2.1 Installation procedure V2025
General cadwork installation information
The screenshots in this installation guide have been taken under Microsoft Windows®11. Representations under Windows®10 may differ slightly.
Support and transfer previous userprofile
Since Version 30, previous userprofiles are transferred over during the installation. Until Version 27, your userprofile was only transferred when updating from the last two previous versions (25 and 26). From Version 28 onwards, userprofiles are also transferred over, as far as possible, for upgrades on which the latest installed version is as far back as Version 22.
Standard installation - Local installation on workstation
By clicking on following link, you can download the CWSetup.exe installation application from our ftp servers. Depending on your browser settings, the file will either be placed directly in your Download folder, or a dialog box will appear, where you can either save or run the CWSetup.exe file.
Selection of installation language
First, please select your installation language. By default, cadwork recognizes the language of your operating system. If you change the language here, this will affect not only the language of your cadwork installation, but also the catalog and INIT template files that will be installed. If no catalog is available for the chosen language, the English catalog will be installed by default.
Product registration
In this dialog, please enter your client data, if available. The modules required for your license will be installed on the basis of your correct Client number. If no Client number is entered here, all modules will be installed, as no comparison with your license can be made. If a previous version of cadwork has already been installed, the data from this installation is already pre-filled and can be used.
Field of use (Only displayed in Switzerland!)
For clients with an IP address located in Switzerland, it will be possible to select between Wood construction and Engineer as field of use. This window will be displayed only in Switzerland, as the modules attached to the Engineer Civil field of use are developed exclusively for this market.
Installation type
In this step you select one of the various installation options. These are briefly explained below, but the installation instructions then follows the installation, as this is usually the initial installation of Version 2025.
Below you will find short descriptions of the available installation types.
Standard
cadwork is installed on the local computer. The most common settings are made, and cadwork can then be started and used on this computer with all licensed modules.
Offline installation
also installs cadwork on the local computer. It is intended for the installation on additional work stations in the company network. If workstations on which cadwork is already installed via installation are present in your network or if the installation files have been previously downloaded via to your share drive, uses the already downloaded installation packages. Unlike the installation, you do not have to download all the installation data from our Internet servers again.
For this installation, it is necessary to make the defined in the Target directories section available on the network, as the installation files from this location are then used for the on your work station.
Viewer
The installation is intended for computers which are not to be used with a licensed version of cadwork. Only 2D and 3D modules and those required for their operation will be installed. Modules such as list or variant will not be installed. On computers with the version installed, cadwork files can be opened, but not modified.
If you occasionally want to plug in your USB dongle to use this workstation as a fully-fledged cadwork workstation, please install the version instead. You can use the installation without a licence/USB dongle in viewer/demo mode.
cadwork Concept / Lexocad Standalone
Only the components required for the cadwork Concept / Lexocad module are installed. If other cadwork modules are required at a later date, the Installation type must be changed to via cadwork start using , point 4 below, which will be described later in this manual.
Download without installation
This installation only downloads the installation packages for cadwork. It is intended for administrators who do not wish to install cadwork on the local computer, but only download the installation files and make them available on the network via the for or . In this case, no program installation is performed on the local computer.
Target directories
Installation paths are predefined, but can be modified manually. If a previous version has already been installed (at least Version 22), all paths are taken over here, as they were already defined in the previous version.
If access paths are located on a server, the path must be indicated in the form of a UNC (Uniform Naming Convention) address. The prescribed spelling always begins with a double backslash, either before the actual server name, or before the IP address, e.g. :
- \ServerNameShareNameFolder
- \AddressIPNameShareFile
For more information on the UNC address, please visit the Wikipedia page :
Wikipedia® - Universal Naming Convention
Program path
Important:
The path of the should always be " c:\program files\cadwork.dir " to respect Windows installation structures. Only in exceptional cases should this directory be changed, e.g. when there is not enough space on the "c:\" hard disk.
However, a lack of space on the system hard disk will generate other problems later on, not only during the use of cadwork, but also in the general use of the computer.
Update path
The contains all the installation files for cadwork, once they have been downloaded from the Internet. If all computers on the network are to have access to identical local installation files, e.g. via offline installation, it is recommended to set it to a share drive accessible on the network.
The default setting is c:\Users\Public\Documents.
Shortcut
This option creates a shortcut to the cadwork start application on your desktop during installation.
Catalog / Userprofile path
Userprofile path - userprofil_2025
The contains template files (INITs), layouts, F1-F12 function key assignments and other relevant user settings, as well as any customizable settings that are important to you.
If a previous version has already been installed, a copy of the existing is created, and this is then prepared and completed as the for Version 2025, so that when you start using Version 2025, your settings, INIT files, etc. from the previous versions are directly available.
Catalog path - cadwork.cat
This is where you define the path to the folder, where you can store and retrieve user-defined catalogs. Since Version 26, the catalog files we supply are no longer installed here, but in a fixed location where they cannot be modified. One of the advantages of this is that your catalogs are kept strictly separate from the supplied cadwork catalogs, so that we can update the supplied catalogs without the risk of overwriting the catalogs you have modified.
License agreement
Please read the completely and carefully. To continue the installation, you must agree to the terms and conditions. Once you have done this, all user entries required for the installation are complete.
Cleanup
As with previous versions, cadwork allows you to update three versions. The cwsetup.exe version, version -1 and version -2. For Version 2025, this translates into Version 2025, Version 30 / 30 SP2024 and Version 29.
During the step, cadwork optionally uninstalls Versions 28 and below, up to and including Version 22.
If a cleanup is desired, select the versions you want to uninstall as part of upgrade process. Selecting the User profile option also deletes the user profiles with your settings for these versions. Versions prior to 22 will have to be uninstalled manually.
Ready to Install overview
cadwork Prerequisites
cadwork requires a few programs and prerequisites on a computer to work properly. These are extensions and additional programs from Windows® or Microsoft®. The system performs a check to ensure that the conditions required for installation are met by your system. If any components are missing (as in the image below, e.g. Microsoft® Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable Package), then cadwork will attempt to download and install them additionally, during this process. By clicking Next, the prerequisites will be downloaded and installed from the cadwork servers.
Download program data and catalog files
The program files are downloaded for installation. The data is stored in the defined and installed from there after download.
Once the program modules have been downloaded, the display changes to show the progress of catalog, cadworkprofil and userprofil downloads.
Installing modules and complete installation
After the download, the installation files saved to the are installed in the configured . Modules for which installation is completed are displayed in green. As with the download, there is a initial display of the installation of the various modules, followed by a second display of the installation of the catalogs, cadworkprofil and userprofil.
Completed modules are displayed in green.
Completed items are displayed in green.
Once installation is completed, a summary of the installed modules is displayed.
cadwork Version 2025 is now installed on your computer and ready to use.
Following link gives you an overview of the available settings in cadwork start.