state of the SW universe?

Greetings people.
...so, other than the decay of this group to 95% crap posts by jon, cliff
and the clods from alt .machines whats happening with SW these days?

The reason I am asking this in all seriousness is that my old VAR has sent
me a temping offer to rejoin subs again..

Now the first thought that came to me about this is that no-one is getting
into SW08 and they are starving to death..sad...but then again I thought
this might be something to consider slightly seriously if they are going to
bring in substantial penalties for non obedience soon..carrot and stick
eh?..
(why we should pay to compensate for downturned profits reflecting slowly
deteriorating releases is just a little galling but..)

Given the reason I got out of subs was mostly to do with the 2000+ per
release bug farce and the groom and control your customers bullshit how is
SW08 actually?

The new UI is a turn off but how has the serious surfacing been with it?
speed generally?

My thought was actually I might rejoin subs but wait until the final sp to
use it or - skip using 08 all together with 09 the actual target available
during the subs year...but... then again I read beta will be very short this
time which is not at all encouraging

Any thoughts from serious users out there about the state of the SW universe
at this time is welcome.
Neil

 

My thought was actually I might rejoin subs but wait until the final sp to

http://jonbanquer.blogspot.com/

Jon Banquer
San Diego, CA

 

Neil: "Now the first thought that came to me about this is that no-one
is getting into SW08"

In recent times, I have noticed a flurry of requests from my customers
of SolidWorks add-ins for updated add-ins compatible with SolidWorks
2008. This leads me to believe that people have started adopting SW
2008 in respectable numbers. Maybe they were waiting for a few SP's to
be released. I know that my customers may not be an accurate sample of
the entire SW customer base, but they may give some indication to a
trend.

Is anyone hearing otherwise?

Deelip Menezes
www.deelip.com

 

Sincere Greetings,

In our group, some 100 or so seats, only a few are sampling 2008 and
the conclusion is not to upgrade.
There's nothing in 08 to justify disrupting our operation of networked
07 installs.
If it ain't broke why fix it?
The yearly subscription fee is paid, but if 09 isn't a marvel, you can
be sure next year we will cut the number of subscribed seats to about
half that, that decision has been.
This is fact for our use of Solidworks.

CC

 

CC: "There's nothing in 08 to justify disrupting our operation of
networked 07 installs."

Yes, I have heard this argument over and over again. And it is a
perfectly valid one. I belive one year is too less a time to:
1) Fix old bugs
2) Create new features
3) Test the new features

I believe the item on the list above that gets the least amount of
time is (3) when it should actually get the most. This results in
whole new set of bugs for the next year which goes to compound the
problem.

And this phenomenon is not restricted only to SolidWorks.

Deelip Menezes
www.deelip.com

 

what is the reason(s) most of the group arent upgrading then?
UI borked? admin and bug fatigue? little or nothing attractive about the new
stuff? other CAD looks better? tight budget? bad press?..

I admit from the little info I have seen of 09 features it doesnt seem very
exciting but you live in hope the performance gain is real.
I would really like to see some 'simple' practical improvements like for
instance adding conics rather than still more 'it draws itself' stuff.
I guess a lot of folks are waiting to see if the new CEO will really deliver
the redirection customers have talked about for a long time to no effect.

thanks for your reply

Neil

 

Neil: "what is the reason(s) most of the group arent upgrading then?
UI borked? admin and bug fatigue? little or nothing attractive about
the new stuff? other CAD looks better? tight budget? bad press?.."


I think the number one reason is quite simply that they done see a
good enough reason to upgrade. Basically, the new stuff in the new
version is something that they very well can do without.

It may interest you to know that at SYCODE, we sell add-ins to
customers who are still using SolidWorks 2001 and are quite happy with
it. We have a policy of supporting versions as early as is technically
possible and economically feasible. For example, we develop and
support plug-ins for AutoCAD 2000 onwards. And I am not talking about
maintaining old products. A brand new AutoCAD plug-in that we launch
will work with AutoCAD 2000. Same goes for SolidWorks 2001.

Now you may ask why do we go to these extra pains of supporting legacy
versions. Well, I believe that every customer is important. Just
because he uses (and is quite happy with) an older version of the
software it doesn't mean that we close the doors on him. And by the
way, most our plug-ins are sold to users who are not using the latest
version of the software available. They are one or two versions below.

My point is, some people are quite happy driving their tried and
tested 5 year old car simply because they need to get from point A to
point B. Not everybody needs the latest model, especially if the
latest model is known to break down after every 10 miles.

Deelip Menezes
www.deelip.com

 

The reason is that many SolidWorks customers are sick and tired of
bells and whistles and no tools that are really need and that they
have been waiting years for.

http://tinyurl.com/6z2f8n

Without tools like this there will be no upgrade to SW 2009 either. It
doesn't matter how many times SolidWorks employee Joe Dunne claims in
a video on CADJunky that this SolidWorks release is the "best ever"
like he did for SolidWorks 2008.

Where is this technology in SolidWorks 2009?

http://tinyurl.com/6z2f8n

Thank You Siemens/UGS! See:

http://jonbanquer.blogspot.com/

Matt Lombard:

Wrong again on the tools needed by those who work in machining job
shops who are asked to modify their customers designs.

Completely out of touch with those that are handed someone else’s
design and are asked to modify it.

Franco Folini Of Novedge:

Wrong again about almost everything he comments on in regards to CAD.
The reason is he Folini is trying to protect the products and vendors
he represents at Novedge. Siemens/UGS products are not sold by
Novedge.

See:

http://jonbanquer.blogspot.com/

Jon Banquer
San Diego, CA

 

Well its nice to hear you support as many users as possible.
Possibly being a 3rd party company you have a different situation to SW
themselves who need to keep dazzling us with new stuff on the great
capitalist mission to bring SW to every engineers desktop...

Traditionally SW users have ended up being dragged forward by other
businesses early adoption of the latest and greatest.
Perhaps this cycle has been broken at this point.

I wonder if this is indicative of people bypassing the struggle and only
adopting sp5 for a whole year (my preferred strategy as a solo designer) or
whether people are completely turned off the upgrade game all together?

Seems to me too there isnt much new about the broken nature of CAD either. I
have complained a lot about this here and there in the past and there was a
lot of indifference and even pretence or fanboyism that it wasnt an issue.

I wonder why this suddenly is an issue for a significant number of people?
Pity there dont seem to be many users here these days to share their
opinions.

Neil

 

SP4 EV is out so in a couple weeks it will be at that level which
might mean stable.

I can't say I've done a lot of surfacing with it so I don't know about
stability there.

There was a discussion about the cost of coming back on subscription a
weel or so ago. I won't rehash that.

TOP

 

ok thanks Top, so looks like you and Bo are the only old inhabitants left
here then? shame to see this place die...

ok so nothing in the SW universe has changed..

except perhaps it might all suck down into a black hole generated by their
own careless lab experiments - meanwhile the remaining folks and the
reluctant will pedal faster to keep the engine going fast enough to offset
the pull...

later

 

ok so nothing in the SW universe has changed..

Wrong!

Siemens/UGS has changed the entire game:

http://jonbanquer.blogspot.com/

If Siemens/UGS goes directly after SolidWorks and Mastercam both
companies are going to be in a world of hurt:

http://jonbanquer.blogspot.com/


Jon Banquer
San Diego, CA
http://jonbanquer.blogspot.com/

 

you might as well upgrade...

to SolidEdge if it's got a decent implementation of Synchronous
Technology and SolidWorks has no answer because of SolidWorks Corp.
past obsession with bells and whistles rather then developing their
own technology.

If you’ve got the funds go with UG NX 6. With the money you have saved
over the years by not upgrading why not spoil yourself with the needed
tools that SolidWorks 2008 doesn't have and most likely SolidWorks
2009 won't have.

Did I mention I have a blog? ;>)

http://jonbanquer.blogspot.com/

Jon Banquer
San Diego, CA

 

And you lose what functionality?
And you migrate your existing data exactly how
& with what losses (while throwing away all your
investment & training in SW?)

Not that you've ever used it either. Or are ever
even halfway sane.

 

And whose "technology" are those "bells and whistles"
(functionality), exactly?

 

you might as well upgrade...

to SolidEdge if it's got a decent implementation of Synchronous
Technology and SolidWorks has no answer because of SolidWorks Corp.
past obsession with bells and whistles rather then developing their
own technology.

If you’ve got the funds go with UG NX 6. With the money you have saved
over the years by not upgrading why not spoil yourself with the needed
tools that SolidWorks 2008 doesn't have and most likely SolidWorks
2009 won't have.

Did I mention I have a blog? ;>)

http://jonbanquer.blogspot.com/

Jon Banquer
San Diego, CA

 

you 2 guys are getting lonely here I can tell

is that you in the video cliff?
I kept thinking it might end in an explosion you know...
btw I see you will have 125,000 posts coming up soon-
any thoughts of retiring from retirement?

jon what else is happening out there in the CAD world?
you know more scoop news and marketing bullshit than anyone else..
must be other stuff happening everyone should know about other than simple
seimens rubber modelling extravaganza...

seriously though your blog is up there with matts for content minus the
fishing pictures

be good to each other ya here

 

Naw, someone that posts here at times sent it to me. Not
him/her either I'm certain.
Regular *actual* SW user though.

Me too. I know better.
But clueless loves videos too so .... LOL ...

 

jon what else is happening out there in the CAD world?

First and foremost it's a CADCAM world not just a CAD world. The two
are inseparable... sorry. :>)

Second, what Siemens/UGS has shown IS the next big breakthrough and
not as Matt Lombard has declared "Ho-hum" technology. As per usual
Matt Lombard is out of touch with the tools that are needed by
manufacturing because Matt Lombard doesn't have clue one on what's
need in this area and is a complete fucking moron when it comes to
understanding manufacturing.

Better technology is not enough. It's up to Siemens/UGS to develop
their VAR network like SolidWorks has developed theirs and it's up to
the combined effort of Simens/UGS and their VAR's to go after
SolidWorks and Mastercam with a vengeance. It's now or never.

Not right now and that's fine with me! What Siemens/UGS has solves my
last major issue and it is the last really big issue in CAD for me.
The first was solved when hybrid modeling emerged as being the way to
go.... something I had said for years needed to happen. The rest will
be polish and incremental improvement.

No blog even comes close when it comes to explaining where the
problems in CADCAM really are and no blog exposes the ugly truth about
the CADCAM business better than:

http://jonbanquer.blogspot.com/

Jon Banquer
San Diego, CA