SolidWorks Journal File
The SolidWorks Journal File is a text file that records the actions
you make in the current SolidWorks session. This file is most helpful
when you create SolidWorks Basic macros
or SolidWorks API programming tools.
When you start SolidWorks, it creates a journal
file named swxJRNL.swj in the
following location:
C:\Documents and Settings\<user
name>\Application Data\SolidWorks\SolidWorks <version>
You can change the location by changing the
value of the SolidWorks Journal Folders
variable in the registry. This variable is located in HKEY_CURRENT_USER
> Software > SolidWorks
> SolidWorks <version>
> ExtReferences.
When you create a new journal file, if one already exists in the target
folder and is not in use, SolidWorks copies the existing file to swxJRNL.BAK and then creates the new
file. Thus, swxJRNL.swj represents
the current session and swxJRNL.BAK
represents the previous session.
Warning Message
The following warning can appear:
A journal file could not
be created. Another session of SolidWorks may already be running on this
machine.
The reasons for this message can be:
You do not have write permission for the folder,
which can be the case on a secure network in a folder which is read-only
for users.
A journal file is already in use by another SolidWorks
session, either on your machine or on another machine, which can be caused
by:
A second session of SolidWorks trying to create
a journal file in the same location as the first.
A session of SolidWorks terminated abnormally
and the journal file not having been terminated completely.
The warning message is not harmful and can be ignored unless you need
the journal file for programming purposes. However, multiple sessions
of SolidWorks on the same computer, especially if one session is terminated
abnormally, can decrease performance.