could solidworks be the new wildfire (disaster)

sorry to er start this on a bit of a bitching note


but it looks like sp1 has been released and from the last 10 posts in
this group it looks like my var isnt going to get an order from me
people are still having the odd problem to be honest i was looking at
2004 having used 03 and 01+ and it seem that as with pro e the relases
are getting worse not really better
i really feel for the guys paying subscription and the like because
some of these faults just stick despite the amount of complaints and
gripes however personal and feeble they may be. however some
requirements are just basic stuff like installing the software (and i
know theres a bigger picture before someone chews my head off for the
above statement)
and still that isnt right

should i go back to pro e 2001 or solidworks 2001+ it seems we never
had it so good since those releases


does anyone know if catia is reliable and can be guaranteed to produce
on time

 

2003 is now 'ok' but for 2004 it is still early days-as per usual expect it
to be working well about sp3....... : ( .....hang in there dude....SW rules!
ok? : )
enjoy your weekend...

 

absolutely agree- SW needs to tune into users asking for better
spline/surfacing functions.
D-Cubed-yeah love to have that, offset splines too, etc,etc.
actually I feel improvements needs to arrive real soon (6 months) or people
are going to turn away from SW- at present handling curvy stuff is not the
fluid, articulate undertaking it should be.
bet we get other stuff people are not that interested in though....often
wondered who it is who asks for the 250 customer driven enhancements fed to
us each release...

 

This is kind of a weird thing to say but 2004 reminds me of

Absolutely untrue! They gave you a new "prettier" layer dialogue box
and an incomprehsible new plot manager, just like they always did.
Some people want everything - - -

But really, Autodesk has been getting it's lunch eaten because they
are asleep at the wheel. What is totally laughable is that all the
awesome (yes I like acad for 2d drafting) drafting features have been
jettisoned in inventor. Throw away 20 years of interface
development(?)!

SolidWorks should not presume that they can keep the market if they
put out buggy stuff. I should be able to install a service pack
without a problem. I can't. I'm not incapable or stupid (mostly).
These things should not be a hassle. Past success does not imply
future success. I too have had hopes for them to improve some
obviously underpowered things, but they dont seem to, year after year
after year.

If they sleep, or somehow ignore the market, they will not survive.
Unfortunately many of these things seem geared towards claiming new
functionality instead of getting the fundamentals to be rock-solid.
Surfaces mean little to me (selfishly), but I am damned tired of
having sheet-metal error out when two panels are simply coplanar,
WHILE the 180 degree hem feature can blast clear thru another panel
and not even be considered a error.

There are too many things like this in the program (including surfaces
I'm sure - I'm no expert there). This really remindes me of when I
changed broadband providers because of bad service. Before I
switched, they basically told me to go "piss in my hat" - after I
dumped one and went to another, the old one was SUDDENLY interested in
my problems, offering free service and so on. Too late.

Unfortunatley there is no tangible way (i.e. witholding revenue -
maintenence, buying competitor) to make them listen without also
hurting yourself too. For this to stop, I think they need to lose
money and market share. That almost always hits home. Really do I
want to see this? NO.

I really do feel "loyal" to solidworks. The new software has many
nice improvements, but please don't ask your customers to do quality
control.

I just want to install my sp1.0 to see if its better. I can't. I
don't want to call anyone, I don't want to fill out a report, I just
want to install.

Regards,

SMA

 

"Surfaces mean little to me (selfishly), ..."

At least you have been very honest.
Good enough for me.

"but I am damned tired of having sheet-metal error out when
two panels are simply coplanar, WHILE the 180 degree hem
feature can blast clear thru another panel and not even be
considered a error"

I wonder how reliable SolidEdge is at sheet-metal ? My guess
would be that SolidEdge is much better from a reliability
standpoint.

Be nice if a SolidEdge sheet-metal users would comment on
whether they experience the problems you do. I tend to doubt
they do.

jon

 

speaking of wildfire, is it pretty screwed up? I haven't heard much.

Thanks
Bill

 

: speaking of wildfire, is it pretty screwed up? I haven't heard much.
:
The ancient aristocrats among Pro/E users complain that Wildfire's too much like
SW (i.e., usable, easy, intuitive, you know the drill) and that just 'anyone' will
be able to use it, meaning overpriced guru status will be a thing of the past.
(Well, okay, it already is, bless the competition and economic slowdows.) But too
many SW users are complaining that the publisher seems to be emulating Pro/GOOFY's
popping, slopping windows. You need to pick from a feature tree? ha, it slops some
message window over the feature tree; you need to pick from the model? fu, it
plops some g'dawful, useless excrescense PRECISELY over the place you need to
pick. Please don't tell me SW's going this way, I'll shot myself!!!!!! What I
really need to know is, what will be the NBT in modelling, something I can learn
and buy stock in.

David Janes

 

I sure know what you mean. I almost get motion sickness with all the
graphic stuff
whizzing and bouncing around the screen.
I've just spent half the day trying to get some simple surface fills to work
in sw2004sp1,
(they won't knit. can't thicken, blah, blah, works fine in 2003sp5) 2004
going back on the shelf
for quite a while. I'm kind of thinking about reverting to 2001+, if I can
work it out with library data, etc.
The speed difference on drawings more than makes up for features added since
then.

Since pro-e (wildfire) is down now where I can afford it, I was hoping it
was good enough on quality.

If that NBT comes along, though I'll probably be riding that train.

Bill

 

I would argue that they have applied lessons learned from 20 years of
interface development (both their own and others) and built an
interface that is easy to use. Now they just need to develop the
tools. In practice I find the Inventor and Solidworks interface to be
essentially the same with an edge to Inventor for ease of use and an
edge to SWX in development of tools. Going back to Autocad is painful.