Solidworks SDK Tutorial

We already have a Soldiworks tutorial for 3D printing on Shapeways but Mathijs van Beers noticed that this version did not work for the Students Design Kit and the other Student versions of Solidworks. In order to let more students partake in the joys of 3D printing Mathijs made a Solidworks Student Edition 3D printing mini- tutorial. Enjoy. Thanx Mathijs!

From Solidworks Student Edition to STL for 3D printing

If you are a student and learning how to work with Solidworks , your school most likely provided you with the Student Kit version of Solidworks. The Student Kit is student edition of Solidworks and has full access to all its features but prevents you from using for anything beside Solidworks. So when you’re done with your design in Solidworks you can only save the model as a .SLDPRT. A .SLDPRT file is scripted to be used in all Solidworks versions as a single part, but can’t be used in any other CAD software.

Now when you would like to print your design, but you’re stuck with a Student Edition you can turn your .SLDPRT file an .STL file. STL is the most popular file format for 3D printing. This tutorial is meant to let more students upload to Shapeways. But, the information in the tutorial is also great though should your school have its own 3D printer or should you wish to use a 3D printing service bureau.

Step 1: Open E-Drawing

99 out of 100 students will have this software, because its included with the installation of Solidworks. But if you don’t, you can download it here.


Step 2: Open the .SLDPRT file

Open the .SLDPRT file by selecting
File>Open
Set the filetype to .SLDPRT

Solidworks 3D printing

Open the correct file

Step 3: Save

Then save the file as a .STL
File>Save as…
Select “Save as type” and choose .STL from the list.

Note

Note 1: If the stl is not an options in the list. Close the file and open the .STLPRT again. If you have saved the file as an Edrawing file or any other file type you might lose the option to save it as a .Stl. That date will be lost once saved as a different filetype (see it like saving a Photoshop file(.psd) to a .JPG) all the background information will be lost.

Note 2: If you would like to save your part first as an Edrawings file(.exprt)
Check this box to make sure you can  still make it a .STL afterwards.
Solidworks 3D printing