Welcome to this new edition of the SOLIDWORKS Support Monthly News, coauthored by members of the SOLIDWORKS Technical Support teams worldwide.

Get hotfixes sooner

Until now, most users like you would become aware of the available hotfixes only after they had experienced the problem, reported it and been informed of their existence. To avoid the frustration and loss of time, SOLIDWORKS created new web page which includes a list of hotfixes available for recent service packs http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/hotfixes.htm

You can already bookmark that page for future reference, but rest assured: it will soon be linked to on the main download page (https://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/downloads.htm) so you will not miss it.

Applying hotfixes preemptively can be part of your policy to ensure you are using the greatest possible version of SOLIDWORKS.

Note that hotfixes solve specific issues, so there is little value in applying them in the hope of addressing an issue not targeted by the fix!

SOLIDWORKS 2017 Beta is Here…What Are You Waiting For?

The SOLIDWORKS 2017 Beta Program has already started. Are you hesitating to participate? Don’t. Here’s everything you can do when you become a tester:

• Test-drive new & enhanced products
• Connect with the community
• Interact with the R&D and management teams
• Show off your skills – over 100 prizes

For more information on the Beta Program, please visit the Beta website. If you have any specific questions, don’t hesitate to email us at beta@solidworks.com.

Spotlight on Features: Don’t Lose Work! Save Early and Save Often!

By Mario Iocco

There can be nothing more frustrating than losing work! In an attempt to minimize the risk, SOLIDWORKS provides three methods to prevent losing work due to a problem:

1) File Backup
2) File Auto-Recover
3) Save notifications
Want to learn how to best use them? Read more here.

Simulation Step-Up Series

Last month, Ramesh, one of our North American SOLIDWORKS Simulation experts, introduced you to Contact modeling with parts 1 & 2. It’s time to wrap it up with Contact modeling part 3.

Next month, Ramesh will show you know how useful and powerful Bolt Connectors are in Simulation.

 

Noteworthy Solutions from the SOLIDWORKS Knowledge Base

What may cause the need for re-registration of ‘sldpropertyhandler.dll’ when updating Microsoft Office 2013 or 2016 on a specific environment?
This issue may occur in some instances when a 32 Bit version of Microsoft Office is installed. As noted in KB Solution ID: S-055832, this ‘sldpropertyhandler’ dll is responsible for accessing and displaying the description metadata related to SOLIDWORKS documents within Windows® Explorer and on Vista®/Windows® 7 Computers.  This is also needed to show the description custom property within the File, Save and Open dialog.
More information in Solution Id: S-071459.

General Hotfix for SOLIDWORKS  EPDM 2015 SP5 – Searching by file name or variable is extremely slow due to addition of search in private state ability in EPDM 2015 (SPR#922138)
A hotfix is available for SOLIDWORKS EPDM 2015 SP5 which addresses the following issue:
SPR#922138 – Searching by file name or variable is extremely slow due to addition of search in private state ability in EPDM 2015
The hotfix is in attachment of Solution Id: S-071411.

When I run the SOLIDWORKS® Enterprise PDM ‘CreateArchiveFromDb’ tool, how to fix the error ‘The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect’?
You will normally encounter this behavior when you run the 2015 version of the ‘CreateArchiveFromDb’ tool (S-017826) on clean computer. For the full error text, see the attached image.
The error occurs because the computer does not have a current installation of the Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable component.
To resolve this issue, download and run the attached ‘vcredist_x64.exe’ file as Administrator, and then try again.
It is not necessary to restart the computer for the changes to take effect.
From Solution Id: S-071423.

In the SOLIDWORKS® Plastics software, how do I correctly use the ‘Split Line’ feature to add an ‘Injection Location’ that best suits my intended gate geometry?
Solution Id: S-071419 gives the full procedure to add a ‘Split Line’ feature and then place an ‘Injection Location’ on your SOLIDWORKS® Plastics mesh. For a visual reference, watch the video attached to the solution.

 When flow velocity is turbulent, why does the wall ‘Roughness’ value seems to have no or very little effect on pressure?
The solver uses the friction law based on the uniform sand roughness (Nikuradse roughness). For this type of roughness, the friction loss coefficient does not depend on the relative roughness height for low Reynolds numbers.
For example, if the solver performs a calculation with a Reynolds number of Re=6200, and if the relative roughness height is equal to 0.012, the roughness does not have significant influence on the friction. Therefore, the solver results show similar results for both rough and smooth walls. However, if you increase the volume flow rate by a factor of two (Re = 12,400), the solver results show higher resistance for the pipe with rough walls.
Solution Id: S-071358.

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That’s it for this month. Thanks for reading this edition of SOLIDWORKS Support News.

Originally posted in the SOLIDWORKS Tech Blog.