Service Packs and Enhancements

Can't say it won't happen again, but enhancements should be secondary to providing bug fixes. SolidWorks has enough bugs to keep their programmers busy all the time. Why should one want them to be spending their time providing enhancements before new releases come out?

I suspect SolidWorks management will sometimes provide enhancements when several conditions are met (I know I would want these conditions to be met if I were in their shoes):

1) The capability should probably have been there in the release 2) The capability is easy to implement 3) The capability doesn't effect backward compatibility

'Sporky'

Jeff N wrote:

Jeff, I think we still are. Looking at the release notes for 2004...

SP1 Control the color of imported and non-imported dims Balloon "picking" order "slant" handles on dims ..and others

SP2 Drag blocks using sketch points New feature added to "check sketch" ...and others

Richard

Them days are over Jeff.

Malcontent '04 Dodge 2500 CTD Lairamie 48RE 4X2 SWB pulling '04 Forest River T23FBL w/Slide

They're still making "enhancements" in the SP's, but I wish to god they'd stop.

Tucking seemingly innocuous enhancements into an SP is a quality control nightmare waiting to happen--and let's just say that SW's quality control hasn't been what one might hope for in the past.

Based on what?

Why would you want enhancements before most of the existing bugs are squashed?

Maybe most of the existing bugs don't matter to him, and he anticipates that the new features will save more time than the bugs that do matter to him. Just a guess.

My feeble and extremely negative opinion.

M.T.

Good question.

The last that I remember was the 'super service pack', which, as memory serves, was maybe SP3 or 4 for 2001+, when integrated toolbox was introduced along with a bunch of other stuff that was not ready at the time of the release of 2001+. As I recall, it didn't work out that well. It might be fun to go back and look at what everyone's opinion was on the newsgroup around that time - I suspect it wasn't all that warm or fuzzy

Enhancements that get squeezed into service packs don't have the same opportunity to be alpha and beta tested as major releases do (and we know that even then big problems get through). Sure, little tweaks still make it into service packs - like 'finally getting to assign 'normal to' to a keystroke, etc - but bigger enhancements are probably best left to major releases so folks can bang on them for 3-4 months during the pre-release cycle. I at least kinda hope that they continue that way.

-Ed

Do you know for a fact that everyone in development works on bugs after a release is put out? I would find it hard to believe that they don't use resources to not only fix current issues, but develop new ones, ahem, I mean new functioanlity as well.

I suspect that as the software grows more robust that they have their hands full in just keeping up with providing new stuff with each major release. That way instead of adding 10 features over the next year to 2005 they can say that 2006 has 250 new features rather than 240. I'm sure there is a lot of factors that determine things, but the fact is they once provided enhancements along the way and people often looked forward to them.

Richard,

I guess it depends on the person. None of the little enhancements have really been major to me and I'm sure they have been to people whom those enhancements save time everyday. I was thinking more along the lines of the 'super service packs' and 'Plus' editions of the software.

Have you ever upgraded SolidWorks? Then why install all that new functionality only to still deal with old bugs as well as introduce new ones? Think of 2005 as a super service pack for 2004. The fact is simple, there will always be bugs and always a need for enhancements.

The po>

I used to have a lot of problems with the software when working with large assemblies. It got to the point where we were looking at alternative CAD programs. So I understand why a lot of people feel they want all the bugs eliminated before they go adding anything. Now that I'm on smaller assemblies, I don't mind the little nagging, non-show stopper stuff.

Express tools were cool to try out in my AutoCAD days. I loved getting that CD once every month or so. And a few of them really saved me a lot of time. I liked the 'super' service packs and the mid-year 'plus' releases of SolidWorks as well.

I agree. But, I still liked getting the new stuff more than once a year. Oh well. Better to have it tested than to have to test. Or test less? ;p

Jeff, I was only responding to your initial statement, and I understand that some of the "enhancements" have been minor. But they are there, and will likely continue with things that maybe aren't quite ready for a major release.

I think as the product has matured, the "need" for +'s and "super service packs" has diminished. Or perhaps they've decided that once-a-year is a better use of resources. Like Ed E. mentioned, if they have more time with development and testing, the chances of a good release increase.

Nice to have you back, are you getting more invloved in CAD again?

Richard

Sort of. Personal life has been busier. At my current job I'm THE mechanical guy. Everything from the napkin sketches to building wood shipping crates and everything in-between is my department. I use CAD maybe 10-20 hours a week at most. I kinda like the variety of responsibilities and new challenges, but I surely miss being able to have time to push SolidWorks and really learn it inside and out. I'm still not 100% on everything 2004 introduced. I was interested in 2005 and signed up for the Beta testing, but I really didn't have the time to do so. I didn't even make it past page 20 in the Whats New!

The plus editions are just another major realease, not a service pack. For example, the next major release will probably be 05+, because the year 06 is so far away.

Just a nitpick.

I realize that, but they didn't do that with 2004...and it came out this time last year.

I would think that with the absence of backwards compatibility that a major release every 6 months was too much of a pain to coordinate for some people. I understand why they limit adding major functionality often, I just miss the perks of being subscription. No magazine, no super service packs...etc. Maybe its a cost cutting measure since the software is more complex and supporting it has become more resource intensive. It surprises me that their costs on everything have always stayed the same, if not offering more for the money.

No, my understanding is that they have a group working on bug fixes in tandem with those working on new features -- hopefully communicating and coordinating very closely between the groups. This seems to me to likely be the cause of some of the problems between releases. Basically they have to place major code updates on top of minor code updates done by others on the fly, potentially compounding problem upon problem. I don't for a moment think that it's not an economic necessity to work at both ends at the same time in order to be competitive in this very competitive marketplace, but it does seem to pose a lot of potential problems. The logistics must be complex to say the least, and they probably do about as well as one can reasonably expect, if not better than one can reasonably expect. (My most grievous complaint with SolidWorks is not their development teams' capability, but their tendency to release before it's appropriate relative to the level of bugs.)

I rather suspect that as software grows more complex it does NOT grow more robust, but rather much the opposite.