1. Hawk Ridge Systems
  2. Mechanical Design
  3. Getting Started

Before Installing SOLIDWORKS Products

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Nigel Lee

Hawk Ridge Systems highly recommends taking a moment before installing SOLIDWORKS and checking that you are ready to load your new software.

  1. Check these links to ensure you meet minimum system requirements and your video card is compatible.
  2. Confirm that your storage drive has enough space to leave approximately 15% of your storage drive available after the installation is complete. This is to ensure that your new SOLIDWORKS installation will work as expected. 
  3. Back up any older SOLIDWORKS data such as your working files, custom Toolbox items, saved template files, Design Library, and other related data files. You can also save your SOLIDWORKS settings with the Copy Settings Wizard. 
  4. Verify colleagues, customers, or vendors are all on the same version of SOLIDWORKS. SOLIDWORKS CAD is year-specific, i.e., not forward compatible. Older versions of SOLIDWORKS cannot always open files from newer versions e.g., SOLIDWORKS CAD 2024 cannot always fully open SOLIDWORKS 2025 files.

NOTE: Starting in Solidworks 2024 there is the ability to save files as previous versions, however this is not compatible with all features and files, and it is still recommended that all users be on the same version of SOLIDWORKS for full compatibility. See the 2024 What’s New for more information.

  1. Log into your computer with full administrative rights.
  2. Turn down the User Account Control settings (found in the Control Panel). To do this press your Windows key on your keyboard or on your screen and type “UAC” followed by the enter key. A window will appear with a vertical scroll bar, you will want to move the bar down to “Never Notify” for the installation. To implement the UAC changes we will need to restart the computer. You can revert these changes after the installation is complete.
  3. Ensure security software will not prevent the SOLIDWORKS installation process from running.
     

For further assistance, please contact our support team at support@hawkridgesys.com, or 877-266-4469 (US) or 866-587-6803 (Canada).

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