SolidWorks System Requirements

Skills software and technology
1

I bought a brand new Sony Vaio VGN-N250FH Notebook and I installed SolidWorks 2007 in it, and it all was alright until I tried to open the program, it just won’t, it tells me that there’s not enough memory for Visual Basic to work properly or something like that. This are the specs of the laptop:

Sony Vaio VGN-N250FH

Software:
Operating System: Microsoft Vistaâ„¢ Home Basic

Processor:
Type: Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2250
Speed: 1.73GHz
Front Side Bus Speed: 533MHz
L2 Cache: 2MB
Technology: Intel® Centrino® Duo Mobile Technology

Memory:
Type: DDR2
Installed: 1GB (512MBx2) PC2-4200
Maximum: 2GB
Speed: 533MHz

Hard Drive:
Capacity: 120GB
Speed: 5400rpm
Interface: Serial ATA

Graphics:
Processor: Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Video RAM: 224MB Totally Available Graphics Memory
Chipset: Intel® 945GM
Interface: VGA Out with Smart Display Sensor

The thing is I just bought the laptop, and I don’t know why it tells me that there’s not enough memory, a friend of mine has a Dell with an Intel Celeron Processor, 512MB RAM, I believe it has the same Graphics Media Accelerator (at least I know it also is an Intel GMA) and it DOES run SolidWorks 2007!!

Is it just my bad luck that doesn’t let me open the program or actually my notebook is not powerful enough or not fast enough or is it lacking of something essential to run SW???

Does anyone have an idea of why this could be?

Thanks a lot in advance to anyone who can help me with this.

2

I’ll bet that Vista is eating up all your RAM. It’s a hungry OS…

3

vista is a hog… i returned my work laptop and told then i couldn’t work with vista… everything runs slow on it… definitely not a laptop friendly os… it doesn’t play nice period

4

I third that. Vista is a pig, on top of your integrated graphics card, not surprising that SW won;t run.

not sure what you spent on the Vaio, but my Mac book pro with boot camp runs SW so sweet.

5

my Mac book pro with boot camp runs SW so sweet.

Just out of curiosity, do you run a 3 button mouse with that setup? I would find it frustrating to run SW with the Mac 1-button mouse.

6

the “mighty mouse” is 3-button. or you can just hook up any other 3 buttom mouse…

i’ve tried the macbook pro with dual boot and i love it… now i’m just waiting for leopard to show its face and i’ll pounce

7

well… thank you all for your input… I suppose I’ll have to increase the RAM to 2GB and upgrade to a better Graphics Card

8

Or just install XP.

9

I’m curious, what does SW 2007 cost? The website demands you to request a quote. They have 3 levels of the software. Basic, Professional and Premium. What would your average user need?

Sorry to get off the topic of the thread.

10

if i remember correctly the edu version cost somewhere in the region of $180, but i could be mistaken…

11

Can post grads “find” a way to purchase educational versions?

12

aahh… i wish that were possible… officially

13

The “Office Professional” version is what you want. It has the photo-rendering and animation modules. It costs about $5,000.

For the file sharing crowd - Solidworks has instituted a new activation scheme that pins a serial number down to a single workstation.

Go buy a copy. It’s worth it.

14

Thanks for the information.

I wish I had an extra $5000.00 just sitting around. I’ll have to wait on that. I’ve got a wedding and ring loan to deal with now.

SW is my top choice though for 3d modeling.

15

A few more things about Solidworks:

  • Like most high end software packages, it’s a subscription package. Each year you get to pony-up about $1,600 for upgrades and support. It’s like cocaine - they get you hooked and then keep selling you more and more happiness.

  • If you want to dial-in a slightly lower initial price try to buy the package at the end of the year or end of a quarter. The sales people can give discounts to make their numbers. They can’t give it away for free, but they can chip-off a few bucks.

16

Thanks for the tip on the end of the quarter sales. Its just like the highway patrol and the end of the month. “Watch your speed!”

17

For the file sharing crowd - Solidworks has instituted a new activation scheme that pins a serial number down to a single workstation.

There are older versions still available out there, through various sources. I don’t know those sources though, and have never used them.

Its a great company, so I’d support it with my money.

18

kind of late, but I use a Microsoft laser mouse, I think 5 buttons total.

19

The standard install disks that come from SolidWorks will not run under Vista. You need to download the the Vista Pre Release from SolidWorks. The SolidWorks Pre Release for Vista will run slower than the normal one for XP as you will also have to run SolidWorks with “Software OpenGL” active as there are yet no drivers available for graphics cards and SolidWorks.

SolidWorks actually recommend to use XP for complicated parts or assemblies, SolidWorks for Vista is not yet ready for production. Note SolidWorks only intends to support the 32 bit Version of Vista for SolidWorks 2007. You will have to wait after the release of SolidWorks 2008 for it to be supported under the 64bit Version of Vista.

Even after SolidWorks release a production version for Vista, it will still be slower than XP.

All this info is available to subscription customers via the SolidWorks customer portal.