Slow folder listing with SolidWorks files

What sort of hardware do you both have?

It would be unusual these days to only have a single CPU core but the SW icon handler is obviously doing a significant amount of work to generate the icons; that's all happening on another thread but if there's only one physical CPU it would definitely affect the performance of the UI.

Hello Jon, my setup is:
ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe MoBo, core i7 3770K overclocked to 4.4gHz, 2x SSD in RAID 0, 16gb RAM, multiple high capacity spinner hard drives, 700watt power supply, and five fans which keep CPU/MoBo under 35C virtually all of the time (I have never seen it go over even 45C, but granted, I don’t play video games). For video, I have an ATI Firepro V4800, an entry-level CAD card, which drives a 55” TV and a 24” monitor, both of which are always on. In addition, I have a CETON 4X tuner card, as I run my TV thru my CAD workstation as well.

Now before you exclaim AH-HA!
I have run live TV while recording 3 other shows, had another media player playing music and rotating wallpaper every 5 minutes in the background, all while surfing the internet AND editing a 100+ part assembly model in SolidWorks… all this simultaneously, and my computer does not even break a sweat. The ONLY thing I have problems with is loading SW files and icons! And yes, when I test SW without all those extra programs and tasks running, it is still laggy.

I am confident it is not hardware related. I did have some install issues the last time I did a clean OS reinstall, so maybe it is related to that. That being said, the same SW delays existed prior to that last reinstall (as well as another computer altogether), so who knows.

Perhaps the 4 or 5 people who posted about this issue (and anyone following this who haven’t posted) can direct their VAR and/or Solidworks Corp to this thread to help illuminate the issue. That way, you don’t have to explain it all from scratch.

What Solidworks is doing here seems quite ridiculous. Launching a separate, single-use exe to generate each tiny 16x16 icon, via a method that appears to involve significant calculations, and not even caching the results so it doesn't need to be re-generated unless the file changes... just seems insane to me. That is so much overhead for icons that should load almost instantly. (Also launching the exes in a way which changes the mouse pointer, while generating icons, is rather incompetent, to be blunt!)

If Solidworks have no interest in improving their shell extension, and you don't want to turn the icons off, the only thing I can think of is that we could write something that acts as a proxy between the shell and their shell extension, and caches the icon results. This would (at least in theory) reduce the overheads in both Opus and Explorer, making it so the extra calculations are only required the first time an icon is requested a file has changed. (I'm assuming most of the files do not change often. If they do then this idea would not work.)

That would be some kind of private consultancy work, though. It's not something we'd do as part of Opus, but something we could do if enough people want to fund the work. Since it's fixing someone else's problem that they show no interest in fixing themselves, and not interesting work that we'd do voluntarily in our spare time, it wouldn't be particularly cheap, but the offer's there.

Personally, I'd try a reinstall, from scratch of just windows and solid works only and see what happens. Your hardware spec is better than mine. I'd say something's seriously messed up with your software setup. Now, as for solid works not generating the icons properly, I can well believe it. Solid works is one of the most bug ridden pieces of shit software its ever been my misfortune to use. But, as our company has invested over 5000 GBP (that is correct, 5 thousand pounds sterling) in a single seat licence, I'm stuck with it. And I really appreciate what you guys have done to get the two to play nicely together.

I am going to do a reinstall of SW as a first step. I have already uninstalled it, and am combing thru the registry as we speak to find any and all stragglers. If that does not work, I may bite the bullet and do a new OS install.

So now it's my turn to be a little offended. As previously stated, I have been using SW for 16 years and I am what most would consider a SW guru. I have used many CAD programs (CATIA, AutoCAD, Rhino 3D, ProE, SolidEdge) over the years, and in my experience SolidWorks crashes far less than any of those. That being said, ALL CAD programs crash and ALL CAD programs can be buggy - SW is certainly no exception. However, no program I have used compares with SolidWorks ability to create complex machined features, its integrated functionality for sheet metal, advanced surfacing, weldments, pipe routing, electrical, structural/flow/motion analysis, animations, etc., and its drawing creation tools/capabilities are unmatched (if a little slow). And finally, the SW interface is vastly superior and easier to work with than any of the aforementioned programs.

Ok… I can admit I may be biased :laughing:!

All right, I will get off my high-horse now. My praise notwithstanding, the icon shell extension does appear to be FUBAR.

Peace brother. Don't be offended by what I think of SW, that's just my opinion of it. It in no way reflects on you. Catia Cadam was the most stable cad software I've ever used. But I think that's comparing apples with oranges as they're not in the same league as each other.

Go for the full wipe and install, you won't regret it. My OS. is never more than 6 months old. Here's a tip, do the wipe, install windows , install solid works and then use CLONEZILLA and make a copy of your system disk. When things go tits up, just use clonezilla to reinstate a pristine setup.

Well a reinstall of SW from scratch did not solve anything… behaves exactly as before.

I decided to research why there are two options for launching SW files: Solidworks.exe OR swShellFileLauncher.exe (the latter being default) . The links below explain why.
blog.gxsc.com/graphics_systems_s ... -2013.html
symsolutions.com/symblog/ite ... e-sessions

The interesting thing is when I change the default launcher to Solidworks.exe, the delay/lag/glitches completely disappear! Unfortunately so do the icons, or rather, instead of unique icons for each file type, the SW Program icon is used for all file types. This is effectively the same as using shexview.exe to turn off SW icons which results in white rectangle icons for all file types. In both cases, the sldShellExtServer.exe process “flood” no longer happens… in fact, the process does not launch at all (confirmed via Process Explorer).

As a workaround, I downloaded a filetype manager and then tried to change the program icon to the standard SW part/assy/drawing icons, but could not make it work. It would either change all filetypes to the new icon I pointed to, or when using different options the filetype manager offered, it would result in an error and no icons were changed.

Perhaps there is something in those links or in the results of my latest experiment that will trigger an epiphany for Leo and Jon, but I won’t hold my breath. I imagine you’re as sick of reading my posts about this as I am of writing them. I think my only option now is a clean OS install, but that won’t be for another month or more. Thanks again for your efforts.

I think Leo has already mentioned this previously, but if not: forum.solidworks.com/thread/48953

As an experiment, i renamed sldshellextserver.exe so it couldn't be called; instant success! Listers populate with Solidworks' generic part, drawing and assembly icons instantaneously, even in thumbnails view. So, thought I'd found a fix. No such luck! When you start Solidworks, it realises it's missing sldshellextserver.exe and reinstalls a new copy :frowning: I'll have to re-read the Solidworks forum posts and see if there is a registry hack that will uncouple sldshellextserver from the system. I can live without its functionality.


I do believe I may have sussed this mother out! As renaming slshellextserver.exe doesn't work, because solidworks reinstalls a copy of it, I've removed all permissions to the file; no-one owns it or has access to it.



Problem has now gone away!

I thought it might cause a few problems when opening files from Solidworks open file dialog box, but no. You still get a thumbnail view in the dialogbox which is really useful.


So, fingers crossed that case is now closed! :smiley:

Just to add, Process explorer confirms that sldshellextserver.exe isn't being loaded any more. And also, Dopus' viewer cab still view a solidworks file fine.


So what that troublesome .exe is doing, god only knows!

I just made the changes - You Sir, are a genius!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Launching folders with SW files now, regardless of how many files there are, loads the list and icons instantaneously! Oh.. and it scrolls perfectly. In short, it behaves... well... normal! I never thought I could be so excited for normal!

Cycling the view thru Details/List/Thumbnails (I never use tiles) seems to work fine as well. In my brief testing thus far, using thumbnails as a primary mode of browsing files has not caused DO's CPU usage to spike and hold at 25% as it has in the past. Hopefully that continues... and there are no any unintended consequences of this hack... time will tell.

Last comment - there are now two instances of sldshellextserver.exe that show continuously under processes - their CPU usage is zero, but there they are. Is that true for you too?

OK, I just killed both processes, and so far they have not come back, even after exiting completely from DO, and everything is still working great. Maybe they will reappear after a reboot, but so far so good. I cannot thank you enough for your persistence.

It sounds like what you've achieved may be what you would also get by turning off the SolidWorks option Show thumbnail graphics in Windows Explorer. From this page in their help documentation:

(Although that page doesn't really go into a lot of detail, my reading of it is that this option is specific to file icons, not thumbnails).

Uh... no. I always have that unchecked. See my previous post from a couple days back...

[quote="hpbeme"]Hey Paul, thanks for taking the time to check out my settings on your machine. Your outcome was expected, as it is for when I loaded your DO settings on my machine… that is, it had the same delays/glitches as when I used my own settings.

I have a question though – you have said in several posts, the “icon representing the contents” – I take that to mean you have the SW option checked “Show Thumbnail Graphics in Windows Explorer” in System Options/General page… is that correct? I ask, because I only use the three basic SW icons for model/assembly/drawing. I personally never use that option since it attempts to show the file “contents” as a teeny-tiny icon. It is checked by default when you install SW, but I always uncheck it. If you are using that option and are still getting fast file list loads then that is indeed impressive, because loading those style icons definitely takes longer, regardless of machine setup or whether you use WE or DO.

Since Leo or Jon have never used SW, I fear that when they read this I will have confused them with the “thumbnail graphics” reference. I worry, since this whole thread is about SW icons, and SW does something when this particular option is checked I have not seen in any other program. But since I NEVER use that option, I had forgotten about it as yet another variable. Do you want to take a shot at describing for the non-SW user what I am talking about?

As for my AV software, my Cable Company, Comcast, provides Norton Security Suite for free. I have to say, it is the most unobtrusive AV I have ever used – its CPU usage is zero every time I check task manager (except when I ask it to perform a task real-time of course). I did turn it off though and run the same tests as previously, and there was no difference.

I have more info in response to Leo’s post, but I am heading out now and will reply to his questions/comments tomorrow.[/quote]

Take my word for it, Paul has solved what no amount of SW tweaking would... I assure you, I have tried everything.

Glad to be of service. Now, as you said earlier that you are somewhat of a SW guru, if I get stuck with something SW related...................... :smiley:

Paul, I would be more than happy to help out in that regard.

FYI... I just checked and DO is running at 25% CPU. I had been browsing in thumbnail mode but DO was its typical < 1%. Not sure when the CPU ramped up. High CPU when using thumbnails is nothing new, or a result of your "trick". It has been doing that for some time, as I believe you noted in one of your earlier posts. Below is the dopus error dialog I got when I exited the app.

So here is a new SW problem that the DOPUS folks can amuse themselves with now that the old is fixed! Ha... just kidding. I do like browsing in thumbnail mode myself though, so it would be great if the error below gives you guys any clues.


A little tip to deal with bad customer support:
Talk about the issue on social media. They will hate it.

That is what you need to get support from Steam.

Just an update if anyone is interested. I have now updated my Solidworks install to the latest service pack (SP3). The previously described problems of compatibility with Opus SEEM to be addressed and as such, Solidworks and Opus now play ball with each other.

Not having access to the list of addressed solidworks bugs, I don't know whether this is coincidence or whether Solidworks have actually addressed the problem or inadvertently solved it!

Just in case anyone is still experiencing this problem - Paul's solution solved the problem for me as-well. Thank you all (DO 12.16 and a myriad of SW installations). Had to remove permissions for three different sldshellextserver.exe. Works perfectly now....