What all we SolidWorks users & Company's who buy their Software should all be doing is WRITING letters to SolidWorks insisting that Software Quality-Bug fixes become the #1 priority for a truly solid SolidWorks, before the software is released!
The lack of the care in initial programming & fixes costs us DEARLY in time losses. These are hard dollar losses in the productivity of some of the more highly paid staff.
#2nd, Solidworks needs a stated plan for OS migration if Microsoft keeps screwing up their OS security, speed and ease of use. Vista being panned, MS says Win7 will hit in 2009. Maybe, but given MS failure to deliver an "industrial strength OS", I don't believe them. I know software developers who quietly under their breath bemoan having believed the Gates' line in the early-mid 90s and wrote for Windows, only to be let down time and again (not even considering security issues).
Unigraphics trusts Unix flavors HP-UX, SGI IRIX, IBM AIX and Sun Solaris. Unix has and is being done right. So when is SolidWorks going to get on board?
and unfortunately after so long users complaining about these things and not getting anywhere the idea that a SW CEO might actually deliver on something asked for meets with a "yeah, right.." response which in itself is an unfortunate comment on relations
but ok on reflection I am prepared to give the new man a chance - over the next release will all be able to see whether his words were just slick ointment for SWW...
if he means it and delivers Mr Ray will have the honour of being 'the' industry leader who recognised CAD times have changed and it requires a different approach and all users will thank him because the whole CAD industry will have new rules to play by.
of course I will still keep telling him what to do and say lest he messes up.. ;o)
buggs in the software, that do not seem to get fixed.
using versions of OS that are know to cause problems.
lack of real support to our internal issues, not to mention actaul statements from SolidWorks corp. that they will not be doing anything to some of our internal issues, no future advancements to support these issues.
crashing issues that cannot be reproduced.
degrading software the more we use it forcing us to rebuild computers multiple times in the year.
service packs issues.
issues with gold partner add-in packages.
different issues depending on how i install to same service packages.
lack of in-house support to help with issues, free or paid by us. i am being told that this will never happen.
i can continue, but i have other things to do. this is forcing our company to look at other software packages.
i have had issues with CAD programs that forced a company to change software but never from functional/support/problem issues. i want you to know that talking with other CAD vendors, they are gobbling these issues up.
it just goes to show you that "never follow a winner, always follow a loser. you will look far much better." iQ
iQ, you have many valid concerns for all us users.
One of the most serious issues is whether we can rely on the OS, and the OS doesn't contribute to the instability of the applications, which is sometimes hard to track down. Hopefully the OS is so stable in the future we would not have to "rebuild" our computers.
That is specifically why I wonder about using UNIX.
Unless their programming environment at SolidWorks allows for easy compiling in another OS environment, my guess is we are stuck with WinXP Pro for quite awhile, unless we add another CAD program on a Unix box and start migrating.
I'm sorry, but I lost all the high esteem I had at one time for Bill Gates. All he seemed to want to do was milk the cash cow to store billions away for acquisitions, and the major OS behind everything remained an unfinished piece of work, in spite of having the Bill(Gatesian)ions to put into serious OS development.
MS is truly sick on that account, because there is no law that your software has to do what you say it will do & the EULA's they write themselves exempt themselves from virtually everything, except possibly a refund of the software price (good luck even on that).
For several years, I've been amazed that someone in India, wherever, hasn't gotten into the mcad market. With all the programming done overseas (and the piracy), you'd think all the kernels and mods in a cad package are available, at least in the grey market.
I think Microsoft operating systems are getting much worse for technical usage, and that trend doesn't seem to be losing momentum. If a gimmic free engineering package were introduced (a modern rewrite/downsize of UG, maybe?) that ran on linux pc's, it would sell big.
Bill
iQ, you have many valid concerns for all us users.
One of the most serious issues is whether we can rely on the OS, and the OS doesn't contribute to the instability of the applications, which is sometimes hard to track down. Hopefully the OS is so stable in the future we would not have to "rebuild" our computers.
That is specifically why I wonder about using UNIX.
Unless their programming environment at SolidWorks allows for easy compiling in another OS environment, my guess is we are stuck with WinXP Pro for quite awhile, unless we add another CAD program on a Unix box and start migrating.
I'm sorry, but I lost all the high esteem I had at one time for Bill Gates. All he seemed to want to do was milk the cash cow to store billions away for acquisitions, and the major OS behind everything remained an unfinished piece of work, in spite of having the Bill(Gatesian)ions to put into serious OS development.
MS is truly sick on that account, because there is no law that your software has to do what you say it will do & the EULA's they write themselves exempt themselves from virtually everything, except possibly a refund of the software price (good luck even on that).
There is a new focus on improving the quality of the product, supposedly. The presumption is that they will start making quality a higher priortiy, but 2009 seems to have A LOT of new capabilities. So who really knows. That said, the changes announced for 2009 so far are awesome and I can't way to get my handed on it.
I actually think MS started losing the technical battle BECAUSE they tried to create a whole new OS. MS was never a company that originally created an OS & had a system in place to do such things. Initially they Bought theirs.
Then when MS sought to get software developers to write for their OS, they told developers they would create an "Industrial Strength OS" in NT, and touted the features it would have. They failed to deliver some features entirely (ala Longhorn differences with Vista).
MS seems to have always promised the moon, but delivered just a satellite.
I only know that reading a note said that the new CEO, Mr. Ray, CEO of SolidWorks is promising more stable and well designed software in the future.
It wasn't just Mr. Ray, although I was extremely happy to hear him pledge that SWC would focus on doing a better job on existing functionality. A lot of other SWC people were saying similar things.
I was disappointed that his statements didn't get a standing ovation.
Well, maybe if we look at the past, for another innovative company that switched from the initial management to the next generation, maybe we'll find some insight.
Say Apple after Steve Jobs when they bring in John Sculley who was steeped in, well, sales. Who "fixed" Apple after the mess it got its product line into? Steve Jobs after returning, who is and was basically a product designer who had the consumer in mind.
So at SolidWorks we have Mr. Ray now as CEO, and I want to know if he actually knows how to use SolidWorks? I doubt he is a serious user, but could be wrong. I suspect the demand from Dessault for profits from maintenance fee income is immense. Either Ray gets consumers what they want, or the consumers will tail back on maintenance, as I am doing in 2008. I can't justify the hit to productivity to go to
2008 this year. I particularly can not justify paying $2k, for something I may not be able to use until June or September.
Finding a good release of SolidWorks, using that release for 3-4 years until a new good release hits and buying SolidWorks again may be the most cost effective way to go, when you consider training time.
SolidWorks can't make you, a machine operator into a designer/engineer anymore than MS Word could make a Simi-functional illiterate (you) into a writer.
CAD programs can't make up for your lack of a foundation built by education and/or experience in this field you repeatedly attempt to pose as an expert where you are simply a clueless beginner.
Tom
"I dropped out of high school to pursue my dream of making a lot of money and never went back" - Jon Banquer - Dec 28, 2002
"Without a doubt SaladWorks is a complete piece of shit" - Jon Banquer- May 21, 2006
"I've been away from SolidWorks for almost ten years. The program has changed so much in ten years that I'm still way behind where I need to be." - Jon Banquer - Aug. 26, 2007
"I'm committed to working with HSMWorks to doing just that. Shouldn't be too hard because their head of US operations and I see things in almost the exact same way and because HSMWorks is interested in what I have to say and wants to work with me." - Jon Banquer -
"Jon is not affiliated with HSMWorks ApS in any way and that we cannot control what people are writing on the web. Anybody can get evaluation licenses of HSMWorks and test it themselves. I hope this clarifies any doubt." - HSMWorks ApS -
Meanwhile, I've finally accepted the fact that we can't get rid of mosquitoes here-abouts, so back to the "Solid" usability issues.
Dessault may WANT accelerating sales and profits each year out of SolidWorks, but if you don't give users long term stable monthly value over time, then what keeps the customers buying each year?
I have taken SolidWorks surveys from time to time, but they don't ask some questions I would want to know if I was inside of SolidWorks & TRULY NEEDED to know what happens to users, like...:
How many hours per month do you spend on maintaining...
-----A. your Windows OS?
-----B. SolidWorks & finding fixes and workarounds for SolidWorks?
-----C. SolidWorks & its accessory programs doing Service Pack upgrades?
-----D. Negotiating with management or IT departments to try to improve your productivity with SolidWorks?
How many times each year have you had to reinstall...:
-----A. Solidworks
-----B. Solidworks accessory programs and add-ons (not counting SPs)
-----C. Windows
How many hours do you estimate you have lost in the last year due to SolidWorks problems requiring reinstall, developing workarounds & debugging.
Do you have a monitoring routine in place using standard files and functions which you use regularly which lets you know whether your workstation is maintaining its "as installed" speeds in various functions like Open, Save, Export, Redraw, Rotate, etc?
Would you buy a utility with standard 3D data files which executes a standard set of tests on your workstations to assess the ongoing performance of your Windows systems?
Would you use UNIX on your workstation to run SolidWorks if SolidWorks offered the option, in order to improve your uptime and security & if so why not?
If you take a look at what Apple, Inc. is doing, they are widening their offerings in hardware and software to give users the flexibility to do what they want and still make it fairly easy to control or recover when they can't control things. Time Machine was the start in
10.5, and now in a month Time Capsule which is an 802.11n router w/ server grade Hard Drive, so that all machines can be easily kept backed up on an hourly basis. Apple is attending to users' business, and they are making a ton of money doing it. The Apple Stores became the fastest retail launch to achieve $1B/yr sales...ever. Apple has proven that attending to users needs makes for great growth.
What do I see coming from SolidWorks to help with performance and safety? Well, now lets count the ways, uhh...
Hmm, I think I see an opportunity here for something which benefits both SolidWorks and its users. Could a salesman see such a need? Has it just been shot down because "SolidWorks won't make enough profit on it.", or has it even been considered?
I understand SolidWorks not really using this newsgroup much (given JB & friends, though I just ignore that), but I seriously hope that as a salesman, CEO Ray gets his marketing team to keep their eyes peeled here on this newsgroup. If I detected all sort of innovation for users, I would not have written this long post.
I think most of us on this newsgroup would love to see more innovations designed to improve our productivity & security, as opposed to spending so much time touting SolidWorks 2008, and then at SWks World discussing what is on the burner for SWks 2009. I'ld venture a guess that 95%+ of all SolidWorks users are using SolidWorks
2007 or older. Those are viable solutions for those users, and ought to be minimally supported at the very least. Apple, Inc. still provides updates for their computers which go back at least 5 years, and the latest OS & Applications run acceptably on those older machines, and sometimes faster than prior OS versions.
Is there something to be learned here? I truly believe there is. Apple has shown that user centered solutions sell, as long as you do NOT abandon your equipment that is already in the field.
Contracting with that consultant to teach may be the best investment I ever made. But of course a high school drop out like Jon would think education a waste.
"Without a doubt SaladWorks is a complete piece of shit" - Jon Banquer- May 21, 2006
"I've been away from SolidWorks for almost ten years. The program has changed so much in ten years that I'm still way behind where I need to be." - Jon Banquer - Aug. 26, 2007
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