My study materials are:

1. Tootalltoby (watch his SolidWorks tutorial and Power Moves tutorial)
2. D Workshop (YouTube: “All You Need to Know to Pass CSWP” videos — there are 3 videos, one for each segment)
3. Design with Roozbe (YouTube)
4. David's SolidWorks Videos (YouTube)
5. Official SolidWorks Academic Certification Provider (my university — basically teaches all the fundamentals)
6. Official SolidWorks CSWP Practice Problems (there are 115 of them, and do all of them)

Just bought SOLIDWORKS Maker edition, and I'm planning to take CSWPA Sheet Metal and Drawing Tools. Wish me luck! And if any of you have already passed them, please share some tips on how to pass them.

profile is a 0.8 in width by 0.6 in height box. Len between arches is 3 in. arches have a radius of 1.4 in.

My apologies if this is a stupid question, still learning

I'd like the CSWA fairly soon if possible. Mechanical Engineering senior, took a CSWA prep course a few years ago, have been using solidworks on and off since then. confident with basic modeling and stuff. bad idea to take it without any studying?

I'm having trouble designing the part I've marked in red. I couldn't make it look like the one in the original component. Does anyone have an idea?

Solved

Thank you all for the suggestions and help. ​ ​The Wrap feature ended up doing the job perfectly. The reason Fillet didn't work in this case was because of the stepped geometry, it simply couldn't produce the required form. Also, a Helix Sweep would likely have done the trick here as well.

​Thanks again to everyone who responded and took the time to help out.

Volume Should be - 9534 cubic millimeter, I am getting 8961.76 cubic millimeter

Extrusion is 5mm

SOLVED - Thanks u/aUKswAE and u/Torque_to_spec

I have an assembly with 2 parts that contain subweldments. The PropertyManager is not showing me the option to show the detailed cutlist at all. I managed to make it show up before by deleting the BOM, deleting the view, creating a new view and adding a new BOM, but I tried doing that again and it's not working. The template I am using has been used to display BOMs with subweldments before. What am I doing wrong?

Edit : I was able to make it appear by opening the assembly, right clicking one of the weldment parts > Component Properties > Select "As Welded" in the referenced configuration.

Whether that is a reliable fix remains to be seen. Doing it on this one weldment (but not the other one in the assembly) got the option to show up in the BOM's property manager and both weldments now show their cutlist.

Is it realistic to get the CSWP done in one month with proper preparation for someone with experience in SolidWorks?

I am trying to select a line that I want to use as a reference in order to create a plane. This line is along the top of a rectangular prism. I was able to select a similar line in order to use as a reference to make a previous plane successfully before, but for my new plane when I select the line I want, or any sketch line, in the design tree, nothing happens. Even if I try to recreate my previous plane, where I was able to successfully select a line as a reference, it seems to no longer work as well. I've even tried everything a Google search or AI tells me to do, but nothings seems to work. Any suggestions on how to be able to select a sketch line as a reference again would be greatly appreciated.

masters

Hello SolidWorks Masters,

I’m facing a problem with Equations in SolidWorks.

When I assign a new value to an equation and rebuild/recalculate, the mass properties still show the old/same mass value. It’s not updating.

I have tried multiple times (rebuild, Ctrl+Q, editing the equation) but the issue remains.

Could any seniors please help me solve this?

Thank you in advance!

Hello all,

Debating on buying a Lenovo p14 laptop (newest gen). I travel a lot so portability and battery life is important to me but obviously the ability to work too lol. It seems that specific laptops GPU tops out with RTX PRO 1000. Wondering if anyone runs a similar setup or that same GPU and what your experience is with larger assemblies etc? Or if there is a considerable difference between the RTX PRO 2000 or similar GPUs. Thanks!

Hey sorry I got a code from my school to download solidworks at home to work on our projects throughout the year but I downloaded the 2026 version instead of the 2024 version. Is there anyway I can downgrade?

How would you model a folding camp chair in SOLIDWORKS?

A folding camp chair might look simple, but getting all the parts to work together is a different story.

This modeling challenge focuses on the engineering behind the design, including:

- Weldments: Build the tubular frame, handle mitered corners, and generate cut lists.

- Assembly & Mates: Create a working scissor mechanism without over-defining the assembly.

- Motion Study: Make the chair fold and unfold properly.

- Advanced Challenge:Fit the chair into a compact carrying envelope and test it under a 120 kg load using SOLIDWORKS Simulation.

There are three difficulty levels, from modeling the deployed chair to building a fully functional folding assembly and testing its structural performance.

You can also share your native SOLIDWORKS files, feature tree, and screenshots to show how you approached the design.

If you're interested in trying it out, the full challenge details are here:

https://solidworks.com/folding-chair-design-challenge-2026-10

I'd be interested to see which part people find most challenging: the weldment frame, the linkage mechanism, or getting the mates right.

#SOLIDWORKS #ModelingChallenge #SOLIDWORKSChampions

This was my 3rd attempt of CSWP exam. Basically this time I didn't practice at all :) . But this time I could solve most of the problem without any problem. But I don't know how I messed up in the assembly section.
BTW thanks to this subreddit. It helped me a lot.

There's really no way around it, huh?

Just started my mechanical design job two months ago and I got the assembly and drawing jobs. For the current one I'm at 3,000 parts in the assembly and around 1800 mates.

But my GOD this program takes forever to load anything since I got to around 30 pages. The title wasn't an exaggeration, if anything an understatement.

And it's not like there's anything else I can do in the meantime. Might as well go take a shit while it does its thing.

Make this little prototype here but the driver said the grips need to be fully rounded and not filleted, how in the world would I do that?

Also thanks for y’all’s support on my previous questions!

I've been having a hard time understanding the place for SOLIDWORKS configurations and design tables.

I work in a turnkey industry, so all machines are custom built per customer requirements. There have been many instances where a part may have been a standard configurable component, but we just copy tree the part and modify as needed. The main issue is our ERP system and BOM uploads for parts. Out ERP system recognises parts by name, so different configurations are lumped into one instance, and myself and colleagues aren't versed enough in the use of such components to make the argument for change.

I was wondering, for those that make use of this feature of SOLIDWORKS, how do you manage part and assembly configurations, and how does this interact with your erp system? Is it a major advantage over a quick copy tree/modification of previous solution.

The company for which I work is fairly young, so I'd like to make some efficiency/workflow recommendations and learn from those with more experience in established workflows.

Do I need software installed on my pc?

It just says that it encountered an problem and is gonna close, then i can open up the rx thingy.

diagnostics say absolutely nothing as you can see:

I try to run it both on opengl mode and while bypassing tools/options and it still just closes when i start a new project

I installed new drivers, i repaired installation previously (tho i might try again), i dont know what to do anymore. Solidworks rx doesnt give me an specific error nor does it let me access files and logs.

this is what exactly pops out when it crashes btw:

all files are stored on my ssd

I have an issue on certain projects. When I try to flatten a sheet metal body that I mirrored using the face of another sheet metal body, it won't unbend (the mirrored part).

However, if I create a reference plane manually, mirror the sheet metal bodies across that plane, and then flatten them, it works fine...

How is this possible????

Anyone Know what edges I should select so I can create a reference plane has the same angle as the left edge (Depicted with the red line)?

Hi All, I’ve started a new role and I'm having to deal with some larger assemblies (300-500parts) which irritatingly use many similar but not identical parts. I’m trying to establish the quickest way to do the drawings and part edits whilst pulling from a library of existing base parts. Driveworks has been mentioned but I don’t have the time to get it working rn. I’ve landed on developing configurations from base parts duplicated from a master folder for each project but this means I need to go back and fix file-drawing references etc. Anyone have a better system they’d be happy to share? Thanks

I attended the Ask The CEO Webinar yesterday and have already received the free CSWA and CSWP vouchers. For those who know, or have taken it already, can I take the CSWP 3 segments separately or is the provided voucher just for one segment? I don't want to try and take the exam without knowing this.

Thank you!

Hello, cuz I have "crutch" (workaround) on manufacturing - property of a part (but it's inconvenient)