Save and Restore User Settings Solidworks

When reinstalling the system or Solidworks, you want to save your personal settings, in order to restore them later. Also it is convenient when transferring the Solidworks settings (toolbars, menus, hot keys) to another computer. The utility "SolidWorks Copy Settings Wizard", which is part of SolidWorks, will help us in this. The utility is on the path

"C:\Program Files\SolidWorks\SolidWorks\setup\i386\copyoptwiz.exe"

or in the "Start" menu - "All Programs"

Solidworks 2012 - Copy Settings Wizard.

In versions of Solidworks 2015 and later, you can run the utility directly from Solidworks.

Launch the "Solidworks Copy Settings Wizard".

Choose Save Settings

Choose which settings you want to save and the location of the settings file. Done.

Restoring settings is done in a similar way.

Click "Restore Settings" - "Next"

We show the settings file and choose which settings to import.
Pay attention to the possibility of importing settings settings in different versions of Solidworks. The screenshot shows the restoration of the Solidworks 2016 settings using the utility from the Solidworks 2017 suite.

Just in case, put a check mark "Create backup copy" - "Done".

All. You can run Solidworks and enjoy the familiar interface.
If you tick the "Backup current settings" checkbox, the utility will save the file starting with the words "backup" before restoring the setting,

You can restore Solidworks 2017 settings to Solidworks 2016 or earlier. Remember to change the location of toolbars in newer versions.

A file with saved settings is the most ordinary reg-file only with the extension "sldreg"

Thus, you can import the Solidworks settings even without the "Solidworks Copy Settings Wizard" utility, by simply entering data into the registry. This can be done by double clicking on the file and confirming the data entry in the registry, or through the Windows regedit utility.
Of course, you can restore settings to other Solidworks versions via the "Solidoworks Settings Copy Wizard", but if you want, you can change the year in the reg file to the required ones and also make the settings in other versions. For example, opening a file with a notebook and making a replacement for "2016" for "2015" we get the file of the settings Solidworks 2015.

Attention !!! When migrating from Solidworks 2008 or lower to Solidworks 2009 or higher, you should note that the default installation path has changed:

"C:\Program Files\SolidWorks\SolidWorks" - Solidworks 2008 or lower

"C:\Program Files\SolidWorks Corp\SolidWorks" -  Solidworks 2009 or higher.

Read more

The share sketch in Solidworks

There is one interesting feature in Solidworks that I did not find in the Solidworks help or was looking badly :). Use one sketch in different elements. To do this, select the sketch by clicking the left mouse button on the sketch, (first open it in the tree) and click on the desired element: draw, cut, etc. After that, enter the parameters and confirm. As a result, you will get an element that is created with a sketch from another element. The icon for such a sketch, used in several elements, looks like a sketch with the palm opened under it, similar to the common folders in Windows.

You can use sketches of different elements in other elements repeatedly.
For example, we'll make a figurine on the panel, we'll simulate it the way it is done in the production: we make the workpiece and then milling it along the contour.

Use the "Swept Cut"

Specify the profile

and the trajectory of the cutout

Repeat our actions for the other side of the workpiece

As a result, we received a parametric panel.

See this video.

Read more

Creating Sheet Metal Flat Pattern

It is necessary to make the transition from a round tube to a square of sheet metal. Let us consider the principle of constructing such scans from sheet metal. In order to get a sweep of it you need to build it using the tool "Element by the bend cross-sections". It is located in the Sheet Metal toolbar, in the Insert menu - Sheet Metal, on the Sheet Metal tab, or you can take it to the right place when setting up the Solidworks interface.

"Элемент по сечению сгиба" в меню "Вставка"

"Элемент по сечению сгиба" в меню "Настройка"

The construction scheme is as follows:

We construct a sketch of a circular non-closed section, the gap is necessary to obtain a sweep. The gap must be dimensioned (generally a fully defined sketch reduces the probability of error), you can make 1mm or less.

Sketch of a circular open section

We create a plane on which the profile of the second section will be located and on it we draw an open quadratic profile, with a gap. Gaps can be linked either by an equation or by using separated values (more conveniently).
It is necessary to round the corners of the square section, otherwise Solidworks will give an error.

Sketch of square open section

After that using the Solidworks tool "Element for the bend cross sections", create a transition from the sheet metal, select the first profile, then the second one and specify the thickness of the metal. Take into account the direction of the thickness, because if the direction is inside, the thickness should be less than the radius of the fillets. The direction must also be considered based on the specified dimensions, a fixed internal or external dimension is needed. Confirm the execution of the command and get a transition from sheet metal.

The resulting transition from sheet metal

There is an interesting point, there are no sweeps in the configurations. You can create it manually and highlight the sweep element in the build tree.

Flat Pattern

But when creating a drawing, this configuration of "SM-FLAT-PATTERN" containing the part in the expanded state is created automatically.

Now let's proceed to export the sweep to the dxf format, for the subsequent cutting on plasma cutting, laser or waterjet. To avoid errors with scaling, I recommend exporting directly from the part. To do this, activate the configuration with a scan, click on the flat surface with the right button and select "Export to DXF / DWG", select the save location and file format. In the same window, you can configure the export options in dxf / dwg, for this click the "Options" button. From the settings I recommend turning on "Export all splines as polylines" and "Enable connection", the necessary gap clearance is selected by yourself.

Setting up export to dxf / dwg

After the export is confirmed, the "DXF / DWG Clear" window opens, in this window you can delete unnecessary holes or other elements.

Cleaning

 If necessary, you can undo the changes. After cleaning, click "OK" and the dxf / dwg file is created in the location you specified.

Just sweep can be done without activating the flat state. To do this, select the unfoldable surface and save it as dxf. Solidworks add the "Sweep" before the name of the saved part. Further as in the previous case.

The other way is even simpler, right-click on the Sweep in the design tree and select "Export to DXF / DWG", further as described above.

And the easiest way, just save the part as dxf / dwg, the rest as in the previous cases.

And finally, the most complex and most (as it turned out) common option: saving from the drawing.
The bottom line is simple, you insert a sweep in the drawing sheet and save it in dxf / dwg. In addition to more actions, this option carries a very unpleasant feature: distortion of the scan scale. If the scale of the sheet coincides with the scale of the drawing view, there will be no scale distortion. In other cases, there are different options and this is the topic of a separate article. Therefore, I recommend exporting from the model, there will be no problems with scaling.

Read more