What SwMacroFlow does

SwMacroFlow runs one or more SOLIDWORKS macros across many parts, assemblies and drawings without anyone sitting in front of the screen. It opens each file once, runs every macro you ticked against it in order, closes it, and records what each macro reported.

It is a separate application that drives SOLIDWORKS from outside. Start it from the Start menu. It joins a SOLIDWORKS you already have open, or starts one for you if none is running - the window says which while it works that out. Nothing is installed into SOLIDWORKS itself.

What it is for

• Applying the same change to a folder of files - a template swap, a unit change, a property update.
• Exporting a folder of files - PDF, DXF, STEP, a BOM.
• Checking a folder of files and reporting on it, without changing anything.
• Running a macro that does its own thing once, with no file open at all.

If you already have a macro that works on one open document, it will almost certainly work here with no changes. See Writing a macro.

Before you start

Two machine settings matter more than anything else:

• Trust access to the VBA project object model must be on in the SOLIDWORKS VBA editor (Tools → Options → Security → Trust Center → Macro Settings). Without it, macros fail to load with a clear message. See Troubleshooting.
• Run SwMacroFlow the same way you run SOLIDWORKS. If one is elevated as administrator and the other is not, Windows hides them from each other and connection fails. Start both normally, or both elevated - not mixed.

SOLIDWORKS must be installed and licensed for the Windows user running SwMacroFlow. If SwMacroFlow starts SOLIDWORKS because none was running, that instance takes a license seat like opening SOLIDWORKS yourself would.

How a run works

This is the whole model, and everything else follows from it:

1. Before the first file opens, every ticked macro is prepared and checked.
2. For each file in scope, in turn:

• SOLIDWORKS opens the file.
• Each ticked macro runs against it, in list order.
• The file is closed. Unsaved changes are discarded, so a macro that changes something must save it.

1. Each macro-file pair produces exactly one row in the results list.

The file is opened once per pass, not once per macro. Three macros over 200 files means 200 opens, not 600 - and opening is by far the slowest part of a batch. That is the reason to put several macros in one job rather than running three jobs.

Within one SOLIDWORKS, files are processed one at a time, and so are the macros within a file.

Settings has a Run batches in parallel switch that shares the scope across up to eight SOLIDWORKS instances, each working through its own file. It is off by default, and it only applies when SwMacroFlow starts SOLIDWORKS itself - if you connect to one you already had open, that instance is the only one used.

Two ways to run

Run once is for a macro that does not act on a file handed to it - it generates a report, walks a folder itself, or sets application options. In that mode there is no active document, so the macro must not rely on ActiveDoc, and input values must not use {Property} placeholders.

Quick start

1. Add your macros. Add Macro... to browse to a .swp, or From Library to pick one that ships with SwMacroFlow. Each is checked as soon as it loads, so a macro that will not compile tells you now rather than on file 200.
2. Choose the files. Scan a folder, add files directly, or drag and drop them in.
3. Fill in the inputs. Click a macro in the list to see its inputs. Each macro keeps its own. Free-text fields may include {PropertyName} tokens that resolve per document - see Using the app and Adding inputs.
4. Run. Rows appear as each macro finishes each file.
5. Read the results. Green passed, amber means the macro finished but not entirely - or asked a question nobody could answer, red failed, grey was skipped.

Panel-by-panel detail is in Using the app.

What authors need to know

This Help page

The ? button rebuilds and opens this Help. It is the seven guides only. Per-macro descriptions that appear as tooltips under From Library live beside the library macros and are not part of this page.

Words used in these guides