Articles by: Adam Bridgman, CSWE

Adam Bridgman in SOLIDWORKS Certified Expert proving customers with technical support and training

Linking Units to Global Variables in SOLIDWORKS 2014 [VIDEO]

SOLIDWORKS Units

If your SOLIDWORKS document units are not set to global variables this can cause the shape and size of your part to dramatically change when different document units are specified. Watch the following tutorial video to learn how linking units to global variables in SOLIDWORKS…

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Why is SOLIDWORKS Crashing? [VIDEO]

What I am showing is not technically a crash, but to users of SOLIDWORKS the result is the same. GDI objects are used to draw window elements that are not in the graphics area in SolidWorks.  For maximum performance the Graphics area takes advantage of OpenGL…

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SolidWorks Tutorial: Advanced Mate References [VIDEO]

Mate references can be set up in two parts to correspond to each other.  When created this way it is up to the user to add the appropriate part, but not to select a location for such a part. Follow the video below to see…

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SOLIDWORKS Administration: Moving to a new License Server

Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are out; they are no longer supported by SolidWorks. The following compatibility chart is taken from http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/SystemRequirements.html. SolidWorks Network License Server Operating Systems SolidWorks 2011 SolidWorks 2012 SolidWorks 2013 SolidWorks 2014 Windows 7(SP1 required for SolidWorks 2014) Windows 8.1…

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SOLIDWORKS Sketch Relations Summary

The SOLIDWORKS Online Help provides a summary of all of the SOLIDWORKS sketch relations available. There is something missing from this table, it should show the icons associated with each relation.  These are the symbols you see when you select the entities described under entities…

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Add-in Series 5 – Handle Selections [VIDEO]

The mouse events are triggered quite frequently, and many times nothing in SolidWorks has changed.  It is possible to use selection change events instead.  This means your code can assume that it needs to reprocess the selection. In this example I am going to set…

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Add-in Series 4 – Handle Mouse Events [VIDEO]

There is a summary of all of the available mouse events in SolidWorks found under this help topic SolidWorks.Interop.sldworks Namespace The mouse event handler gives us access to the following events: DMouseEvents_MouseLBtnDblClkNotifyEventHandler Fired when the left-mouse button is double-clicked. DMouseEvents_MouseLBtnDownNotifyEventHandler Fired when the left-mouse button is pressed down. DMouseEvents_MouseLBtnUpNotifyEventHandler Fired when the left-mouse button is released after being pressed. DMouseEvents_MouseMBtnDblClkNotifyEventHandler Fired when the middle-mouse button is double-clicked. DMouseEvents_MouseMBtnDownNotifyEventHandler Fired when the middle-mouse button is pressed down. DMouseEvents_MouseMBtnUpNotifyEventHandler Fired when the middle-mouse button is released after being pressed. DMouseEvents_MouseMoveNotifyEventHandler Fired when the mouse pointer is moved. DMouseEvents_MouseNotifyEventHandler Fired whenever a mouse event occurs. DMouseEvents_MouseRBtnDblClkNotifyEventHandler Fired when the right-mouse button is double-clicked. DMouseEvents_MouseRBtnDownNotifyEventHandler Fired when the right-mouse button is pressed down. DMouseEvents_MouseRBtnUpNotifyEventHandler Fired when the right-mouse button…

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Add-in Series 3 – Create Task Pane [VIDEO]

A Task pane is a panel that resides on the right hand side of the SolidWorks graphics area by default.  It is a great place to provide information to users regardless of their environment (part, assembly, or drawing).  Follow the steps below to create a…

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Add-in Series 2 – Create SolidWorks Add-in without the SDK [VIDEO]

Creating an add-in from the SDK is very quick and easy, but it requires the full version of visual studio to utilize. An alternative to that is to download a source project created by the SDK without modifications and then make the changes below. The…

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