I'm new to Solidworks, I've just bought it for my students.  I've installed it onto mu laptop ( a brand new HP with a dual core 2.4GHz Centrino Chip + 3GB of RAM).  I'm running 1010-1011 sp2.1 education edition.

Everything seems to work fine until I use the smart dimension tool (or any other dimension tool for that matter) - select sketch object (even just one circle) - click to place dimension value and "bang" up comes the "you are critically short of desktop resources etc." message.  Without using the dimensioning tools I can build as many parts as I like, of any degree of complexity, in different windows, with a number of different other pieces of software open (MS Word + Excel + Access + Photoshop Pro with itunes playing and BBC iPlayer playing a TV program) with no problems until I use the dimension tool.

I have absolutely no other programs (apart from explorer) running, I've edited out as many auto startups from the registry and have about 2.5GB of RAM available at the time of getting the problem.

I've searched on Google and have come up with all sorts of links to this problem, and have tried the edit of the desktop heap etc. values as in the "shared section" remedies as outlined in other posts in this forum.  I've tried the 3G switch on and off - all to no avail.

Has anyone else come across this reaction to the dimensioning tools?

I would be glad of any suggestions.

Many thanks

Anthony