FAQ — SOLIDWORKS Products

Most likely an error occurred during installation. Please try one or more of these suggestions: 1) Check that the installer year matches the version of SOLIDWORKS you are using. 2) Ensure that you are installing the plugin in the current working SOLIDWORKS directory. 3) Temporarily disable your firewall, then re-install the plugin. Some firewalls are known to block or interfere with installation. 4) Uninstall, then re-install the plugin.

There are two possible reasons for this error: 1) The plugin was installed in the incorrect directory. Power Surfacing needs to be installed in the current working directory of SOLIDWORKS. The standard directory generally looks similar to C:/Program Files/SolidWorks Corp/SOLIDWORKS. 2) The plugin needs Administrator privileges from SOLIDWORKS to complete the installation. Right-click on the SOLIDWORKS icon on your desktop, choose "Properties," open the "Compatibility" tab, and check "Run as Administrator," then run SOLIDWORKS. Note: this generally only needs to be done once after the installation.

Most likely an error occurred during installation. Please try one or more of these suggestions: 1) Check that the installer year matches the version of SOLIDWORKS you are using. 2) Ensure that you are installing the plugin in the current working SOLIDWORKS directory. 3) Temporarily disable your firewall, then re-install the plugin. 4) Uninstall, then re-install the plugin.

Node-locked licenses (v5.0+) are activated directly from the license dialog inside SOLIDWORKS (Power Surfacing > License). Network licenses are activated through the Network License Manager — refer to the activation instructions in your purchase invoice. For step-by-step help, see our Installation & Licensing page or contact [email protected].

Common error messages: 5008 — "Invalid Activation Data": The License ID or Password was entered incorrectly. Please ensure that you typed the codes correctly. 5010 — "Different Product": The product License ID does not match the product installer. Either your installer version differs from your license version (upgrade your license or obtain the older installer), or you are incorrectly activating a Network License, which must be activated through the Network License Manager. 5013 — "No Remaining Activations": Licenses allow only one activation by default. If you receive this error, the activation is already in use — follow the license deactivation instructions before re-activating. If you continue to experience difficulties, contact our support team at [email protected].

For v5.0+ licenses, use the deactivate option in the license dialog (Power Surfacing > License). For v2–v4 licenses: 1) Open SOLIDWORKS on the current machine. 2) Go to the Power Surfacing drop-down menu and click "License." 3) Click "Deactivate" in the dialog that appears. 4) Go to your SOLIDWORKS root directory and email the file Power_Surfacing_1.ini, along with your License ID, to [email protected].

Starting with version 5.0, license transfer is handled through the license dialog (node-locked) or the Network License Manager (network licenses). For earlier versions, follow the license deactivation instructions — once the deactivation is complete, your license is released and can be re-activated on another machine.

Yes, license deactivation is necessary prior to reformatting, refreshing, or doing any major updates to your machine. Failure to do so may result in a license loss. nPower Software is not responsible for lost license activations.

Yes, network licenses are available for the Power Surfacing products.

Open the nPower License Utility dialog located under Power Surfacing > License. The product name will be listed there. Note: if the nPower License Utility lists "Power Surfacing Demo" as the product name, there is no valid, active license available on the machine.

Use one of the primitives in the Power Surfacing drop-down, or create a sketch and use Create From Sketch in the drop-down on the left of the toolbar. After you set the parameters of the primitive, click the green check to enter Power Surfacing editing mode.

All of the Power Surfacing tools are documented in our help file, which can be found by clicking the "?" button in the Power Surfacing toolbar. You can also browse our Documentation and Tutorials pages on this site.

In order to access the transparency feature, your graphics card must support at least OpenGL 3.3 or above.

Your graphics card is unsupported but still passed our graphics card check. To fix this, navigate to Tools > Power Surfacing > Options... and under "General" check the "Disable shaders" box.

The following steps should restore your user interface to show the correct tools and icons: 1) Close both the Power Surfacing and Power Surfacing RE tabs by clicking the "X" on the tabs. 2) Go to Tools > Add-ins and turn off both checkmarks for Power Surfacing. 3) Quit SOLIDWORKS. 4) Restart SOLIDWORKS as Administrator (right-click SLDWorks.exe and choose "Run as Administrator"). 5) Go to Tools > Add-ins and turn Power Surfacing back on.

Visit our Downloads page to get the latest installer. If you are using a standalone license and are current on maintenance, the license should be picked up automatically. If you are on a Network License, you may also need to re-link the new version of SOLIDWORKS through the NLM: run the NLM on the client machine, navigate to File > Link to SolidWorks, and choose the appropriate version — a "Linked Successful" message should appear. For additional questions, contact [email protected].

Users who are up to date on the annual maintenance subscription are eligible for patch releases and the next major release. Users who do not meet this description will need to purchase an upgrade.

No. However, users without maintenance subscriptions are ineligible for upgrades to patch releases or the latest major release.

Supported file types include: .OBJ, .FBX, and .pmodel (a Power Surfacing native file format).

.OBJ, .FBX, or .pmodel (a Power Surfacing native file format). You can also convert your Sub-D model into a SOLIDWORKS surface or solid and save in any of the file formats supported by SOLIDWORKS.

.STL file imports are supported by Power Surfacing RE only. This option can be found in the Power Surfacing drop-down menu, "Import Scanned/Reference Mesh."