Microsoft Office 365, ensures users are always on the most recent version of the Office applications. However, this means there will be periods of time where SOLIDWORKS software does not work with Office 365 products such as Excel. These periods of time will be temporary, while support for the new versions of Office applications is validated.
Users have recently found that the newest builds of Excel are causing SOLIDWORKS to hang when the design table is edited and closed when using "Edit Table".
To replicate the issue:
- Open a file with an inserted design table.
- Right click on Design Table and select "Edit Table".
- Add and remove details to the table as usual
- Close the table and the software will hang.
Excel Version 2003 (Build 12624.20382) and the builds made afterwards are causing the issue. Other version builds can be seen here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/monthly-channel-2020
SOLIDWORKS has determined this issue represents behavior that is inconsistent with the intended behavior of the program, and issued the following Software Performance Reports (SPR):
#1176993 - Editing the Design Table using 'Edit Table' or insert excel based BOM causes both Excel version 16.0.12624.20382 and SolidWorks to hang (office 365)
Workarounds
While this issues is currently under investigation, the following workarounds have been found to work.
- Open and edit the Design Table in a separate window by using "Edit Table in New Window".
- Rollback to an Excel version that previously worked: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2770432/how-to-revert-to-an-earlier-version-of-office-2013-or-office-2016-clic
Update
We were informed by SOLIDWORKS that the Microsoft Excel update 2004 released on May 4, 2020 resolves the issue.
Comments
This work-around doesn't for me. SW hangs regardless of how I open the table. Furthermore, creating new tables shows more explicit problem, with error message being, "Failed to launch server application."
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