Upgrading to New Releases

An upgrade transforms any existing installation to a newer version, using a full set of installation files. (For SolidWorks versions prior to 2008, upgrades used a software patch.)

 The administrative image must be updated before clients can update. To determine the current version of the administrative image, double-click <admin_image_folder>\SolidWorks\showversion.bat.  

To upgrade clients:

1. Make sure all clients are at the same service pack of the previous release (clients that do not already have the application installed are not upgraded).

2. Optionally, on a client system, run the Copy Settings Wizard to capture the current SolidWorks options.

3. Create a new administrative image using one of the following methods.

Do not upgrade or overwrite the old image.  

• SolidWorks Installation Manager

• Command Prompt

4. Upgrade all clients to the new version by doing one of the following:

• Upgrading Clients from Administrative Images

• Email Deployment

• Command Prompt. Use the /i and /qb options of the msiexec.exe command. Specify feature properties and global properties that can be passed with the command prompt. For example, to upgrade an existing version of SolidWorks, enter the command:

msiexec /i "<Msi_path>" INSTALLDIR="C:\Program Files\<your_folder>" REGCODE=xxxxxxxx UPGRADESWINSTALL=1 SWMIGRATE="\SolidWorks <version_servicepack>\" /qb

• Microsoft Active Directory

5. You can delete the administrative images for versions no longer required.