Anyone know when SP4.0 is due...looks like it will fix some of my problems.

???

 

Typically SolidWorks will not even provide an estimated date. All I can
tell you is the pre-release of this SP is not even out yet. A limited
pre-release usually comes out 1 to 4 weeks ahead of a SP.
Brad

 

2nd Tuesday of Next week. It was supposed to be released on the 29th of
February but they forgot about leap year so you'll have to wait till then.

 

Just think, the next service pack after that will be the last before
SolidWorks 2007 SP0 will be released, after that it will be 8 months before
2007 will be usable in production.

John Layne
www.solidengineering.co.nz

 

Just checked, currently 606 fixes due in SP4

 

606! that's dreadful for a sp4
..
I going to do one of my moans at this point even though I am on SW05 -.
It is my observation that -
1. Bluebeam to Adobe transition was hasty because the CEO was set to make
announcement about it's 3d capabilities at SWW.
2. When ever SWW coincides with a sp it is an abortive effort that leads to
a stream of further x.1, x.2 etc fixes.
3.Some sp beta tests were skipped out of the process.

SW needs to change the way they do things so that attending to sp is the
priority activity and nothing gets pushed up the list for marketing
purposes.
If necessary hire a company or set up another section just to run SWW and
leave the core team to do their usual business.
This lag in getting bugs fixed is getting worse each year no wonder users
are either holding off or skipping releases.
Sooner or later people are going to get turned off Beta testing at all
because it doesn't seem to bring real results early enough in the release
cycle.
SW guys need to hear clearly from the user community that they need to
rethink things and catch up.
my 10c - 1,2,5 are redundant in NZ - we are hoping to make the dollar
irrelevant eventually too )

 

150 of those will be fixed in the final service pack for 2006 SP5 and then
75 new bugs will be introduced. Which gives us around 300 bugs left in SP5
for 2006, not counting the bugs that have now become "not working as
intended", but we haven't had enough complaints about them so we are not
going to bother fixing them.

SW2006 SP3.4
my current favorite bugs, miscellaneous video issues and some weird stuff
with configurations and dependent features of suppressed hole wizard
features with unsuppressed sketches -- I'll send my first and probably last
RX file for 2006 on this next week when I have some spare time.

John Layne
www.solidengineering.co.nz

Note I really do like this software, despite the bugs.

 

Honestly, I am starting to think I want to negotiate for a new form of
SolidWorks license.

I want a maintenance fee to buy the last release of each years
SolidWorks release and pay only at the time of the last release SP.

Hence, if I buy SWks 2006 SP5 on Sept 1 as the last release, then that
is when I pay my maintenance fees.

Boy is my name going to be mud at SolidWorks if this idea gets any
traction amongst users.

Bo

 

That's what I do every 2 years or so. And this year, I think I will just ask
for an upgrade to SW06 when 07 will be released, no maintenance.

 

What I am detecting is a lack of a more rigorous programming structures
in the first place and then better internal automated testing regimine
for finding errors as time goes on at SolidWorks.

If your "test engine" kept getting tuned up better with each new bug
that was found, a computerized test engine out to be able to find bugs
far easier than humans with less man hours.

At least that is the way mechanical engineers would do things.

Bo

 

I think the entire subscription idea is part of the problem. (though I
also realize it helps get management to fund needed upgrades as well)
Subscription increases the need for a software company to generate a
new version every year, and decreases the modivation to make the new
release earn the upgrade fee. When companies used to have to think
more about writing that upgrade check, they were more conservative
about risking an upgrade. The upgrade needed to have sufficient new
features and reliability to "earn" its fee.

Joe Dunfee

 

The Early Release version of SP4.0 just was released last night - Mar
23. This is kind of a Beta release of the SP in order to get some
customers to test it before the full release.
Brad