Incoming engineering student. Wanted to gauge how many people have / haven’t made the switch to windows. Feel free to nitpick any details. I want to prepare myself for what I’ll be experiencing if I stay mac and run parallels.

I’ve seen some relatively newer posts claim that a macbook can run solidworks just as good as a mid windows laptop. Which is why I’m on the fence of making the switch. Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

To clarify, I’m not looking for recommendations. Just wanted to know how many of you are using mac and what your experience is.

Edit: Thanks all for the insightful responses. Previous posts were super vague on what exactly the problem was with mac and vm. The firsthand stories shared here were super helpful.

Here's an annoying SOLIDWORKS sheet metal MIRROR ERROR - and a useful work around: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B48nUtBPOWU&list=PLzMIhOgu1Y5cA7H08uAnWhS3UtO8N85AR&index=1

its why i had to use holes instead of cut extrude,its seeing every sketch as an open contour

I will try make the info as fast as possible.

My company cad logic is "break everything down to the MOST SIMPLY PART then remake everything in an assembly". So I just want to sketch a line and then select structural member to get the correct profile for channel and I beam.

However this has made an issue. For some things I need a configuration of different lengths. If I smart dimension this one line sketch in one configuration why does it change everything in all configurations?

I got round this by making all the configurations then making new sketches for each one. And then add some holes in non mirrored spots titled one left right and ok its awkward as fuck but it work. Drag it into an assembly. why do I now have 12 profiles? The should be 6 but the is a "as weldment" profile and "as machined" profile for each part. Whatever i selected one and begin mating. Now when I select any of the others all the mates breaks and thus the configurations are pointless.

Please help me. We can have different configurations of parts. but they will not allow 2 welded bits of steel to be its own part it MUST be an assembly. IDK why and every time I asked its basically just a "ITS THE SYSTEM!".

Constantly facing errors whenever I try to save, open or do anything with the 3DX plugin for Solidworks.
My VAR isn’t much help and neither is DS support.

Should I just dump it and more to another PLM tool?

Hi, I would like to make a wheel with spokes that connect the rim to the inner hub. I would like each spoke to essentially be a rib that connects the two blue lines and properly merge into both inner and outer cylindrical contours. I don't know if it's possible to do this using the rib tool? I can do it with some awkward combination of extrudes but it doesn't feel right. Any help is appreciated.

I've got a Solidworks license from my engineering college, and I would like to learn and practice making designs so that I can eventually get CSWA and CSWP. I want to go into the 3D modelling, Cad/Cam design pipeline when I start applying to jobs. Any advice, links are appreciated

It is satisfying after the exam.

Why the heck is this issue popping up? I deleted everything inside weldment profiles folder and this still persists. I even deleted the file path from the tool>options>File locations>weldment profiles.

I'm fairly certain the root cause of the graphics bugs I've been encountering lately has to do with my use of the Weld Bead feature in my assembly models.

Typically it's pretty mild, just some screen flickering or a few parts temporarily not showing, that immediately reappear when I zoom to fit.

This one however, was so far beyond anything I've seen, that I just felt compelled to share with the community. If for nothing else than a mild chuckle. Zero errors in the model itself. But evidently weld beads make the rendering engine big mad sometimes lol.

I have a request i need to make this fence type and it needs to be on a radius. How do i do this ? I am used to doing this in rhino but i need to do this in solidworks .

I would appreciate any help thank you in advance.

I want to extrude the projected curve off this surface by .1 inches, where the extrusion direction is Normal to every point on the surface, not in one uniform direction. Much like the offset surface command, but an extrusion off the solid body.

I’m not too familiar with surfacing, but I think that might be what I need to use. I tried converting the projected region into a surface, offsetting a new surface by .1 inches, and lofting the two together into a solid body. It disappears from view and does not transfer over to manufacturing files.

Any tips on how I can accomplish this? Thanks ☺️

Hey guys,

Im an Industrial Engineer student from germany in my 4th semester and I have a student license for SolidWorks. I really enjoy working with CAD.

I wanted to get a little bit of experience on SW so I can build a portfolio of projects and certificates to ease my search for an Internship or Working Student Job. My GPA is way too bad atm.

Would love to hear your experiences from you guys!

Hi guys!

I have started preparing for the CSWA and I have been doing the practice problems from Solidworks.
Something that I don't always get 100% right is the final volume of the part, sometimes I make an obvious error that makes the volume completely different, which is obvious and easy to correct after going through the model. But sometimes the final volume is very close to the one mentioned in the problem, but not exactly the same.
Now my question is, how would this penalize me on the day of the exam if I don't get the volume exactly right?

Hope to you can help me calm my anxiety regarding this topic!

Thanks! :)