Hi, I've been struggling with a problem, and any help would be greatly appreciated. During 2014 I created a series of files on my work PC in SolidWorks 2013. I have worked a lot with these files, created assemblies, different versions,... but recently, one of them I cannot open. Every time I try to open the part (.sldprt), SolidWorks crashes, and hence, I cannot open the corresponding assemblies either. The part was created in the same computer that I am trying to open it with (Windows 7 desktop), I have sent the file to a friend and they were able to open it without problems. I have tried creating a duplicate, changing the directory of the file, re-saving the file on a different computer, completely uninstalling SolidWorks and do a clean install, but nothing worked so far. All the other files I can open without problems. Has this happened to any of you? Do you have any idea of what could be the problem? Thank you very much in advance and happy 2015. crazydrop
CD, There are a few things that we can try out to resolve your situation. So lets roll through some standard troubleshooting techniques. 1. Was there any error message that popped up before crash? Generally we are looking for a message and hopefully a code, ie: (125,-20,0). This helps a lot. 2. What version are you working with, 2013 SP?. What version is your friend working with? 3. Create an Rx. Close SW. Go to Start > All Programs > SW > SW Tools > SW Rx. Open this, check to make sure your diagnostics are all good and do a problem capture. Perform step 1, video capture to record the error that we are seeing. Perform step 2, add the files you are working on and package everything into a zip file, preferably on your desktop or you will have to dig for it later. 4. Its good to have that record if you need to submit the information later. For now, lets get into SW and open a file from here. Select your file and select to open with Configuration set to Advanced. Try a couple of these options. I believe you want a new config of the assy with reference parts. Name this config Test or something. 5. If you are on subs, contact your VAR and have them take a look/submit to SolidWorks. If this isn't an option, review your log files from the Rx report and search for "Return Value 3". If you do find this, take a look at what your system was doing just BEFORE return value 3 where the error would have occured. Do some googling on what you find and it may help out. Hopefully this gets you in the right direction and good luck! VAR Support.
Problem file If your friend was able to open the file, have them save it with a totally different name and send it back to you. I read you tried "re-saving the file on a different computer". Was this another of your computers? Were you able to open it on that computer, I'm not sure exactly what that means? I have had corrupted files before and usually ended up rebuilding them. Once I sent a file to my VAR and they were able to fix a problem in the header of the file which was preventing it from being read. In this case it was in the script that prevented you from opening "future versions." A contractor had used a beta version of that year's release and it was causing problems with later versions that were at a higher service pack release. I would suggest you contact your VAR if they have a support group and ask them to look at the file if you need it and nothing else works. So the short answer is yes...sometimes a file gets corrupted for whatever reason and hopefully it isn't the assembly which takes the longest to rebuild. Regards, David
Hi crazydrop, The best advice I can offer would be to log on to the Solid Works help forum and post your question there - it's regularly viewed by the people who work for SW, and you'll probably get a quick response. I also use 2013 and I've found it to be very stable. Two questions - was your friends computer also using Windows 7 desktop? and do you have the background downloader turned on? K.I.S.S.
Hi K.I.S.S., Thank you for your reply. I might try to do that then. My friend's desktop was also using Windows 7, and I do not have the background downloader turned on. I will let you know if I can solve this problem. crazydrop
Hi crazydrop Sorry your having issues with SW, the sad part of that is that i hear that allot, Solid Edge is a Siemens product that is the most compatible to SW since SW uses the Solid Edge para-solids kernel which is your engine (and 60% of it horse power) in the cad software. Uses that have made the switch from SW to Solid Edge find it much more reliable and stable since it uses all it's own technology and not piece meal using other people's technology to make it work. User are seeing 30% to 40% more efficiency out of using Solid Edge. It is a great tool and very powerful more so than SW. If you like to try it out go to www.solidedge.com for a free trial. Plus there 2D is a great tool all on it's own. Stop the furstration RS
Hi, First of all let me admit that I am not a big user of SolidWorks (or a fan really) - I use Inventor Pro. A question that I need to ask first is - do you have all of the service packs and updates loaded for your 2013 copy of SolidWorks? Having them loaded may solve your problem. That said I have two suggestions that may be of help: 1)If your friend can open your files sucessfully, ask him to save them and pass them back to you. I would suggest that prior to opening his files you rename (e.g. <filename>.old) or move your existing files to a new folder and then try opening your friends version. It may not work, but it is worth a try! 2) My second suggestion, which may be less helpful because your history tree structure will disappear, is to get your friend to save your files in SAT, STP or IGES format. You should then be able to open and recover your models, albeit minus the history that was used to create them. If you cannot solve your problem following my first suggestion or by some other method, you will at least not be starting from scratch. I hope that my suggestions prove useful. regards, Dave
To open your other assemblies without the part, move it to a different location and SW will open the assembly with the part shown as suppressed. Try asking a colleague to open the part and save with all features suppressed. If it will then open, unsuppress features one by one till you get a problem. This sort of issue can occur if the part is out of context (maddeningly frequent) or has defective references. 2013 is fairly stable, make sure you have all the service packs installed.
Hi, Thank you all for your answers. To summarize a bit: 1. No, I do not have any error message (unfortunately!) 2. The parts were created in SW2013 Student Edition SP3, after may clean uninstalls, now I ended up with 2014 (what my university had the licence for). 3. Apparently I cannot use SW Forums, every time I log in with my university's e-mail account I get the following message "An error occurred while attempting authentication through single sign-on (SSO)". Maybe I just can't participate in the forums with my account. 4. My friend tried saving the file with a different name on her PC, and I still couldn't open it. I have surrounded the problem a bit more. I had many files with similar names (i.e. Test cell, test cell assembly, test cell final, test cell 1, test cell syt,....). Each of the files was created from scratch (not based on the existing ones) and they are located in very different locations in my PC. I cannot open any of the files, even after renaming all of them. I am however able to open the file from SW in QuickView. Still working on some of the solutions you guys suggested. crazydrop update: after pulling and pulling to reach the root of the problem, it turned out that it was related to .NET Framework. It's been really troublesome to fix (specially because none of the suggested solutions I found worked). But I think I finally managed, and I was able to open one of the assemblies without SW crashing. I'll test other parts and assemblies tomorrow, but it should be fine. The solution to my specific problem is quite long to explain and I guess it is very off topic here, but I will be happy to help anyone in the same situation.
Hi Crazydrop, Glad to hear that it sounds as though you've got it fixed. R.E. the help forums - that sounds to me very much like your Uni. account will be linked to the group student licence number, and the deal is that they probably like you to work things out yourselves. Even if you use a different account, but through the same server, I'd imagine that the server I.P. address will result in the same error.. But if you do it via any other I.P. address (not the Uni. server), you shouldn't have a problem. I've found it to be very helpful in the past. Good luck, K.I.S.S.
