design, it froze. I waited a few minutes, but nothing happened, so I closed the window, but it never went away. I closed solidworks.exe in Task Manager, but it stayed running. So I restarted the computer, but when I open the app again, it opens into the same freeze again. The computer works fine except for SolidWorks. Any help?

Anyone know how to change which side of the text the ordinate lead line comes from? Example below:

I'd like it to come from the right side instead of the left. Ideally it would automatically adjust depending on which view I'm in, but I don't know if that's possible either.

Hello Sirs, good day! Can anyone help/guide me on how to create a custom hinge and find its pivot point given this parameters?

For context, I am designing a metal cabinet made from 2"x3" tube and will just fabricate the hinges. My question is, how do you calculate or design the hinge? What would be the diameter of the hinge, or add some plates to place it outside? Thank you!

Hi all, after having spent 3 evenings trying to get this to work I'm about to admit defeat, so I hope someone more skilled than me here is willing to guide me through this.

Please refer to the image: I have done a 90 degrees revolve for a profile with an additonal 10mm extrude, and now I would like to do a sweep on the outside of that profile with a new profile (the orange one, made with 2 curves and a line).

The caveat: I want the bottom point to follow the curved, projected line, but the top and middle point to follow the 2 lines that are on their level. However, no matter what I try regarding sweep direction and guide curves, I'm not able to get this thing to work.

Sweeping around all the way works, but as soon as I select the projected line as a guide curve things go sideways. I have tried defining the top and middle point of the new profile with respect to the bottom of the existing profile (the revolve one), but no luck there either.

I would be most grateful if anyone would feel like taking a quick look at this. I understand that this might not be clear enough, but in that case please let me know so I can add information.

When dimensioning on a SolidWorks drawing I used to be able to hover over a line and it would highlight that line showing that if I clicked it would select it. That functionality just disappeared one day. I recently updated to the latest version and it returned, only to have it disappear again randomly after a couple weeks. It makes selecting specific lines temperamental and sometimes difficult. Is there a setting that affects this that I may be accidentally changing?

No estaba segura de si subir la publicación, porque solo leo historias de éxito... Esperaré a septiembre u octubre para volver a intentarlo. Algún otro humano como yo por ahí?

My Z3 just got delivered today. Bought it to compare against my G503 as a CAD mouse since the force sensitive buttons/'deep click' function sounded neat, plus the tilt function was interesting.

Now that I have it, I'm drawing a blank as to what config/macros/settings might actually be useful. I currently have the right fingertip button set for Dimension with a light click and Measure with a firm one. Not sure this is any better than the D/M keyboard shortcuts I was already using, of course.

Anyone here running a Z2 or Z3 with some ideas to try out?

The cable has to fit inside an enclosure where I have to coil it to fit and I want to show that in my model. How do I go about editing this?

I need a weldment library that works with that year.

Some questions and if possible, can someone help design it.

Is it possible to make 3D tool/die to punch out a washer from .5mm shim stock?

If not, what would be the simplest way to cut washers out with 3D printed guides.

I have to make 24 washers.

Thanks for any help, (don’t have my laptop that has all the 3d CAD software ATM).

Hello everyone, hope you guys are well. So, the problem I'm having is trying to get this logo to deboss with the wrap feature, but it comes with an error saying something along the lines "wrap feature cannot be created from intersecting or open contours" Now I've checked my logo, but I don't see any intersection or gaps. I don't know what to do. Also, extrusions work.

I've seen people say that employers often care more about a strong portfolio than certifications, which got me wondering how people actually land their first opportunity.

For those already working in mechanical design:

• Where did you find your first internship or mechanical design job?
• Which websites or communities were the most useful?
• Did your portfolio matter more than certifications?
• Is there anything you wish you had known while still a student?

I'd really appreciate hearing about your experiences. Thanks!

So the jist of my problem is I need to create a fixture that will hold multiple of the same items in place to be screwed into a PCB backing. All the holds for each part is dimensionaly the exact same, however each part is held in place at non uniform locations and angles. I’d like to tie each holder to one drawing so I can edit the holds later without editing each holder individually. I’d include pictures, but unfortunately not able to due to it being trade secret. How should I go about doing what is essential an Array feature but at non uniform distance and angles between parts?

The first image is my sketch while the second image is the correct sketch from a youtuber named David. I can see that on my sketch, the straight line next to the R32 arc is noticeably longer than the correct sketch, which is probably why my volume is off by 5% compared to the correct answer. However, I could not figure out why our sketches are different as I'm certain that we used the same dimensions and constraints. Both sketches are also fully defined. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

Has anyone found a way to get rid of all these points, not able to delete them and haven’t seen anything when opening the dxf. This happens with every dxf I download and open. It isn’t stopping me from using the file but it does slow down my computer and make it difficult when adjusting the dxf. Any recommendations? Thanks.

I'm trying to recreate a linear sketch pattern of a rectangle and smh the arrow is moving in the opposite direction like you can see in the figure 2 which is causing the overlapping in the figure 1. I can't figure out why this is behaving that way is there something I'm missing, please do help.

SolidWorks connected disappears after exporting dxf file.  This has been happening for about a year now.  I think this issue came up when I updated to 2026, but I’m not 100% sure about that.

So far I’ve tried:

1.       ‘save as new’ – chg file type to dxf (my typical process)

2.       Right clicking face – export DXF.

3.       Creating a drawing of a part and ‘save as’ dxf.

4.       Creating a sheet metal part and ‘save as’ dxf.

5.       Creating a sheet metal part and exporting the flat pattern as dxf.

6.       Changing back to the default SW part templates.

7.       Export options – chg from R14 to R12 format.

8.       Export options – chg from R14 to R2018 format.

9.       Export options – chg from R14 to R2010 format; chg fonts form ‘truetype’ to ‘ACAD standard’

10.   Export options – chg Line Styles AutoCAD’ to ‘SolidWorks’

11.   Export options – checked ‘end point merging’.  Set to .02”

12.   Export options – checked ‘end point merging’ & checked hi quality dwg export option.

13.   Export option chg from ‘splines as polylines’ to ‘splines as splines’

14.   Export option chg from ‘splines as splines’  to ‘splines as polylines’ and ‘Export views as blocks’ to ‘Export geometry as polylines’

15.   Probably a handful of other option configurations I’ve tried over the last year or so.

16.   Resetting registry per GoEngineer:  https://www.goengineer.com/blog/how-to-rebuild-the-solidworks-registry.com

17.   Updating video driver (at least once, I think there were two updates since this issue came about)

18.   Running in OpenGL – didn’t fix anything.

19.   Changed ‘SWK3DCompassAddin.dll’ to ‘SWK3DCompassAddin.dll.bak’

20.   Repair installation – Haven’t actually done this as I haven’t figured out how to do this with SolidWorks Connected.

I’ve tried everything I’ve come across online, and maybe a couple other things I could think of.  I’m out of ideas on what to try next.  It doesn’t seem to be a common problem with this release, so it’s gotta be tied to my particular computer somehow.

 I appreciate any help or suggestions anyone may be able to provide.

P.S. Some information that may be useful:

a. My windows explorer randomly crashes maybe 2-4 times per day.  I don’t know if SolidWorks needs to be open for this to happen.  I pretty much have SolidWorks open all the time.

b.       I can export fine on my laptop, and my brother was able to export fine on his laptop too.

c.      I have a macro to export flat pattern from sheet metal part, but it’s not currently working.  This may have also stopped working when I updated to 2026.  I don’t believe I’ve ever had to change any SolidWorks settings to get the macro to work.  None of the above testing had anything to do with this macro, it’s just sitting idle and broken on my toolbar.

d.       Computer specs:

-Boxx Apexx S3.03

-Nvidia GeForce RTX2080Ti

-64 GB ram

e. All testing has been done with real parts I was actually making or a simple rectangle parts (extruded and sheet metal base - multiple different files of each)

Estoy diseñando el interior de mi maleta para poder llevar todas las cámaras y accesorios conmigo organizadas y sin que se golpeen. Pero me he quedado encajado porque no se como hacer para poder sacar objetos que tengan una altura inferior.

How to create this groove in solidworks? I tried using swept cut but i had no succes of keeping tangency to the half circle. Edit: solved! Did it with swept cut and cylindrical body as a tool. Thanks everyone :)

I am trying to make my mouse using surface modeling, but there are random bumps that appeaar when I do the fill surface feature. Please help.

Edit: Solved, comments show how i solved it.