Comments on: SolidWorks Administrative Install Images & SLDIM – Part 1

By: SolidWorks Administrative Install Images & SLDIM - Part 1 | CADFanatic

SolidWorks Administrative Install Images & SLDIM - Part 1 | CADFanatic — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:39:36 +0000

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By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 10:45:57 +0000

No problem, Surajith. Hopefully this information can help other folks!

Thanks for reading!

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 05:45:57 +0000

No problem, Surajith. Hopefully this information can help other folks!

Thanks for reading!

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 03:45:57 +0000

No problem, Surajith. Hopefully this information can help other folks!

Thanks for reading!

By: Surajith

Surajith — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 18:08:27 +0000

Hi Brian,
Thank you very much for this great help. This gives me a clear understanding of the complete installation procedure, which I could use, for the years to come.
Thank you.
Regards,
Surajith

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 01:12:11 +0000

Hi Surajith,

If you use a different share name for the new version, I believe that it will install parallel. The client install is tied to the share name, and will only look to that to see if the image has changed. (You could change the registry keys for the image location in the client machines, but it is rather involved finding all instances...).

When changing to a new version I have always been adamant about doing a clean install... When you do the new version image, you can run a batch file before the install to do an uninstall.

If you do want to try to just do the upgrade between full versions, I would use a generic name for the share such as SolidWorks (as you mentioned) to avoid confusion down the road.

By: Surajith

Surajith — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:32:21 +0000

Thanks Brian,
One more doubt. When we are upgrading from Solidworks 2008 to Solidwork 2009. Should we create a new administrative image in a similar directory structure, but '2009' and give the share name as 'SW2009'. Then send new notification to clients. Now what will happen when the clients 'click' the link. Will it upgrade the client's exsiting Solidworks installation or will it do a parallel installation (with both SW2008 and SW2009 coexiting in the same computer)?

Or otherwise, is it possible to give a generic share name like 'Solidworks' (instead of 'SW2008', and so on) and just continue to give the same share name for both Service Pack upgradations and Version upgradations, so that client machines will always upgrade automatically (after the first installation). (This would be helpful, since we don't have to disturb client users every year for Solidworks version upgradations).
Sure this is the last query I have regarding this. Hope you will spare some time for me once again to answer this question too.

Thank you.
Regards,
Surajith

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 02:49:43 +0000

Hi Surajith,

You can have several ways to deploy the image:

* Email deployment (sending the StartSWInstall.hta file by email)
(http://files.solidworks.com/Supportfiles/SW_Ins...)
* By advertising the image to clients (creates a shortcut to SolidWorks linked to image in users' Start Menus)
(http://files.solidworks.com/Supportfiles/SW_Ins...)
* Through Microsoft Active Directory
(http://files.solidworks.com/Supportfiles/SW_Ins...)

You can find this and more information at the SolidWorks Installation and Administration Overview help page at http://files.solidworks.com/Supportfiles/SW_Ins....

Hope this info helps!

By: Surajith Ravindran

Surajith Ravindran — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:42:53 +0000

Hello Brian,
Upto creation of Admin image, it looks good. But how to notify the client or how it is implemented at client machines. Please clarify.
Thank you.

By: Ricky Jordan

Ricky Jordan — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:04:49 +0000

Nice job Brian!

Looking forward the the rest of the series of posts on this subject!

Ricky Jordan