When sketching a model or drawing in Solidworks, you’ve desired an automated way to update your dimensions and details in the geometry of the sketch or model you’re working on. With the automatic solve mode, this is possible.  Learn what is automatic solve mode in Solidworks and how to use it. With a greater understanding of this feature, you may create sketch models and drawings with fewer pieces of higher quality and accuracy. 

What Is Automatic Solve Mode In Solidworks

Sketching is the foundation of any Solidworks 3D model. By improving your grasp of the sketching options in SolidWorks, you may enhance your designs and increase your overall productivity. Automatic solve mode in Solidworks is one of the sketching options available that help you improve your techniques and enhance your overall performance. Automatic solve mode is a function that Solidworks provides that makes sketching more effortless and faster. When editing models or sketches in prior versions of SolidWorks, you had to move the elements of the model around manually, but when “Automatic solve” was added, it changed everything. “Automatic solve” works by automatically detecting relationships among elements of a model and reordering them accordingly. It then rebuilds the model.

Using Automatic Solve determines whether Solidworks should perform the computation to solve the sketch geometry of your component as you build it. Automatic solve can also help you adjust several dimensions of your sketch geometry as you are currently working on it. When changing several sizes in an active drawing, you may wish to disable the Automatic Solve option temporarily. You can turn it on and off depending on your preference. Automatic solve mode affects how Solidworks works. It is an essential feature in Solidworks that is required when sketching. Automatic solve mode can help you work smarter and optimize your sketching. 

When sketching a model or drawing in Solidworks, Automatic Solve is a function that helps you automatically update your dimensions and details in the geometry of the sketch or model you’re working on. With automatic solving, you may create sketch models and drawings with fewer pieces of higher quality and accuracy.

Starting with Solidworks version 2018, you may set and disable  Automatic Solve Mode and Undo and change the threshold limit for sketch entities. Previously, when working with huge drawings, the Automatic Solve Mode and Undo would switch off frequently.

So, why would you sometimes want to disable “automatic solve”? When working with complex sketches, it takes a long time to solve, and you may want to change a few dimensions within them rather than having to rebuild the entire model with every change to the size. You can make many new changes before rebuilding once to save time and performance. Most individuals, however, do not operate in this manner and prefer to leave their “automatic solve” option on.

How to Use Automatic Solve Mode In Solidworks

Automatic solve mode is one of the Solidworks functionalities controlled by switches that may be turned on or off. Automatic solve has an impact on how Solidworks functions. Follow these instructions to see what is automatic solve mode in Solidworks is and how it works. You may choose whether Solidworks utilizes automatic calculation to solve a part’s sketch geometry as you design it.

To enable or disable automatic solve:

Step 1: Go to the Tools menu and select Sketch Settings.

Step 2: Select “Automatic Solve.” A check mark next to a menu option indicates that computations are automatically solved.

When Automatic Solve is turned off, the status bar displays the message “Auto-Solve Mode Off.” When modifying multiple dimensions in an active drawing, you must temporarily disable the Automatic Solve option.

Step 3: To control the automatic solve and undo functions, select Options from the Tools menu. Pick a sketch from the System Options menu.

To deactivate the behavior of automatic turning off of “Automatic Solve” Mode and Undo, uncheck Turn off Automatic Solve Mode and Undo when the sketch contains more than this number of sketch entities.

Pick Turn off Automatic Solve Mode and Undo when the sketch holds more than this number of sketch elements and enter the input value in the input box to change the threshold limit.

The system parameters listed above are set by default. If you clear the choices, the Automatic Solve and Undo tools stay active regardless of how many sketch entities you generate.

Protip: When do you want to use Automatic Solve?

When you open a sketch with too many entities, automatic solve may be disabled. This method is most common when you import a DWG. It is disabled because solving for sketch relationships and endpoint merging produces poor performance in sketches with a large number of entities. So it’s best to turn off automatic solve before importing a DWG file with many entities. While working with automatic solve is a good thing, there may be some scenarios where you might turn automatic solve off. Toggling automatic solve off stops the sketch from solving as you work on it. For example, if you wish to modify a specific drawing dimension from 40m to 25m, there will be no change in the sketch geometry even though the measurement has been changed. Only when you rebuild the model does the sketch geometry change.

If you have a huge model, turn this off. When you alter a goal, Solidworks will not update the model. This tool might be beneficial when numerous measurements must be updated and the drawing is twisted and inaccurate before all measures have been changed. When you finish editing a sketch, activate “automatic Solve.” It works on 3D graphics as well.

Bottom-Line

In this article, I defined what automatic solve mode is in SolidWorks and examined its capabilities and use. This feature is both automated and beneficial. I recommend doing it whenever you are sketching a model or drawing in Solidworks so that your sketches are more streamlined and you can work more effectively.