Support requests

Ask for help without leaving what you are doing: the assistant can collect your CAD logs, open a request with them attached, tell you where it has got to, and let you know the moment somebody answers. Everything is also there in the browser, on the same thread.

Opening a request from the desktop agent

The quickest route is to say so in the chat. You do not need to know anything about how support is organised.

Open a support request: SOLIDWORKS closes when I add a fillet to this part

The request is created with what you said as its subject and description, and the answer gives you its number. Keep the number: it is how you refer to the request later.

Attaching your logs

Most "it crashed" questions are answered by the logs, and you should not have to find them yourself.

Collect my SOLIDWORKS logs and open a support request about the crash, attach them

A single diagnostics zip is built first: the SphereHarness logs, the CAD system's own recent logs and crash dumps, what is installed, which add-ins are loaded, and basic system information. Collecting uploads nothing. The zip sits on your PC until it is attached to the request, so you can do the two steps separately, look inside it, and only then send it.

Collect diagnostics for SOLIDWORKS and tell me where the zip is

Attaching anything else

Open a support request about the mate that will not solve, and attach C:\parts\frame.sldasm and C:\temp\screenshot.png

Any file type is accepted. The files must already exist on your PC, and a path that is not a real file is refused by name and nothing is sent - you get the request you meant, or no request at all, never one with a missing attachment nobody notices.

This works the same whichever AI is answering your chat - the platform's model, your own key, or your own coding agent. You describe what you want in your own words; none of these needs you to know a command.

Size limits. Up to 25 MB per file and 100 MB per request, counting everything attached to it across the whole thread. A file over the limit is refused with its size named, and nothing else in the request is lost. For anything larger, put it on a share and paste the link into the message.

Opening a request in the browser

Sign in to the portal and open My Support Requests. Under New request fill in the Subject, answer What is happening?, add any files under Attach files and press Send request. It appears in the My requests list below as soon as it is submitted.

Both routes create the same thing. A request opened from chat is on the page, and a request opened on the page can be asked about in chat.

Where your request goes

Every signed-in user can open a request. Where it lands depends on how your company is set up, and it is decided for you:

Your company was set up by a partner. The request goes to that partner's support queue. They see it, they answer it, and they know your licence.
Your company was set up directly. The request goes to the global pool and is answered by the SphereHarness team.

A partner who wants a second opinion can hand a request over to the global pool. The request stays visible to them, so nobody drops out of the conversation, and answers then come from the SphereHarness team. You do not have to do anything when that happens; you may notice that the name on the replies changes.

What the statuses mean

Status	What it means
New	Opened, and nobody has replied yet.
Updated	You added a message or a file to it. It is back on the other side's desk.
Answered	Support replied. The ball is with you.
Closed	Finished. Closed by you, by your partner or by the SphereHarness team.

The status is the state of the thread, not a judgement about the answer. A request that is Answered but not fixed should get another message rather than a new request: the whole history, and the files, are already there.

Checking where a request has got to

What is the status of my support requests?

You get one line per request: the number, the subject, the status, which queue it is in, how many replies you have not read, and the last reply. Only the last one, so that asking does not print a whole thread you have already read. For the full history open the request on My Support Requests in the portal, or ask for that one request by number.

Show me support request 148

Adding to an open request

Add to request 148: it also happens when I save, not only on the fillet

Add to request 148 and attach C:\temp\new-log.zip

The message is added to the thread, the request goes back to Updated, and whoever is handling it is notified. In the portal, the same thing is the Reply box under the thread and its Send reply button.

Prefer one thread with five messages to five requests about one problem. Everything already said, and everything already attached, is context the person answering can see.

Closing a request

Close request 148, it was a graphics driver

You can close your own request when you are done with it, in the chat or with Close request on the open thread in the portal. Your partner or the SphereHarness team can close one too. Say what fixed it if you know: a closed thread with the cause in it is the one that helps the next person.

The notification bell

The chat card carries a bell in its header. It shows a count of the notifications you have not read, and it is how you find out that somebody answered without going to look.

A reply on one of your requests raises a notification, and a balloon from the tray so that you see it even if the chat card is behind your CAD window.
Click the bell for the last 20: the title, the text and when each arrived, with Mark all read at the bottom. Clicking one marks it read and then does the useful thing for its kind. A support notification asks the chat to show that request, so what you read is the request's current state rather than the notification's frozen text; anything carrying a link opens the link.
Announcements arrive the same way. Your partner can send one to your company, and the SphereHarness team can send one to everybody.

Notifications are checked for every 60 seconds while you are signed in, so a reply reaches you within a minute or so rather than instantly. One balloon per check, never one per notification, so an administrator answering five requests at once is one interruption and not five. The first check after you sign in only sets the baseline: it puts the count on the bell but raises no balloon, because a balloon means "this arrived while you were sitting here".

Giving feedback

Feedback is not a support request. Use it for what you think of the product: what is missing, what is awkward, what worked better than you expected. It does not open a thread and nobody is obliged to reply to it, which is exactly why it is worth sending.

In the chat card, the Settings and more menu has Send feedback…. A short dialog asks what you would like us to know, with an optional Rating from 1 to 5, and Send.
In the portal, Send Feedback has the same form, a rating from 5 - excellent down to 1 - bad or No rating, and a list of what you have sent before.
Or just say so: send feedback: the Target box should remember my last choice.

Feedback tells us which surface it came from, so "the drawing views are hard to place" from inside the CAD and the same sentence from the website are not the same report to us. Both forms say it plainly: feedback is not a support request and it gets no request number. If you need an answer, open a request instead.

Both the bell and feedback need you to be signed in: feedback is sent with your account, and the menu item is greyed out until you are.

For partners: the support queue

If you resell SphereHarness, your customers' requests arrive in your own portal under Support, split into My queue and Handed to global. See the Reseller Portal for the queue, the reply thread, handing a request to the global pool, and having every request and reply forwarded to your own helpdesk mailbox automatically.

Common questions

Can I see my colleague's requests? No. You see your own. Your partner sees their customers' requests, and the SphereHarness team sees the global pool. That is the whole visibility rule.

Do I need a particular plan? No. Opening a request is available to every signed-in user.

Nothing happened when I asked for my logs. Log collection reaches into the CAD system's own log folders, so the CAD system has to have run on that machine. If the zip comes back empty, say which CAD system and the request can be opened without it.

The bell shows nothing and I am expecting a reply. Notifications only arrive while you are signed in. Check My Support Requests in the portal, which is the same data without the polling.