This guide deals with known non-installation issues that arise during regular usage of the software. For issues related to installation please read Comprehensible Guide to 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers (SW Design) Errors and Installation Issues.
INDEX:
🔴 LIST OF ERRORS AND ISSUES:
#1. "Unable to connect to 3DExperience"
#2. "Unable to start SOLIDWORKS Design. We are unable to authenticate your license. Check your internet connection and try again"
#3. Offline functionality is not available
#4. "License not granted. You are already consuming licenses on
#5. "Access to this server is not granted to user. Although authenticated, your are not granted access to this server Please contact your administrator"
#6. Sldmodu (sldmodu.dll) family of errors.
#7. "vbe6ext.olb could not be loaded error"
#8. "The code of execution can't proceed because VCRUNTIME140.dll was not found ..."
#9. "Failed to initialize Visual Basic for Apps, equations and macros will not work. Are you low on disc space?"
#10. "The following application lock files in the installation directory ..."
#11. "Failed to extract offline license. (License error 410)"
#12. Turning off low memory WARNING messages
#13. Memory leaks
🔴 #1. "Unable to connect to 3DExperience"
1. Close SOLIDWORKS Design
2. Make sure EdmServerV6.exe and ENOPLMCSAClient.exe processes are not running. (Task Manager Details View)
3. Launch SOLIDWORKS Rx (For SOLIDWORKS Design, the location is "C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\SOLIDWORKS Shared\\2025\\sldrx\\sldrx.exe")
4. Click System Troubleshot tab/Maintenance tab
5. Enable the options to clean the following directories
- Windows temp directory
- temporary internet files
- temporary SWCEF cache directory
- 3DEXPERIENCE temporary directory
6. Click Start Maintenance button > Perform these tasks = Now > click OK button
7. When complete, close SOLIDWORKS Rx.
8. Open browser > go to https://solidworks.com/maker-cloud > Sign In
9. Click to launch SOLIDWORKS Design from the Welcome tab (solution by Kairan ZHANG from Unable to connect to 3DEXPERIENCE)
Also take a look at those topics:
In SW Design 2026 - Unable to connect to 3DEXPERIENCE and unable to connect to 3dexperience - same error was cause by special character in user's Windows name.
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🔴 #2. "Unable to start SOLIDWORKS Design. We are unable to authenticate your license. Check your internet connection and try again"
There is not enough data related to this error. In post "unable to authenticate your license" error user was able
to pinpoint problem to data corruption in .NET framework files and take appropriate steps to resolve it.
Another user used following solution to resolve that error:
"Open Windows® Registry Editor by searching it in Windows Search.
- Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Dassault Systemes\\SOLIDWORKSPDM\\Servers\\3DEXPERIENCE\\ - If the SW_Login_Disable registry-key value is True, change it to False. To modify it, right-click the registry and modify it.
- Start SOLIDWORKS® Design from the Makers platform(https://solidworks.com/makers-cloud)."
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🔴 #3. Offline functionality is not available.
1. Check to see if the registry key exists and if it is set to Online. If not, change it to 0.
The registry key is found here [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\SOFTWARE\\Dassault Systemes\\SolidWorks Shared\\Servers\\3DEXPERIENCE]
"OfflineFromConnected"=dword:00000000
2. Reboot and start SOLIDWORKS Connected.
3. Switch to offline mode.
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🔴 #4. "License not granted. You are already consuming licenses on
This error happens when you install SW on multiple devices and one device has an active session. That session has to be close first . Next, you have to wait few min (licensing timeout) before license is released and you can use SW on another device. When, I do it home (from same IP) that switch between devices can be done instantly.
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🔴 #5. "Access to this server is not granted to user. Although authenticated, your are not granted access to this server. Please contact your administrator".
Expired roles, improperly deployed account or server restrictions are the reason for this error. In most cases an adjustment has to be made on the backend by Dassault staff.
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🔴 #6. Sldmodu (sldmodu.dll) family of errors.
Possible causes are:
- Corrupt template or file
- If you’re saving from a corrupted part, assembly, or drawing, it may crash consistently.
- Bad custom property links or broken references can trigger SolidWorks to fail when writing out.
- Faulty add-in or macro
- Some add-ins hook into the save event (PDM, SWOOD, CAM, nesting macros, etc.). If they mis-handle the save routine, you get a module fault like this.
- Outdated graphics driver or GPU conflict
- SolidWorks often crashes on save/preview if OpenGL or the graphics pipeline misbehaves.
- File location or permissions
- Saving to a network drive, OneDrive, or a restricted folder can cause SolidWorks to crash.
- Installation corruption
- The specific DLL (sldmodu) might be damaged. A repair install usually fixes that.
Solution by Cameron Piper from Saving files crashes the Fault Model Sldmodu:012d01f5).
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🔴 #7. "vbe6ext.olb could not be loaded error".
This error is triggered by missing, unregistered, or corrupted Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) component or in the case of commercials SW by conflict with add-ins like SolidWorks CAM or HSMWorks. To resolve it:
1. Download VBA71.zip, extract the contents.
2. Open Windows File Explorer.
3. Browse to C:\\Program Files\\Dassault Systemes\\SOLIDWORKS 3DEXPERIENCE\\win_b64\\resources\\MSI\\ folder.
4. Create VBA71 folder.
5. Copy all of the .msi files from the VBA71.zip file into the VBA71 folder.
6. Right click vba71.msi > click 'Uninstall' > click 'Yes' to uninstall.
7. Right click vba71.msi > click 'Install' (solution provided by Kairan ZHANG).
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🔴 #8. "The code of execution can't proceed because VCRUNTIME140.dll was not found ...".
The error is caused by corrupted or missing Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables. To resolve this issue:
1. Choose Repair if you already have them installed. You can do it by right clicking it and "change" from Program and Features.
2. Download and install the latest official Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable package for 64-bit systems (vc_redist.x64.exe).
3. In extreme cases Clean Installation may be required.
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🔴 #9. “Failed to initialize Visual Basic for Apps, equations and macros will not work. Are you low on disc space?”
This problem comes from corruption of the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) commonly caused by Windows or MS Office update.
Possible solution are:
1. Turn off Compatibility Mode by right clicking desktop shortcut, going into Compatibility Tab >>> Compatibility mode >>> Making sure "Run program in compatibility mode" is unchecked.
2. Reinstall the VBA Prerequisites. Check post VBE6EXT.OLB could not be loaded alarm when loading up solidworks and response by Kairan ZHANG (2nd answer) for VBA 7.1 download and instruction how to install.
3. Navigate to Programs and Features. Click SOLIDWORKS from the list and choose Change or Modify. This will allow to repair main application registry paths.
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🔴 #10. "The following application lock files in the installation directory ..."
This error is cause when previous installation process crashed, is stuck in the background, or left behind a temporary lock file.
In order to resolved it and remove lock you have to:
1. Close "Ghost" Solidworks related processes (sldim.exe, sldsldu.exe, sldIMdownloader.exe, sldsurfacing.exe, solidworks_fs.exe or sldworks.exe). Make sure that during updates Solidworks is not running. Even better idea is to reboot computer before installation to ensure a clean system state.
2. Delete the lock file manually. If nothing helps remove locked files reboot the computer.
3. Clean out the Windows temp directory.
4. An aggressive antivirus can lock down newly created .exe and .dll files. When that happens disable it for the time of installation.
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🔴 #11. "Failed to extract offline license. (License error 410)"
This error means that you have already taken the licenses offline, and the local licenses became invalid for one of the following reasons:
You don't have write access to
"C:\\ProgramData\\DassaultSystemes\\Licenses", the folder where SOLIDWORKS® Design creates local licenses.You changed, renamed, or moved this folder.
You changed, renamed, or moved the files in this folder.
You modified the folder permissions.
You did not configure backup software or security software to ignore this folder.
If you get this error, you cannot use the offline licenses until your current work-offline period expires. If licenses files have been corrupted or altered the licenses will only become available on the license server again after the 30-day extraction duration expires and resets with the server.
If you must run the application without internet access, use Temporary Offline Mode as you wait for your current work-offline licenses to expire. (QA00000423156 from knowledge-base)
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🔴 #12. Turning off low memory WARNING messages.
You can do 5 things:
1. Purchase more memory.
2. Disable message via Windows Notifications but that could also disable messages you need to see.
3. Right click SOLIDWORKS Resource Monitor and choose Dismiss Graphics Notifications.
4. Increase GDI Object Limit via registry
- Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Windows.
- Locate GDIProcessHandleQuota.
- Right-click, select Edit, change to Decimal, and set the higher value. Modern OS Win10/11 have a theoretical limit of 65,536 GDI handles per session. However, the maximum number of GDI handles that can be opened per session is usually lower, since it is affected by available memory and values between 15,000 and 30,000 are usually recommended. The maximum of 16384 is an old recommendation and applies to legacy systems such as Windows 2000.
5. Create a new string value in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\SolidWorks\\Diagnostics named "Don't show messages" and set it to TRUE.
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🔴 #13. Memory leaks/rapid memory drain.
Not a lot of data exist about this problem as it appears very rarely. Possible reasons and solutions are:
1. VPN
- Pause or close your VPN service before launching SOLIDWORKS, then turn it back on after the software loads.
2. GDI Object Limits:
- increase GDI Object Limit. Modern OS Win10/11 have a theoretical limit of 65,536 GDI handles per session. However, the maximum number of GDI handles that can be opened per session is usually lower, since it is affected by available memory and values between 15,000 and 30,000 are usually recommended. The maximum of 16384 frequently recommended applies to legacy systems such as Windows 2000.
3. Stuck Background Processes:
- Lingering or multiple hidden instances of SOLIDWORKS running in the task manager drain system resources
4. Faulty and/or unproperly set memory modules.
- Make sure all of your memory modules are pushed all the way in.
- Massive, rapid memory leak in sldworks.exe
- Solidworks Memory Leak
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If you have any suggestion pertaining to this list please post below.
