Solidworks wants our top 10 suggestions

Well, I figured everyone would post the obvious requests for feature
fixes, et al, so I just rambled right off the top of my head from
memory, the things of late that have bugged me, and particularly things
which seem just "common sense". Since I didn't see a lot of these
listed, I just thought I'ld put my ignorance out for all to see and let
you take liberal pot shots at me.

<Jon, no more stupid sexual references, OK. Most of us are
professionals hereabouts.>

1. Moving items into folders in the feature tree is sometimes
problematic, as is taking them out certainly.

2. When I have a complex part with 6-12 configurations and decide to
SAVE AS & then eliminate all the extra features making the
configurations and start deleting the dozens and dozens of features,
SolidWorks often crashes and crashes repeatedly.

I am forced to delete one or a few at a time, Save and then repeat and
it wastes time.

3. Iffy Lofts which are rather simple and seemingly should easily work
or be easily fixed when they get "twisted" would be nice.

Trying to grab and relocate the guide points sometimes works to edit
into a smooth loft, and sometimes it doesn't work, as those points are
not always "draggable" into place.

I always manage to fudge a way, but it is excruciating when it seems so
simple and straightforward.


4. SAVE AS is not enough. Please consider this for the creative
designer's use.

When you prepare 2, 3 or 6 versions of a tough innovative design to try
to guess and eventually analyze what is the best design choice, you
wind up doing SAVE AS many many times as you make new assembly
versions.

We ought to be able to do SAVE AS & RENAME, with a user supplied suffix
OR prefix and every assembly and part gets copied and renamed and put
into one folder (or maybe multiple folders inside the designated
folder). This would save a large amount of time, and the coding to do
a special SAVE AS and rename would be TRIVIAL.


5. When accidentally opening a 2nd copy of SolidWorks, a dialog box
pops up, but the only option to the warning is "OK" and then a 2nd Copy
of SolidWorks opens anyway, and there should be a 2nd button choice
that says "Cancel".

Just common sense.


6. Production Design in a large office with PDM and servers is one way
of using SolidWorks, but it doesn't necessary relate to a single
designer who does primarily new innovative designs where it is all the
initial design trials and variations, experiments, and analysis of all
types of engineering factors that consume the bulk of the time in
SolidWorks. This is a vague comment. I just note that there are
different types of users other than the "production shop". Different
forms of options in SolidWorks might benefit those users. (Throwaway?)


7. In order to make SolidWorks stay up and running without all the
literal BULLSHIT required to keep Billy Gates damnable MS Windows XP
Professional SP2, with who knows how many patches and patches of
patches et al working, I GAVE UP.

I NEVER allow my PC with SolidWorks to access the network, or Internet,
and it runs essentially only WinZip, MS Office, Snag It and SolidWorks.
That way I stay running virtually 100%, and NEVER have any BSOD.

That is a hell of a way to have to run what is arguably the best
moderate priced 3D CAD application in the world.

What to do? I say port SolidWorks to UNIX, and yeah I know all the
issues and costs, and they are significant, but damn if it wouldn't be
nice running on UNIX or MacOSX (where I run all my Internet work).

MS has made life HELL for individual designers and small shops at
times. I just went to a toolmaker making a mold of my latest design,
and it took 5 minutes to try to load my mold assembly and he had to
"End Task", where my Dell M60 would open it in well under a minute. He
didn't know what to do to fix his machine, and neither did anyone else.
That means a consultant.

Bullshit. This is the 21st Century. We are not supposed to be
computer trolls. We are supposed to be productive. And Billy Goats
tells us VISTA is going to be better. Billy Goats has been eating
weed. Yeah I am a bit sick of this, as it is not necessary. Look at
OS X. None of that in OS X.


8. Months and months of coding and beta testing gets down to the final
month before release. 500 items still have bugs and crash or hang or
don't work right.

SO TAKE THE FEATURES OUT UNTIL YOU FIX THEM.

Jesus, I'll bet your customer complaints would drop by more than 50% if
you did that.


9. Make it MANDATORY that someone SINGLE person Read & VERIFY all
installation & upgrade documents so that they all match in both factual
wording and instructions and versions and methods for the installs.

There is nothing worse than finding that the paperwork in the CD box
didn't match that somewhere else and you have to do the installs ALL
OVER AGAIN.


10. TAKE A HINT DIRECTLY FROM Bill Gates & MS's latest
recommendations:

MS now admits that the latest malware & virii have become so
sophisticated that no software removal tool can guarantee that you get
all the crap out, so MS says just 'Reformat & Reinstall'.

SolidWorks ought to make a recommendation to small shops & individual
SolidWorks users to just get a 2nd Hard drive (they are CHEAP) when
each new year's SolidWorks is to be loaded up and install Win XP Pro
SP2, and load the new SolidWorks, so you LEAVE YOUR OLD OS & SOLIDWORKS
INSTALLATION ALONE.

That way the user can always 'fall back' or revert for any reason at
any time if something does NOT GO RIGHT.

Again, just common sense, but SolidWorks ought to recommend people
consider it, if their work situation makes it practical (Like no IT
guy).

11. Oh, and your Survey from Survey Monkey:

It took awhile, like maybe an hour, to type all the above from scratch.
So guess what happened?

I clicked submit, and the page disappeared with no confirmation that my
10 suggestions were sent. I'll be it timed out. It certainly didn't
ask me for my email address as other surveys from SolidWorks have done.

Well, I figured this might happen, so I had copied out all the text
before I hit "Submit", so I am going to submit it again, and put in
this comment.


Bo
Neither power, nor intelligence, nor connections, nor money can recover
lost TIME!

 

Crashes seem to follow certain types of uses for SW. In my case they
seem to increase when doing drawings of large assemblies. Can't seem to
reproduce any particular sequence to get them to happen except that
they usually occur after switching from assembly to drawing to
assembly. I know you don't do a lot of large assembly work so you
probably don't see this.

I have no interest in a few hot keys. How much time do you think they
are worth to you in a day?

 

Dude, you're just a rabid mac user.

No one has ever complained about the mac...

Why is the sky always falling in your world?

 

I have actually come to like using SolidWorks on WinXP, and it is very
productive for me now.

It is mostly the little things that bug you once you get humming along
at top speed. Sort of like the screeners at airports slowing me down
for the 6" file I had in the bottom of my bag on my last trip. Rather
than just rip everything out of the bag, they scanned it 4 times and
then asked me what I had and emptied it and I missed my flight.
Irritating. Unnecessary.

Just so long as I arrange SWks to not give problems, I think SolidWorks
is the most enjoyable CAD program I've ever used.

In spite of what can be improved with SolidWorks, virtually every other
3D CAD program I've tried (about 5) had far worse things and SDRC's
Artisan was arguably the worst, because when things went wrong, you
were expected to be a real competant IT guy to get it working again.

Bo

 

My top 10, for what it's worth (not necessarily in this order):-

1. Allow dimensioning to silhouette edges in drawings !!!!

2. Better control of multi-body positioning e.g. position the center of a
cylindrical body a set dimension from an edge of another body.

3. Greatly enhanced reference geometry options. I-DEAS has pretty much
every option covered e.g. a reference point that is a percentage along an
edge ; polar co-ord systems.
Also, I often find that having created the reference geometry, SWX does not
support its use with many commands/operations.

4. BOM enhancements:-
- create BOM's direct from assemblies
- a "sort" function that stays sorted!
- stop keep needing to ctrl-Q to get all the custom properties to be
displayed for all the items in the BOM
- balloons that don't jump around of their own accord

5. Improve associativity between drawing dimensions and the model.
Frequently I find they become dangling for no good reason. I-DEAS let you
make the dimension related to the underlying surface, rather than just to
the edge, which was more robust. Sometimes model dimensions that are valid
in the model become dangling in the drawing!

6. This one may be down to my relative inexperience with SWX, but I find it
difficult at times to get a good overview of what assembly mates are present
(particularly if created by another user). Rather than just listing the
mates that are applied to a component, I'd like it to graphically show me
that component A has 3 mates with B, and 2 mates with C etc, and then if I
click on the graphic for B it shows me all the relationships for B instead,
so that I can logically step through all the relationships.
Also, it should show ALL the relationships such as in-context sketch
relations, which also affect the position of components.
An annoying interface issue is that if you RMB-"view mates" on a component
it lists the mates, but if you click anywhere on screen this list
disappears.

7. If a feature's dimensions can be set for each part config, then it should
be possible to do this through the Feature Manager interface, rather than by
having to find the correct dimension on-screen (amongst a rat's nest of
dimensions) and then modifying it there. This is a particular problem with
variable-pitch splines, because the on-screen dimensions are all dumped on
top of one another, and even if you move them so they don't overlap, they
all jump back again next update.

8. Sketch relations often give an "over-constrained" error for no good
reason. It then often prevents you from modifying a dimension to try to
correct the situation because "the sketch is over-constrained"!
A related issue is that you can't select a sketch dimension (or an assembly
mate dimension for that matter) and drag its value to see how the relations
are working, and then have the option of keeping the new value or reverting
back to the original.
The system option of "over-ride dimensions on drag/move" is not an
acceptable solution, because it basically means you can't ensure you do not
accidentally change the value of any dimensions - surely that's the point of
having them.

9. It should be possible to modify a sketch either with or without it
automatically rolling back the history of the part. If you pick the
"without roll back" option, you see the sketch in the context of the
finished part and can add new curves and dimensions as usual - the
limitation is that you can't add relations to part edges, which would
require a rollback.

10. Better tools for working with assemblies:-
- select one or more components and then "select all" to include all
identical ones in the selection, across all levels of the hierarchy.
- roll-up all identical components into a single line item in the tree (a
bit like a pattern). If you unroll a particular item, they are left in
their original positions in the tree.
- as well as "collapse items" there should be "expand items" rather than
having to click on endless plus signs.
- if you hide a component you should still be able to expand its feature
tree
- it should not be necessary to pick "edit component" - why does this
command exist?

John H

 

Brian, it is good you mentioned this, as though I use Explorer, I never
used the "Copy" function.

But given that Explorer can do it, and the coding inside SolidWorks
would be so easy to do, why don't we have such a simple option with
automatic prefix's or suffixes, so it is the proverbial...

ONE CLICK DEAL, without having to open a new application. Just seems
simpler.

Thanks Much - Bo

 

Zoetrope, you make interesting points, and I really only said I love
SolidWorks in my initial reply. Being a detail type of guy, I reply
sincerely:

1. Rabid Mac User: In the machine shop you use whatever tool fits the
job. In engineering and design today, I do the same. It has NOTHING
to do with Rabies. It is common sense, least time to best solution use
of my time.

2. No one has ever complained about the mac: Hmmm, there have been
complaints by people hereabouts and by me occassionally but most
certainly they are not because Mac OSX has EVER slowed to a crawl, or
required extensive Registry work-replacement, malware removal or kept
crashing the OS. And I mean virtually never since OS X 10.2 when I
loaded it up for common use.

I freely admit there have been an application or two cause an
application to freeze or quit, but that is truly rare and has never
caused a problem as the program restarts and runs fine.

No system is perfect, but the faults should be minor and not crash the
whole system or result in corruption or time beyond a reboot to get it
running again.

3. sky is always falling: Hey, life is good. What I would like to
see with SolidWorks is changes that let us designers speed up our work.
Are slowdowns reasons for the sky to fall?

++++++++
At this point in my work, I really don't care what OS I run, as long as
I get the work done and done right and done in a minimum amount of
time. I probably run my Dell M60 more hours than my Mac on some days
of the week, and I work with other people who use both PCs and Macs,
and we all know what gives us the least headaches.

I think Microsoft has finally realized the megalith they are toting on
their backs and the almost impossible task they have before themselves
to get their new OS to be mission critical usability status (whenever
it gets to be stable, like by SP2 or so).

MS has had basically over half a decade without getting a major OS
overhaul, while little tiny Apple has put UNIX out with a good face on
it 5 years ago and improved it every year since.

MS has problems that they may not be able to solve any time soon. I
just wonder if SolidWorks can afford to continue to support Windows,
particularly given what I hear about VISTA in the last 3 months.

The programmers at SolidWorks who founded SolidWorks were all versed in
UNIX from days of Unigraphics, and they could likely return to UNIX
rather easily if they made a decision to do so. I doubt they will, but
only time will tell what they think of VISTA, once it ships.

If MS fails to have a viable VISTA OS in 2007, I predict here and now
MS will have to split into at least 2 corporations, with one
corporation, Vista, handling the OS only.

Bo

 

Zoetrope, you make interesting points, and I really only said I love
SolidWorks in my initial reply. Being a detail type of guy, I reply
sincerely:

1. Rabid Mac User: In the machine shop you use whatever tool fits the
job. In engineering and design today, I do the same. It has NOTHING
to do with Rabies. It is common sense, least time to best solution use
of my time.

2. No one has ever complained about the mac: Hmmm, there have been
complaints by people hereabouts and by me occassionally but most
certainly they are not because Mac OSX has EVER slowed to a crawl, or
required extensive Registry work-replacement, malware removal or kept
crashing the OS. And I mean virtually never since OS X 10.2 when I
loaded it up for common use.

I freely admit there have been an application or two cause an
application to freeze or quit, but that is truly rare and has never
caused a problem as the program restarts and runs fine.

No system is perfect, but the faults should be minor and not crash the
whole system or result in corruption or time beyond a reboot to get it
running again.

3. sky is always falling: Hey, life is good. What I would like to
see with SolidWorks is changes that let us designers speed up our work.
Are slowdowns reasons for the sky to fall?

++++++++
At this point in my work, I really don't care what OS I run, as long as
I get the work done and done right and done in a minimum amount of
time. I probably run my Dell M60 more hours than my Mac on some days
of the week, and I work with other people who use both PCs and Macs,
and we all know what gives us the least headaches.

I think Microsoft has finally realized the megalith they are toting on
their backs and the almost impossible task they have before themselves
to get their new OS to be mission critical usability status (whenever
it gets to be stable, like by SP2 or so).

MS has had basically over half a decade without getting a major OS
overhaul, while little tiny Apple has put UNIX out with a good face on
it 5 years ago and improved it every year since.

MS has problems that they may not be able to solve any time soon. I
just wonder if SolidWorks can afford to continue to support Windows,
particularly given what I hear about VISTA in the last 3 months.

The programmers at SolidWorks who founded SolidWorks were all versed in
UNIX from days of Unigraphics, and they could likely return to UNIX
rather easily if they made a decision to do so. I doubt they will, but
only time will tell what they think of VISTA, once it ships.

If MS fails to have a viable VISTA OS in 2007, I predict here and now
MS will have to split into at least 2 corporations, with one
corporation, Vista, handling the OS only.

Bo

 

Probably not. It will depend on how heavy the work load is, what the
presentations are, how much money we are making and how much we want to send
some of the folks who would probably benefit more.

Jerry Steiger
Tripod Data Systems
"take the garbage out, dear"

 

Improve cosmosworks...
To see material direction
To have safety margin and failure index
API...

 

Try Cosmos/M or NEiNastran / NEiWorks /FEMAP

 

Some of your problems can be dealt with without SW intervention. Others
will probably never change.

Bo wrote:
This is a bug, one of many. It is probably not repeatable so SW won't
fix it. Good record keeping will at least give you something to send
back to the VAR.

This can be done in a macro.

This will never happen. Money changes hands to keep it that way.

They used to do this back in the old days or so we were told at 3
Amigos.

Ever heard of a root kit? This is the nastiest of the nasty and they
don't get any press.

This is what Norton Ghost can help with. Get a good stable install and
ghost it on another hard driver. When something goes sour just install
the ghost image. Very fast.

 

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