New for SW2025

[XHawkeye]

https://help.solidworks.com/2025/Englis ... elcome.htm

[Glenn Schroeder]

I looked over the "What's New" website this morning. I saw a few things that made me think "That's nice," but nothing that I was really impressed with.

I don't envision any situation where I would use it, but I know some people have been asking for the ability to pattern reference geometry. That's now possible.

[AlexLachance]

A few of the adds that made me go "nice":

-Ability to pattern geometry
-Display state tables
-Ability to "Copy component" with mecanical mates
-Ability to search in the design library
-Folders will now show the (-) next to it if a component inside it is not fully mated

Nothing extraordinary, but a bunch of little tweaks here and there.

[SPerman]

I would get excited about the new Z up enhancement, but I don't have much expectation that the new Z up will be better than the old Z up.

[Glenn Schroeder]

A few of the adds that made me go "nice":

-Ability to pattern geometry
-Display state tables
-Ability to "Copy component" with mecanical mates
-Ability to search in the design library
-Folders will now show the (-) next to it if a component inside it is not fully mated

Nothing extraordinary, but a bunch of little tweaks here and there.

This one looks like it would be helpful in some situations: https://help.solidworks.com/2025/Englis ... eabc1e#Pg0.

While I don't think I would get any benefit from it, I can see where people who frequently use the same few weldment profiles would like this one: https://help.solidworks.com/2025/Englis ... 687247#Pg0.

Here is one that people have been asking for for a long time: https://help.solidworks.com/2025/Englis ... e686fd#Pg0.

[Arthur NY]

Read my text......... there are NO new base features here so please just keep it moving. Most of these enhancements are really just little tidbits. Le Sigh!!!

[dave.laban]

Read my text......... there are NO new base features here so please just keep it moving. Most of these enhancements are really just little tidbits. Le Sigh!!!

Honestly at this stage I'd generally rather they fix and optimise what's already in there than be adding too many major base features each year. I expect there would be more time saved globally if bugs and workarounds were eliminated than could be achieved by adding something new in.

[matt]

Time for an admission. This week for one reason or another I've been using SW for the first time seriously in about 10 years. There are a lot of little things that have been added, but nothing really big. Nothing that really tripped me up. There seem to also be some things missing, but that may just be bad memory. Where did the Reload command go? If you got yourself in trouble in your model, you just hit Reload, and essentially exit without saving and reopen all in one step. SW Connected combined with the Maker version has me kind of spooked with the file management stuff and my old files.

Anyway, 10 years and they didn't add anything that really tripped me up just in modeling. Turns out maybe I'm weird, but modeling is why I use CAD in the first place. All the changes are going into something else, probably 98% into the "don't care" category.

[HercalloY]

Read my text......... there are NO new base features here so please just keep it moving. Most of these enhancements are really just little tidbits. Le Sigh!!!

Exactly. There are SFA enhancements that are meaty. Especially not thousands of dollars a year meaty! FFS.

They've definitely taken the year off / phoned it in / had an easy one. Reminds me of a "we're doing a full re-write, here, have a few crumbs" type of vibe (but i don't mean that in a good ug-to-nx way, but in a , cloud-closed-off and get rid of SW as we know it kinda way).

All the changes are going into something else, probably 98% into the "don't care" category.

And its not just that its the "dont care" category. Its Cleary a minority of users that'll ever use-category. I dont know how they can justify this year over year. Surely base modelling/assembly/drawings should just about always get huge useability enhancements every year and the lesser used areas just get what the base modes currently do. I mean.. sheet metal... i could list 10 things off the top of my head that are a headache to use and i'm just some plebian!

This seems to be a problem with software development on a larger scale these last decade or two.

[SPerman]

I will be the optimist here and assume DSS is doing what we've asked for. I'm happy they took a year off from cramming in half baked add-ons. I'm hopeful they spent that time focusing on reducing the bugs and inefficiencies in all the half baked add-ons they've added in the past.

[SPerman]

Read my text......... there are NO new base features here so please just keep it moving. Most of these enhancements are really just little tidbits. Le Sigh!!!

How many new "base features" can you put into software year after year? What "base feature" are you missing that would make your life easier?

Adding features for the sake of adding features only makes sense to the marketing people. Especially when there is a limited pool of software engineers and they are already being split between cloud and desktop.

[Dwight]

Where did the Reload command go?

Hidden in the "file" dropdown menu, along with "Replace". That usually throws me, though I use them often enough.

Dwight

[AlexLachance]

Hidden in the "file" dropdown menu, along with "Replace". That usually throws me, though I use them often enough.

Dwight

Where was it previously..?

Note you can access it from the right click button when selecting in an assembly, but that only works for the component selected.

[matt]

Hidden in the "file" dropdown menu, along with "Replace". That usually throws me, though I use them often enough.

Dwight

Hey, Dwight,

The File menu was where I expected to see it. I'm using SW Connected, maybe it's gone in this version?

[DLZ_SWX_User]

Hey, Dwight,

The File menu was where I expected to see it. I'm using SW Connected, maybe it's gone in this version?
image.png

Hmm.. I'm not sure but it is still there for me in 2024 SP3.1. I don't use SW connected though.

[SPerman]

Hey, Dwight,

The File menu was where I expected to see it. I'm using SW Connected, maybe it's gone in this version?
image.png

Does this answer the question?
Solidworks Connected - Reloading a Revision

[Dwight]

I'm on SW2022.

Dwight

[matt]

I'm on SW2022.

Dwight

image.png

Awww. I figured it was something like that. I'm not using the "3dx" part at all. In fact, with the Maker version, it essentially saves all your parts as student versions, which can't be opened in the regular version. So I'm being very careful that I don't hose all of my existing files which were created in the commercial version. All my parts are saved locally, and I'm trying to make sure not to send any up to the 3dx server.

It's fine for what I'm doing.

Everything they do is ratcheting control tighter and tighter.

I did find Reload on an RMB menu in the assembly, though. So I might be able to use it as long as my part is in an assembly.

[mp3-250]

NX has a selection by boundary I wish I could use in SW.
You select only the face SURROUNDING a certain area of your part and all the faces INSIDE your selection are selected. you could fine tune the tangency requirements and other stuff. I have never got the smart selection (the one that pops a floating toolbar too close to the mouse pointer every damn time) to be useful for what I wanted to select having to click and click...

[HercalloY]

NX has a selection by boundary I whish I could use in SW....

The selection is a very BASE FEATURE and in SW it has been painful for along time (selecting edges that are small and/or close to others i ridiculous painful. Hell even when alone i have to fanoogle the damn thing for far to long to select the damn thing i want. NX, pure gold.

[AlexLachance]

The selection is a very BASE FEATURE and in SW it has been painful for along time (selecting edges that are small and/or close to others i ridiculous painful. Hell even when alone i have to fanoogle the damn thing for far to long to select the damn thing i want. NX, pure gold.

Have you given a shot at selection filters for when you struggle? Simply press F5 and the bar will appear. Another thing I use is "Select other" on the right click menu. After toggling it I hide what I don't want seen then select what I want, everything reappears afterwards and I move on with my mating/annoting.

[HercalloY]

Have you given a shot at selection filters ...

Yes i have them readily accessible as well as main ones on shortcuts. But that doesn't solve the issues i speak of. They are fundamental workings of the software that have been in serious need of resolve for a long time (if i recall, there was a push back against it a while ago and it was "looked at" but it never really fixed things, just made it ever so slightly less broken).

[AlexLachance]

I honestly haven't had any struggle ever since I started using both the selection filter and the select other, but maybe I'm not working in the same environment as you. Most of the times I had struggles were when I was doing mates, I'm guessing your struggles are while creating features and what-not.

[HercalloY]

Vertices, Smaller Edges are the usual most painful culprits in drawings as well whilst trying to dimension. Also selecting dimensions can get janky AF sometimes to. Like... you can't select a dimension because the location of the selection cursor seems to have moved by some random offset amount and direction just to keep you guessing. Weird $hit over the years.

Going back and forward from SW to NX daily really shows how unprofessional DS are wrg SW. NX's UI is such a pleasure to use (even with some of their legacy UG dialogs still not updated in certain areas/features). It really is a nice, consistent UI. As fast as SW's UI is and has become, the pleasure of working with something that WORKS and doesn't get int he way as much is an absolute godsend and a goal every software dev should strive to forever fix. Because that is the most "in the way" limitation users can benefit the most from. UI that doesn't get in the way and doesn't give you RSI (or an aneurysm).

[DanPihlaja]

What I want in the next release is the following:

Every single setting, feature, checkbox, drop down menu, text box, etc... in the ENTIRE program to have a "set as default" option.

[AlexLachance]

What I want in the next release is the following:

Every single setting, feature, checkbox, drop down menu, text box, etc... in the ENTIRE program to have a "set as default" option.

Care to delve a bit more into detail..?

[DanPihlaja]

Care to delve a bit more into detail..?

So, I know that, for example, Hole wizard holes can use the "favorites" option..... And i Use that.

But I MAINLY started using it to make sure that "With thread callout" option is not checked for threaded holes. The issue is that I have many users here that, when they model, they don't uncheck that box. I wish that I could uncheck it and make it stay unchecked for every single user here.

In fact, I am pretty sure that I have NEVER MET a user who wants that box checked, since the note that appears in a drawing is incomplete and has the wrong information anyway.

This is one example.

[DLZ_SWX_User]

So, I know that, for example, Hole wizard holes can use the "favorites" option..... And i Use that.

But I MAINLY started using it to make sure that "With thread callout" option is not checked for threaded holes. The issue is that I have many users here that, when they model, they don't uncheck that box. I wish that I could uncheck it and make it stay unchecked for every single user here.

In fact, I am pretty sure that I have NEVER MET a user who wants that box checked, since the note that appears in a drawing is incomplete and has the wrong information anyway.

This is one example.

Uh... we use that check box! But... we are also only a 4-5 man shop. Ya it may be incomplete but we mostly deal with laser cut sheet metal so for the most part all the guys need to know is that a particular hole needs to be threaded & what tap to use. The laser has cut & positioned the hole already.

And I agree the "set as default" option would be nice. What also would be nice is if the features would remember the last setting used at least.

[SPerman]

So, I know that, for example, Hole wizard holes can use the "favorites" option..... And i Use that.

But I MAINLY started using it to make sure that "With thread callout" option is not checked for threaded holes. The issue is that I have many users here that, when they model, they don't uncheck that box. I wish that I could uncheck it and make it stay unchecked for every single user here.

In fact, I am pretty sure that I have NEVER MET a user who wants that box checked, since the note that appears in a drawing is incomplete and has the wrong information anyway.

This is one example.

I wish I could like this post more than once. That setting is one of the worst things in SW that I deal with almost daily.

[DanPihlaja]

Uh... we use that check box! But... we are also only a 4-5 man shop. Ya it may be incomplete but we mostly deal with laser cut sheet metal so for the most part all the guys need to know is that a particular hole needs to be threaded & what tap to use. The laser has cut & positioned the hole already.

And I agree the "set as default" option would be nice. What also would be nice is if the features would remember the last setting used at least.

Wow! You are the first people I have heard to to use it.

And your use makes a lot of sense. So I am grateful that I learned something today.

[mp3-250]

Vertices, Smaller Edges are the usual most painful culprits in drawings as well whilst trying to dimension. Also selecting dimensions can get janky AF sometimes to. Like... you can't select a dimension because the location of the selection cursor seems to have moved by some random offset amount and direction just to keep you guessing. Weird $hit over the years.

Going back and forward from SW to NX daily really shows how unprofessional DS are wrg SW. NX's UI is such a pleasure to use (even with some of their legacy UG dialogs still not updated in certain areas/features). It really is a nice, consistent UI. As fast as SW's UI is and has become, the pleasure of working with something that WORKS and doesn't get int he way as much is an absolute godsend and a goal every software dev should strive to forever fix. Because that is the most "in the way" limitation users can benefit the most from. UI that doesn't get in the way and doesn't give you RSI (or an aneurysm).

As former UG-NX user and current SW admin I can certify word by word this comment.
SW UI is a train wreck.

[IndianaDave]

Uh... we use that check box! But... we are also only a 4-5 man shop. Ya it may be incomplete but we mostly deal with laser cut sheet metal so for the most part all the guys need to know is that a particular hole needs to be threaded & what tap to use. The laser has cut & positioned the hole already.

And I agree the "set as default" option would be nice. What also would be nice is if the features would remember the last setting used at least.

You're having your guys tap lasered holes?
Isn't that hard on the taps?

We request that our vendors leave the tapped holes out of lasered parts, and we drill and tap them separately.

[AlexLachance]

You're having your guys tap lasered holes?
Isn't that hard on the taps?

We request that our vendors leave the tapped holes out of lasered parts, and we drill and tap them separately.

Probably lasered to a smaller size, drilled to remove the hardened part and then tap it. That's how we do it on our end at least.

[DLZ_SWX_User]

Yes it is or can be hard on taps. Mostly smaller than ¾-10 & rarely tap sheets thicker than ½". We also cut our holes about 0.002" smaller than what is recommended for the tap. This basically gives a full depth thread & allows the tap cut beneath the hardened steel. Also use lots of cutting fluid while tapping!

Probably lasered to a smaller size, drilled to remove the hardened part and then tap it. That's how we do it on our end at least.

On our thicker material this is what we do. Basically have the laser cut a pilot hole.

We also try to keep the laser fine tuned to the point that there is very little slag clean up needed after the laser & prior to any next step.

[AlexLachance]

There will be a live presentation on Youtube in an hour

[SPerman]

I listened to about 5 minutes. If you want to "eliminate obstacles" (or whatever buzzword he used) start with making equations usable everywhere. Don't tell me about some whiz bang workflow your team spent time optimizing when so much of the basic stuff isn't there, or is lacking.

[AlexLachance]

I listened to about 5 minutes. If you want to "eliminate obstacles" (or whatever buzzword he used) start with making equations usable everywhere. Don't tell me about some whiz bang workflow your team spent time optimizing when so much of the basic stuff isn't there, or is lacking.

I just left. 20 minutes into it and all it was, was a conversation that has nothing to do with the actual subject. THEN, when that conversation ended, instead of talking about design and what's new, they started speaking about Cloud. I left at that moment.

[DLZ_SWX_User]

I just left. 20 minutes into it and all it was, was a conversation that has nothing to do with the actual subject. THEN, when that conversation ended, instead of talking about design and what's new, they started speaking about Cloud. I left at that moment.

Great, maybe I am glad I didn't think I had time for to watch a you tube.

[TRKemp]

For me at least, the best enhancements that have happened in the last 5 years are:

Envelopes
Cylindrical bounding boxes

Envelopes are a game changer in terms of design flexibility. It free's up so many options for creating smart reference geometry, as well as alternate views .. I wish I had them back when i began creating our part library. I'm slowly going back and trying to solve design challenges in much more efficient ways with this feature.

Cylindrical bounding boxes solve so may issues when trying to associate data to your output descriptions. Before, with rectangular boxes, you couldnt do pipes or bar.. obviously.. but what it really solved is creating (1) fixed property for length. If you know the thickness and width of your plate, and can associate those dimensions in your property, then you can still use a cylindrical bounding box on a rectangular part. Why? because if the part gets very short, or very long, the properties don't flip / flop like they do with a rectangular bounding box. The "height" will always stay the "height". The end condition of the peice can be then "up to surface / vertex.. whatever" .. no need for a dimension.

[SPerman]

Envelopes are a game changer in terms of design flexibility. It free's up so many options for creating smart reference geometry, as well as alternate views .. I wish I had them back when i began creating our part library. I'm slowly going back and trying to solve design challenges in much more efficient ways with this feature.

You got me all excited to learn more about envelopes, until I saw this in the help:

"envelopes are never included in the bill of materials"

[TRKemp]

You got me all excited to learn more about envelopes, until I saw this in the help:

"envelopes are never included in the bill of materials"

To me, thats whats great about them. They can be a couple surfaces.. or full assemblies.. but they are strictly used to help your designs incorporate fully externally referenced geometry.

In your drawing, you can select "show envelopes" from the properties and they'll display as phantom geometry.

Take this for instance.. i needed to design a lockout latch, but the manner in which i designed the lid wouldnt allow me to "open" it up. So i took the whole assembly, made it an envelope, and just mated it where i needed.

Afterward, on that drawing view, i checked show envelope and I had it shown in phantom to display the degrees in which it opened before being stopped by the latch.

This is just one example of many ways they can be so useful.

[AlexLachance]

To me, thats whats great about them. They can be a couple surfaces.. or full assemblies.. but they are strictly used to help your designs incorporate fully externally referenced geometry.

In your drawing, you can select "show envelopes" from the properties and they'll display as phantom geometry.

Take this for instance.. i needed to design a lockout latch, but the manner in which i designed the lid wouldnt allow me to "open" it up. So i took the whole assembly, made it an envelope, and just mated it where i needed.

Afterward, on that drawing view, i checked show envelope and I had it shown in phantom to display the degrees in which it opened before being stopped by the latch.

This is just one example of many ways they can be so useful.

image.png

But, that's been around for a long long time though..?

[dave.laban]

Yeah I just checked the help documentation to remind myself and Envelopes have been around since at least 2010. Might have been some refinements in the mean time but the core functionality is hardly recent.

[SPerman]

To me, thats whats great about them. They can be a couple surfaces.. or full assemblies.. but they are strictly used to help your designs incorporate fully externally referenced geometry.

I have some assemblies with flexible assemblies that go several layers deep to simulate the motion of our machines. I was hoping to simplify that using envelopes, but they are all real parts that need to be included in the BOM. I see the benefit for reference geometry.

[TRKemp]

Sorry everyone. I guess I was late to the party.

Carry on.

[AlexLachance]

Sorry everyone. I guess I was late to the party.

Carry on.

Haha it's all good, pointing out these things is always a good thing anyways since not everyone has deep knowledge of the program I thought there was something new I missed out on. There's a new thing they dropped a year or two ago that's supposed to be an upgrade to Enveloppes but I haven't gotten around to using it and I don't remember what it was called.

[TRKemp]

Haha it's all good, pointing out these things is always a good thing anyways since not everyone has deep knowledge of the program I thought there was something new I missed out on. There's a new thing they dropped a year or two ago that's supposed to be an upgrade to Enveloppes but I haven't gotten around to using it and I don't remember what it was called.

Envelope Publisher i presume. It was kind of buggy in 2022, where your updates to the assembly being published, wouldnt update downstream. But that does appear to be fixed for 2024. At least in SP3.1, I havent checked in SP5.