FYI....Intstallation times

2/4/04 Bulletin - Installation SolidWorks 2004 SP2.1

To help diagnose installation problems, the Service Pack 2.1
installation had the verbose diagnostic logging feature enabled. This
feature caused an increase in the time to apply sp 2.1 To remedy this
problem, sp 2.1 downloaded on or after 4 February 2004 now has logging
disabled by default. You will find this significantly reduces the time to
install sp 2.1.

The only change is to the sp 2.1 installation program itself, and the
resulting SolidWorks sp 2.1 installation is functionally identical to the
previous version. Therefore, customers with sp 2.1 already installed do not
need to download and reapply this Service Pack.

 

Thanks to "someone", the newsgroup has been alerted to the presence of
a new bulletin.

As one who has been forced to waste precious time due to the prior
enabling of the installer's "verbose diagnostic logging feature", I am
disappointed to not have been notified (as part of a broadcast from
SolidWorks) by the Corporation itself which certainly has a vested
interest in the trouble-free and speedy installation of its software.

O.K. one could say that it's easy to check the support site at
SolidWorks.com; however, I haven't been making a practice of looking
there just in case something new of interest might be found there.

While there may be times when enabling the "verbose diagnostic logging
feature" provides an important troubleshooting option, I don't
understand why it would have been enabled by default. I can't claim to
know much about the inner workings of the Windows Installer, but
suggest that it would make sense to set the logging feature to OFF by
default and have a user configurable option for turning it on, if the
need arises.

Hopefully, SolidWorks didn't fully realize the burden being created by
enabling the logger!

I haven't tried an upgrade to SP2.1 with the new download, but can
tell you that the previous patch (from 1/26/04) made the process
similar to trying to drive at high speed on the interstate while
having the emergency brake fully engaged...

SolidWorks Corporation should act to notify ALL users directly in an
attempt to save (collectively) countless hours!

Per O. Hoel
________________________________________________________________

 

This is really beginning to be too much. Quit treating us like
guinea pigs SolidWorks.

So does this mean I have to cancel my halfway downloaded
Service Pack because of this stupidity?

I've been slowly downloading SP2.1 for the past week, a few
hours at a time since I'm on dial-up and I was about 80%
finished when I heard this pathetic news.

Damn this pisses me off. Tell me this is a prank.

 

Mike,
I understand your pain, but really this is a good thing. SolidWorks listened
and turned their attention to fixing a huge problem. You could make the case
they should have known, but please give them a ...little...credit for trying
to right a wrong. I don't know about cancelling your download. Is 1 to 1-1/2
hours to install the SP more than the time it would take for you to
re-download?

Richard

 

No. The download has taken about 8 hours so far with a few
more to go.

If the eight hours isn't wasted, then I'm OK right? But how
do I know it will work? I'm going to have to try downloading
the rest of the file and installing it. If there is a problem, I have
to go through the entire 12 hour download process again.

I guess my point is that if SolidWorks changes *anything*
to their Service Packs, they need to change the revision.
This violates the integrity of the numbering scheme. Surely
anyone can see this???

How are we the customers, to tell the difference now
between SP2.1 old and SP2.1 new? These are two different
files, therefore two different Service Pack versions. Am I
missing something?

I don't have access to a fast internet connection at this time
so for me, having to re-download is a big deal. I'm going
to D/L the remaining portion and see what happens.

Mike

 

Mike,
Slow install times aside, I think most have been able to get the
installation to work. You've seen the posts from Per and others, and yes
there are some that had to run around in circles to get it accomplished.
Make sure you look at the other bulletins on the SolidWorks site if you have
problems. And, don't give up too quickly on an install. There are times when
it seems to stall only to pick back up and finish eventually.

Richard

 

OK, now I see. I just saw Greg's post in the forum. This
is part of the new "were listening" campaign. I'll go easy
on 'em!

BTW, what got me heated up here was the fact that I had
2.0 Eval Version installed, and when I tried the 2.0 to 2.1
patch, it wouldn't work. I assumed (and still do) that I just
plain mucked up my system from all of my experimentation.

When I saw that they changed something without altering the
version number I got suspicious.

I'll go ahead and sum up my observations and post them
in the forum.

Thanks Richard,
Mike Wilson

 

Mike,
Since you've got such a slow connection, why not ask your VAR for a copy
of the SP's burned to a CD? I'll bet they would do that for you.

Dave H

 

That's an excellent suggestion. Right now I'm on the
road, far from my VAR so it's difficult. It's just one
of those rare circumstances.

Mike