User Experience and Performance

Improved Home Screen

Quickly return to your projects and manage your content with a more intuitive home screen. Access your “Recently Opened” files and “My Content” directly from the landing page. Use the three-dot menu for actions such as open item in a new tab, create drawing from part, view information, or delete content. Jump back to the home screen anytime using a new shortcut in the action bar. These improvements help you find your work faster, organize it with ease, and stay focused on designing. 

Additional User Experience and Performance Enhancements

• Materials are now deployed automatically in the background the first time an admin starts a session, ensuring the full materials library is ready to use without any manual setup.
• Take advantage of improved Action Bar layout and usability with a more intuitive Subdivision tab position, command labels enabled by default for Makers, and refined tooltips that provide clearer guidance.
• Mouse control preferences are now automatically set to SOLIDWORKS for Students, Makers, and Education users to provide a familiar and consistent model navigation experience.
• Improve the performance and reliability of automatic restore points with background saves every few minutes that won’t interrupt your work. Get clear notifications when restore points are saved, and alerts if a save fails.
• Improve system stability and crash handling with clearer recovery behavior. For minor server errors, SOLIDWORKS cancels the active command and returns you to the default tool. For major errors, you receive a warning and an automatic restore point is saved before the session disconnects.
• A new notification explains long load times caused by VM scaling. When increased demand delays session startup, you will now see a message stating that new resources are being allocated and your session is in the queue.

Part and Assembly Design

Convert Imported Geometry into Editable 3D Models (Beta)

Convert imported BREP geometry into fully editable 3D models so you can make design changes directly in xDesign. This gives you the flexibility to iterate and refine designs without starting from scratch, saving time and making it easier to work with imported data.

New Quick Measure Tool

Quickly access measurements for selected geometry without opening the full Measure tool. Quick Measure displays length, distance, angle, surface area, and XYZ coordinates directly beneath the breadcrumbs for easy visibility. Use the Quick Measure Capsule to see key values at a glance, and expand the Quick Measure Panel for more detailed measurement information, helping you work faster and make informed design decisions.

Additional Part and Assembly Design Enhancements

• Improved Image to 2D by letting you cancel the command if preview generation takes too long, and adding an Insert Picture option in the contextual menu to insert images while using command parking.
• Added the ability to select files from 3DDrive when using the "Import in the Background" option, allowing you to continue working while importing files from 3DDrive.
• Updated the styling of the robot modifier to improve usability and make it easier to interact with.
• If a component with a single set is resolved before it's activated, the set will be expanded automatically.
• Fixed several issues with Make Component functionality to improve reliability when creating components from assembly-level geometry, with a focus on resolving external reference errors.

Drawings and MBD

Improved User Experience

Reduce the learning curve for using a combined model and drawing definition environment with improved in-app terminology and action bar command grouping. 

• Terminology changes
  • Model definition manager >> Product Definition Manager
  • Model >> Physical Product
  • Model Definition >> Product Definition
• Command name changes
  • 2D View >> Orthogonal View
  • 3D View >> Custom View
• Action bar grouping
  • All view commands now present on the view creation tab.

Automatic View Labels

Automatically generate clear, consistent, and standards-compliant view labels for section, detail views, and more, with no manual setup. Use the new Edit View Label context option to control label text, format, and style. Updated system and document options let teams define company-wide standards for faster detailing, fewer errors, and a more uniform drawings.

Image Support for Tables

Personalize your drawings and promote your company branding with image support for drawing tables.

Improved Standard Initialization and Updates

Eliminate onboarding barriers by automatically creating all required xDrawing standards during Admin setup, ensuring every user can immediately create Annotation Sets without waiting for manual initialization. A unified update content workflow now keeps xDrawing standards current across releases while preserving existing settings, reducing admin overhead and preventing workflow disruptions. Users opening older Annotation Sets are guided with clear prompts and a simple update standard action to bring documents up to date. Together, these improvements deliver a smoother, more reliable experience for teams, classrooms, and large organizations alike.

Extended Reality (XR)

Measure

Gain better insights from your model and how it will fit within your surroundings with the ability to measure within an Extended Reality session. Choose between three measure modes:
1. Default - Measure between different parts of your model
2. Free - Measure anything whether in the real or virtual world
3. Normal - Measure from a place in the model to the next face normal to the first selection

Hand Tracking and Free Drag

Interact with your model naturally using hand tracking, without relying on controllers. Use gestures to manipulate your model even if controllers aren’t available, and take advantage of headsets that don’t include controllers, such as Apple Vision Pro.

Explore your model’s kinematics and mates by dragging components to see realistic constrained motion. This helps you validate scale and movement earlier, uncover potential issues sooner, and refine designs faster.

Section View in XR

Dig deeper into your model with the ability to section models in your XR session. Simply use your controller or hands to orient and place the section to show the internal construction of the model. The immersive experience helps you have more control over the section plane and how to explore the sectioned model. 

xDesign for Education

Streamlined Assignment Access 

Easily stay on top of coursework with a clean, intuitive interface that keeps all assignments organized and accessible.

When you enroll in a class, you can view a summary of your class content, including assignments, on the xDesign landing page of your standalone experience. This summary includes a carousel displaying upcoming assignments. The View All option in the Class Summary allows you to access all your assignments in the Assignments tab, where you can sort them by most recent, oldest, or urgent ones. You can easily track the status of each assignment, which is labeled as To Do, In Work, Overdue, or Completed. By hovering over an individual assignment, you can see additional details such as the exact due date. Assignments can be opened in the side panel for quick access.

Seamless Content Refresh

Stay up-to-date with the latest class content through a convenient refresh that won’t disrupt your ongoing tasks.

You can check for new content as soon as your teacher makes it available by clicking the Refresh button, which appears next to the class title whenever new material is added. This action updates only the content on the Classes tab and does not disrupt or close any active design sessions in the Design tab or side panels. Additionally, newly added items in the Classes tab are marked with a “New” flag to help you identify them easily.

Save-As for Read-Only Assignments

Never lose your assignment work by clearly seeing when a component is read-only and easily creating your own editable copy with Save As before you begin.

Previously, you could begin working on a model assigned by the teacher without realizing it was read-only, leaving you unable to save your changes. Now, xDesign displays a message that both notifies you that the model is read-only and offers a Save As option. You can name the assignment model and save it to your chosen Collaborative Space right away. All assignment components dragged in from Collaborative Tasks become editable, allowing you to start you work smoothly and without interruption.