How to download and install SolidWorks on your Windows computer

Soon we will start to work on SolidWorks (CAD) used for drawing on the computers. This software is already installed on
the computers where you have class, but, we would like to encourage you to also install the software on your own computer to
practice at home.

Please follow the following links to gain insight into downloading, installing, and using the software:

• Download from the SolidWorks site www.solidworks.com/studentpremium

• Complete the form
• Choose the 2022-2023 version, unless they require an older version.
• Activate using the Student Premium (formerly SEK) serial number, version 2023-2024 only:
o 9020008702045486TBR5D2K4

There is an on-line based SolidWorks which doesn’t require any installation (it works in google chrome). But, it has time usage
limitations and you are not always 100% guaranteed that you will be able to open it (depends on the amount of other users at
that time). https://my.solidworks.com/try-solidworks

If you get a message: “No streaming resources are available for your session. Try again in a few minutes. If this problem
continues, contact your administrator.”, just wait a few minutes and try again, it will not help contacting us (administrator), we
cannot assist you if it doesn’t work!

If you have followed the steps above and use the document guidelines and still have difficulty installing SolidWorks, please do
the following:

Step 1: Look at the FAQs on the website: https://www.solidworks.com/support/frequently-asked-questions?tid=231

Step 2: Submit your issue for the Solidworks team to assit you: https://www.solidworks.com/support/student-form

Dr CC Oosthuizen, 8 Aug 2022

Open Rubric
 Solidworks Student Edition
How to Download and Install

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How to Download Solidworks Student Edition
1. Go to Solidworks Community Download
2. Fill in your Name, Surname, Email Address
3. You should have received a serial number from your lecturer, if so, select “Yes” for “I already have a
Serial Number that starts with 9020”.
4. Select the Academic Version you wish to download then click “Request Download”.
5. Accept the Terms and Conditions on the next page, then press the download link on the last one.

How to Install Solidworks Student Edition

1. Make sure to Uninstall any on student version of Solidworks you have.
2. Extract the “SolidWorksSetup.exe” file you downloaded by running it and selecting “Unzip”.
3. The Solidworks Installation manager should start once this is extracted, if it does not, run the
“setup.exe” file in the location you extracted the file in step 1.
4. One the first page of the installation manager, select the first option “Install on this computer” and
click next.

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5. Type in the serial number you received from your lecturer that starts with “9020” in the
“SOLIDWORKS” field and select next. Make sure the serial number you are using is the latest one
your University has received, they change every year.

6. On the Summary Page, next to “Products”, select the “Change” button to select which products you
want. Unselect “Solidworks Electrical” unless you specifically need it and have experience setting up
a SQL database. Refer to the “Running Solidworks on Restricted Resources” document on reducing
download and install size. Once done select “Back to Summary”

7. Ensure the Download and Install Locations are set correctly by selecting the “Change” button next to
“Download Options” and “Installation Location”

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8. Setup your Toolbox by selecting “Change” next to the “Toolbox/Hole Wizard Options”. Select either
“Use Existing SOLIDWORKS Toolbox” if you have an old toolbox you want to upgrade, or “Create a
new SOLIDWORKS 2020 Toolbox” if you don’t have an old toolbox or would like to start with a new
one. Select “Back to Summary” once you are done.

9. Select “Download and Install” to begin the download and installation, note the download and
installation size right above this.
10. Wait for the install to complete, if you encounter any errors, please consult with your lecturer or use
the support page here.
11. Start Solidworks once you do you will be prompted by the activation manager. Select “I want to
activate my SOLIDWORKS product now” and press “Next”.

12. Select “SOLIDWORKS”, then select “Automatically Over the Internet (recommended)” and press
“Next”. If you encounter issues activating, specifically if it cannot connect to the license server, use
the “Manually via e-mail” option.

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13. Your Solidworks should now be working, please refer to the Tutorials under “Help” as well as the
learning resources on my.solidworks.com, and the training manual your lectures should provide for
you.

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 Running Solidworks on
Restricted Resources

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1. Reducing Download Size:
When downloading/installing Solidworks, you might have to download upwards of 15GB of data to install all
the required components, However for most users they do not need each and every feature and addon, this
Solidworks can be reduced to its smallest size by unticking all except the options shown in the below
Screenshots.

1.1. Absolute Minimum(2.9GB):

This is the smallest size you can download solidworks as and is recommended for several internet capped
users or those on Mobile data. If you are severely restricted on internet bandwidth, it might be better to
obtain the files from your organisation, a fellow student or colleague. This will include all cad tools like
sketching, extrusions, weldments, Sheetmetal etc, it just excludes help files, add-ins, and example files.

Only Select the following items, remember to Expand the Solidworks Dropdown and deselect its sub items:

• SOLIDWORKS
• SOLIDWORKS Languages

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 1.2. Recommended Minimum (~3.1GB):
This is a barebones install that includes things like the help documentation and eDrawings viewer to allow
for a more complete Solidworks experience. This is recommended for users that might have capped monthly
internet.

Select the following Items:

• SOLIDWORKS
o SOLIDWORKS Toolbox
o Manuals
o Help Files
• SOLIDWORKS Languages
• eDrawings

1.3. Simulation Minimum(~3.1GB):

For users looking to do FEA/FEM Simulation, this is the minimum recommended settings that also reduces
download size.

Select the following Items:

• SOLIDWORKS
o Manuals
o Help Files
• SOLIDWORKS Languages
• eDrawings
• SOLIDWORKS Simulation
• SOLIDWORKS Motion

1.4. Rendering Minimum (~2.9GB):

For users who need to perform renderings but are not able to download the package above, please use
these options. Note this is not recommended if you can use Visualize (option below) instead.

• SOLIDWORKS
o PhotoView 360
o Manuals
o Help Files
• SOLIDWORKS Languages

1.5. Rendering Recommended (~4.4GB):

Use this as the minimum for rendering. This uses Visualize instead of PhotoView 360 for rendering, which is
much more powerful and customizable for rendering.

• SOLIDWORKS
o Manuals
o Help Files
• SOLIDWORKS Languages
• eDrawings
• SOLIDWORKS Visualize

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2. Low Memory (4GB and Up):
Solidworks recommends most users have 16GB or more of Memory, however it is possible to run Solidworks
in much lower memory requirements, however a few steps need to be followed to ensure suitable
performance:

2.1. Close all background Application

Open the Task Manager and go to the “Processes” tab, Select “Memory” and it will sort your applications by
memory usage, with the ones using the most memory at the top, you can right click on these and select “End
Task” to help reduce applications that use allot of memory. Usual Culprits are browsers, games, Steam, and
antivirus.

2.2. Reduce Start Applications

To reduce Start-up applications, open the Task Manager and go to the “Start-up” tab. Right click and Disable
any application with a high Start-up impact that aren’t essential.

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 2.3. Restart your Computer
Restarting your computer can free up memory applications might have taken, even if you closed those
applications.

3. Slow CPU (e.g. i3)

Solidworks in general only uses the CPU to rebuild documents and calculate the volumes/features you
create, thus for most simple designs and small assemblies you will not see a huge performance hit with an i3
processors. That said there are things you can do to increase performance.

3.1. Use Optimized Settings:

There are many settings withing Solidworks that can help you make the program run faster, by default these
are not setup for slower CPU’s, but by using the settings file found here you can increase Solidworks
performance in CPU restricted tasks.

3.2. Close All Background Applications

Again, as with memory, you can open the Task Manager and sort by CPU usage, stopping tasks and services
that use allot of CPU can open system resources for Solidworks to use.

3.3. Change Windows for More Performance:

In the windows search bar, type “Adjust the Appearance and Performance of Windows” and open the
control panel shown. Alternatively, you can open this by opening “Control Panel”, selecting “System” and
“Advanced System Settings”. Select the “Adjust for best Performance” option on the Visual Effects tab. In
Windows 10 this will reduce animations and transparencies, in windows 7 it will unfortunately make
windows look like windows 98, to get back some of your windows 7 look, deselect all the options except:

• “Smooth Edges of Screen Fonts”

• “Show Window Contents while dragging”
• “Use Drop Shadows for icon labels”
• “Use visual styles on windows and buttons”

3.4. Unneeded Add-ins

Solidworks by default starts with several add-ins enable, this however can greatly lengthen start-up time. To
Disable these, do the following within Solidworks:

1. Go to Tools > Add-ins

2. Deselect all add-ins, under both the Start-up and the Active Add-ins side. See screenshot on how it
should look with all add-ins deselected.

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4. Slow/Full Hard Drive:
4.1. Windows 10
For windows 10, please make use of the following instructions from Microsoft:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-za/help/12425/windows-10-free-up-drive-space

4.2. Windows 7
For Windows 7, please use these instructions instead:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-za/help/17421/windows-free-up-drive-space

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