Upgrading SOLIDWORKS Toolbox within SOLIDWORKS PDM
Article by Justin Williams updated April 20, 2021
Article
If your SOLIDWORKS Toolbox is stored within the vault, you have the option to manually upgrade it, or my preferred method is to use the Installation Manager as I’ve outlined here:
How to upgrade SOLIDWORKS Toolbox using the Installation Manager
In this scenario, the upgrade is complete on the server using the PDM Upgrade Checklist, and we’ve updated the PDM client on one machine, and now we’re finally ready to upgrade SOLIDWORKS to the new major version.
NOTE: SOLIDWORKS Toolbox only needs to be upgraded once, so we’re going to include it in the first SOLIDWORKS workstation being upgraded, the rest will be able to update SOLIDWORKS and PDM at the same time and the toolbox will be skipped.
Preparing the toolbox for upgrading
- Log in to the vault, preferably as ‘admin’ but any account with full permissions will suffice
- Perform a ‘Get Latest’ on the toolbox folder to cache the most up to date version of all the files
- Check out the database file
- Default Location; [Vault Name]\[Toolbox Path]\lang\english\swbrowser.sldedb
Completing the upgrade
Start the installation manager, and complete the SOLIDWORKS upgrade with the appropriate settings.
- On the Summary Tab
- Toolbox/Hole Wizard Options > Select Change
- Ensure Use an existing SOLIDWORKS Toolbox is selected and the path is correct
- Complete the upgrade then check in the swbrowser.sldedb file
Validation
- Ensure the swbrowser.sldedb updated by verifying the timestamp
- Check in swbrowser.sldedb to make the updated version available to other users
Additional Steps
Prior to upgrading any additional SOLIDWORKS workstations to the new version, perform a Get Latest on the Toolbox folder, then the latest version will be cached and the installation manager will skip the upgrade.
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