Why Can’t I see my SolidWorks Model in File Explorer?

If you can’t see your model preview or a thumbnail next to the name it could mean that a few options aren’t selected/deselected. This is a fairly common occurrence on our support desk and is easy to solve by following these quick steps below…

Step 1.

Ensure that your options within SolidWorks are set to enable model to be shown in Windows Explorer…

To get to the below options, within SolidWorks goto Tools > Options. Then make sure the highlighted option is selected.

Step 2.

The Second solution is change your file settings to enable you to show the thumbnail and see the preview pane images…

If you’re on Windows 10 you can access this option box by going to View > Options > View tab. This is found above the file itself. (see top tabs on first image).

You can also find this in the control panel. It will be located in either Folder Options or File Explorer Options depending on your operating system.

Make sure that the first highlighted option is deselected and the second is selected.

Step 3.

Make sure you have your visual settings to show thumbnails to instead of icons. This can be achieved by going into your control panel and searching for ‘Adjust The appearance and performance of windows‘ (Windows 10) or searching ‘Performance Information and Tools > Adjust Visual Effect‘ (Windows 8)

Step 4.

You may need to get admin to log into their user for this part.
Firstly, Make sure you have the DLLs required which are downloaded on the install. The DLLs you’re looking for are:-
swdocumentmgr.dll – C:\Program Files\Common Files\SOLIDWORKS Shared
sldthumbnailprovider.dll – C:\Program Files\SOLIDWORKS Corp\SOLIDWORKS
(Note. these are default locations)
If the issue is still occurring you will need manually register the DLLs. To do this you will need to go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > right-click Command Prompt and Run as administrator.
Then type in:-
regsvr32 “C:\Program Files\Common Files\SOLIDWORKS Shared\swdocumentmgr.dll
regsvr32 “C:\Program Files\SOLIDWORKS Corp\SOLIDWORKS\sldthumbnailprovider.dll”

Another Tip.

If you are seeing a SolidWorks logo next to your file and you’re struggling to open it, it might be because you are trying to open the file via a specific version of SolidWorks. You’ll need to changed your ‘Open with’ to SolidWorks Launcher.