Solidworks System Requirements

Hardware Recommendations for SOLIDWORKS

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Computer Workstation Setups that run SOLIDWORKS Simulation

SOLIDWORKS System Requirements

SOLIDWORKS 2024

 

Basic System

Processor: 3.3 GHz or faster, Intel® Core i5, i7 or equivalent AMD®
Operating System: Windows® 11 and 10       
Memory: 8GB or more is required
Hard Drive: Standard or Solid State Drive (SSD) > 250GB, keeping 10% drive capacity free space
Graphics Cards: NVIDIA® RTX A2000

  • System for simple parts, small assemblies (200 or fewer components), and drawings.
  • This system will support part and assembly simulations including linear statics, thermal, frequency, fatigue, and optimization. Gap and contact simulations will run on small assemblies that contain simple components.
  • This system will also support simple flow simulations.
Intermediate System

Processor: 3.3 GHz or faster, Intel® Core i7, Xeon or equivalent AMD®
Operating System: Windows® 11 and 10        
Memory: 16GB or more as required
Hard Drive: Solid State Drive (SSD) > 250GB, keeping 10% drive capacity free space
Graphics Cards: NVIDIA® RTX A4000

  • System for complex parts with advanced shapes, large patterns, shells, 200+ features.
  • This system is also for assemblies containing 200-1000 components and drawings.
  • This system will support part and assembly simulations including non-linear, dynamics, random vibrations along with moderate gaps and contacts.
  • This system will also support moderate flow simulations.
Advanced System

Processor: 3.3GHz or faster, Intel® Core i7, Xeon or equivalent AMD®
Operating System: Windows® 11 and 10        
Memory: 32GB or more as required
Hard Drive: Solid State Drive (SSD) > 250GB, keeping 10% drive capacity free space
Graphics Cards: NVIDIA® RTX A5000, RTX A6000, RTX 8000

  • System for very complex parts with advanced surfacing features or hybrid modeling.
  • This system is also for assemblies containing 1000 – 200,000 components.
  • This system will support large complex analysis and large flow simulations.

 

SOLIDWORKS 2023

 

Basic System

Processor: 3.3 GHz or faster, Intel® Core i5, i7 or equivalent AMD®
Operating System: Windows® 11 and 10       
Memory: 8GB or more is required
Hard Drive: Standard or Solid State Drive (SSD) > 250GB, keeping 10% drive capacity free space
Graphics Cards: NVIDIA® RTX A2000

  • System for simple parts, small assemblies (200 or fewer components), and drawings.
  • This system will support part and assembly simulations including linear statics, thermal, frequency, fatigue, and optimization. Gap and contact simulations will run on small assemblies that contain simple components.
  • This system will also support simple flow simulations.
Intermediate System

Processor: 3.3 GHz or faster, Intel® Core i7, Xeon or equivalent AMD®
Operating System: Windows® 11 and 10        
Memory: 16GB or more as required
Hard Drive: Solid State Drive (SSD) > 250GB, keeping 10% drive capacity free space
Graphics Cards: NVIDIA® RTX A4000

  • System for complex parts with advanced shapes, large patterns, shells, 200+ features.
  • This system is also for assemblies containing 200-1000 components and drawings.
  • This system will support part and assembly simulations including non-linear, dynamics, random vibrations along with moderate gaps and contacts.
  • This system will also support moderate flow simulations.
Advanced System

Processor: 3.3GHz or faster, Intel® Core i7, Xeon or equivalent AMD®
Operating System: Windows® 11 and 10        
Memory: 32GB or more as required
Hard Drive: Solid State Drive (SSD) > 250GB, keeping 10% drive capacity free space
Graphics Cards: NVIDIA® RTX A5000, RTX A6000, RTX 8000

  • System for very complex parts with advanced surfacing features or hybrid modeling.
  • This system is also for assemblies containing 1000 – 200,000 components.
  • This system will support large complex analysis and large flow simulations.

 

SOLIDWORKS 2022

 

Basic System

Processor: 3.3 GHz or faster, Intel® Core i5, i7 or equivalent AMD®
Operating System: Windows® 11 and 10       
Memory: 8GB or more is required
Hard Drive: Standard or Solid State Drive (SSD) > 250GB, keeping 10% drive capacity free space
Graphics Cards:  NVIDIA® RTX A2000

  • System for simple parts, small assemblies (200 or fewer components), and drawings.
  • This system will support part and assembly simulations including linear statics, thermal, frequency, fatigue, and optimization. Gap and contact simulations will run on small assemblies that contain simple components.
  • This system will also support simple flow simulations.
Intermediate System

Processor: 3.3 GHz or faster, Intel® Core i7, Xeon or equivalent AMD®
Operating System: Windows® 11 and 10        
Memory: 16GB or more as required
Hard Drive: Solid State Drive (SSD) > 250GB, keeping 10% drive capacity free space
Graphics Cards: NVIDIA® RTX A4000

  • System for complex parts with advanced shapes, large patterns, shells, 200+ features.
  • This system is also for assemblies containing 200-1000 components and drawings.
  • This system will support part and assembly simulations including non-linear, dynamics, random vibrations along with moderate gaps and contacts.
  • This system will also support moderate flow simulations.
Advanced System

Processor: 3.3 GHz or faster, Intel® Core i7, Xeon or equivalent AMD®
Operating System: Windows® 11 and 10        
Memory: 32GB or more as required
Hard Drive: Solid State Drive (SSD) > 250GB, keeping 10% drive capacity free space
Graphics Cards: NVIDIA® RTX A5000, RTX A6000, RTX 8000

  • System for very complex parts with advanced surfacing features or hybrid modeling.
  • This system is also for assemblies containing 1000 – 200,000 components.
  • This system will support large complex analysis and large flow simulations.

 

SOLIDWORKS 2021

 

Basic System

Processor: 3.3GHz or faster, Intel® Core i5, i7 or equivalent AMD®
Operating System: Windows® 10      
Memory: 8GB or more is required
Hard Drive: Standard or Solid State Drive (SSD) > 250GB, keeping 10% drive capacity free space
Graphics Cards: NVIDIA® Quadro®  P2200

  • System for simple parts, small assemblies (200 or fewer components), and drawings.
  • This system will support part and assembly simulations including linear statics, thermal, frequency, fatigue, and optimization. Gap and contact simulations will run on small assemblies that contain simple components.
  • This system will also support simple flow simulations.
Intermediate System

Processor: 3.3GHz or faster, Intel® Core i7, Xeon or equivalent AMD®
Operating System: Windows® 10        
Memory: 16GB or more as required
Hard Drive: Solid State Drive (SSD) > 250GB, keeping 10% drive capacity free space
Graphics Cards: NVIDIA® Quadro®  RTX 4000

  • System for complex parts with advanced shapes, large patterns, shells, 200+ features.
  • This system is also for assemblies containing 200-1000 components and drawings.
  • This system will support part and assembly simulations including non-linear, dynamics, random vibrations along with moderate gaps and contacts.
  • This system will also support moderate flow simulations.
Advanced System

Processor: 3.3 GHz or faster, Intel® Core i7, Xeon or equivalent AMD®
Operating System Windows® 10        
Memory: 32GB or more as required
Hard Drive: Solid State Drive (SSD) > 250GB, keeping 10% drive capacity free space
Graphics Cards: NVIDIA® Quadro®  RTX 5000, RTX 6000, RTX 8000

  • System for very complex parts with advanced surfacing features or hybrid modeling.
  • This system is also for assemblies containing 1000 – 200,000 components.
  • This system will support large complex analysis and large flow simulations.

 

Minimum hardware requirements for SOLIDWORKS 2021:

The minimum SOLIDWORKS system requirements can be found on the SOLIDWORKS System Requirements website.

Video:

A recommended OpenGL workstation graphics card and driver.
For a listing of recommended graphics cards and driver combinations visit the SOLIDWORKS System/Graphics Card Requirements Website.
https://www.solidworks.com/support/hardware-certification

CPU:

Intel® or AMD® with SSE2 support. A 64-bit operating system required.
SOLIDWORKS can be made to run on Apple Mac® based machines running under Parallels or BootCamp.  It is not a recommended hardware configuration.
http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/11168_ENU_HTML.htm
NOTE: Non-server products are only supported in the Parallels environment.
eDrawings® is supported on Apple Macintosh®-based machines.

Other:

Mouse or another pointing device.
DVD drive or broadband internet connection
Microsoft Excel 2016, or 2019
Internet Explorer version 11 or Microsoft Edge
Anti-Virus ( http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/AntiVirus_SW.html )

Network:

SOLIDWORKS is tested only with Microsoft’s Windows Networking and Active Directory network environments.
Novell networks and non-Windows based network storage devices are not supported.

OS:

Window 10®  (SOLIDWORKS 2015 SP5+)   Note : Windows Home, Small Business, and To Go editions are not supported.

SNL Server Requirements:

Windows 10®
Windows Server 2016®, 2019®
Virtual servers are supported for SNL only for the ones listed here ( http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/11168_ENU_HTML.htm ).

PDM Professional, Standard:

The system requirements for PDM can be found here,   https://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/SystemRequirements.html

End of Life Product Info

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/solidworks-support.htm?tabshow=2

SOLIDWORKS 2020

 

Basic System

Processor: 3.3GHz or faster, Intel® Core i5, i7 or equivalent AMD®
Operating System: Windows® 10 and 7 (2020 was the last year for Windows 7 support)
Memory: 8GB or more is required
Hard Drive: Standard or Solid State Drive (SSD) > 250GB, keeping 10% drive capacity free space
Graphics Cards: NVIDIA® Quadro® P2200

  • System for simple parts, small assemblies (200 or fewer components), and drawings.
  • This system will support part and assembly simulations including linear statics, thermal, frequency, fatigue, and optimization. Gap and contact simulations will run on small assemblies that contain simple components.
  • This system will also support simple flow simulations.
Intermediate System

Processor: 3.3GHz or faster, Intel® Core i7, Xeon or equivalent AMD®
Operating System: Windows® 10 and 7   (2020 was the last year for Windows 7 support)
Memory: 16GB or more as required
Hard Drive: Solid State Drive (SSD) > 250GB, keeping 10% drive capacity free space
Graphics Cards: NVIDIA® Quadro® RTX 4000

  • System for complex parts with advanced shapes, large patterns, shells, 200+ features.
  • This system is also for assemblies containing 200-1000 components and drawings.
  • This system will support part and assembly simulations including non-linear, dynamics, random vibrations along with moderate gaps and contacts.
  • This system will also support moderate flow simulations.
Advanced System

Processor: 3.3GHz or faster, Intel® Core i7, Xeon or equivalent AMD®
Operating System : Windows® 10 and 7 (2020 was the last year for Windows 7 support)
Memory: 32GB or more as required
Hard Drive: Solid State Drive (SSD) > 250GB, keeping 10% drive capacity free space
Graphics Cards: NVIDIA® Quadro®  RTX 5000, RTX 6000, RTX 8000

  • System for very complex parts with advanced surfacing features or hybrid modeling.
  • This system is also for assemblies containing 1000 – 200,000 components.
  • This system will support large complex analysis and large flow simulations.

 

Minimum hardware requirements for SOLIDWORKS 2020:

The minimum requirements can be found on the SOLIDWORKS System Requirements website .

Video:

A recommended OpenGL workstation graphics card and driver.
For a listing of recommended graphics cards and driver combinations visit the SOLIDWORKS System/Graphics Card Requirements Website.
https://www.solidworks.com/support/hardware-certification

CPU:

Intel® or AMD® with SSE2 support. A 64-bit operating system required.
SOLIDWORKS can be made to run on Apple Mac® based machines running under Parallels or BootCamp.  It is not a recommended hardware configuration.
http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/11168_ENU_HTML.htm
NOTE:   Non-server products are only supported in the Parallels environment.
eDrawings® is supported on Apple Macintosh®-based machines.

Other:

Mouse or another pointing device.
DVD drive or broadband internet connection
Microsoft Excel 2013, 2016, or 2019
Internet Explorer version 11 or Microsoft Edge
Anti-Virus ( http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/AntiVirus_SW.html )

Network:

SOLIDWORKS is tested only with Microsoft’s Windows Networking and Active Directory network environments.
Novell networks and non-Windows based network storage devices are not supported.

OS:

Window 10®  (SOLIDWORKS 2015 SP5+) Note : Windows Home, Small Business, and To Go editions are not supported.
Windows 7® 64-bit professional or greater editions only (2020 is the last year for Windows 7 support)

SNL Server Requirements:

Windows 7®, 10®
Windows Server 2016®, 2019®
Virtual servers are supported for SNL only for the ones listed here ( http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/11168_ENU_HTML.htm ).

PDM Professional, Standard:

The system requirements for PDM can be found here,      https://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/SystemRequirements.html

End of Life Product Info

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/solidworks-support.htm?tabshow=2

SOLIDWORKS 2019

 

Minimum System Requirements

Processor: 3.3GHz or faster, Intel® Core i5, i7 or equivalent AMD®
Operating System:  Windows® 10 or 7 x64
Memory: 8GB or more recommended
Hard Drive: Standard or Solid State Drive (SSD) > 250GB, keeping 10% drive capacity free space
Graphics Cards: NVIDIA® Quadro® P600, P1000 series

  • System for simple parts, small assemblies (200 or fewer components), and drawings.
  • This system will support part and assembly simulations including linear statics, thermal, frequency, fatigue, and optimization. Gap and contact simulations will run on small assemblies that contain simple components.
  • This system will also support simple flow simulations.
  • Approximate Costs: Laptop – $1600 | Desktop – $1400
Basic System

Processor: 3.3GHz or faster, Intel® Core i7, Xeon or equivalent AMD®
Operating System : Windows® 10 or 7 x64
Memory : 8-16GB or more as required
Hard Drive: Solid State Drive (SSD) > 250GB, keeping 10% drive capacity free space
Graphics Cards: NVIDIA® Quadro® P2000 series

  • System for complex parts with advanced shapes, large patterns, shells, 200+ features.
  • This system is also for assemblies containing 200-1000 components and drawings.
  • This system will support part and assembly simulations including non-linear, dynamics, random vibrations along with moderate gaps and contacts.
  • This system will also support moderate flow simulations.
  • Approximate Costs: Laptop – $2100 | Desktop – $1800
Advanced System

Processor: 3.3GHz or faster, Intel® Core i7, Xeon or equivalent AMD®
Operating System : Windows® 10 or 7 x64
Memory: 16-32GB or more as required
Hard Drive:  Solid State Drive (SSD) > 250GB, keeping 10% drive capacity free space
Graphics Cards: NVIDIA® Quadro® P3000 P4000 series

  • System for very complex parts with advanced surfacing features or hybrid modeling.
  • This system is also for assemblies containing 1000 – 200,000 components.
  • This system will support large complex analysis and large flow simulations.
  • Approximate Costs: Laptop – $3000 | Desktop – $2500

 

Minimum hardware requirements for SOLIDWORKS 2019:

The minimum requirements can be found on the SOLIDWORKS System Requirements website .

Video:

A certified OpenGL workstation graphics card and driver.
For a listing of tested and certified graphics cards and driver, combinations visit the SOLIDWORKS System/Graphics Card Requirements Website.
http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/videocardtesting.html

CPU:

Intel® or AMD® with SSE2 support. A 64-bit operating system required.
SOLIDWORKS is supported on Apple Mac® based machines running under Parallels.
http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/11168_ENU_HTML.htm
NOTE: Non-server products are only supported in the Parallels environment.
eDrawings® is supported on Apple Macintosh®-based machines.

Other:

Mouse or another pointing device.
DVD drive or broadband internet connection
Microsoft Excel 2010, 2013, or 2016
Internet Explorer version 8 or higher
Anti-Virus ( http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/AntiVirus_SW.html )

Network:

SOLIDWORKS is tested only with Microsoft’s Windows Networking and Active Directory network environments.
Novell networks and non-Windows based network storage devices are not supported.

OS:

Window 10®  (SOLIDWORKS 2015 SP5+) Note : Windows Home, Small Business, and To Go editions are not supported.
Windows 7® 64-bit professional or greater editions only

SNL Server Requirements:

Windows 7®, 10®
Windows Server 2012® R2, 2016®
Virtual servers are supported for SNL only for the ones listed here ( http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/11168_ENU_HTML.htm ).

PDM Professional, Standard:

The system requirements for PDM can be found here,   http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/PDMSystemRequirements.html

End of Life Product Info

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/solidworks-support.htm?tabshow=2

System Samples

Minimum System from Dell®

SOLIDWORKS 2019 Hardware Reccomendations Precision 7520 Summary

Figure 1 – Minimum System Sample from Dell®

Basic System from Dell®

SOLIDWORKS 2019 Hardware Recommendations Dell 7520 Summary

Figure 2 – Basic System Sample from Dell®

Advanced System from Dell®

Hardware Recommendations SOLIDWORKS 2019 Dell Precision 7720

Figure 3 – Advanced System Sample from Dell®

SOLIDWORKS PDM System Requirements

SOLIDWORKS PDM 2024

SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional will utilize up to 3 primary components: A Microsoft SQL Server (SQL) database server, an Archive Server for files, and an optional Web Server. 
• For PDM systems with under 20 concurrent users, the components can typically be combined on one machine. For PDM systems with 20 or more concurrent users, the system load may require those components to be separated onto individual machines. 
• Customers are required to secure proper Microsoft SQL Server Standard licenses for their system. Contact your Microsoft reseller for specific details.
• For a geographically distributed, multi-facility environment, it is often desirable to have replicated Archive (file) Server machines at each replicated site.
• For optional replicated SQL database servers (must be read-only secondary) Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise licenses are required, limited support is available from SOLIDWORKS/GoEngineer for these types of configurations, and each must be installed on standalone server machines. 
• Specifications also apply for SOLIDWORKS Manage, which utilizes similar resources to PDM Professional.
• For PDM systems with over 100 concurrent users, environment-specific resource utilization information should be considered.

 Standalone database server

CPU and RAM are important considerations

Category Recommended Configuration Comments
Operating System Windows Server 2019 and 2022 (64-bit only) Windows Server 2016 is not supported
Processor Intel or AMD
At least four processor cores (minimum two)***
At least 2.0 GHz base clock speed
The fastest possible clock speed should be provisioned.
Memory Baseline: 16 GB 
If (file count > 100,000) or (user count > 20): 16-32 GB
SQL should have enough RAM to load the entire database into RAM.
Disk for Database High-speed PCIe SSD for physical servers
100 GB of storage space
SATA drives are also supported, but a 100 GB partition on an M.2 PCIe NVMe drive may be the fastest option.
SQL Server Platform SQL Standard Edition 2022 or SQL 2019 with Cumulative Update 4 or greater PDM 2024 is the End of Life for SQL 2017 support.

 

 Standalone web server

CPU, RAM, and Network Speeds are important considerations

Category Recommended Configuration Comments
Operating System Windows Server 2019 and 2022 (64-bit only) Windows Server 2016 is not supported
Processor Intel or AMD
At least 2.0 GHz base clock speed
Multiple cores allow the server to handle multiple Web 2 requests simultaneously
Memory 32 GB

 Standalone archive server

Input/output speed and storage are important considerations

Category Recommended Configuration Comments
Operating System Windows Server 2019 and 2022 (64-bit only) Windows Server 2016 is not supported
Processor Intel or AMD
Memory 8-16 GB
Disk for File Storage** For a new system: 500 GB (200 GB minimum) 

* Each PDM Professional implementation is unique, please consult a GoEngineer PDM Strategist for additional details.

** Disk space estimates are provided to cover 3 years of storage growth. Storage requirements typically grow faster in a vault system than over a normal network. If installing in a replicated environment, each additional 
archive server will be sized based on the total % of the vault archived to that server. For example, if Site A is configured to replicate 50% of the files to site B, then Site B may need 50% of the disk space.

*** The two most common Microsoft SQL licensing models are Core and Server+Client Access License (CAL). 

  • The SQL Core license model allows unlimited client device access to the database and is sold in 2-core packs. To fully utilize a quadcore processor, two SQL 2-core pack licenses are needed.
  • The Server+CAL model allows unlimited cores. To fully utilize a quad-core processor, one Server license is needed, but additional CAL licenses must be purchased for each user or device utilizing the SQL database. For example, PDM licenses are floating and may be shared among many users, however, CALs are not shared, so additional (i.e., more than the total number of PDM licenses) may need to be purchased for each machine/user to be compliant with Microsoft’s Licensing Model. Please contact a GoEngineer PDM Strategist for SQL licensing requirements and recommendations.”

SOLIDWORKS Services:

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  • 125+Certified Technical Specialists
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GoEngineer offers online and classroom professional SOLIDWORKS training for organizations and individuals. All our instructors are SOLIDWORKS certified and teach thousands of students each year world wide. The curriculum is very diverse with numerous certified SOLIDWORKS courses to choose from. Each student will receive a Course Completion Certificate and preparation materials for SOLIDWORKS certification.

  • Increase Your Earning Potential
  • Led by Certified SOLIDWORKS Instructors
  • Smaller Classes with Focused Attention

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