Hey everyone!
I’ve been quietly following this community for quite a while, and I just wanted to say thanks for all the great content, help, and support you guys share here. I thought it was about time to introduce myself and share some of my own work with you.
I’m a mechanical engineer and have been working with SolidWorks since 2008. I’ve pretty much taught myself everything over the years, from standard part modeling and sheet metal to weldments and surface modeling.
But my real passion is rendering, especially vehicles!
Both vehicles you see here are based on real vehicles that existed in the past. I modeled and rendered both of them entirely myself.
If you have any questions about my work or workflow, feel free to ask. I’ll do my best to answer them!
Looking forward to sharing more of my work with you all!

I have always used Plasticity as my modeling program for rc mechanical and body parts but I feel limited as I dont have mechanical animations and cant model gears as well.

I have the full version of solidworks given by a friend and Free version of Fusion 360 Am hesitant to fully commit and switch because I've tried to bear the steep learning curve of either one of these programs but I feel so slow and frustrated by how everything is overly complicated.

Is it actually worth spending all the time learning and how much difficulty should I expect in the first week? when will it get easier?

And Which and what should I learn? Fusion seems vastly easier by other people accounts but I have the full disposal of Solidworks in which I would have more capabilities like stress simulations that I wish to do in the future.

Firstly, apologies if this breaks a rule. I read them, but saw nothing specifically against this.

We've been developing our CAD engine since 2010. Our flagship workflow was always easy design followed by a native SolidWorks export (fully featured .sldasm and .sldprt files). If some of you have worked with T-Slots, you may be familiar with it.

That being said, we've been tinkering with LumberCAD since about 2020, really got into it in 2022, and released the Beta today.

Does it come with everything SolidWorks does? No, obviously not.

However, it is an absurdly easy to use dimensional lumber configurator with heavily automated documentation and a pre-made catalog of products.

This question is probably better posed to the SketchUp community, but we would love to hear your feedback nonetheless.

One thing we're proud of is we already crash less than SolidWorks ;)

If you're interested in playing around with the open Beta, you can find it at https://lumbercad.com/

Mods, please message me if the link should be removed.

Thank you in advance!

I got a STEP file from an OEM and converted it to a Solidworks 2026 file. However, there is a little bit of the surface missing that I think is causing all of the edges to be highlighted in blue. What's the best way to go about fixing this? I have tried a few of the surface modeling tools (extend, knit, trim) but everything has thrown errors for me.

Here's a 24 hour link to the model: https://wormhole.app/bbd0DP#BPvXZPzzlBqPFx-tsuCh3w

due to the way that the bending machine operates here, the dimension that the operator would need is the one shown on the first picture (from outside to the center of the bend). I was wondering if there is any way that i can make this dimension directly on the flat pattern.

i know that i can just change the value manually on the drawing or make different drawings, but i would like an easier way if possible.

I’m running into an issue with an assembly that has two different PCBAs in it. The PCBAs are imported as STEPs with multiple bodies contained within. Each component on the board is a body that is named according to the schematic, ie ‘R17’ or ‘C3’ or ‘board’. The naming is done by the ECAD software doing the export.

For just a resistor, this isn’t a huge deal. As you can imagine, two different PCBAs are probably also going to have different PCBs.

If I import one PCBA and then import the other, everything is fine. As soon as I save and reload, however, all duplicate names are combined. This means one of the imported PCBAs suddenly has all of the wrong components - including the PCB.

How is everyone managing this? Are you manually renaming STEP bodies during import to avoid duplication?

Hello everyone, I recently bought the SW for Makers edition and selected the LOCALLY installed (standalone) version. You have to login at least every 30 days though to verify your installation.

But SW forces me to login EVERY time, I open the program. Lately I was on the train without internet connection and wasn't able use SW because of this sh*t.

I have not found any solution for that. Maybe anyone of you has an idea of how to dissable this behavior? I have a paid version, and don't look for a solution to circumvent the login at all. but NOT EVERY TIME I open the program.

Thanks for your ideas/help.

Currently going through a solidworks practice problem book and came across this problem. I am able to make the simple parts of the model but I’m confused on how to even approach the helix, I am teaching myself so if I’m not looking at a tool please let me know.

ACE - one of best SOLIDWORKS speedmodelers - takes on newcomer Daindrium!! Action kicks off at 1PM east coast - livestream link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_gYWI9Z_8M

How do the dimensions look? its a beginner class so its nothing too crazy id just like feedback if theres anything to say abt it

I have macro at work that exports sheet metal parts from the assembly as DXF. And with every single part it opens this piece of garbage window that annoys the sh* out of me, bc I have to click "Save all" like 20 times. Does anyone know how to get rid of it?

In some assemblies it doesn't promt me to Save anything though. I have no clue what causes it :/

Hey, I’m not even sure if this is the right subreddit, but I’ve seen a few technical drawings here, so I thought this might be the best place to ask. Anyway, I’m doing a technical drawing course and I’ve got to draw the left-front and top views of this diagram, but I really don’t understand a thing. I can’t seem to visualise the part in my head, I don’t understand certain symbols (for example: the ‘e’ on the left next to the diameter) and the teacher isn’t really helping. Could anyone give me some advice? Thanks a lot (I’ve used a translator to improve my English, so perhaps the message comes across a bit dry – I’m sorry about that).

I have a step file a client sent. When I drag it into edrawings it opens as a full assembly but when I import into solidworks it is missing a few parts. I have tried importing with the 3d interconnect on and off but no luck.

I have had this happen before when client's send files is there something I am missing?

Thanks!

Now that people are reverse engineering using AI and rebuilding products for different platforms, are there thoughts on doing this for solidworks? Not to be fully feature compliant because yes solidworks needs a lot of hardware optimization from windows but atleast something that works for intermediate levels?

I dont wanna be the one who asks everyting guy but i just cant get it. Even if the feutre is closed it doesnt go back

Open an assembly, it reads every part’s real geometry (flat plates from their face, bent sheet metal from the flat pattern, tube/angle/bar as cut lengths from the weldment cut list), and nests them against stock sizes you give it. Nesting uses the actual part outline, not a bounding box, so a small bracket can drop into the hole of a bigger plate.

Output is a PDF: every sheet nested and drawn out with part counts, a cut list for bars and tube showing drops on each one, usable offcuts credited back against the job instead of counted as scrap, purchased hardware (recognizes McMaster part numbers and totals them up), and a full quote with cutting/piercing/bending/sawing costs and markup.

Try it out for free https://draftcmd.com/

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My coworker is having an issue, and I've never used this particular path so I'm not sure how to help them troubleshoot.

They make a multi-body part and add an exploded view of the bodies in the part. Then they add two multi-body parts into an assembly to make a combined exploded view of those two parts. They use the "from part" button and, in theory, it should show the same exploded view that was in the part. However, it doesn't always work correctly. Sometimes bodies are left behind. They were moved in the part's exploded view, but show up somewhere else entirely in the assembly. Sometimes SW crashes entirely when trying to edit the exploded view in the assembly.

For example, they moved 3 rectangular bodies in a part, all in one step. When the exploded view was pulled "from part" into the assembly, each of those 3 rectangular bodies were somewhere else in the assembly.

This feels like a SW bug, but I wanted to see if anyone else has experience with this happening, and what they did to fix it (other than not using "from part")

The rotor was an assignment a week ago, now looking at this recent one called "Housing" I don't even know how to start or complete this...

I noticed the SOLIDWORKS Maker yearly subscription is currently 50% off, which makes it only $25/year.

Before I buy another year, does anyone know how renewals work? If I already have an active Maker subscription, is a new purchase added onto the end of my current subscription, or does it start immediately and overlap?

Also, if subscriptions stack, can I buy multiple years during the sale and have them apply consecutively?

To make things more confusing, I’m not sure how much time I have left on my current subscription or whether it’s set to auto-renew.

Cheers,

If you need to look at SOLIDWORKS files on a PC without SOLIDWORKS, this opens parts and assemblies in 3D in the browser:

https://solidise.com/tools/solidworks-viewer

• Open single files, or open a whole project folder so assemblies load with their referenced parts
• Free, and you don't need an account or an install
• Files are processed in your browser and aren't uploaded

If a file doesn't open or something looks wrong, post it below.