Advice from a Beta Tester

I was a Beta Tester. Stay with SW 2003. Nothing
special about SW 2004.

Manuals are the same, nothing new here either.

Dennis

 

What is your agenda? Certainly not the truth. You must
be a reseller, anxious to line your pockets with
profits from mediocre software. Tough world.

 

special to who?

SW2004 is faster than SW2003
The new mold tools are a help
mate folders are very nice
limit mate, gear mates
new GUI, command manager
move-copy sketch is improved
and a ton of others


SW2004 is not perfect, but to say theirs nothing special is a misleading
statement. IMO

 

For some, the BOM improvement alone may be worth the upgrade. Now, you
can 'easily' edit the BOM contents to include things like bulk
quantities (24in). Excluding components from the BOM is much better now
too.

Fit splines: Now parametric to the parent geometry, plus, they can fill
gaps in the parent geometry. Could now be a VERY powerful spline
manipulation tool!

Limit mates: Allow a part to move in a set range.

Gear Mates: Force components to rotate relative to each other.

Hole tables... something lots of people have been asking for!!

The feature tree in assemblies now shows mates belonging to that
component (sort of like a show features/show dependencies hybrid)

Drawing performance. (I've not thoroughly tested it, but it does look
at least a little promising)


IMO, SWX2004 does not include anything earth-shattering, like
multibodies in 2003. But there are many small improvements that many
users have asked for. The UI has really changed to decrease space
needed for icons and commands (it can be changed back to the old style),
keeping the graphics area as large as possible.

For some, 2004 does not provide any compelling reason to upgrade, but
for others, just one of the above features could be plenty of reason!

 

You must have tested something different from what the rest of us
saw. If SW04 is "mediocre", what software are you representing?

Here are some of my favorites in 04

- new section view is awesome
- autoballoon drawings
- redone BOM, with the choice of using old Excel type
- hole charts
- revision blocks
- way improved color/transparency dialog
- huge improvements with material properties
- Task Scheduler for batch operations
- more flexible interface (menus/toolbars)
- if you do welded frames, you will have to have 2004!!
- real view (textures displayed on parts w/o photoworks)
- fit spline
- measure tool always available (in the middle of other commands)
- ruled surface feature
- options to integrate surfaces into solid in fewer steps
(knit/fill)
- loft handles
- new wrap function
- change center of view rotation by MMB click, then MMB drag
- alt-drag smart mates
- move/rotate parts with more control using handles
- limit and gear mates
- new ways to create drawings and assemblies from open documents
- new "view dependencies" function
- disolve assembly component pattern
- new mold tools


As far as stability goes, I only had 3 crashes during about 6 weeks
of testing, and that's not because I didn't use it much, I was in
the top 5 reseller testers. I did a couple of small projects in 04
and found the workflow with it to be an improvement.

What are the downsides? Well, I'm not supposed to say what the
downsides are, so I will. The new mold tools hold promise for the
future, but may not be much help in the present. I wasn't able to
get any usable results from the new deform tool. I also wasn't
happy about the customized menus still showing up with the arrows at
the bottom, but that's more personal than anything.

Overall, this release IS something special. My favorite new
features are weldments, mates and moving parts in assembly, and the
new color/material interface.

matt.

 

Thanks for the good feedback - from a couple of hours play, it seems a
decent development on 03 - drawings seem useably faster and more intuitive.
Weldments seem useable and will have a decent effect on the workflow I do
and cutting lists and the new BOM seem sensible (reserving judgement!).
What is the general consensus on stability of SW2004 PR1? Is it better or
worse than SW2003 at the release? I'm itching to get going on it, but
waiting for braver souls than me to find the real nasties!
Thanks
Deri

 

Dennis,

By your simple statement I can only come with two conclusions: A)you work
for a competitive CAD reseller or B)you skimmed the 'What's New' manual and
determined that 2004 hardly adds any value.
Welp, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and here's mine. Instead of
posting useless information spend little effort next time and explain why
you think 2004 is "nothing special". For me, 2004 is of great value as I now
am able to work on my large assemblies without running into resource issues
or other bizarre crashes. Didn't find that in the ol' what's new did ya?
But, then again 2004 doesn't automatically do my work for me, so I guess it
really is nothing special.

 

Deri Jones quipped:

i do like being able to apply a thread "texture" to a screw (copied from
Ironcad, btw). I do wish it would show up in the drawing tho.

that's all i've had time to play with so far (like 15 minutes).

first impressions:
-not sure i like the new, big buttons
-don't like the color gradient in the history window---hard to read
-the graphics look much worse:
even in a part, the disply quality is crappy. black lines, colors of
surfaces just look bad. Am I missing a setting somewhere to make it look
like 2001+? (I can provide side-by-side screenshots if anyone wants to
see.)
-I see they *finally* fixed the bug where your skin kept reverting to the
default if you ever went to Document Settings. (tho it does still seem
quirky.)

REALLY bad thing tho:
SW2004 is the default for opening existing SW files. There should either be
a warning to the user, or an option asking the user if they want to use the
existing SW install as the default for opening SW files. Just asking for
trouble.

--nick e.

 

Arlin quipped:

are you referring to each part/sub-assy having a "Mategroup1" below it?
(like I said i only played with it for like 15 minutes so far)

--nick e.

 

so turn them off.

guess what? you can turn that off too

It's aparent you got to all the really important things.


I'll bet you complained when they paved the street by your house 50 years
ago.

 

matt quipped:

look at the rest of my post, buttwad. I only got a chance to LOOK at the
friggin' thing. Spent most of THAT time looking for how to make the
graphics look better. All I got a chance to do was look thru the frigging
options. and apply a texture to a screw.

and NO SHIT I can change the look-n-feel of it. Jesus Tap-dancing Christ,
lighten up. If you want me to rip the thing, gimme a few weeks to see how
it handles my large assemblies.

piss off, ya ****-nut.

--nick e.


p.s. apparent has 2 P's, btw.

p.p.s. yeah I know i'm over-reacting, but it's fucking late and I don't like
your sarcastic attitude at the moment.

 

Open an assembly and expand the feature tree of one of the components.
Near the top, you will see a folder named 'Mates in [top level
assembly]'

This folder contains the mates also shown in 'View Dependances.'

 

From what I have seen using Pre release 1 on a sepearate project for
the last week , 2004 is massively different and better.

We work in meatal fabrications and the big one for is is the
weldments.

also the drawings have a some nice features.

If you have assembly drawings with lots of parts, autoballoon is
great!

makes a half jour job instant!!

I think there is a significant change in this release, the biggest
change I have seen, been using since SW99

Dont take anyones word for it, try it and see!

 

....

You're very welcome, Nicky. I get equally testy with people who open their
mouths before they open their eyes.

<plonk>

 

Lighten up, guys, it's only software. No reason to get all jacked out of
shape.

Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale is the best beer in the world. Now that ought
to start some real arguments.

Jerry Steiger
Tripod Data Systems

 

Not bad. Howsabout:

Old Speckled Hen (UK)
St Peters Ale (UK, organic)

Gordon's Scotch Ale (Scotland, but obviously only available in Belgium)
Chimay Blue (Belgium)
Goudenband (sp?) (Belgium)
Kasteel (Belge)
Lots more Belge beers

Kloster Andechs Doppelbock (sp again) (Germany)
Any beer served in a Biergarten to accompany Braetsel and cream cheese.

Mmmm

Chris

 

Two things one the best beer here in Canada is from Big Rock brewery and the
best beer in the world is Zuber in the Czech Republic...

 

bob z. just ordered some supplies to brew his own beer. bob z. likes beer.
lots of it.

--
bob z.
p.s. check this out if you are interested - rec.crafts.brewing

"people with less brain power than you are doing more difficult things
everyday"©

 

1.A pint of 80 shilling from the Caledonian brewery tasting rooms in
Edinburgh - heaven in a pint glass
2. A pint from the brewery in Greymouth, New Zealand - can't remember the
name, but a bloody good brewery!
3. Agree on the Belgian beers - they have a very healthy attitude to the
stuff.
4. Sierra Ale (can't remember the exact name) - a fine beer to kick back in
Yosemite with.
5. Old Peculiar (Yorkshire, England) - drunk at the Old Dungeon Ghyll in
Langdale - 'tis indeed peculiar!

 

Matt,

My opinion of you just dropped significantly - due to your degrading remarks
- totally uncalled for, IMHO.
Jerry Forcier