I’m currently running SW2024 on Win-10 along with MS-Office 2019 which obviously includes Excel 2019. On SW website link below it says end of support for Excel 2019 ends with v2023 SP5. Yikes, how time flies. I’m not detecting any anomalies with Excel but thus far has been confined to relatively simple design tables. Is there anything I should be concerned about? Another consideration is I’m just about to embark learning SW API. I (think I) realize this is more confined to within SW itself, but I get the impression some macros engage with Excel, so maybe Excel-2019 compatibility issues from that standpoint?
I’ve been dragging my feet on switching from Win-10 to Win-11, hopefully for a couple years until its inevitable. Then who knows maybe go to 365 route at that point. But anyway, thought I’d throw this question out for comments.
Windows 10 end of support is October of this year… You said “a couple of years” for that, are you anticipating just waiting for some major security flaw to go wild?
As far as learning API goes, Excel should have no bearing on that at all. It’s possible to use code in any program to automate any other program with an open API. You can write a macro that interacts with Excel, but at that point you’re writing code for Excel, not SolidWorks. If Excel changes and breaks the way your macro works, that has nothing to do with whether or not SW is supporting it.
I also don’t think it’ll be a situation where SW’s end of support for Excel 19 will mean that things immediately don’t work (as I assume you’ve found, since you’re already out of support), or that anything will break on purpose. Just that if something changes in Excel, they might have to change something about how SW interacts with the new Excel that makes it not work with the old Excel.
I believe the only standard SW functions that interact with Excel are the design tables and Excel-based BOMs. Excel-based BOMs are really more of a legacy function anyway, ever since the SW BOMs came out in like 2005 or something.
Thanks for comments. I think there are threads discussing pros & cons of Office 365 vs regular Office as it pertains to SW & Excel. Actually at the time I made my Office 2019 decision & probably coincident with SW 2019 at the time, there was some discussion of 365 Excel bugginess, so regular Office was deemed a safer bet. Aside from SW I also had some regular work related constraints that made Office a slightly better choice. I haven’t had SW/Excel issues but a) don’t use it in a very sophisticated way aside from design tables b) kind of lost track of progressive SW upgrades over the years.
Going forward, if I decide to upgrade MS Office for just Office reasons, is it safe to assume 365 Excel stuff been ironed out & now works happy with SW? Or (if money & time were no object) better to select an installed version of Office so SW has less potential issues to chase as MS may be tweaking 365 at a higher frequency. Hope this makes sense. I’m not really a software techy & this is a standalone seat for principally hobby purposes.
Of course you are right & I need to start delving into this. I’m confident my PC hardware meets/exceeds Win-11 system requirements, its more all the peripheral issues of other apps & devices that historically given me a headache. I still run Win-7 on my laptop for internet browsing until it croaks hoping the hackers are focusing their time on more current OS haha.
I think most my ancillary hardware & was purchased inside 3-4 years but OS upgrade never seems to go perfectly smooth & I have a particularly low IT frustration level threshold. But that’s not good excuse or healthy attitude. Its just when a scanner doesn’t work or an App needs re-installation… Anyway, that’s why I’m looking into this stuff now to best prepare myself.
Hmmm… So ~5 years later, sounds like same status. One of those ‘all hands on deck’ sort of priorities
I’m running 365 on my laptop with no issues, actually some nice features. But its just operating in a bubble. It would actually make cost effective sense for me to utilize my existing 365 subscription extended to my SW PC vs standalone Office when the time comes. I cant recall MS details, is it 3 or 5 home installs? Anyway this grey area SW compatibility is why I’ve been in no particular hurry.
I’m on SW 2024 SP2 & Excel 2019. I just did a quick test. It ‘seems’ to behaving itself? As mentioned I haven’t done much in the way of more sophisticated Excel related applications but hopefully this is a good sign (pics). I also loaded an old file from v2020 era, it converted to 2024 & design tables appear ok.
Maybe I jinxed it. Someone on reddit was asking about importing Excel data XYZ data into SW. I mentioned I used method in this video. Tried it myself just now under different/all flavors of TXT file and also CSV for good measure. Keep getting this error message which I have not seen before. Refuses to acknowledge the file.
