What does SolidWorks Viewer do?
The SolidWorks Viewer was the original viewing application that opens Parts, Assemblies and Drawings. SolidWorks files cannot be changed in the Viewer, nor saved by the Viewer. The Viewer is only a tool for displaying and printing SolidWorks files. The original SolidWorks viewer is no longer available and has been replaced by eDrawings. eDrawings dramatically eases the sharing of product design information. With eDrawings Viewer, anyone with a PC (and some Macs) can interpret and understand 2D and 3D design data. The eDrawings viewer can open native SolidWorks documents as well as PTC Creo (Pro/ENGINEER) parts and assemblies, AutoCAD DXF/DWG format as well as documents published from a CAD Application as an eDrawing.