Export Files

You can schedule tasks to export SOLIDWORKS documents into other formats. You can export individual files or all files of a specified type within a folder.

You can specify one or more files or folders, but you cannot specify both files and folders in the same task.

Creating an Export Files Task

To create an Export Files task:

  1. Click Export Files on the sidebar, or click Tasks > Export Files.
  2. In the dialog box, enter a new title for the task or leave the default in Task title.
  3. Select the target file type in Export file type.
    Available selections for target file type:
    Formats for Export Extension
    Dxf .dxf
    Dwg .dwg
    Parasolid .x_t
    Parasolid Binary .x_b
    IGES .igs
    STEP AP203 .step
    STEP AP214 .step
    ACIS .sat
    VDAFS .vda
    VRML .wrl
    STL .stl
    STP .stp
    3D Manufacturing Format .3mf
    Additive Manufacturing Format .amf
    3DXML .3dxml
    Microsoft XAML .xaml
    HOOPS HSF .hsf
    HCG .hcg
    Adobe PhotoShop Files .psd
    Adobe Illustrator Files .ai
    Adobe Portable Document Format .pdf
    3D PDF .pdf
    JPG .jpg
    Portable Network Graphics .png
    TIF .tif
  4. Select the files or folders that you want to export:
    • To select files:
      1. Under Task files or folders, click Add File.
      2. Select the types of files to export in Files of type.
        Available selections for DXF and DWG files:
        • Drawings (*.drw, *SLDDRW)
        Available selections for IGES and STEP:
        • Parts (*.prt, *.SLDPRT)
        • Assemblies (*.asm, *.SLDASM)
      3. Browse to the file that you want to export, then click Open.
      4. Repeat steps a, b, and c to select additional files.
    • To select folders:
      1. Under Task files or folders, click Add Folder.
      2. Browse to the folder that contains the files to export, then click OK.
      3. Under File Name or Type, click in the row that contains the folder you added, then select the type of file to export.
      4. Repeat steps a, b, and c to select additional folders.
      5. If you do not want to include subfolders, clear Include subfolders.
      To delete a file or folder from the list, click its number in the leftmost column, then click Delete.
  5. Under Task output folder, select one of the following to specify where to store the exported files:
    Option Description
    Same as original file  
    This folder Type the path to the folder, or click to browse to the folder.

Scheduling the Task

To schedule the task:

  1. Under Task Schedule, set:
    Option Description
    Running mode Specifies how often the task runs. Select Once, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
    Start time  
    Start date  
  2. Click Options to set export options.
  3. Click Advanced if you want to change task options such as backup file location and time-out duration.
  4. Click Finish.
    The task and its title, scheduled time, scheduled date, and status appear in the Tasks panel. The status of the task is Scheduled.
    To run a scheduled task, your computer must be on at the scheduled start time. The SOLIDWORKS Task Scheduler window does not need to be open. If your computer is off at the scheduled start time, the task runs when you turn your computer on.

    At the scheduled start time, the task is initiated. If the task acts on more than one file, a subtask is generated for each file. If you selected Backup task files in Task Options, a backup copy of each file is saved to a .zip file. Then each file is exported. When the task completes, the status changes to Completed.

    After the task completes, click Completed to see the SOLIDWORKS Task Scheduler Report.
    If your backup files include Unicode file paths, use a zip file extraction application that supports UTF-8 encoding.