While learning the “picks and clicks” of CAD is a necessary rite of passage, it has often come at the expense of actual engineering education. Every minute spent troubleshooting a broken mate is a minute lost to discussing design intent, manufacturability, or optimization. With the release of SOLIDWORKS 2026, that paradigm is shifting. By integrating meaningful, practical AI tools directly into the interface, the software is moving from a passive drawing tool to an active design partner. For educators across North America, this means a fundamental shift in the classroom: moving the focus from where to click to how to engineer.
At some point, every software needs to be upgraded to a newer version. Fortunately, SOLIDWORKS offers two relatively simple methods. This blog contains the instructions for upgrading SOLIDWORKS to either a new Service Pack (SP) or a new version.
Nowadays, AI is everywhere. It feels like artificial intelligence is transforming every industry. But what does this mean for SOLIDWORKS users? The truth is, AI in SOLIDWORKS doesn’t include a “magic design button” that does all your work for you. Instead, it’s about helping you work smarter by automating repetitive low-value tasks, speeding up tedious processes, and providing useful suggestions to ultimately free you up to focus on the high-impact portions of design.
The CEF (Chromium Embedded Framework) is a component installed by the SOLIDWORKS Installation Manager to show content for SOLIDWORKS Applications and the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Without it, SOLIDWORKS will not run properly. CEF is an open-source software framework for Chrome used by many other applications (e.g., Adobe, Spotify, Steam, Inventor, Microsoft Power BI, etc.)
SOLIDWORKS is a very graphics-intensive program, so it's best to ensure that your graphics card is certified and the settings are set to achieve the best performance. It may be a good idea to involve your IT team in these steps, as many of them will require administrative computer permissions.
After a SOLIDWORKS or Windows update, your 3Dconnexion mouse may no longer respond or move inside SOLIDWORKS. This can happen even after trying various fixes, such as unplugging the mouse and then plugging it back in. Here are some tips to help fix this issue.
There are a couple of ways for a SOLIDWORKS client to use a network license. The most common way is to just launch SOLIDWORKS, which will automatically pull a license from the server. The other option is to borrow a license. This allows access to SOLIDWORKS for up to 30 days, while the client computer won't have a connection to the server. When borrowing a license, it may become stuck on either the client machine or the server. This article covers what to do if it does.
The 3DEXPERIENCE local cache is a folder that stores copies of files from the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on your computer for faster access, offline availability, and easy management. This folder is also referred to as a local work folder.
3DEXPERIENCE World 2026 wrapped up in Houston, TX, last week. In case you missed it, here's a recap of some of the key messages and announcements heard during this year’s event.