Solidworks Icons Slow to Populate in Windows Explorer 1

[ssmithdigilab]

I apologize in advance, as I'm sure this has popped up a million times on this forum, but I have searched far and wide and haven't found a solution...

In Windows Explorer, the Solidworks icons are slow to populate. They take maybe a half a second each, but I can watch them populate one by one. When I am trying to scroll through files in a folder that contains thousands, it takes quite a while, especially when explorer is hanging on me.

Just so you know I have turned off the "Show thumbnail graphics in Windows Explorer". This helped, but not much. I can still watch the icons populate one by one.

Has anyone found the solution to this problem?

I know that in a previous company I saw a similar problem with AutoCAD files, and that turned out to be "digital signature" verification. Can't find anything about that with Solidworks.

Any help would be great!

 

[JMirisola]

Are these files that are on your hard drive or out on the network? Do you have indexing turned on? Are you running XP or Vista?

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP, Certified DriveWorks AE
CAD Administrator, Ultimate Survival Technologies
My Blog

 

[ssmithdigilab]

This happens with network files and local files. I have copied a network folder and pasted it into my hard drive. When browsing either the network folder or the local one, the icons populate at the same rate.

Indexing doesn’t make a difference, either. I have tried browsing with it on and with it off. It actually seems to slow down the population slightly with it off, but the difference is barely noticeable.

I’m running Windows XP, Professional Version, 2002, Service Pack 3. From the research I have done, it looks like most (if not all) people with this issue have XP. Unfortunately, through my research, I haven’t found any solutions that didn’t require registry editing. I’m not so sure that those solutions work and I don’t have the authority to do that, regardless.

Also, this computer is a Pentium 4, 3.40GHz, 2.00GB of RAM.

I appreciate the quick response. Any other ideas?

 

[kellnerp]

Are there more than 100 files in the folder you are displaying?

TOP
CSWP, BSSE

http://www.engtran.com

http://www.niswug.org

"Node news is good news."

 

[gp13]

We had this problem a while back. We had something like 30k parts/assemblies/drawings all in the same folder. It was annoying, but that's how IT wanted it. Anyway we just played around with some stuff until we found a solution. I don't remember exactly what was done, but here is what I do remember (try at your own risk):



First thing, in a Windows Explorer window, click Tools > Folder Options. Go to the File Types tab. Find SLDASM, SLDDRW and SLDPRT and delete them.

You can just leave it at this, and I think it worked, but there are no icons, and you can't double click to open them. If you do, you get the "choose program" menu, and that will just restart the entire issue.

From here is where it gets a little fuzzy. Creat new extensions for SLDASM, SLDDRW and SLDPRT.

Now do the following for each file type:

1. Click on Advanced (you are still on the File Types tab). Click Change Icon and browse to the installation directory of SLDWRKS.EXE to find all the available icons. Select the appropriate icon for the file type.

2. Under actions, click New. Under Action, call it "open" without quotes (it might need to be lower case, I'm not sure but ours is). Application used to perform action (with quotes): "C:\Program Files\...\SLDWRKS.exe" /dde %1

3. Check Use DDE and fill in the following info:
A. DDE Message: [open("%1")]
B. Application should be: SLDWRKS
C. DDE Application Not Running is left blank
D. Topic: System

Doing all this seemingly reassociates the file types with the SW, without reassociating SW with the file types (or vice versa). It seems that something in SW always loads the preview images for each file, even if you choose not to display them. We figured this out on SW03.

Let me know if this works. There may be some other stuff that I'm not remembering right now, since it was so long ago when we had this issue. It helped out tremendously when we got the final solution.

 

[handleman]

Another option:

Attached is a registry file. You can give this a shot if you want - it works for me.

It will remove the icon handler .dll from the registry, so Windows will just use the default icons for part/drawing/assembly.

The filename says x64, but it does the trick for 32 bit as well. Of course, you will likely have to reboot for the change to take effect.

You will have to re-run this reg file after every SP, as SW will "repair" it during updating.

-handleman, CSWP (The new, easy test)

 

[fcsuper]

You can turn off the the preview icons...if this is an option for you?

Matt Lorono
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group
and Mechnical.Engineering Yahoo! Group

 

[HercalloY]

I have the same issue with my icons. XP32. Really pisses me off.

 

[ssmithdigilab]

We have folders with a lot more than 100 files in them, but that's not the problem. I actually have one Solidworks part file sitting in a folder and when I go into that folder I watch the one icon populate.

My system is XP 32, as well. Although these solutions may work, I'm not sure that I am capable or have the authority to make the changes that are currently being recommended.

I have a feeling that there is really a quick and easy solution for this that we are missing. Like I stated above, I saw the exact same problem with AutoCAD files in a previous company and it turned out to be a digital signature verification.

Does anyone know anything about digital signatures? Is it possible that Windows is trying to verify something about the files? I know that with the AutoCAD files, all we had to do was right click on one of the files and uncheck the verify digital signature checkbox or something along those lines. Unfortunately, I don't see anything like that when I right click on a Solidworks file.

 

[handleman]

...I'm not sure that I am capable or have the authority to make the changes that are currently being recommended.

All you have to do to see if you are capable is to download that .reg file and double-click it. If it says "Information added to registry" or something like that, then you were capable. It will let you know if it failed. I'd say downloading and double-clicking a file is pretty "quick and easy".

I'm not sure if I was explicit enough or not in my last post, so just to be certain, if you do use this .reg file, display of thumbnails in Windows Explorer will be disabled, and you won't be able to re-enable it without repairing SW.

As far as whether or not you have the "authority", as long as you are the only one who uses the PC (you're not screwing up someone else's functionality), I'd say if it works then you have the authority.

-handleman, CSWP (The new, easy test)

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

A quicker and safer way to test for 'authority' is to go to Start > Run and type in regedit. If the registry editor appears, you have authority, if it doesn't appear you don't.

handleman ... If he has access to the registry, could he not export the current settings of the SldXXXX.document keys before applying your registry fix? Then he wouldn't need to run the SW repair to recreate the settings.

 

[handleman]

Sure. My train of thought was that if someone is a confident and experienced enough PC user to export keys, he would have already examined the .reg file attached, seen what it does, and tried it himself rather than wondering about whether he has the capability or authority to do so.

I wish I could take credit for "my" registry fix. I got it here after dealing with the generic unknown file type icon for a year or so. I think our IS department did something that prevents the icon handler DLL from working, because all my dept's PCs had this happen at once.

-handleman, CSWP (The new, easy test)

 

[kellnerp]

Duh....you also have to make sure the virus checker is set to NOT inspect SW files. This can be a big hit. Because SW files are dynamic and random access in nature you don't want AV constantly inspecting them. It is enough to do a scan once or twice a day and make sure the SW executable is clean.

TOP
CSWP, BSSE

http://www.engtran.com

http://www.niswug.org

"Node news is good news."

 

[ssmithdigilab]

The IT guy already made sure that the antivirus software wasn't scanning those files. Unfortunately he was only willing to spend about an hour investigating this problem and that's all he did.

I may have access to make registry changes on my PC. It's not that I'm unconfident in my ability to use a computer. It's that I've only been with the company for a couple months and we only have one IT guy who is constantly swamped and if I mess something up, it will be quite a while before I get it fixed.

If editing the registry is my only option here, I may just live with it for a while longer. I swear, though, there has to be another checkbox or something somewhere that we're missing.