How to access MySolidWorks from inside SOLIDWORKS

MySolidWorks, as you may realize already from past tech tips, helps you be much more productive by connecting you with relevant SOLIDWORKS content and services—anytime, anywhere, and on any device. But did you know that MySolidWorks is conveniently located inside your SOLIDWORKS software? In this tech tip we will review how to access MySolidWorks and the type of content available to you.

Accessing MySolidWorks

It’s really easy to access MySolidWorks from within SOLIDWORKS but not really that obvious. When SOLIDWORKS is running you can access MySolidWorks by either:

• Selecting the SOLIDWORKS Forum tab from the task pane and the MySolidWorks search box is then available to you

SOLIDWORKS Forum Tab

• Or select the drop-down arrow from the help box and choose MySolidWorks from the list. The help box will then change to Search MySolidWorks. I’ll talk more about the advantages of the search box later in this tech tip.

MySolidWorks Search

Access MySolidWorks in the task pane

For this example I’ll use the SOLIDWORKS Forum pane to search for content, with the pane I can filter what I’m looking for and it doesn’t launch MySolidWorks in a browser window when running the search. However the content is limited and not as extensive as using the help box.

When running a search you simply enter what you are looking for inside the MySolidWorks search box and all the results will be displayed in the task pane. For example in the figure below I’ve run a search for ‘Sketch’:

MySolidWorks Search Results

As a default forum discussion links will appear in the search results, and that might be all you’ll see depending on what you entered as the search criteria. But there is a filter option available, presently it will be set to ‘All Types’ but pick the filter and choose what you would like to search for, for instance ‘Blog’ was specified in the figure below:

MySolidWorks Blog Results

Just pick on a link in the list to access the related blog post. A web browser will launch and displays the result in MySolidWorks.

You can also search for Tweets and YouTube videos. One thing to note about the YouTube video results is the videos are only those available on the SOLIDWORKS YouTube channel, and may not be training videos. To access the MySolidWorks training videos it’s better to use the help box.

Finding Training Videos

Where the MySolidWorks help search box is useful is when searching for training videos. Unlike the forum task pane you can filter for a broader set of results including the Knowledge Base, 3DContentCentral, Manufacturer network, and Training:

MySolidWorks Filters

If I uncheck the filters in the search box so that only the Training filter is selected and then run a search for ‘sketch’ again a browser window will open and display the training videos that match the search criteria. As you can see in the figure below only training lessons that match the criteria are listed.

MySolidWorks Search Results

NOTE: If MySolidWorks requires a login and you are a SOLIDWORKS subscription customer you can simply enter the same login credentials as SOLIDWORKS Customer portal. Non-subscription customers can register a Guest account. The difference between the MySolidWorks accounts is listed here »

Try MySolidWorks

Give MySolidWorks a try, subscription customers have access to the standard content. For those users not on subscription you’ll have access to the free content. To learn what is available from these different accounts you can review the account comparison.