Installing and Configuring SOLIDWORKS Visualize

SOLIDWORKS Visualize products allow you to leverage your 3D CAD data to create photo-quality content quickly and easily. Below, we will guide you through the types of products and their installations.

Licenses:

• There are two (2) distinct SOLIDWORKS Visualize products: Standard and Professional. Both packages offer unique capabilities for lighting, animation, camera optics, etc.
• Visualize Standard is included with every seat of SOLIDWORKS Professional and Premium on a current subscription.
• Visualize Professional is a separate purchase, and a separate serial number is needed for both local and network licensing installs.
• Both products are standalone applications on the client machines, not just an add-in. This means that it can be installed on a separate machine, such as your content creator’s machine.
• Both Visualize products have unique serial numbers (unless included with a SolidNetwork Licensing schema). If you don’t have those serials, don’t hesitate to contact Technical Support.  You will need them for the installation and activation.
• Visualize SolidNetwork licenses will be combined in that serial for every SOLIDWORKS Professional and Premium seat. They will be activated when the SolidNetwork License Manager is activated on the server box.

Install SOLIDWORKS Visualize

Client / Desktop Installation:

It is advised that you already have the full SOLIDWORKS installation package downloaded to the machine and unzipped.

This will be either a “new” installation or a “modify” of a current SOLIDWORKS installation. In all cases, it’s a good idea to have the antivirus turned off and to have full admin rights to the machine.

1. For a new install, right-click the setup.exe file in the root directory of the downloaded and unzipped folder and run as Admin (if a reboot message pops up, select OK and proceed). The Installation Manager will launch. Select Install on this computer.
   
   
   
   If you are modifying a current SOLIDWORKS installation, the process is the same with the exception of selecting to Modify your current installation.
   
   
   
   Select Next in the bottom-right corner.
   
   
2. The following screen will require the unique Visualize serial number if not part of a SolidNetwork Licensing schema. 
   
   
   
   Select Next in the bottom-right corner.
   
   
3. This screen is the product summary. Listed are the components for Visualize. Accept the terms.
   
   
   
   (If you are modifying an existing installation, select Modify Now.)
   
   
   
   Select Finish.

Adding Licenses to the SolidNetwork License Manager if necessary:

Most of the time, a network serial for Visualize products is NOT needed, but, if you need to add a serial number, please see the following article and reactivate the SolidNetwork License Manager: How to Add Another SOLIDWORKS License to your License Server

Standalone Visualize license activation:

The standalone installs of Visualize products require activation after installation is complete. The first launch of the application will prompt you to activate via a dialog box, the suggested method is over the internet, don’t forget to enter your email address.

Lastly, you will see the Activation/Reactivation Succeeded window. Select Finish.

Installing SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost

To install SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost, follow the same installation procedure as above, but select SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost in step 2, and enter that serial number instead.

Configuring Visualize Boost

You can configure Visualize Boost centrally from a Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer browser.

To configure Visualize Boost, you first activate the license, and then configure the computer to be part of a rendering cluster.

One of the configuration steps asks you to select a networking mode. If you are not sure of your networking environment, you should consult with your network administrator.

To activate the SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost license:

1. Do one of the following:

• Start SOLIDWORKS > click Start > SOLIDWORKS 20XX > SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost 20XX.
• From your desktop, click the Visualize Boost shortcut icon.
• Open a Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer browser and enter the URL: http://localhost:8993/config.html

2. Enter your email address and click Enable License.

Setting Up Render Cluster

The following steps are optional to manually configure a Visualize Boost cluster. For most networks, the default settings are sufficient. If you accept the defaults, you can proceed to the next topic or review these steps to manually configure your Visualize Boost cluster.

1. Do one of the following:

• If you are on the system running SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost, open a browser and enter the URL: http://localhost:8993/config.html.
• If you are on a different system, open a browser and enter one of the following URLs with the IP address or DNS name of the system with Visualize Boost: http://:8993/config.html

2. Use the drop-down field in the upper right corner of the screen to select your language.
3. Click the Setup tab.
4. In the Cluster Name field, specify a computer name, such as “Superfast Render”, “Presentation Cluster”, or “4th Floor Computers”.

The cluster name displays in SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional as a cluster profile. To render an image, users running SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional select a cluster profile from a list of available Boost clusters.

It is recommended that you specify the cluster name on the Visualize Boost computer, rather than locally on the Visualize Professional computer, so that all Visualize users have access to the same cluster names in their Visualize Boost Profiles list.

5. Enter the Cluster Client Access Port. This is the port that computers running SOLIDWORKS Visualize use to connect to the Boost cluster. The default cluster client access port is 8998.
6. In the Networking Mode area, select one of the four options based on your network environment:

• Select No Networking to prevent this computer from belonging to any other cluster. This mode is useful for troubleshooting issues with Visualize Boost.
• Select UDP Multicast Mode if your network supports UDP Multicast. Visualize Boost will search the network and form a cluster of all computers using UDP Multicast Mode on the same port. This mode is recommended, if your network supports it.
• Select TCP Mode with Discovery (Default) if you cannot use UDP Multicast mode. Visualize Boost will search the network and form a cluster of all computers using TCP Mode with Discovery on the same port.
• Select TCP Mode if you need to create an explicit list of the computers in the cluster, for example because the other modes are not successful in finding the computers you want to include. This mode requires additional work to configure and is not recommended if either UDP Multicast or TCP Mode with Discovery can be used.

7. If you select UDP Multicast Mode or TCP Mode with Discovery, then enter the Cluster Discovery Address. This setting must be an IP address and a port above 1024. The default port varies among the networking modes:

• 8994 for UDP Multicast
• 8995 for TCP Mode with Discovery
• 8996 for TCP These ports are used for Visualize Boost computers to connect with each other. All computers configured with the same Cluster Discovery Address and that are on the same local network will form a cluster

8. If you select TCP Mode, then:

• 8994 Enter a Cluster Access Port. This is the port that Visualize Boost nodes in the cluster use to communicate with each other. The default port for TCP Mode is 8996.
• If this machine is going to be the “head node” of the cluster (the machine that coordinates the work of the cluster), then use the Cluster Address List field to list the IP addresses of the other nodes in the cluster. Each IP address (such as 192.168.0.100:8996) must include the Cluster Access Port configured for all of the nodes in the cluster.

9. Click Save Configuration. Visualize Boost saves the new configuration, then stops and restarts the service.

Selecting a Visualize Boost Cluster for Rendering

Before you can use a Boost cluster for rendering, you must add it to the list of cluster profiles on your SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional computer and select it.

To add a Boost cluster to the Profiles list and select it:

1. In SOLIDWORKS Visualize, click Tools > Options and select the Boost tab.

2. Click Scan to search the network for Boost clusters.

3. Click Add to add a new cluster to the list of cluster profiles. Only select NVIDIA VCA if you have installed an NVIDIA Quadro VCA on your network.

4. In the Profiles list, highlight the name of a cluster. The Boost Settings displays the status, cluster name, and the cluster discovery address.

5. To use PowerBoost for real-time ray tracing, set the PowerBoost settings and click Connect (available only in SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional).