One of the most commonly seen errors when trying to launch SOLIDWORKS Electrical is the “cannot connect to database” error. If you have ever run into the error message below, this article will give a how-to guide for quickly and easily resolving the issue.
Cannot connect to database error
This error message may occur for a few reasons, however it most often occurs if the SolidWorks Electrical SQL Server is not running. This issue is very similar to the Collaborative Server error that we have discussed previously, and as expected it can be resolved in a very similar manner.
Step 1: Check that the SQL Service is Running
The first step to check this issue is to check if the SQL Server service is running. This can be found in the Windows Services panel by searching “Services” in the Windows Start->Search for programs and files search bar.
Windows Services
Within the services panel we can scroll to the SQL Server (TEW_SQLEXPRESS) service and notice that under “Status” the service is not started. From here we simply right-click on the service and select Start, and ensure the status has changed to “Started”. Note that the default SolidWorks Electrical SQL instance is named “TEW_SQLEXPRESS” however your particular SQL instance may be named differently as defined during the initial install.
SQL Server (TEW_SQLEXPRESS)
Step 2: Check that the SQL Application Settings are Correct
If you’ve gone through these steps and have confirmed that the SQL service is running however are still receiving the same error message, it could be an issue with your application settings. In this case the next step would be to open SOLIDWORKS Electrical Application Settings (Tools > Application settings) and double check the information in the Databases tab.
Application Setting – Databases
Here we can check the server name, user name, and user password of our SQL instance and make sure we are both pointing to the correct server location and giving the correct authentication information. This SQL authentication information was setup during the initial installation process.
Finally, close and reopen SOLIDWORKS Electrical the error should be gone and we can continue our electrical design work!
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