It’s that time of year again when we hear all about the new release of SOLIDWORKS and its great new features. The news gets better and better each year, and SOLIDWORKS 2025 is no exception.
Here are the 10 best things we saw in the SOLIDWORKS two-hour live stream event, “What’s New in SOLIDWORKS 2025.”
1. Overall enhancement cadence and schedule
The first interesting thing from the live stream was an acknowledgement that what’s new in SOLIDWORKS 2025 began throughout SOLIDWORKS 2024. In other words, there were hundreds of enhancements included with each functional drop. The actual numbers are quite impressive – there were 259 functions delivered over 2024 SP1 through SP4 and then 169 coming in SOLIDWORKS 2025. We expect to see this trend continue in 2025 where each drop will also include additional features.
SOILDWORKS enhancements since 2024. (Image: SOLIDWORKS.)
2. Command predictor – AI in SOLIDWORKS!
The most revolutionary feature we saw released was the introduction of AI assistance in SOLIDWORKS. This comes in the form of a new tab added to the Command Manager called the Command Predictor. This offers you an area to leverage AI to predict what tools you might want to use so you can be more productive and design faster. You can see it in action in the video below. Notice how the tab changes based on what’s selected.
Command predictor brings AI assistance into SOLIDWORKS. (Image: SOLIDWORKS.)
3. Document Groups
With SOLIDWORKS 2025, you can create Document Groups which are essentially a group of parts, assemblies or drawings that you want to open at the same time. This is a common workflow that has now been streamlined in SOLIDWORKS 2025. You can easily access these Document Groups from the welcome screen, or through recent documents.
Quickly load groups of parts, assemblies or drawings from recent documents or the welcome screen. (Image: SOLIDWORKS.)
4. Instant collaboration powered by 3DSWYM in the task pane
3DSWYM has been added to the Task Pane in the right-hand side of the interface. This is an important addition to SOLIDWORKS 2025 because it helps streamline your access to the functionality of 3DEXPERIENCE Cloud Services. We’re calling this instant collaboration because instead of sending someone an instant message on an app like Slack or Teams, you don’t have to leave SOLIDWORKS to ping your team members.
This functionality goes beyond just messages. It is powered by the same 3D share functionality on the 3DEXEPRIENCE platform, which means you can view markups in 3D space. This could be a big enhancement for collaboration in SOLIDWORKS.
Collaborate with your team in real-time. (Image: SOLIDWORKS.)
5. Sketch errors auto repair
They might as well call this the magic button, because that’s what it looks like to me. If your sketch entities are left dangling or have errors, you can use the new Auto Repair Sketch Relation or Dimension to fix these issues. Of course it’s not magic, but it sure does seem like it.
SOLIDWORKS adds an easy button. (Image: SOLIDWORKS.)
6. Continuous edge blend fillets
There’s a new fillet option to help with more advanced variable size fillets in SOLIDWORKS 2025. This option uses an improved algorithm to create continuously blended edges that are extremely smooth.
Smoother edges are now easy to make. (Image: SOLIDWORKS.)
7. Delete features below the Roll Back Bar
The Roll Back Bar has been around for a very long time; it’s old enough to have graduated from college. But with SOLIDWORKS 2025, it gets a much-needed update to allow you to delete features below it. This is great because you don’t need to load features into memory to delete them, which can sometimes be time consuming.
Easily delete features below the Roll Back Bar. (Image: SOLIDWORKS.)
8. New optimized mode for assemblies
The new optimized mode for assemblies is a new system option I recommend turning on the minute you get SOLIDWORKS 2025 — it isn’t activated automatically. It’s a hybrid mode which offers the best performance for large assemblies. Technically, it’s a hybrid workflow between a large design review mode and fully resolved mode. It works by controlling what’s loaded into memory.
Enable this feature right away! (Image: SOLIDWORKS.)
The team shared on the live stream that this is a 3-year-old project finally being made available with SOLIDWORKS 2025. In the example shared, they saw a decrease of 27% in open time for a massive assembly.
The new mode can make it 27% faster to work with large assemblies. (Image: SOLIDWORKS.)
9. Display State Table
Display State Tables are new to SOLIDWORKS 2025 and offer a way to easily control the Hide or Show state of a component. As your assemblies get larger, managing the hide or show state of your components becomes cumbersome. This is a welcome addition to help streamline the process.
Hiding or showing a part is easy with the Display State Table. (Image: SOLIDWORKS.)
10. Reload drawings
The “Reload” command has been available for parts and assemblies for many years. Personally, it’s one of my favorite tips to share with users. Now with SOLIDWORKS 2025, this functionality has been extended to drawings as well. Reload automates the process of closing the file, not saving and reopening. It’s a quick and easy way to discard any changes made to the file.
Need to start from scratch? The reload drawings feature makes that easy. (Image: SOLIDWORKS.)
Those are the top ten features introduced today in the “What’s New in SOLIDWORKS 2025” live stream. The stream was nearly two hours long, so there’s a lot more functionality to see, and even more coming in future drops. You can watch the stream yourself here and let us know what features you are most looking forward to in SOLIDWORKS 2025.