Refer to What's New, available from the Help menu, for descriptions of new functionality.
For a list of fixed SPRs, click here.
You CANNOT INSTALL SolidWorks 2013 (including SolidWorks Simulation 2013, SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2013, and SolidWorks Workgroup PDM 2013 products) on computers running Windows XP. For more information, visit System Requirements and Make Your Move to Windows 7.
SolidWorks 2014, including the SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2014 CAD Editor, is the last release that supports 32-bit operating systems. SolidWorks 2015 and the SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2015 CAD Editor will not install on 32-bit operating systems.
Following Microsoft’s retirement of the Windows® Vista operating system in April of 2012, SolidWorks 2013 (including SolidWorks Simulation 2013, SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2013, and SolidWorks Workgroup PDM 2013 products) is the LAST RELEASE that will install on Windows Vista. SolidWorks 2014 (including Simulation 2014, SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2014, and SolidWorks Workgroup PDM 2014 products) will NOT INSTALL on computers using Windows Vista. For more information, visit System Requirements and Make Your Move to Windows 7.
SolidWorks 2013 is the last release to support license server parallel-port dongles.
SolidWorks Composer 2013 is the LAST RELEASE that will install on Windows XP and Windows Vista. SolidWorks Composer 2014 will not install on computers using Windows XP or Windows Vista. For more information, visit System Requirements and Make Your Move to Windows 7.
SolidWorks Network License Server 2013 is the last release to support Windows® XP, Windows® Vista, and Windows Server® 2003 Operating Systems.
SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2013 is the last release to support the Windows Server® 2003 Operating System for the database, archive, and Web servers.
For the full list of qualified SolidWorks applications and to ensure successful installation and optimum performance, see System Requirements.
Installing Using the Command Line on 32- and 64-bit Operating Systems
| 32-bit Operating Systems | Msiexec.exe /p vba71-kb2783832-x86.msp |
| 64-bit Operating Systems | Msiexec.exe /p vba71-kb2783832-x64.msp |
Installing Using Microsoft Active Directory
As of SolidWorks 2013 Service Pack 2.0, if you install the SolidWorks software with Microsoft Active Directory, you must install an additional prerequisite.
Create this policy:
{VBA directory}\vba71-kb2783832-x86.msp or vba71-kb2783832-x64.msp
No transform file is needed for this installation.
You are now prompted to accept the End-User License Agreements for every service pack upgrade for every product.
In SolidWorks 2013, the Installation Manager uninstalls the Pre-release software before installing Service Pack 0.0 or later.
Some antivirus software prevents proper installation of SolidWorks software. For additional information, see the Antivirus section of the Support Web site.
As of SolidWorks 2013, and later, installing Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Applications (VSTA) is optional. VSTA allows you to record, create, edit, and run C# and VB.NET macros in SolidWorks. See the Release Notes Help topic in the SolidWorks API Help for details.
Drawing text prints in color instead of black (or white) when Drawing Color is set to Black and white in the Page Setup dialog box. On some printers, a workaround is to set the Print properties to print in Black and White.
eDrawings is available for Android mobile phones and tablets. You can download eDrawings from the Google Play store, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.solidworks.eDrawingsAndroid (English only).
In maintaining a physically accurate blend of diffuse and reflection over the surface of an object, the diffuse shading decreases in brightness as the incidence angle becomes more glancing, because Fresnel reflection causes more light energy to be reflected. The result is that some objects may appear slightly darker in SolidWorks 2013 compared to previous releases. This is most obvious when appearances have high amounts of Fresnel reflection, such as high gloss plastics and car paint appearances.
SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2013 supports SolidWorks 2013, 2012, and 2011. The combination of a newer version of SolidWorks and an older version of Enterprise PDM is not supported.
The Setup Costs screen in the Costing Template Editor has been removed. Items from the Setup Costs screen are now on the Custom screen.
Microsoft Indexing Service, which searches for files in the SolidWorks Workgroup PDM vault, is not supported on 64-bit systems unless you make changes on the server operating system. For further details, refer to the SolidWorks knowledge base article S-054407 or contact your SolidWorks value added reseller (VAR).
SolidWorks tutorials are only available as local help (.chm files). Help files (excluding tutorials) are available as Web help (used by default) or as local help files. These local files are excluded from service pack downloads to reduce download size and time. To ensure up-to-date tutorials and local help, you must download the files.
To download the latest tutorials and local help files in a service pack:
The installer places the updated tutorials and local help files in C:\SWDist\swHelp<language>\Files\lang\<language> and automatically copies them into your SolidWorks installation.
If SolidWorks compiled help files (.chm) cannot be accessed over a network (although they can be accessed from a disk or local installation), you may have to modify your system. See the Microsoft Knowledge Base article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896054/ for more information on this problem.
| Tutorial | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|
| 2D Simplified Nonlinear Simulation | With SolidWorks Simulation Premium added in, learn to run a SolidWorks Simulation study of an axisymmetric model on a two-dimensional representation of the model. | Click . From the SolidWorks Tutorials Getting Started page:
|
| CircuitWorks Basics | Learn how to open ECAD files in the CircuitWorks application, modify properties, and import ECAD files as SolidWorks assemblies. | Click . From the SolidWorks Tutorials Getting Started page, click Advanced Techniques and select the CircuitWorks Basics tutorial. |
| Equations | Learn about linking part dimensions to equations and global variables. | Click . From the SolidWorks Tutorials Getting Started page, click Advanced Techniques and select the Equations tutorial. |
| Sheet Metal Forming Tools | Learn how to make sheet metal part design more efficient when you include forming tools from the Design Library. | Click . From the SolidWorks Tutorials Getting Started page, click Basic Techniques and select the Sheet Metal Forming Tools tutorial. |
The SolidWorks Composer copyright should be 2013 for the Composer and Composer Player products.
The Release Notes are not installed for SolidWorks Composer Player.
SolidWorks 2013 now supports Microsoft Office 2013.
The Mirror Type options have been removed from the Mirror Components PropertyManager. The online help does not reflect this change.
Point-to-point mode is now turned off in the Measure dialog box by default. To turn on point-to-point mode, click Point-to-Point in the Measure dialog box.
When you create a parent sheet metal feature and select a gauge table in the PropertyManager for the first time, you can propagate the gauge table settings and corresponding bend allowance options to all dependent sheet metal features. If you do not want to use the gauge table and bend allowance options for dependent sheet metal features, you can override these options individually by editing each of the child sheet metal features.
When using the View Selector tool, you can access back faces using the Alt key. With the View Selector active, press Alt to expose only the back faces of the View Selector box for selection, including two faces that are otherwise unselectable.
In the Insert Part PropertyManager, the Break link to original part option is not supported when inserting sheet metal parts created prior to SolidWorks 2013 into sheet metal parts created in SolidWorks 2013 or newer. To insert the part, clear Break link to original part. Features from the inserted part are not imported.