A tool that can help you automate time-consuming tasks while you busy yourself with other design processes in SolidWorks is known as the task scheduler. The SolidWorks Task Scheduler is a utility program that allows SolidWorks users to automatically conduct repetitive or mundane work without personal intervention. Designers can send their designs in PDF format to manufacturers, purchasers, or vendors, which will comprise component BOM information. It is a technology that automates repetitive non-design activities, thus saving time on time-consuming activities. Activities that require a lot of time and effort, such as batch import, export, and plotting, are executed using a task scheduler. Most additional actions and distributed file conversions require a SolidWorks Professional, SolidWorks Premium, or SolidWorks Office subscription. Learning how to use the SolidWorks task scheduler allows you to execute these time-consuming, tedious activities overnight, on weekends, or when the computer is idle, allowing you to focus on more important things during working hours.

The SolidWorks Task Scheduler is a handy tool that may conduct dozens, if not thousands, of time-consuming tasks based on simple rules specified by the user. The activity “Update Custom Properties” is one of several helpful things you can do through the Task Scheduler. This feature lets you create new custom properties or alter existing ones for individual files, groups of files, or entire directories.

How To Use SolidWorks Task Scheduler

The SolidWorks Task Scheduler allows you to schedule jobs to be completed later. If you need to rebuild a large assembly that requires a lot of resources, you can utilize SolidWorks Task Scheduler to do it during off-peak hours. A task might be scheduled to be completed only once or on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. The SolidWorks Task Scheduler operates independently of the SolidWorks application. The SolidWorks Task Scheduler can be used with any SolidWorks license to convert documents to the most recent SolidWorks version and to dissect documents.

To make use of the SolidWorks Task Scheduler:

1. Choose a task by clicking on an icon on the left side of the interface.
2. Specify the items you wish to perform the task by selecting a single file or a Windows folder containing multiple files.
3. Provide the day and hour when you want the assignment to be completed.
4. Follow these steps to learn how to use the SolidWorks Task Scheduler. 

Step 1: To Create a Task, launch the SolidWorks Task Scheduler by using the Windows key or selecting the Start button and typing “SolidWorks Task Scheduler 20XX” (your version).

Step 2: After launching SolidWorks Task Scheduler, a popup window displays, and you can select whatever activity you wish to perform with Task Scheduler. The actions you can achieve with the task scheduler are highlighted in the image below.

Step 3: Tasks are created in SolidWorks and shown on the Tasks panel. Using the Show Tasks box on the Tasks toolbar, you may specify which tasks to display, such as those for today, future dates, all, and so on. You can modify, copy, or delete any listed tasks from the Tasks panel, and you can print the tasks list.

1. To edit a task, click its title, then edit the task properties before clicking OK. Only when a task’s status is “scheduled” may it be revised.
2. 2. To copy a task, select it in the Tasks toolbar and click Copy. Click OK after making any necessary changes to the task’s attributes.
3. On the Tasks toolbar, click Delete after selecting a task row to delete the assigned task. 
4. Select Print from the Tasks toolbar to print the task list. Choose File, Print Preview to see a preview of the published list. To modify printer settings, go to File > Print Setup.

For example, you could learn how to use Task Scheduler to create a pdf file because they are necessary when printing out drawings from SolidWorks.

Select the Export Files task in the window after starting the task scheduler. When the task setup window displays, click the dropdown arrow under “Export file type” and select Adobe Portable Document Format (*.pdf) from the selection. Select the folders containing SolidWorks drawings from which you wish to generate PDFs and schedule the task to run. Click “Finish,” and the job will execute immediately or at the specified time.

You can even schedule this activity to run daily, weekly, or monthly to generate PDFs automatically. Remember that you shouldn’t run this job while SolidWorks is already running for design work because the Task Scheduler has to run SolidWorks in the background to complete it.

Using the Create Drawings option, you may automate the drawing generation process. Then, after clicking on the Create Drawing option, the drawing creation dialogue box will appear; you must give the activity a name under Task Title and select the drawing template you made with the pre-defined views on it under Drawing Template. You can enter a drawing template with predetermined opinions as follows: (use the Browse button to navigate to where the template is saved). Next, pick the component or assembly files for which you want to make drawings. In the task files or folders area, you have two options: Add File…, which allows you to select individual files; or Add Folder…, which will enable you to choose an entire folder at once.

Before you are done, there are still two optional steps. The first is the Action Schedule, where you can specify when you want the Task Scheduler to perform this task. It is set to instant by default, but you can change it as necessary. You must define the task output folder, and this is where you will save the drawings.

After you are done, click Finish. The Scheduler will run instantly, and SolidWorks will begin automatically developing the drawings for you. Once finished (this may take a few minutes if you have requested a large number of drawings), you can navigate to the folder where you asked for the drawings to be saved and look at what has been made.

You now have a design with some basic views to which you can add annotations and dimensions as needed.

Conclusion

Understanding how to use the SolidWorks task scheduler will provide you with a tool to reduce the time spent on non-design time and labor-demanding tasks in SolidWorks.