Installing Multiple Versions of SolidWorks

With the recent release of SolidWorks 2012, we (Prism tech support) are often asked, “Can I install both 2011 and 2012 on the same system?”  The answer is YES, and following these tips and tricks will help to ensure that everything installs and runs smoothly, on both versions.

• Is this configuration “officially” supported?

Here is a knowledge base article from SolidWorks.com:

Solution Id:        S-050530             

Updated:             9/27/2011 2:15:20 PM

Question:            Is installation of multiple versions of SolidWorks® allowed on the same computer?

Answer:               Multiple major release versions of a core SolidWorks® product are allowed, regardless of service pack or major release. Multiple service packs of the same major release (for example: 2010 SP0.0 and 2010 SP1.0) will not co-exist on the same computer.

• During the installation:

Create a separate directory for each major release of SolidWorks.  As you can see in this screen shot, on my machine I like to use C:\Program Files\SolidWorks 20XX

• After the installation clear the registry, and launch in reverse order

The registry of your computer is NOT a good place to go poking around in, if you are unfamiliar with what it is and what it does.  So if that’s the case, I encourage you to give us a call at 215-784-0800 or an email at SWTECH@prismeng.com, and we can help you through this step.

If you are familiar and comfy within the registry, you can do the following steps”:

1. Close SolidWorks and SolidWorks related programs

2. Go into HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software, and rename the SolidWorks key to something like “Solidworks-TEMP”

3. Launch the NEWEST version of SolidWorks first, then work your way backwards:

a. Launch SolidWorks 2012, setup your settings for 2012

b. Then launch SolidWorks 2011, setup your settings

c. Then launch SolidWorks 2010, setup your settings

4. Close all SolidWorks versions and related programs

5. Right click on the newly created “Solidworks” key found in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software and choose EXPORT.  This step allows you to save off all your settings for SolidWorks 2010, 2011 and 2012, into one single .reg file.  This might be useful for some future date to recover all your settings.

• Why launch in reverse order?

In the end, what we are trying to do here (by launching in reverse order) is avoid settings from SolidWorks 2010 transferring forward into 2011, and settings from 2011 doing the same into 2012.  Windows attempts to use the existing registry key to populate settings for the new release of the software, thus if you have already installed 2010 on your machine, then move to 2011 and then 2012, you might see this when you examine your settings:

• Custom icons?

  You may have noticed that at the start of this blog entry, I illustrated the desktop icons I use for SolidWorks 2010, 2011, and 2012.  These icons are of my own creation, and I find them to be quite useful in a Windows 7 environment, where you can dock the icons in the task bar at the bottom of the screen.  Had I not created these custom icons, my task bar might look something like this:

Do a quick google search for CUSTOM ICONS and you can find a free program to create custom icons.  I created these icons back in Windows XP, by using PAINT and saving the file as a .ico.  This seemed to work well in XP, but no so much in Win7.

•  Questions?  Comments?

As always I look forward to hearing any questions or comments on this topic.  Please feel free to post comments below, or to email me at SWTech@prismeng.com.

Thanks for taking a look at today’s blog, and I hope you found the info useful.

Take care,

~Toby Schnaars