Enabling description in SOLIDWORKS ‘Save’ and ‘Save as’ dialog box

After upgrading SOLIDWORKS or running a fresh installation you may notice that the field for Description in SOLIDWORKS Save and Save As dialog boxes has disappeared? This problem is caused by a library file called “sldpropertyhandler.dll” and to fix it you need to register this library file again.

Description in Save As dialog

How to fix the problem:

To fix this issue follow these steps:

1- Locate “sldpropertyhandler.dll” in windows explorer, it should be in your main SolidWorks installation folder. The default location is: C:\Program Files\SolidWorks Corp\SolidWorks

sldpropertyhandler.dll in windows explorer

2- Right click on Command Prompt and run as administrator.

3- For Windows 7 type “regsvr32” and then drag and drop “sldpropertyhandler.dll” from windows explorer to Command Prompt. This will add the library location to the command line.

sldpropertyhandler.dll in windows explorer

If you have Windows 10 you need to add ‘C:\Windows\SysWOW64\regsvr32’ before DLL location path. So the command should look like this:

sldpropertyhandler.dll added to command prompt in Windows 10

4- Hit Enter. You will receive a message saying that the library file has been registered successfully.