How to Install and Configure SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost
SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost is an add-on product to SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional that greatly increases render speeds and productivity by allowing it to send jobs to other machines, freeing up your computing resources for SOLIDWORKS Visualize, SOLIDWORKS CAD, or other resource demanding applications. This guide provides detailed steps to install the SOLIDWORKS Visualize using the SOLIDWORKS installation manager.
Follow this link to learn how to install SOLIDWORKS Visualize.
Licensing
A complimentary seat of SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost is included with each SOLIDWORKS Professional and Premium license on active subscription service. To activate the complimentary seat, you need an additional serial number, which your company’s SOLIDWORKS security admin can find by logging into MyProducts.solidworks.com (only admins have access. You can learn more here).
Network seats of SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost will have an equal number of complimentary SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost seats for active subscription network seats of SOLIDWORKS Professional and Premium. Read this guide to add the SOLIDWORKS Visualize serial number to your existing SolidNetWork License Manager (SNL).
SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost can also be purchased separately from other SOLIDWORKS products by contacting your MLC CAD Systems account rep. A SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost specific serial number will be provided after your purchase is completed.
Installation
SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost is installed using the SOLIDWORKS Installation Manager. Because the purpose of Visualize Boost is to offload rendering, you should install Visualize Boost on computers different from the ones running SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional. You can maximize rendering performance by installing Visualize Boost on computers with multiple CPU cores and graphics processing units (GPUs).
When installing SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost on a computer which does not already have another SOLIDWORKS product, the installation manager will display and option to ‘Install on this Computer’. Click Next to proceed.
When adding SOLIDWORKS Visualize to a computer with an existing SOLIDWORKS installation of the same versions of SOLIDWORKS Visualize, the installation manager will display an option to ‘Modify your installation’. Click Next to proceed.
On the Serial Number screen, expand Visualization and check the box next to SOLIDWORKS Visualize to activate the serial number fields. Enter your SOLIDWORKS Visualize serial number. Tip, you can copy (Ctrl + c) and paste(Ctrl + v) the number into the first cell to avoid typing mistakes.
On the Summary screen, SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost is listed under the products list along with any required prerequisites to be installed automatically.
If SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost is not displayed, then click Change to the right of the products list to access the product selection screen. Click the box next to SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost and then click Back to Summary.
For new installations of SOLIDWORKS Visualize, read and accept the license agreement and then click Download and Install. Note, for network installations of SOLIDWORKS Visualize, you will be prompted to enter the server’s communication port and server’s hostname. The default port is 25734. For example, 25734@Server.
If you are adding SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost to a computer with an existing installation of SOLIDWORKS, read and accept the license agreement and then click Modify Now.
Once installation/modification is complete, click Finish.
Configure Visualize Boost
You can configure Visualize Boost centrally from the following supported browsers: Chrome, Firefox, or Microsoft Edge.
To configure Visualize Boost, you first activate the license, and then configure the computer to be part of a rendering cluster.
Note, one of the configuration steps asks you to select a networking mode. If you are not sure of your networking environment, you should consult with your network administrator.
To activate the SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost license:
- Launch SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost:
- Windows Start > SOLIDWORKS version folder > SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost version.
- From your desktop, click the Visualize Boost shortcut icon.
- In the newly opened browser window, enter your email address and click Enable License.
Once activated successfully, the Status screen will display. Note the address to the webpage (the Uniform Resource Locator or URL) is specific to the version of SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost you are running. Copy and save this URL for use later and to share with other users.
The example above was running SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost 2024, which is http://localhost:9032/config.html.
- SOLIDWORKS 2024 URL: http://localhost:9032/config.html
- SOLIDWORKS 2023 URL: http://localhost:8999/config.html
- SOLIDWORKS 2021-2022 URL: http://localhost:8993/config.html
- SOLIDWORKS 2020 URL and previous versions: http://localhost:8993/config.html
Configure Rendering Cluster
- Do one of the following:
-
-
-
- If your system is running SOLIDWORKS Visualize Boost, double-click the Visualize Boost shortcut icon on your desktop or open a browser and enter the URL specific to your version of Visualize Boost. For example, http://localhost:9032/config.html for Visualize Boost 2024.
-
-
-
-
-
- If you are on a different system, open a browser and enter the URL associated to the version of Visualize Boost you are running:
- http://<IP Address>:9032/config.html
- http://<DNS name>:9032/config.html
- If you are on a different system, open a browser and enter the URL associated to the version of Visualize Boost you are running:
-
-
- Click the Setup tab to configure the Visualize Boost node. In the Cluster Name field, specify a computer name, such as Superfast Render or Presentation Cluster
The cluster name displays in SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional as a cluster profile. The example below is named Acme Cluster. To render an image, users running SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional select a cluster profile from a list of available Boost clusters. It is recommended that you specify the cluster name on the Visualize Boost computer, rather than locally on the Visualize Professional computer, so that all Visualize users have access to the same cluster names in their Visualize Boost Profiles list.
- Enter the Cluster Client Access Port. This is the port that computers running SOLIDWORKS Visualize use to connect to the Boost cluster. The default cluster client access port is 8998.
- In the Networking Mode area, select an option based on your network environment:
- Select No Networking to prevent this computer from belonging to any other cluster. This mode is useful for troubleshooting issues with Visualize Boost.
- Select UDP Multicast Mode if your network supports UDP Multicast. Visualize Boost will search the network and form a cluster of all computers using UDP Multicast Mode on the same port. This mode is recommended if your network supports it.
- Select TCP Mode with Discovery (Default) if you cannot use UDP Multicast mode. Visualize Boost will search the network and form a cluster of all computers using TCP Mode with Discovery on the same port.
- Select TCP Mode if you need to create an explicit list of the computers in the cluster, because the other modes are not successful in finding the computers you want to include. This mode requires additional work to configure and is not recommended if either UDP Multicast or TCP Mode with Discovery is available.
- If you select UDP Multicast Mode or TCP Mode with Discovery, enter the Cluster Discovery Address. This setting must be an IP address and a port above 1024. The default port varies among the networking modes:
- 8994 for UDP Multicast
- 8995 for TCP Mode with Discovery
- 8996 for TCP
These ports are used for Visualize Boost computers to connect with each other. All computers configured with the same Cluster Discovery Address and that are on the same local network will form a cluster.
- If you select TCP Mode:
- Enter a Cluster Access Port. This is the port that Visualize Boost nodes in the cluster use to communicate with each other. The default port for TCP Mode is 8996.
- If this machine is going to be the “head node” of the cluster (the machine that coordinates the work of the cluster), use the Cluster Address List field to list the IP addresses of other nodes in the cluster. Each IP address (such as 192.168.0.100:8996) must include the Cluster Access Port configured for all nodes in the cluster. Leave the field blank if this machine is not going to be the head node of the cluster.
- Click Save Configuration. Visualize Boost saves the new configuration, then stops and restarts the service.
- Click the Status tab. If the status is Ready, the screen displays the computers connected in the cluster and the Sessions (jobs) assigned to the cluster.
Selecting a Visualize Boost Cluster
Before you can use a Visualize Boost cluster for rendering, you must add it to the list of cluster profiles on your SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional computer and select it.
- In SOLIDWORKS Visualize, with a project open, click Tools > Options and select the Boost tab. Then click Scan to search the network for Boost clusters.
Alternatively, you can click Add to add a new cluster to the list of cluster profiles. Only select NVIDIA VCA if you have installed an NVIDIA Quadro VCA on your network.
- In the Profiles list, highlight the name of a cluster. The Boost Settings display the status, cluster name, and the cluster discovery address.
- To use PowerBoost for real-time ray tracing, set the PowerBoost settings and click Connect (available only in SOLIDWORKS Visualize Professional).
- You can now send renderings to the Visualize Boost Queue. To render, launch SOLIDWORKS Visualize Queue Manager and press Start Queue to process the jobs.
Technical Support
Get help from our team by Calling us at 800-364-1652 x 2. You can also get assistance by clicking the Technical Support button or the Email Our Experts button below.