Network Communication Ports in SOLIDWORKS Electrical – Hawk Ridge Systems

This article outlines the network communication ports that are used by SOLIDWORKS Electrical. This includes those used by the collaborative server, the SQL server, and the SolidNetWork License Manager (when using a network license).

There are two installation configurations for SOLIDWORKS Electrical: standalone and client-server. For client-server configurations, the client application will need to communicate over the network to the collaborative server and SQL server on the server computer. For standalone configurations, all program components are on the same computer, so there is no communication over the network between these components. In both configurations, a network license may be used, so that there will be communication over the network to the SolidNetWork License Manager. See the relevant sections below for information on which ports are used for this communication.

Collaborative Server

SOLIDWORKS Electrical includes a collaborative server that manages the communication between the client application(s) and the SQL server. By default, the client application will connect to the server using TCP port 26666 and 26667. In a multiple product environment, it will use ports 26667 to 26667+n, where n is the number of electrical products being run on a user machine. E.g. ports 26667 and 26668 will need to be open if a client is running both Solidworks Electrical Schematic and Solidworks CAD with Electrical 3D add-in. Even if the client does not have multiple electrical products, it is still important to open up ports 26667-26670 because SolidWorks electrical may attempt to connect through a different port if it times out on its first attempt.

It is important to open the proper ports on both the client and the server machines. below are the steps to open the ports in Windows Firewall. NOTE: if you use a 3rd party Anti-virus or Firewall, the ports mentioned above will need to be opened up on that as well.

On the Client, search for Windows Security and navigate to Windows Firewall & Network Protection > Advanced settings
Click on Inbound Rules and select New Rule...
Choose Port
Select TCP and Specific local ports and enter 26667-26670 in the adjacent field
Select Allow the connection and choose the appropriate profile connection (i.e. Domain, Private, Public) based on the network protocol and setup.
The name of the Rule is arbitrary but something to identify that these were the ports for SW Electrical that were manually created.
On the Server hosting the collaborative server and electrical data, follow steps 1-6 from above, but this time add it as both an Inbound Rule and Outbound Rule for port 26666 only.

After both client and server firewall rules have been added, relaunch SW Electrical and confirm that the application runs without issue.

SQL Server

By default, SOLIDWORKS Electrical installations will use a SQL Express instance named TEW_SQLEXPRESS. Such “named” instances use dynamic ports, where the SQL server selects an available port when the SQL server service is started. This can cause issues if connecting through a firewall, so the SQL server may need to be configured to use static ports instead. The Microsoft article at the link below can be used to configure this. Rules can then be added to the firewall for the selected port.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms177440.aspx

In cases where the SW Electrical data has been installed onto an “unnamed” or “default” instance (i.e. the SQL instance is simply referred to by the name of the machine on which it is installed, e.g. “localhost” or “sweserver”), the instance will use static ports by default. In particular, it will use TCP/IP port 1433. Note that unnamed instances cannot be switched to use dynamic ports.

In addition to the TCP/IP port described above, the SQL Server Browser service uses UDP port 1434, which should also be opened in any firewalls. More information regarding the SQL Server Browser can be found at the link below.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181087(v=sql.105).aspx

In some instances when the database connection takes a long time to connect, it could be due to the static TCP port being blocked for the named SQL instance.

To find this port, on the server machine, go to your windows search bar and type in SQL server configuration manager. If you can't find it, navigate to C:\Windows\SysWOW64 and look for SQLServerManagerXX.msc. XX is the version number and may vary.
Navigate to Protocols for TEW_SQLEXPRESS, then right click on TCP/IP and select Properties
Select the IP Addresses tab and scroll to the bottom to find the static TCP Port under IPALL.
You can then unblock this port in your firewall on the server as a New Rule from Inbound Rules under Windows Firewall & Network Protection > Advanced settings.

SolidNetWork License Manager

If your SW Electrical installation uses a network license (rather than a standalone license), then the application will need to communicate over the network to the SolidNetWork License Manager. The default ports for this communication are TCP/IP 25734 and 25735. These ports should be added as firewall exceptions.

You can check which port and server name the application is using by running the SolidNetWork License Manager on the client machine. Refer to this guide for information on finding the SolidNetWork License Manager.

Port Troubleshooting

Ping and telnet tests run from the command prompt are very useful for troubleshooting network and port connection issues. A ping test will tell you if the computer from which the command is run can find the server computer over the network. A telnet test will test the network communication to the server component over a specific port.

Here is a link to our article with more detailed instructions for conducting a ping and telnet test.

If you don’t know which port the collaborative server or SQL server are using, the following command can be run in the command prompt on the computer running the relevant services to determine which port is currently being used by that service.

netstat -a -b -o |find "<service process ID>"

Here, <service process ID> is the process ID specified in the “PID” column on the Services tab of the Windows Task Manager. For example, in the screenshot below, the process IDs for the collaborative server (ewserver) and SQL server (TEW_SQLEXPRESS) are 5612 and 7332, respectively.