Home screen and default templates

[DanPihlaja]

Does anyone know how to remove the default templates from the "Home" screen screen in Solidworks.

Currently using SW 2022 and we have Templates defined. I know that you can select "Advanced" to get to the templates that we have set up and when "new document" is selected, you can only see our company templates. But the "Home" screen always has the original Solidworks canned templates on it (see picture below)

How do you either remove those or show your personal templates.

When I setup a new user, I make sure that "Do not show on startup" is selected so that they are not shown those canned templates every time they open solidworks

image.png (1.52 KiB) Viewed 1758 times

But any user can get back to that screen either by double clicking on the Solidworks logo in the background of the blank Solidworks screen or by selecting the "Home" tab when opening recent documents ("R" key by default).

I just don't want users using the canned Solidworks templates when we have company templates.

[AlexLachance]

Wow I had never noticed that, thanks for bringing it up. I don't think you can change or remove these from that bar. Perhaps you could overwrite the default templates so that they are your templates..? That would sorta do what you require, have it use your standards and keep it shown on the home tab.

Just a hassle though if you gotta update templates.. Then the update needs to be applied everywhere, but I think that could be a livable solution which you can then adapt yourself to the methods each user uses.

[AlexB]

Those buttons open up the default templates that you define in your system options (Tools -> Options -> System Options -> Default Templates). If those point to a custom template of each type then there shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Otherwise, clicking "Advanced" will show all the templates that are defined by your file locations.

[AlexLachance]

Those buttons open up the default templates that you define in your system options (Tools -> Options -> System Options -> Default Templates). If those point to a custom template of each type then there shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Otherwise, clicking "Advanced" will show all the templates that are defined by your file locations.

They do not use the default templates defined in system options, I just tried and it used the default SolidWorks template rather then my custom one.

Edit: I was mistaken

[AlexB]

They do not use the default templates defined in system options, I just tried and it used the default SolidWorks template rather then my custom one.

That's interesting... I'm using 2023 SP5.0 and those open my defined default templates. Do you still have the default templates listed in c:\Program Data\Solidworks\Solidworks\Templates? Perhaps if those are still there it could mess things up? I don't really know though.

[AlexLachance]

That's interesting... I'm using 2023 SP5.0 and those open my defined default templates. Do you still have the default templates listed in c:\Program Data\Solidworks\Solidworks\Templates? Perhaps if those are still there it could mess things up? I don't really know though.

I'm on 2023 SP4, rolled back because of a bug on SP5. My templates are defined on a server location, the default templates are still in their default location. It could be because my templates don't have the standard template name defined by SolidWorks, don't know.

I know it says 2019 on the files, I just didn't update the file names when we moved to 2023.

Edit: I was mistaken

[AlexB]

Yeah my file names are not the default either and it's pointing to PDM so they're not in the "Default" location. I've removed the default location from the "File Locations -> Document Templates" file location setting as well.

This is an odd one to sort out for sure

[Glenn Schroeder]

Howdy Dan,

Can you just tell your users to click elsewhere on the screen when they get that box to make it go away, and then click on File > New (or the "New" icon on the top bar) to get the Advanced new document dialog box?

I hate to sound like the grouchy old man we all know I am, but if they can't follow simple instructions like that to make sure they use the company templates then you have a personnel problem.

[MattW]

We are on 2021. Templates are in PDM, and the only location in File Locations.

going to new... gets this screen.

The home screen is the same as the one in the first post, ie, Part, Asssembly, Drawing.

Clicking on those opens the template listed in file locations, in spite of the label on the home screen. Are you guys sure that the original SW templates are being opened from the home screen and not the ones listed in default templates? In other words, is this a case of the label not being changed on the home screen?

[AlexLachance]

We are on 2021. Templates are in PDM, and the only location in File Locations.

going to new... gets this screen.

image.png

The home screen is the same as the one in the first post, ie, Part, Asssembly, Drawing.

Clicking on those opens the template listed in file locations, in spite of the label on the home screen. Are you guys sure that the original SW templates are being opened from the home screen and not the ones listed in default templates? In other words, is this a case of the label not being changed on the home screen?

My "New" menu is fine, the only distinction I have with you and AlexB that I can tell is that we do not use PDM.

This is my "New" menu with different templates

[DanPihlaja]

Those buttons open up the default templates that you define in your system options (Tools -> Options -> System Options -> Default Templates). If those point to a custom template of each type then there shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Otherwise, clicking "Advanced" will show all the templates that are defined by your file locations.

They do?

Holy crap.....they do!!!

I didn't think that they did because of how they are named.

That's what I get for not testing them. I was hesitant to test because I didn't want the canned templates showing up in our templates folder (thinking that it would create them automatically).

OMG, I feel like a fool. Thank you for pointing that out.

[AlexLachance]

Must be the french version doing it's own thang then

[AlexLachance]

Okay, I was mistaken after all, my apologies for the confusion. I do get the ones that my templates point to after all. It's just that the basic part template is rarely ever used over here so it's a bit different then every other part template.