CAM Standard & CAM Standard TBM

The installation process is simple with CAM. All you have to do is run the 2023 SOLIDWORKS installation manager and CAM is one of the features you can automatically include by default.

After the installation is complete, open SOLIDWORKS and activate the SOLIDWORK CAM add-in. Make sure you note that you can activate it for either the current session (left check) or to automatically load at startup (right check).

Once you activate the add-in, right-click on the Command Manager, then go to Tabs, and select SOLIDWORKS CAM and SOLIDWORKS CAM TBM to them to the Command Manager.

Current SOLIDWORKS CAM Users

To set up an existing Machine Post and Tech  DB, you can copy the database to C:\ProgramData\SolidWorks\SOLIDWORKS CAM 2023. If you don’t have the database stored in the default location, you can link it from within the Tech DB

Note: You may have the ProgramData folder set to hidden. To show hidden files and folders, open Windows Explorer, select the View tab, and check the box for Hidden Items.

To manage your database(s) and Tech DB, open SOLIDWORKS and go to the SOLIDWORKS CAM tab. Next, click on the Technology Database button.

Once the Technology Database loads, please close SOLIDWORKS.

In the Tech DB, select Settings from the tabs on the left.

• If you have a current database select the Import Database tab and click Browse to link it.
• To manage or add additional databases, select the Manage Database tab.

SOLIDWORKS CAM Professional

The installation process for SOLIDWORKS CAM Professional is similar to SOLIDWORKS CAM. The big difference, however, is that it needs the product serial. If you do not know your serial or would like to purchase SOLIDWORKS CAM Professional, contact your VAR (Computer Aided Technology).

Run the SOLIDWORKS 2023 installation manager (or modify an existing installation) and when prompted for the serial information, expand the SOLIDWORKS CAM item and add the SOLIDWORKS CAM Professional serial number.

Click next through the remaining installation windows to complete the installation of SOLIDWORKS CAM Professional.

We hope this series has helped you successfully install SOLIDWORKS 2023.  Please check back to the CATI Blog as the dedicated support team will continue posting new series of articles every month that go further into the details of many of the SOLIDWORKS tools. All of these articles will be stored in the category of Daily Dose of SolidWorks Support.

Chris Villeneuve
Technical Support Engineer II
Computer Aided Technology, LLC

Related Content

You may also be interested in how to install SOLIDWORKS 2023.

If you have network licenses of SOLIDWORKS, you might need help with upgrading your SolidNetWork License Manager.

There were several great enhancements in SOLIDWORKS CAM 2023, which one is your favorite?

Did you know that SOLIDWORKS is sunsetting the MasterCAM and GibbsCAM add-ins?

If you aren’t a SOLIDWORKS CAM user, you should check out this SOLIDWORKS CAM Overview.

It’s that exciting time of the year again! This October, we get to show the public what’s new not only SOLIDWORKS 2023 CAD, but also SOLIDWORKS 2023 Simulation! Every year, SOLIDWORKS gives us new enhancements and tools to improve the performance, usability, and more of SOLIDWORKS Simulation. We review all the great customer feedback, and the developers at SOLIDWORKS use that information to improve SOLIDWORKS with each release.

In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the biggest new enhancements in SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2023. You can also watch this in video format:

Improved Underconstrained Bodies tool

In previous years, we used the Underconstrained Bodies diagnostic tool to detect any rigid (or free) body modes. Bodies that are not adequately supported by fixtures, connectors, or contact conditions can translate or rotate freely. The problem is that the rigid body movement did not offer a realistic visualization of the whole assembly.

In SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2023, the Underconstrained Bodies tool performs a Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) for faster detection of free body modes and a more realistic visualization of unconstrained displacements for the whole assembly. Also, SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional and Premium users can use the Underconstrained Bodies tool to include contact interactions and bolt connectors when detecting rigid body modes of components. Check out Figure 1 below to see this in action.

Fig. 1 Underconstrained Bodies 2023

Penalty Stiffness Control for Contacts

New in SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2023, the Contact Penalty Stiffness Control tool allows you to set a scale factor of 1.0 to reach an accurate solution for studies with contact interactions in linear static studies. However, you can select a lower scale factor to obtain an approximate solution faster to assess design iterations and the overall behavior of the model. This will trade some contact pressure accuracy to achieve convergence easier, with faster solving times. See Figure 2 below to see a preview of how this looks.

Fig. 2 Contact Penalty Stiffness option

Bonding Between Nonfacing Surfaces

When creating bonded local interactions (contacts sets) on non-facing surfaces in previous years, the program would error out. This prevented you from creating the bonded connection in your preprocessing setup.

Now, in SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2023, we see great the bonding interaction has been improved by allowing surface-to-surface bonding on faces that are not facing each other and have no projection area between them. This new capability applies to linear static, frequency, buckling, linear dynamic studies, as well as fatigue and design studies associated with linear static studies. See Figure 3 below.

These were just a few of the great enhancements to SolidWorks Simulation 2023. The more advanced Underconstrained Bodies algorithm, the new Penalty Stiffness Control for Contact tool, and Bonding Between Nonfacing Surfaces and more will help you get convergence in your simulation results faster and with better accuracy.

Now go make your products even better with all the new SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2023 enhancements!

I hope this part of the What’s New series gives you a better understanding of the new features and functions of SOLIDWORKS 2023. Please check back to the CATI Blog as the CATI Application Engineers will continue to break down many of the new items in SOLIDWORKS 2023. All these articles will be stored in the category of “SOLIDWORKS What’s New.” 

Nick Pusateri

Senior Application Engineer Specialist, Simulation

Computer Aided Technology 

What is Design Innovation Month? 

DESIGN INNOVATION MONTH 2022 – Live Events, Webinars, Virtual Showroom, Contests 

Design Innovation Month is CATI’s “What’s New in 2023” event for SOLIDWORKS, 3DEXPERIENCE, and 3D Printing & 3D Scanning technology. This year we’re going back to the future to bring you in-person events, live and on-demand webinars, demonstrations, in-depth blog posts, and prizes! Best of all, it’s free of charge! Check the DI Month Hub for all the details and to sign up for your nearest live event. 

You’d best skedaddle

Introducing the F370CR and F190CR 3D Printers

These new printers pack a lot more than just a facelift. More and more, manufacturers are turning to 3D printers to supply rapid prototyping and custom tooling in high-performance materials. The new F370CR and F190CR 3D Printers offer a fully hardened filament path, letting them print the toughest composite materials.

Releasing with the launch of these two new printers is Stratasys’ new Nylon 10-CF material for F123CR. Stiffer and lighter than ABS CF-10, this new material excels at creating tooling fixtures, soft jaws, assembly jigs, and more. Its nylon base gives it impressive chemical resistance too, making it appropriate for use in applications that involve prolonged exposure to grease, oil, coolants, and other harsh chemicals.

Nylon CF-10 at work – custom soft jaws

F123CR series printers straddle the line between 3D printer and 3D production system. They provide some of the bite of Stratasys’ advanced engineering material portfolio while keeping the approachable and intuitive user experience perfected by the F123 lineup.

If you’ve determined you need the material portfolio of industrial 3D production platforms like the Fortus 450 or the F900 but aren’t ready to jump straight into a system with such a high level of commitment, the F123CR series could be your new best option.

Slimmer and sleeker with no special requirements. F123CR is the easiest production-grade 3D printer to welcome into your space.

New Features

All F123 series printers including the F123CR are compact and quiet when printing. This means you can easily put it in any corner of the office. Additionally, the smaller heated chamber doesn’t require a high voltage electrical hookup, so the printer can be run off any regularly available outlet. The printer also doesn’t require large support removal equipment. And the equipment it does need fits comfortably on the top of a table or counter.

We’re excited to share these new printers and we can’t wait to see what you’ll print using this new platform. If something you read in the article piques your interest, don’t hesitate to reach out to our knowledgeable sales team to learn more. We have a hardworking technical team on staff ready to discuss your specific application and prove the value of a machine like the F370CR or F190CR can bring to your business.

Email us at:

sales@cati.com 

Or give us call:

888-308-2284

Jake Wenzel

Application Engineer, Hardware Solutions

Computer Aided Technology

Adding Serial Numbers to SNL

It is now much easier to add your serial number to the license manager. On the activate\deactivate window, there is a new button “ADD”. Clicking this option will open a new window where you can type in serial numbers or simply copy and paste. You can also delete non-active serial numbers from this list. This new interface makes managing SOLIDWORKS 2023 licensing very convenient when administrating and managing your serial numbers!

Manage Term Licenses

The activation dialog box now has a filter to make it easier to isolate individual serial numbers and highlight products within 30 days of their expiration date. The system will also mark the products that need to be renewed with an asterisk.

Controlling Flow Add-in

If you use network licenses for your Flow Simulation, and you have the additional add-in for HVAC or Electronics Cooling, it is now possible to launch SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation without tying up licenses for all products. This gives you the ability to better control the sharing of this license. You control this setting on the License Order tab in the license manager.

Turning this setting off and going to the add-ins tab of the command manager lets you select which Flow products need to be added. This lets you share the add-in modules amongst every SOLIDWORKS Flow user. This option extends the value of your Flow license allowing users to only use what they need.

SOLIDWORKS 2023 Licensing for Working Remote

Today’s workforce demands great flexibility and working from home can add some performance challenges. Now when you use the “Borrow License” function with network licenses, you have the option to use only borrow licenses and to block the client’s communication with the server. This results in faster load times for SOLIDWORKS.

Installing the 3DExperience Add-in in SOLIDWORKS 2023

With more and more users transitioning to the 3DExperience platform, there is a need to share and collaborate with others who are not on the platform. How do you do this? Easy, with the 3DExperience Exchange add-in. In 2023 this add-in installs by default and allows users outside the platform to receive a package of content from a 3DExperience source. They can add to and modify the content, and then send it back to the 3DExperience source. This add-in protects your IP, and maintains the data in your system, while easily collaborating with outside sources.

I hope this part of the What’s New series gives you a better understanding of the new features and functions of SOLIDWORKS 2023. Please check back to the CATI Blog as the CATI Application Engineers will continue to break down many of the new items in SOLIDWORKS 2023. All these articles will be stored in the category of “SOLIDWORKS What’s New.”

Bryan Pawlak
Sr. Application Engineer, Strategic Solutions
Computer Aided Technology

What is Design Innovation Month?

DESIGN INNOVATION MONTH 2022 – Live Events, Webinars, Virtual Showroom, Contests

Design Innovation Month is CATI’s “What’s New in 2023” event for SOLIDWORKS, 3DEXPERIENCE, and 3D Printing & 3D Scanning technology. This year we’re going back to the future to bring you in-person events, live and on-demand webinars, demonstrations, in-depth blog posts, and prizes! Best of all, it’s free of charge! Check the DI Month Hub for all the details and to sign up for your nearest live event.

Below is a list of language operators and examples you can find as helpful aids on the platform. As an added benefit, I’ve included more thorough explanations of the situational examples provided. Hopefully, this further emphasizes best use cases so that you can be more efficient in your day-to-day.

Expression Rules Criteria

Feature:
A feature without any option refers to all options associated with this feature.
Example: [Color]
Explanation: We’ve previously established the feature ‘color’ as a variant for a Model Version. This Variant is the beginning piece of a Rule Expression.

Feature/Option:
A feature with an option is a valid expression.
Example: [Color] [Blue]
Explanation: We’ve previously established the feature ‘color’ as a variant for a Model Version. Here, we assign the feature ‘blue’’s definition, a Variant Value, as a ‘color’ by arranging the expression in this order.

Feature/Several Options:
A feature followed by a list of options is equivalent to an OR in between all listed options.
Example: [Color] [Blue] [Green]
Explanation: We’ve previously established the feature ‘color’ as a variant for a Model Version. Here, we assign the features ‘blue’ and ‘green’’s definitions, both Variant Values, as ‘color’s by arranging the expression in this order.

Standard Operators for Expression Rules

NOT: [NOT] expression1
An expression preceded by a NOT is the logical complement of this expression.
Example: [NOT] [Color] [Blue]
Explanation: We’ve previously established the feature ‘color’ as a variant for a Model Version. Here, we assign the feature ‘blue’’s definition, a Variant Value, as a ‘color’ by arranging the expression in this order. Beginning this expression with the ‘NOT’ operator, we define this arrangement to be ‘false/not allowed’, for the associated Model Version.

AND: expression [AND] expression2
AND between two expressions express the logical conjunction of the two expressions.
Example: [Color] [Green] [AND] [City] [Paris]
Explanation: We’ve previously established the feature ‘color’ as a variant for a Model Version. Here, we assign the feature ‘green’’s definition, a Variant Value, as a ‘color’ by arranging the expression in this order. Additionally, we establish the feature ‘City’ as a variant for a Model Version. Here, we assign the feature ‘Paris’’s definition, a Variant Value, as a ‘City’ by arranging the expression in this order. Placing the operator ‘AND’ between these two expression segments links them ‘both’ in the same rule expression for the associated Model Version.

OR: expression1 [OR] expression2
OR between two expressions express the logical disjunction of the two expressions.
Example: [City] [London] [OR] [Country] [France]
Explanation: We’ve previously established the feature ‘city’ as a variant for a Model Version. Here, we assign the feature ‘London’’s definition, a Variant Value, as a ‘City’ by arranging the expression in this order. Additionally, we establish the feature ‘Country’ as a variant for a Model Version. Here, we assign the feature ‘France’’s definition, a Variant Value, as a ‘Country’ by arranging the expression in this order. Placing the operator ‘OR’ between these two expression segments links them as ‘one or the other’ in the same rule expression for the associated Model Version.

Conditional Requirement

IMPLY: expression1 [IMPLY] expression2
A conditional requirement – if (expression 1), then (expression 2) – uses the IMPLY operator.
Example: [City] [Paris] [IMPLY] [Country] [France]
Explanation: We’ve previously established the feature ‘city’ as a variant for a Model Version. Here, we assign the feature ‘Paris’’s definition, a Variant Value, as a ‘City’ by arranging the expression in this order. Additionally, we establish the feature ‘Country’ as a variant for a Model Version. Here, we assign the feature ‘France’’s definition, a Variant Value, as a ‘Country’ by arranging the expression in this order. Placing the operator ‘IMPY’ between these two expression segments links them as ‘one as well as the other/so long as’ in the same rule expression for the associated Model Version.

Co-dependency Statement

EQUIVALENT: expression1 [EQUIVALENT] expression2
Equivalent makes expression 1 and expression 2 have the same logical content.
Example: [Citizen] [French] [EQUIVALENT] [Country] [France]
Explanation: We’ve previously established the feature ‘citizen’ as a variant for a Model Version. Here, we assign the feature ‘French’’s definition, a Variant Value, as a ‘Citizen’ by arranging the expression in this order. Additionally, we establish the feature ‘Country’ as a variant for a Model Version. Here, we assign the feature ‘France’’s definition, a Variant Value, as a ‘Country’ by arranging the expression in this order. Placing the operator ‘EQUIVALENT’ between these two expression segments links them as ‘synonymous’ in the same rule expression for the associated Model Version.

Incompatible Statement

You may want to create two incompatible statements. You can do this with existing operators.
Example: [City] [London] [IMPLY] [NOT] [Country] [France]
Explanation: We’ve previously established the feature ‘city’ as a variant for a Model Version. Here, we assign the feature ‘London’’s definition, a Variant Value, as a ‘City’ by arranging the expression in this order. Additionally, we establish the feature ‘Country’ as a variant for a Model Version. Here, we assign the feature ‘France’’s definition, a Variant Value, as a ‘Country’ by arranging the expression in this order. Placing the operators ‘IMPLY’ and ‘NOT’ between these two expression segments links them as ‘if so, then not allowed’ in the same rule expression for the associated Model Version.

Additional Examples
Example Scenario: Include a bottle holder whenever we release a bicycle in France.
Example Syntax: [Country] [France] [IMPLY] [Accessories] [Bottle Holder]

               Example Scenario: Exclude a GPS Unit for a bicycle whenever a customer selects 26-inch tires or a basket option.
Example Syntax: [Tire] [Wanda 26] [OR] [Accessories] [Basket] [IMPY] [NOT] [Accessories] [GPS]

Expressions that specify invalid scenarios will automatically prevent certain scenarios from being chosen when creating Configurations.

Wrap Up

By using logical expression rules in your Project Plan Portfolio, you can ensure consistent results across your team. This means everyone always follows the same rules every time. This also makes it easier to manage going forward, as you set these rules up front and become the standards going forward.

Gabriel Rodriguez
Application Engineer II
Computer Aided Technology

With a sheet metal part open, let’s go thru the steps to creating a DXF or DWG file.

Right click any face of the sheet metal part and click Export to DXF/DWG. (Second from the bottom)

Click the Options button.

Select your version using the drop down and click Ok.

Save the DXF file in desired location. A property Manager will appear.

Click Sheet Metal radial button. Under Entities To Export, Geometry should be checked by default, select any other entities to bring over (Bend Lines, forming Tools…)

You can click on a vertex as the origin or establish your own x or y axis.

If you have one-part, Single file radial button is good. If you had a multi body part, you could separate them out by using Separate files.

Hit the green check mark.

The DXF/DWG Cleanup dialog box appears. At the top, you can zoom to fit, zoom to window zoom in/out, pan or previous view.

You can also remove entities by left mouse clicking it and deleting from your keyboard.

Click save and you’re good to go.

I hope you find this helpful. Thanks for reading.

Roger Ruffin
Sr. Application Engineer
Computer Aided Technology

Deep Breath

Ok. Pick up the keyboard and or mouse that is now in bits strewn across the floor. Don’t make eye-contact with your co-workers, it’ll only increase the awkward tension in the room. Get a cup of coffee and take a breather. Everything isn’t going to come crashing down, I promise. Once you’re fully caffeinated let’s talk about what happened to cause this RIDICULOUS BREAKDOWN JUST BECAUSE SOLIDWORKS WANTS TO MESS WITH THE #*$@&^+ CODE AGAIN AND WASTE MY TIME! I’M ALREADY BEHIND SCHEDULE! … what did I say? Deep breath.

Truth Hurts

Relaxed now? … Ok, let’s change that. Likely, if the part worked fine in a previous year with no errors and you’ve now saved THAT SAME PART in a newer release of SOLIDWORKS and it has errors, it has nothing to do with any code changes that SOLIDWORKS has made in the newer release. Raging again? Stick with me. By saving in the latest version of SOLIDWORKS, you think SOLIDWORKS Release Broke my Part, but instead you uncovered a problem that existed in your part in the prior release the whole time.

Conversion Process to Newer Versions

So, what actually happens during the conversion process to a newer year? When does it happen? What uses the ‘new code’? When you’re using a newer version of SOLIDWORKS to open an older version of a part, you see the save icon warns you a file that needs to be saved in the current year.

Needs Converted Save Icon

When you select this, SOLIDWORKS saves to the latest version AND SOLIDWORKS performs an Advanced Body check.

Advanced Body Check

What’s an Advanced Body Check? An Advanced Body Check is a validation that the geometry is a good watertight solid model. This check ensures there are no invalid faces or edges. You can run this check at any time as well through Tools > Evaluate > Check Entity.

Check Entity

But if you didn’t run the Check Entity, how does SOLIDWORKS know to check the geometry? How can I set up SOLIDWORKS to consistently run body checks? To understand that we look at what option is automatically on during the save process when saving to a new version.

Verification on Rebuild

In System Options > Performance, there is an option that is OFF by default. ‘Verification on Rebuild’ is off by default. This is intentional because ‘Verification on Rebuild’ checks all the geometry for consistency during every rebuild, which for most cases would be unnecessary computation time.

Verification on Rebuild

You see the errors in the newer version of SOLIDWORKS with the prior year’s version if this option was on. It’s not a case of the new SOLIDWORKS release broke my part.

Why the Errors?

So why would a model (REGARDLESS OF YEAR) show an error with ‘Verification on Rebuild’ disabled? It has to do with what SOLIDWORKS checks if a feature is possible to create. When a new feature is created, SOLIDWORKS checks if the newly created faces and adjacent faces are valid. Let’s say I have a simple shelled part like the following.

Simple Model

Then I add a fillet to the bottom edge outside edge as shown below.

Funky Model

Looks weird right? SOLIDWORKS says it’s a valid model and if I rebuild the model, I have no errors in my tree.

Clean Tree

But as soon as I save this model in a newer release of SOLIDWORKS I will see an error in my tree, which was actually an error all along.

Tree Error

Without the ‘Verification on Rebuild’ enabled SOLIDWORKS checks the new faces (TEAL) and the adjacent faces (MAGENTA). Those are all valid faces that do not cause any geometry problems, so SOLIDWORKS thinks the geometry is ok.

Standard Face Check

When the error is not as egregious as the one shown in this example there often aren’t any visual cues that somethings wrong. We may go months or years before finding error. And often times the SOLIDWORKS Update takes the blame, when the problem’s been there all along.

New Feature Coding

As a last side note, it’s important to understand how any new feature coding is applied when new releases occur. When a feature’s coding is improved from year to year, it’s done for any number of reasons. Changes to any given feature help improve stability, performance, and functionality. But the beauty of SOLIDWORKS is that coding changes are not immediately applied to every feature that’s changed. If that were the case, updates to newer versions would take much longer, you could have issues with parts that you have no intention of changing, or you could have to deal with unnecessary bugs that are resolved from one service pack to the next all the time.

The only time SOLIDWORKS uses newer feature coding on an older feature is when that feature is edited. To clarify, during the save process to the latest version of SOLIDWORKS, SOLIDWORKS only does the body checking mentioned previously, it does not update any feature coding. So, there are times where a part is saved in the latest version of SOLIDWORKS, an edit is made to a feature and the part ‘breaks’. To see if this is the case, right-click on a feature in the design tree, select ‘Feature Properties’, and look at the ’Date Created’ and ‘Last Modified’.

Feature Date Creation

Conclusion

I hope this brief outline helps you better understand what’s happening when SOLIDWORKS files are updated. Now you know that upgrading to the latest and greatest version of SOLIDWORKS may not be a case of  the SOLIDWORKS Release Broke my Part. There may have been a problem all along.

Brandon Nelms
Application Engineer Manager
www.cati.com

Detailing Multiple Bodies

With the cut-list I can still balloon to the bodies to point at their location just like a bill of material.

The next step is breaking out each body into its own view. To do this, copy the view and reselect it to get the option to “Select Bodies”.

Select one body, and say ok.

From here we can re-orientate our view to face forward and project the other sides as necessary. Of course, we should add some dimensions and put on a balloon. The balloon for the view is still linked to the original cut list, so the item number will work correctly. If you would like to reorder the cut list, the balloon will update.

Repeat the procedure for the bodies that need extra detailing work. This should simplify the workflow as I don’t have to break out each body to their own part file and reassemble it into an assembly for a bill of material. I have now accomplished that from my cut list using “Select Bodies”. There are of course reasons to do that, but in this case, once each section is secured together, it becomes “One Part”. I can pick it up any body and move it around as one solid unit and each stack will be a different part with varying heights. It is up to the design team how they would like to define “A Part”, and I leave that choice up to you.

Craig Maurer
Elite Applications Engineer
Computer Aided Technology

Within SOLIDWORKS document properties, there is not an option to show a prime or double prime on non-fractional numbers. So, I’m going to use dimension styles to add double prime to my drawing dimensions. To get started I’m going to open up a drawing that I’ve already created.

STEP 1. Select the dimensions to add the double prime symbol to.

STEP 2. From the Dimension Property Manager window type in double prime(”) to the Dimension Text box.

STEP 3.  Select Add or Update a Style, as shown in the example below.

Give the Dimension Style a descriptive name and select OK.

Once the Dimension Style has been added we can now go back and save the Dimension Style. Saving the Dimension Style will create an external file that can be placed in a file location of your choosing. Creating a custom Styles folder is recommended to keep files organized and easy to locate for future use.

Notice that the Dimension Style file type is different from a template file that would usually hold changed Document Properties. Dimensions Styles are a unique file type and they do not have a pre-designated file location in SOLIDWORKS.

Select any of the remaining dimensions that should adopt the new Dimension Style and choose the newly saved style from the Styles drop-down box. You can select dimensions individually or ctrl + select specific dimensions you would like to change. Once you choose the saved Dimensions Style you’ll see the changes propagate to the selected dimensions.

Dimension Styles can capture any customizable information that you want from the Dimension Property Manager. Don’t forget that there are 3 tabs to the Dimensions Property Manager: Value, Leaders, and Other.

To revert back to the default settings for the dimensions select: Apply the default attributes to selected dimensions

To add an existing Dimension Style to other drawing files select the dimensions to change and from the Dimension Property Manager select: Load Style and then navigate to the folder location where you saved your custom style files(*.sldstl).

Dimension Styles are super handy when you have to go back and update annotations in old files, add custom call-outs to multiple files, or maintain different annotation preferences for different projects. Using Styles will save you time from changing each dimension individually, especially, if you are working across multiple files or projects. Dimension Styles are not the only style type you can use to increase efficiency. There are Styles for Notes, Geometric Tolerances Symbols, Surface Finish Symbols, and Weld Symbols.

For more information on Styles check out: SOLIDWORKS Styles.

For more information on how to increase efficiency in drawings check out: Automate Drawings with Predefined Views.

Sara Hollett
Application Engineer
Computer Aided Technology

As your trusted SOLIDWORKS partner, we have several ways to help you minimize the impact of the price increases. Please reach out to your CATI representative to learn more or contact us through our website.

SOLIDWORKS Price Decreases

• All SOLIDWORKS Desktop Term Licenses Will Decrease By 8%
  • Example: 1 Year Term License of SOLIDWORKS CAD Decreases From $2,700 to $2,495

SOLIDWORKS Pricing – No Changes

• There are no changes to the price of SOLIDWORKS Subscription Services for Desktop Perpetual Standalone Licenses
• There are no changes to the price of SOLIDWORKS Student and SOLIDWORKS Educational licenses.

SOLIDWORKS Pricing – Increases

• All SOLIDWORKS Standalone Desktop Perpetual License Prices Increase by 5%
  • Example: SOLIDWORKS CAD Standard Will Increase From $3,995 to $4,195
• All SOLIDWORKS Network Perpetual Licenses Will Increase 19%
  • Example: SOLIDWORKS CAD Standard Will Increase From $4,395 to $5,230
• All SOLIDWORKS Network Subscription Prices Will Increase by 14%

DraftSight License Price Increase

• DraftSight Enterprise and Enterprise Plus Will Increase by 33%

Please let us know if you have any questions. We are here to help you navigate these changes and make the best financial decisions when it comes to your product development solutions.

Jim TeDesco
Vice President, Marketing