Over the years, the Admin Image deployment package has been changed and in this current release it is fairly easy to create them. The easiest way to get this started is from a media disk for the initial release of the version. This may not be what you would want to deploy for the clients. So then you need to do the download for this which can be time consuming for either the Full Download or even just the download for creating the Image. If you plan to go this route, plan ahead and download the package ahead of time. If you want to create the image for both 32 & 64 bit, get both of these downloads into the same folder so the Installation Manager (IM) knows where to find it.

To get this started, open the IM for either version 32 or 64 and when it is on the Welcome page select “Administrative image” here you are able to select how you would like to create it.

You can create a new image which will use SolidWorks default settings for the creation, or you can create it from an existing image you had deployed in the past. This second option will bring all of those settings and options into the image. If you do it this way and you have not downloaded any of the software, it will decrease the download time as it will only download what it needs to patch the old version to the new version. This is especially helpful for service packs, but not as much for new versions. Here we can also choose to create both 32 and 64 bit image as well. In this example, I selected to create a new image and only for x64 as that is the IM I started. We then will select Next to continue. The next page is for the Serial Number(s) you have for SolidWorks, Simulation, Flow, Motion and Workgroup Contributor. We can select Next for this once we have all the serial numbers recorded if they did not fill in automatically. It will then check the serial numbers and installs for verification.

From this page we can select what to include for SolidWorks to install. I recommend creating it with everything your serial number(s) allow, as we can edit what gets deployed with the option editor. We can also adjust our download settings if a download is needed and change the location where it creates the image and where it creates it from.

Next, select Create Now and it will ask if you are using a network serial number and where to point for the server. After that is OK-ed it will go through and create the image in the location selected and when it is done it will tell you it is complete and ask if you would like to see how to install this image on the clients. This will then prompt us to open the Option Editor to customize the Image. We will cover this in a future post.

In 2013 SolidWorks you can now automatically deploy an admin image from the option editor. There is now a link to do this in the editor and you can set this to deploy to any or all machines on the same MS Active Directory Domain.

In this image you can see that I have added machines on the domain and selected them to deploy. You also have options of when to do the install Now or at a specific time later.

Then in the client options you can set it to either install or uninstall and if it is to uninstall is it going to be a custom one. This will give you more options of what to remove from the machine during the uninstall like registry settings or data folders. You can also select to have the computer automatically reboot after the install/uninstall is complete.

Additionally there is a place to add the admin log in so the installs are performed using this. Once you have this all set to run you then get a status feed back on the install so you can see if any of them fail. This is also a silent deployment method so there is no indication on the client machine this is happening like in a manual admin image deployment.

This and more will be covered in an upcoming webinar about installing SolidWorks 2013.

One frequent request that comes across my desk, is how to perform a clean uninstallation of SolidWorks.  SolidWorks installs too many locations on a user’s local disk drive.  When a user uninstalls SolidWorks, a lot of these folders are retained on the system and you can end up with unnecessary or duplicate folders.  Also, at times a SolidWorks installation can become corrupt and it may be necessary to completely wipe SolidWorks from the systems registry and start fresh.

The 2010 Installation Manager has changed again, but in a good way. All of the options can now be found on a single clickable dialog on the Summary page. As you can see from the image below, there is a checklist on the left, which tells you what page you are on. The first three pages are very much the same as in previous years, so I will focus on the Summary page. Here, you have selectable options that can be changed to suit your specific installation needs.

Let’s start with Products. When you select “CHANGE”, it will open that page and you have the option to select or unselect all products available for your serial numbers. If you have a network serial number, the default install will be at a Premium seat, even if you do not have it. So, on the Products Selection page, you can remove the products your license does not cover.

Download Options:  this is for all installs, whether you need to download or not. The options here include “Download” and “Install” for an individual install, “Download Only” to do a full download to share, and “Install Only” if you have already downloaded. You can also change the location to download to, as well as select to conduct a manual download.

Installation Location: This allows you to change where SolidWorks is installed. The default location is C:\Program Files\SolidWorks Corp. It also tells you what the size of the installation is and asks where you want to install from.

Toolbox Options: This tells you that SolidWorks is currently referencing a Toolbox if there is a previous install. It then needs to know what you want to do: 1) Create a new Toolbox, 2) Upgrade an existing one, or 3) Upgrade an existing one in a new location. The option you choose depends on your installation needs. If it is a new install, or you are not sure what Toolbox is, create a new one. If you are upgrading an existing install and removing the previous, just upgrade the existing one. But if you need to keep the previous install and have custom parts in your Toolbox, copy that one to a new location, add a new name and upgrade it. If you need to have multiple instances of SolidWorks on your computer, as I do, put the version of SolidWorks as a suffix to the folder name. For example, I have folders named SolidWorks Data 2009 and SolidWorks Data 2010. I do this for the installation folder as well.

On each of these pages in the lower right corner, there is a “Back to Summary” button. This brings you back to the Summary page, where you can select the next page to change or continue with the install. The button in the lower right will either say “Install Now” or “Download Now,” depending on if you have already downloaded the required data. If it is “Install Now,” it will go to the install page. If it is “Download Now,” it will go to the download page, and then continue to the install page if you are doing both a download and install. When it is done doing the tasks you told it to do, it will go to the finish page. Here it allows you to check for updates, see “What’s New?” or fill out a survey about the process. It also asks if you want to participate in the SolidWorks Customer Experience Program. I do recommend this, as it will send crashing issues directly to the SolidWorks development team. That enables them to see what is causing the crashes and helps them determine patterns of crashes. Also, if you need to send an Rx into Symmetry tech support and are not participating, the SolidWorks performance log does not fully attach.

I hope this information helps make your installation process easier.  If you have questions or need further assistance, we are happy to help. Please contact  Symmetry’s Technical Support Team at:

763-560-8600, option 4

support@symsolutions.com