Solid Edge CE 2026

[IanTParticipant @iant]

I’ve been doing a little New Year ‘Admin’ this morning.

I have two i5 Laptops that run Solid Edge (Community Edition), with Win10 on one & Win 11 on the other (both MS ‘Home’ Editions). I updated my Win10 to SE 2025 last summer but still had SE 2024 on the Win 11 machine.

I had less than a year (323 days) left on the 2024 licence, so I decided that it was time to update this license too. I’ve just installed Solid Edge Community Edition 2026 and the licence has reset to 1,085 days (effectively 3 years).

I’ve been using SE since early 2020, so for about six years now. It runs locally and there is no ‘Cloud’ required for the app or file storage. The restrictions are minor and have never been an issue for me. SE is Windows only however with no Linux or Mac version.

It’s a large download (5Gb) but it did seem to go quite quickly this time, so I guess my internet download speeds have improved over the years.

I haven’t done too much testing/exploring yet, simply opening some of my recent work and having a general look around. Some small changes, mostly cosmetic at first look, including the opening screen showing “Designcentre” Community Edition (rather than “Solid Edge”). It’s Version 2510.

So early days but everything seems fine and I’ve now another three years (free) use of Solid Edge CE…

Regards,

 

IanT

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

Thanks Ian, I’ll update mine shortly – I’m still on Win 10, but I don’t foresee any problems.

Rob

[Grindstone Cowboy]

On Grindstone Cowboy Said:

Thanks Ian, I’ll update mine shortly – I’m still on Win 10, but I don’t foresee any problems.

Rob

I hit a few, nothing serious!

• KeyShot and SE2024 both have to be uninstalled first.
• Install is done from what might be a temporary directory that can be probably deleted to save space.  Need to check – can’t see it in the instructions.  Under investigation.
• Siemens only support SE2026 on Windows10-Pro and Windows10 Enterprise, otherwise Windows11.   (I have W10-Pro, but support may cause trouble in future.  I’m good for 3 years though.)   I’d expect SE2026 to work on ordinary Windows 10 but can’t test it.  Anyone else?
• Two error messages during start-up because an XML file can’t be opened.   Contains settings carried forward from SE2024.   Doesn’t stop SE working, and preferences were transferred, but getting past the popups needs a click.   Under investigation.
• Performance seems a little sluggish compared with SE2024.  Tried increasing Virtual Memory page size as recommended in the Readme, no obvious improvement, but I only tested a small model.  (Microsoft page size was 4896Mb on my 32Gb computer: Siemens recommend 65526.)
• Materials Table Folder and Holes database both missing.   Loaded correctly on my computer but not picked up by the install and added as preferences.  (Everything else was.)   Fixed in Settings->File Locations by browsing and clicking (last two entries in Modelling & Draft).

Also upgraded from SE2024 to SE2026 on my Windows 11 laptop.  Went OK except I messed up the preferences transfer: not a problem in practice, because most CAD work is done on my workstation, and the few projects on the laptop can be reset manually.  Too early to comment on performance.  Seems OK. Slightly worried because W11 is already sluggish.

Dave

 

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

SE2026 now has AI!  (A development I predicted last year in one of Nigel’s CAD Topics.)

There’s a Copilot, which should improve the Help system, and a Magnet Snap tool, perhaps more.

Magnet Snap automates assembly by recognising and applying likely constraints.  So after inserting a part, the operator drags and drops rather than manually setting individual constraints.  For example:

Part A

Part B.

Magnet Snap, a single drag and drop operation, correctly identified the two axial pin into hole constraints and the corner relationship. It didn’t mate the faces, which inserts the pins fully, but this example applied 3 of 4 constraints automatically, saving a lot of time.   And I didn’t have to think!  Result:

Looks promising.  Unfortunately I don’t have time to explore further.  Anyone else available to investigate and report?  I haven’t tried copilot at all.

Dave

 

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

Installed OK on Win 10 Pro, apart from the same issue transferring preferences (but not filament and printer profiles). Just altered the file location to the default and set them up again.

Not done much with it yet, but it all seems pretty much the same, aprt from some parts of the toolbar/menu having changed (tools hidden in sub-menus) – just when I’d got used to the last one!

Not used any AI functions so can’t comment on those.

Rob

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