SolidWorks Sucks...

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Any chance you could provide such a thing as another modeling challenge? It would be an interesting part, and probably the subject of a lot of fruitful discussion. I'm not sure how to specify what we would all be working towards in such a way as to isolate modeling issues from casting design issues. Perhaps a drawing of a crude prismatic finished part to be made into a realistic cast part? Specifying draft angles, corner radii and parting line should nail it down pretty well. Perhaps it would have to be a series of challenges.

Perhaps I could start with a VW cylinder head. I have some laying around somewhere. The problem is getting definition on the intake and exhaust tracts as well as the combustion chamber shape. I could probably provide photographs and key dimensions as a starting point.
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That sounds interesing.
How many would be willing to work through the challenge?

On Apr 3, 1:25 pm, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:
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Straight from a colleague who switched to ProE from SW and is working with other designers that also had SW experience prior to ProE. Take it for what it's worth.....
......Solidworks users and prefer it (ProE) based on stability and large assy performance. The downside is the interface and menus are weak compared to SW and the time to get up and productive is definitely longer. Also, I've personally found reseller support lacking.
So, it basically corroborates what I was saying. SW has better vendor network and is certainly easier to use by from a purely technical standpoint ProE is more stable and faster. Speed and lack of flaky bugs would be the most important thing to me, that may vary for each of you so draw your own conclusions.
End of rant.

*no ability to explicitly orient sketch
*no ability to pattern curves, planes or axis or any datum feature. Patterning curves is very important to create/signify keepouts and keep-ins itc.
*Patterning SMT like components (components that are assembled into onto other parts "sans" mating features is impossible. you have to create "dummy features" in parent part, pattern the dummy feature, so you can then pattern the component in assy based on the dummy features. This is not a good way to express design intent and bloats files unnecessarily.
*sketch mode is inconsistent at "autosnapping/autocontraining". sometimes entities that are snapped during creation but are not constrainted...sometimes they are...some like “auto-snap” = auto constrain 60% of the time…
*sketch mode allows "over-constrained” sketches..- sometimes..." inconsistent. Time consuming to re-constrain a sketch or repair a sketch. I have never spent so much time in sketch mode
*no ability to do multivariable parametric pattern tables...ie X, Y, Z, Theta, diameter, etc, etc. This is a huge one for …lets you know….control panels!
*no ability to put both endcaps and surface features (ie extruded surface lack both endcaps options)
*no auto orient and plane creations for sections used on sweeps. Creation of a sweep bundles the path and section into the feature….even though the path may have been created 50 features ago…..after the sweep is created you have no clue “when” that path was created.
*no ability to converted extruded boss to a cut or surface or vice versa.
*No ability to convert created thin feature to "not be" a thin feature or vice versa (after feature is created and you "edit definition"
*model/feature tree constantly needs resized just so the bottom "drag up bar" will appear
*sketch mode almost indistinguishable from 3d model mode. Daily i exit sketch inadvertently and think i still am in "sketch mode" or vice versa"
*no ability to flip which side an offset edge is in a sketch after you accept and create the feature
*no dynamic preview of draft features which is a bummer because on small draft angles it is difficult to ensure which direction correct.
*no feature copy command (IE create the exact same feature but use these new references to create the feature)
*no "use previous" sketch plane option upon creating new sketches
*no dedicated systematic feature re-route ability
*assembly mode, no ability to "roll back" in time on the assembly tree....almost behaves as if it is "history-less" but still has parent-child relationships
*datum plane colors are stored per part...not as an environmental variable....yuck...can have 20 parts open all with different colored datum planes.
*edrawing installation error as part of service pack update no machines here sucessfully got the prepackaged edrawings installed correctly.
*no comparable tool to pro/E's "simplified reps" in assy
*no abilibty to "suspend" children features off a feature when deleting. SW will just delete the feature. Yes I called quest on this on…just got…”can’t” answer
*heavy utilization of system registries for admin. good and bad here. updating configurations system-wide REQUIRES all users to be logged out of SW. This is tough to enforce….unless your admin like getting up at 4:00 am.
*constraining a sketch is ultra-time consuming. The ability to create underdefined/under constrained sketches allows for sloppy design and design intent.
*no "ref pattern" of features available. further proof that SW is very much a "transplanter" Geom cad in pattern mode...and not parametric...barf
*no ability to pick and choose what features curve etc you want from a base part….you get all or nothing…….you can turn off entities like Csys’s…but you can’t pick when ones you want.

forgot to add:
*very limited top down design tools - you can insert a "base part" feature that is it. No scoping what you want to push to target parts via "publish" (pick and choose what to publish - surfaces, curves, axis etc)
*assemblies of any complexity resemble molasses in January (north of the equator of course)

replying to bokm9606, Peter wrote: Yes, and the list can be made longer... I have worked with Solidworks since 1997 and I probably have 50,000 hours on it by now. and i can tell you it takes between 5-10 years for SW to fix a bug. I had a list of over 100 bugs that i have sent to my VAR MANY times. One spend a full day to describe and send samples files, but SW don't givs a shit, so i gave up. They always blamed my computer or Windows, it is a standard way for SW to "solve the problem"... I stopped paying for the subscriptions 5 years ago in pure protest. I refuse to pay for "support" that is non existent and handled by aborted "engineers" who have never built anything from scratch in SW, but just copying already made parts and assemblies from a textbook.
Yes Solidworks *SUCKS*, and it get worse. SW IS FULL OF ISSUES which probable are considered as minor, yes many are minor.,but they accumulate year by year and has now become a huge pile of shit..
It seams like all brains have left the company nowadays. I do regret that i did not left SW earlier, I looked at Pro/e, Solid Edge, IronCAD etc 10 years ago but one always think that it will become better, but it got worse. Now i'm too old to start all over with a new software. Im living good on but old work so i might retire and do something else, but i have too many ideas in my head so it might be hard :-D

replying to bokm9606, Peter wrote: Yes, and the list can be made longer... I have worked with Solidworks since 1997 and I probably have 50,000 hours on it by now. and i can tell you it takes between 5-10 years for SW to fix a bug. I had a list of over 100 bugs that i have sent to my VAR MANY times. One spend a full day to describe and send samples files, but SW don't givs a shit, so i gave up. They always blamed my computer or Windows, it is a standard way for SW to "solve the problem"... I stopped paying for the subscriptions 5 years ago in pure protest. I refuse to pay for "support" that is non existent and handled by aborted "engineers" who have never built anything from scratch in SW, but just copying already made parts and assemblies from a textbook.
Yes Solidworks *SUCKS*, and it get worse. SW IS FULL OF ISSUES which probable are considered as minor, yes many are minor.,but they accumulate year by year and has now become a huge pile of shit..
It seams like all brains have left the company nowadays. I do regret that i did not left SW earlier, I looked at Pro/e, Solid Edge, IronCAD etc 10 years ago but one always think that it will become better, but it got worse. Now i'm too old to start all over with a new software. Im living good on but old work so i might retire and do something else, but i have too many ideas in my head so it might be hard :-D

replying to jlbeen, ffdsfds wrote: I agree to OP, that software is a terrible piece of shit

replying to sbpowdercoating, NHEngineer wrote:

replying to sbpowdercoating, NHEngineer wrote: I beg to differ with you, sir. Crosshatching removal in 2005 is only a three step process and fundamentally obvious if you take the time to apply yourself. No, i won't show you how. Figure it out for yourself. There are only two major things I have a problem with SolidWorks; (1) it is unnecessarily expensive (aka "rip-off") and (2) the models on 3-D Content Central (https://www.3dcontentcentral.com/default.aspx ) only go backwards two iterations while the same models on Mamaster-Carr go all the way back to SolidWorks 1997. Of course Dassault Systèmes could do the same but then they would sell so many overpriced seats of their software. I'm soon going to OnShape anyway ( https://www.onshape.com /)