Every year, SOLIDWORKS offers a new major version release of the software. With that comes hundreds of updates and enhancements. Some updates are small and may go unnoticed by some users, but we also see very powerful enhancements such as new sketch, feature, drawing or assembly tools.
Often we will see major performance enhancements as well. Each year, with the new major release, SOLIDWORKS also writes a very nice What’s New document to point out all of the new enhancements.
From this page, we may also select older versions of “What’s New” documents to perhaps see what we missed. You can access the drop down on the top right of the web page to select a different version. In addition to the version year release of SP0.0, we typically see five service packs every year with small updates and stability enhancements. Note, these documents can also be accessed inside of the SOLIDWORKS application by choosing Help>What’s New.
To discover what version and service pack you are running so you can always be up to date, simply click Help>About SOLIDWORKS inside of the SOLIDWORKS application to show this information. Inside of the same menu, you will also find your serial number by clicking on the “Show Serial Number” text.
Hopefully you are on the most up-to-date version. If not, you can choose Help>Check for Updates… and you will be guided through the download and install of the latest release.
Editor's Note: This post was originally published in March 2019 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
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Written by Eric Weber
Eric Weber is an Application Engineer at Alignex, Inc. When Eric isn't working with customers or teaching a variety of Simulation courses, you will most likely find him building a Quadcopter Drone or experimenting with Arduino microcontrollers.