SW2004 beta versus SW2003

Hi everybody,
Could someone please tell me if there is a huge difference between
Solidworks 2003 and Solidworks 2004 BETA. I heard that the SW2004BETA
is already out on their website. I think its on 2 CD's worth of
download. Is it worth trying out the SW2004BETA? Or should we wait
till the full real Non-beta release comes out in 2004 sometimes.

 

Why on earth would anybody need that crap! Stay on 2003. LOL!

 

Jeff N quipped:

i agree...because so far the PR of 2004 is really unstable.

NLOL.

--nick e.

 

Coincidently, SW2004 sp0 was released today but there isn't a fix list
published yet so we'll have to see what's fixed/broken.

I agree though that there are a lot of new features that seem like
they will save a lot of time for assembly drawings, multiple
configurations bom's, and weldments. I am hoping I don't have to wait
to SP4 to implement.

 

Never mind all that stuff - have they stopped folders and things in the
feature manager from 'auto-expanding' themselves at any given opportunity?
That, for me, would be enough to justify a new SW release. {:O))

Keith

 

Keith Kerwin quipped:

oh come now.

do you really think they'd fix that?

it still pulls that crap.

just like with 01+: the HUGE new LOOK EVERYBODY feature-->SKINS!!! But
custom skins don't work. it keeps resetting any time you go to edit the doc
properties. even with SP6.0 it never worked right in 01+.

-nick e.



tho it does seem they've fixed the problem with toolbar buttons randomly
greying out....

 

dks quipped:

wait for the CD. they still haven't figured out a way to let you install a
SP after you install the d/l version. so you need to uninstall the d/l
version and install from the CD if you ever want to upgrade(sic).

<quote>
Note: If you want to update this installation of Service Pack 0 to a
subsequent service pack (e.g.: SP1) you must uninstall Service Pack 0
and reinstall it from CD before applying the subsequent service pack.
</quote>

fscking brilliant.

i am almost scared to see how bad it is. Considering how much PR2 crashes, I
feel there should have been at least a PR3.

on the bright side, now I can start harassing my VAR about all the crashes
and bugs!! they love me.

-nick e.


p.s. one cool new feature that i just found: you can now edit the sketch
plane of hole wizard holes!!

 

Bill Bredlow quipped:

not quite.

it's more like starting the guiness, thoroughly enjoying it, then halfway
thru realizing that it has a bacterial growth, whereupon you become
violently ill, heaving your guts out. When you recover, rather than getting
a different beer--a nut brown ale, or a nice doppel bock for instance--you
return to the guiness because you enjoy the taste of it. Never mind the
fact that you vomit profusely after every 4 or 5 sips.

ie: i really don't like the fact that 2004 consistently crashes on simple
operations. like opening and editing parts. or editing mates.

you may want to deal with that. i don't.

regards,
nick e.

 

If this is happening to you, I suggest that you might want to take a look
at your set up, probably a messy install. I worked with beta for weeks and
only had 1 unexplained crash and 2 repeatable crashes. It's a little too
easy to point the finger at the software without verifying the source of
the problem. Such an obvious problem is not likely something as simple as
an oversight, and I although I doubt they sent you a special version of the
software, I guess anything's possible. Please post your data that
consistantly crashes, let a few of us verify it and I'll eat sand.



matt.

 

matt quipped:

uninstalled PR (with AV off). reboot. installed 0.0 (AV off). reboot. Run
SW. crash at some point during the day. had this problem since PR1 came
out. it's even installed on a diferent partition than sw2001+. win2k/SP2. i
KNOW how to install shit.

ok. granted. odds are 50/50 that it's actually a MS problem.

post which data?

--nick e.

 

I think he means post some specifics about what you were doing when it
crashed. What kinds of files were you working on? Is/are the crashes
repeatable?
What kind of things do you design - lots of swoopy stuff or prismatic? How
about some systems specs?

Richard

 

Matt,

I was part of beta as well and had similar experience to your's. I found it
to be quit stable.
I do fairly complex mechanical assemblies of 1200 parts or less.

Dave H

 

Mike,

Beware for those doing advanced modeling in 2004, there are still a
lot of problems and some of them are regression bugs. For instance,
The Split command, when regenerating in a large multi-body part will
fail if a part that is show that does not need to be split, and is not
checked, will be split anyway. I assume that this came back to haunt
us because of "save bodies" and "save assemblies".
In some case, Sweeps and Lofts are still not holding accuracy at the
edges of external faces and knit will complete even with small gaps.
I've been developing a remote control for the last 3 months on 2004
(yeah, call me crazy).
I'm going to be addressing these issues soon with Concord, using this
project.

Have you also notices some really bad ones like cutting with a surface
causes a CTD.
I haven't installed SP0 so I don't know if these have been addressed,
but I doubt it.
So, there it is; proceed with caution.

Got to run.

Mark

 

I have had almost no stability problems on 2004-pre and on Rel 0,
running on two machines. One crash only, and as often happens with
me, it occurs when I have lots of large assemblies loaded and lots of
paging occurs.
When I have had instabilities I may have stupidly left the virus
auto-protect on during install. Otherwise, a true, clean install with
registry purge has usually fixed things.
Cheers bob

 

"Awesome Weldment Design Tools" ??????

I saw a demo/seminar yesterday on the weldment functionality of SW2004. Not
bad for a first release of a new feature, but it still has a long way to go
before it becomes a real world working tool. I don't see myself using what
I saw and plan on creating individual parts for my weldments. At least I'll
be able to control the things that the new weldment tools do not encompass.
I only saw the fillet weld used and at best in a limited fashion. The
inability to use curved surfaces to associate structural members and welds
to is not acceptable, all structural steel tubing and channels have bend
radiuses and rounds or fillets. The cutlist did seem helpful. Also,
shouldn't all the structural shape data be pre-defined, we were told we
could type in the dimensions for anything structural shape not shown (only
three were).

Keith

PS If I'm incorrect about any of the above, please reply back and clear up
on my miss-conceptions.

 

Richard Doyle quipped:

smallish assembly. 400-500 parts or so. they're all blocks. and sheet metal
with simple bends. nothing swooshie or stuff like that. nothing special or
complex.

repeatable? not really. but it's always a simple operation.

i have just upgraded(sic) to Sp3 on win2k, so we'll see if that helps.

thx,
nick e.

 

"Awesome Weldment Design Tools" ??????

I saw a demo/seminar yesterday on the weldment functionality of SW2004. Not
bad for a first release of a new feature, but it still has a long way to go
before it becomes a real world working tool. I don't see myself using what
I saw and plan on creating individual parts for my weldments. At least I'll
be able to control the things that the new weldment tools do not encompass.
I only saw the fillet weld used and at best in a limited fashion. The
inability to use curved surfaces to associate structural members and welds
to is not acceptable, all structural steel tubing and channels have bend
radiuses and rounds or fillets. The cutlist did seem helpful. Also,
shouldn't all the structural shape data be pre-defined, we were told we
could type in the dimensions for anything structural shape not shown (only
three were).

Keith

PS If I'm incorrect about any of the above, please reply back and clear up
on my miss-conceptions.

 

verified. Had the same issue.

Mark

 

Actually I'd like you to post your parts, assemblies and drawings so we
can prove that was or more likely wasn't part of the problem. Everybody
else has the same software, so if its not a problem with your data, the
two things that are left are your specific hardware and your OS/drivers
set up.

There are a lot of things that could be the problem, some of which have
been mentioned by other folks.

I'm willing to bet you the cost of an airline ticket and a day of my time
at my going rate that your problem is something you can control, meaning
your installation, OS setup, drivers, network or hardware, and not SW
software or the data created by the software. This is not a bluff. If I
can't help you, I'll eat the expenses. I'm a software implementer. I
help people avoid getting into your position, and I help people who have
fallen into it get back out.

I'm not saying SW is perfect. Ask the SW tech support guys what I think
about that. What I am saying is that I fully believe you can control the
crashes you are seeing. I still crash from time to time, but random
crashes are limited to once a week (for full time modeling). If it is a
reapeatable crash, I send the data (file) and steps to SW, but those are
less frequent.

If you work in a machine shop, you know that maintaining your tools is
important. There is no such thing as an automated self-cleaning bench or
self-sweeping chips. The same applies to software tools.

matt.

 

Bob & Dave H,

Thanks for the responses. They've done a lot of work on making the new
version the most stable sp0 I've seen in some time.

matt.