Service pack

Nope

I need service pack 4, is it possible to get without being subscribing member.

Graham

Normally, your VAR should give you service packs for the current release, regardless of whether or not you have a current maintenance agreement. This has been discussed here before. My VAR was certainly helpful is this department after I let my subscription lapse after receiving 2001+ Give your VAR a try.

Gary

Graham Watt> Hi

Thanks I will get in touch

My VAR has already stated that I must be a subscriber to get the service packs. What do you do if your dealer doesn't provide it to a non-subscriber?

Joe Dunfee

I ask Solidworks to confirm my dealer's statement that service packs were only for subscribers. Murielle Martin from Solidworks replied and said, "Your local reseller is correct. Subscription allows you access the SolidWorks subscription website where you can download new service packs as soon as they become available."

It seems the marketing monster has conquered Solidworks as much as it has Autodesk.

Joe

Joe,

Good grief this is tiring

All companies that sell product "have" to have a marketing dept.. The question is.. are they predatory scum bags or not. ADESK is very predatory, so are some others, and they've been screwing the people that pay their salaries for a long time. It's amazing to me to read some of the IV threads and see the almost religious nature of some of the tones. "The great "ACAD" will answer or prayers", "we just have to have faith"!!! Bullshit...

At this point, you're so paranoid you may be better served by doing nothing. You're bound and determined to spin everything you hear or read about into something you're familiar with anyway. A bunch of regular users like us aren't going to change your mind. Maybe you should look into Pro-E. Those people will treat you "EXACTLY" like what you seem to expect. SW won't

By the way, the girl you talked to was dead wrong, or you just asked her enough to get the answer you wanted. Refer back to the reply from John Lieber.

Regards

Mark

True, maintenance allows you free and easy access to the service packs. However, you could also get the service packs through your VAR. If you cannot convince them, look for a different VAR.

Heck, maybe someone here would even supply you with the SP.

I'm sure that what you've written above is true, but it doesn't seem to answer the question you really seem to be asking. "Murielle" seems to be answering the question "does subscription allow me to get upgrades?"--Note that she does not in any way state that SPs are not available without subscription; she merely outlines a few of the "benefits" of having a subscription.

Your earlier posts imply that you want to ask a different question:

"Under what (if any) circumstances are Service Packs available to customers who do not purchase a subscription? In particular, is someone who purchase SolidWorks RevX but not subscription service eligible to receive service packs in the year immediately following the purchase? If service packs are available, what is the mechanism for getting them?"

First, again thank you all for your informative replies. Dispite my hard-nosed approach, I really am listening.

Had a lengthy discussion with my VAR today over the issue, and he strongly emphasized the policy that I CANNOT get service packs unless I subscribe.

I also tried to make my query I sent directly to SW as clear as possible. Their reply seemd to have some wiggle room. I think this may be an issue without a strong policy from SW, and it is left up to the VAR as a item for negotiation.

If any of the statements I've read on Autodesk's discussion group, there could be a lot of new SW users migrating from Inventor. So, brace for an onslaught of embittered Autodesk users who are used to the idea of arguing with their CAD suppliers.

Joe

Joe,

I know with my VAR that if I wasn't on subscription and had a particular problem that had already been addressed in a Service Pack that they would give me the Service Pack to fix it. Then again, my VAR is TriMech, arguably the best VAR out there.

I understand our (users) viewpoint on getting bug fixes for free. I think SolidWorks should rethink their Service Packs and split them up into bug fixes (free) and enhancements (subscription). Will they do it? Probably not. Why? Money. Though I really don't understand SolidWorks stance on this since AutoDesk, Microsoft, etc. offer bug fixes for free. My personal opinion is that they need to add more value to the subscription service simply because in general the subscription is looked at as just service packs. This leads to people getting irritated that they are paying for SolidWorks to fix their faulty product.

Subscription is valuable to me because I have a lot of issues with the software to report and often need my VARs experts opinion. That right there justifies the subscription cost to me (roughly $100/month).