Solidworks and Surface Pro 3

[Billy64]

Hi,
I work with Solidworks on my SP3 but resolution screen is not really well adapted to this software

I solve this changing resolution to 1440x900 (do not forget to Restart SP3 to make the change take effect) and configuring Solidworks menu with Button " small" and Text size "Medium" .

With this config it's working fine , but its not a very "elegant" solution.

Do you have a better solution?

 

[Maximus3D]

I'm afraid there is no better alternative when it comes to SolidWorks, except connect it to an external display.

However i can say as a SolidEdge user that it supports the Surface Pro 3 and touch input on the display which makes it sexier than SolidWorks.

/ Magnus

 

[Billy64]

Thanks , I never worked with Solid Edge, but I going to try it when I get time. It seems to be relatively simple to migrate.
Meanwhile I like very much Solidworks, and I'm used to work with it.

To work "seriously" in CAD it's true that an external display is required, I normally plug my SP3 to a big screen to work , but when I'm traveling, or doing some modification "over the air" , or just to show my work to other people is use my little SP3 screen and it do the job perfectly.

 

[Maximus3D]

SolidEdge is worth trying, it's a great application and what's even better is that the developers worked tightly with the Surface Team so it's pretty well adapted to use on this device. Something which SolidWorks lacks as you noticed.

It's basically the same workflow in both applications, if you know one you can easily learn the other as they both work with solids and it's parts modeling you do with assemblies of your modeled parts.

/ Magnus

 

[Dblkk]

I've only tried solid works a few times on my sp3, normally that's my workstation laptops job. But each time I immediately connected to external displays. Scaling is yes a problem, but screen size itself is my bigger problem. My workstation laptop is 17", and I still use an external display more often than not.

I've encountered similar 'issues' (if you want to call it that) with Maya 2015, but for some reason autocad 2015 works great scaling wise. Same company, same coding for ui design you would think, one works great, the other not so much. Weird.

 

[BobM]

Solid Edge works exceedingly well on the Surface Pro 3. I have an i7 and I've loaded 1,000 part assemblies on it and it works fine.

Here's my 3D model of my Surface Pro done in Solid Edge using my Surface.

-edit- Just to clarify, I used the Stylus, Mouse and Keyboard on my SP3 and no external monitor when modeling this in Solid Edge... Solid Edge's Synchronous Technology coupled with using the touch screen was an absolute blast.

 

[Billy64]

Great SP3 3D model, just have to 3D print ☺.
Meanwhile Solidworks works perfectly on my SP3 i5, just have to change resolution. And when I connect an external display (which is 90% of the time I use Solidworks) I don't need to change the resolution, it works directly.

 

[malberttoo]

Solid Edge works exceedingly well on the Surface Pro 3. I have an i7 and I've loaded 1,000 part assemblies on it and it works fine.

Here's my 3D model of my Surface Pro done in Solid Edge using my Surface.

-edit- Just to clarify, I used the Stylus, Mouse and Keyboard on my SP3 and no external monitor when modeling this in Solid Edge... Solid Edge's Synchronous Technology coupled with using the touch screen was an absolute blast.

View attachment 4347

Nice!

 

[BobM]

I recently did a Customer Case Study with Microsoft and here's the video on YouTube...

 

[Billy64]

I recently did a Customer Case Study with Microsoft and here's the video on YouTube...

Waho! great!

 

[BobM]

Waho! great!

Thanks Billy... it was a blast to do and the best part was it was so easy to praise the Surface Pro 3. Solid Edge really shines on the SP3 and it truly is a breakthrough product for those of us using 3D CAD. No more lugging an 8 lb.+ laptop everywhere to be productive.

 

[SOLIDWORKS Mike]

Have you tried:

Right-clicking the desktop icon > Properties > Compatibility > Disable display scaling on high DPI settings

That's how I use SOLIDWORKS on my SP3 when I do presentations at user groups and schools. I know there are several fellow employees inside SOLIDWORKS that are using SP3's and this is the solution they use. We do have touch controls in the software (actually been there for years) so you can enable them, although they only effect pan and rotate. SOLIDWORKS is fully compatible with Win8 and on including touch, and we have a direct relationship with MS as well.

We worked closely with them on the 3D printing functionality that was added in to Windows 8.1 and is built in to SOLIDWORKS 2015. This allows you to print a SOLIDWORKS model directly from inside SW without having to use a translator or a 3rd party program. It works well with the MakerBot Replicator 2 I have in my office.