# Install standard sections as weldment profiles

> Write all 306 standard sections into SOLIDWORKS as weldment profiles, each checked as a 1 m member, then pick them in Structural Member.

Status: Available · Level: Everyday · About 4 minutes · Canonical: https://paracrux.com/docs/install-weldment-profiles

## You need

- The desktop app on Windows. Exporting uses no seat and no AI credit
- SOLIDWORKS open on the same computer
- About half an hour for the first export

## You'll come away with

- Export the sections and know what each check means
- Find them under Standard ParaCrux EN in Structural Member
- Know why later exports are quick

## Step by step

1. **Open SOLIDWORKS first.** SOLIDWORKS writes the profile files itself, so it must be running. If it is not, the export stops before writing anything and tells you to open it.
2. **Export.** In the app, open Home › Profiles and choose Export to SolidWorks under SolidWorks weldment profiles. SOLIDWORKS briefly opens each size it writes, so the first export of all 306 takes around half an hour; our test run of 283 took 27 minutes. The status line shows which size it is writing.
3. **Every size is checked.** After writing each file, SOLIDWORKS builds a 1 m structural member from it in a scratch part that is never saved. The file is installed only if the member's volume matches the section area to one part in a million.
4. **Find them in SOLIDWORKS.** If every size passed, the app adds the folder to SOLIDWORKS' weldment profile locations. In Structural Member, choose Standard ParaCrux EN, then the type (UB, UC, RHS, SHS, CHS, Equal angle or Flat bar) and the size.
5. **Export again after an update.** The app keeps a record of what it wrote. A later export rewrites only new, changed or missing sizes, and removes only files it wrote for sizes that have left the library. Files ParaCrux did not write are never changed.

## Walkthrough

The messages are the app's own. The counts and times are from the live run on SOLIDWORKS 2026 (34.4.1) on 30 September 2026, which drove the same export code as the button. The size shown while writing is an example. That run wrote the 283 steel sections, before the 23 aluminium round tubes were added; a first export now writes 306.

- **You:** Export to SolidWorks, with SOLIDWORKS closed
- Provenance: illustrative

- **SolidWorks weldment profiles:** Status = Open SolidWorks, then export again. SolidWorks writes the profile files itself.
- *Nothing is written until SOLIDWORKS is running.*
- Provenance: real-code

- **Gate:** Open SOLIDWORKS, then choose Export to SolidWorks again.
- Provenance: illustrative

- **SolidWorks weldment profiles:** Status = SolidWorks is writing 41 of 283: ParaCrux EN/UB/203x133x25.sldlfp
- *Each size is written, then built as a 1 m structural member and checked against its section area before it is installed.*
- Provenance: illustrative

- **First export:** Written = 283; Failed = 0; Time = 1,601 s (about 27 minutes); Status = 283 written · 0 unchanged. Folder added to SolidWorks weldment profiles. In SolidWorks: Structural Member → Standard “ParaCrux EN”.
- *The counts and time are recorded; the status line is the app's text for that result.*
- Provenance: recorded

- **A sample member:** UB 127×76×13 = 1,657.338 mm², including its 7.6 mm root radii; CHS 219.1×10 = 6,569.070 mm²
- *Member areas measured in SOLIDWORKS, equal to the library's areas.*
- Provenance: recorded

- **Second export, same library:** Written = 0; Unchanged = 283; Time = 0.84 s; Status = 0 written · 283 unchanged. Folder already registered in SolidWorks. In SolidWorks: Structural Member → Standard “ParaCrux EN”.
- Provenance: recorded

## What it won't do

- Angles and hollow sections have sharp corners: the library has no cited toe or corner radii for them, so none is assumed. Their SOLIDWORKS mass can differ slightly from tabulated masses.
- Universal beams and columns carry their root radii, so their masses come within 0.49% of the tabulated mass per metre at 7,850 kg/m³.
- If any size fails its check, the folder is not added to SOLIDWORKS. The status names the first failure.
- Only the bundled standard sections are exported, not your personal profiles.
- To remove them, take the folder out of SOLIDWORKS Options › File Locations › Weldment Profiles and delete C:\ProgramData\ParaCrux\SolidWorks Weldment Profiles.

## Covers

- Weldment profile export (Available): Write all 306 standard sections as SOLIDWORKS weldment profiles, each checked as a 1 m member before the folder is registered. Where: In the app, Home → Profiles

## Next

- [Find a standard structural section](https://paracrux.com/docs/find-a-standard-section.md): Ask for a tube, angle or beam in your own words and get real catalogue sizes back, with their standard.
- [Put cited materials into SOLIDWORKS](https://paracrux.com/docs/export-materials-to-solidworks.md): Find a grade in the Materials tab, check where each value comes from, then add the whole library to SOLIDWORKS' Edit Material in one export.