Import Files

You can schedule tasks to import Parasolid, IGES, STEP, ACIS®, VDAFS, SLDXML, and Rhino files into SOLIDWORKS part (*.sldprt) files. You can import 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 Import Files Task

To create an Import Files task:

  1. Click Import Files on the sidebar, or click Tasks > Import Files.
  2. In the dialog box, type a new title for the task or leave the default in Task title.
  3. Select the files or folders you want to import:
    • To select files:
      1. Under Task files or folders, click Add File.
      2. Select the types of files to import in Files of type.
        Available selections for file type:
        Formats for Import Extension
        Parasolid .x_t; .x_b; .xmt_txt; .xmt_bin
        IGES .igs; .iges
        STEP .stp, .step
        ACIS® .sat
        VDAFS .vda
        SLDXML .sldlm
        Rhino .3dm
      3. Browse to the file you want to import, 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 import, then click OK.
      3. Under File Name or Type, click in the row that contains the folder you just added, then select the type of file to import.
      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.
  4. Under Task output folder, select one of the following to specify where to store the imported 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. Specify the Task output folder:
    Option Description
    Same as original file  
    This folder Browse to specify a folder.
  3. Click Options to set import options.
  4. Click Advanced if you want to change task options such as backup file location and time-out duration.
  5. 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 and printer 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 sub-task 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 imported. 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.