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 > > Could someone please tell me if there is a huge difference between
I'll be interested to hear if sp3 of Win2K helps your situation. I was crashing SW03sp3.1 some and sp4 A LOT. I finally called my VAR about a month after I should have. I got really pissed off when he said to check my video drivers and to apply sp3 of win2K. I figured at first he was just blowing me off. However, I checked the SWX web site and I was not using the approved driver for my nVidia Quadro xgl750. (I had the approved one for SW01+, but not for 03.)
Guess what? I applied sp3 to Win2K and upgraded video drivers and zero crashes since then with SW03sp4. It's been over a week now. I must add that I also un-checked a couple of Add-Ins that I don't use regularly. VAR said to just check them when I know I'll need them ; then un-check them again. That last sounded a little flaky ( and a PITA) , but what the hell- it seems to be working.
Yeah, I'm retracting that statement. I just installed SP0 and I can't even get the weldment tools to work! It keeps looking for a certain folder, and I've tried changing the locations under Tools-> Options, but it still doesn't work. I installed 2004 in a folder named "SolidWorks 2004 SP0" and I think it didn't like that.
"Nick E." wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@speakeasy.net:
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.
"Nick E." wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@speakeasy.net:
could be, or... these are all things I have seen cause random crashes or "unexplainable" problems...
- other questionable software that is installed or uninstalled has changed or removed shared system files
- other software (not just AV) running when SW was installed or upgraded blocks OGL or VB/VBA installation
- virtual memory settings above Windows ability to cope with it
- drivers (including video, sound, print, spaceball, etc) may need to be updated
- spaceball driver seems particularly troublesome
- upgraded OS (instead of installing OS to a clean drive)
- incorrect OS service pack, or service pack needs to be reapplied
- ghosted image on machine that doesn't exactly match hardware
- bios conflicts with other hardware drivers
- running Windows Update can solve problems you didn't know you had
- any one of a number of things could be wrong with a home-build job
- machine overclocked
- cpu improperly cooled
- too many accessories added to machine so the power supply is no longer sufficient
- anything with the Packard Bell logo on it
- bad memory, bad sector on HD, video or memory not seated properly
- no space on disk
- disk/network so slow that operations time out
- temporary directory with more than say 100mb of stuff in it
- mapped drives disconnected at start up
- Novell network settings that allow only a certain number of file locks
- Novell network set to 8.3 file name format
- multiple users accessing same file on Novell, one printing or saving
- AV set to "real time" so all file traffic is scanned for viruses
- Excel running in the background after a BOM created
- registration "irregularities"
- files from asian language OS being used in english on Win98
- old version of Internet Explorer
- other session of SW still running in the background after previous crash
- if components of MS Office are partially installed (install on use), and SW tries to use IE (for help) Excel (bom/dt) Outlook (performance email) VBA (for equations, etc), you can get some really strange messages that look like Microsoft Office is trying to install itself so SolidWorks can complete a task.
- Old versions of MS Works (cheap Office substitute) were notorious with SW (used to come on a lot of Gateways)
- dead mouse stuck in the fan (yes, it really happened)
Really, there's an infinite variety of things that could gum up the works.
Openoffice.org, thunderbird, phoenix, mysql. but not likely since i haven't changed them that recently. besides, one piece of software really should not affect another unrelated piece.
nope.
hasn't been a problem yet. (almost) no crashes with 2001+/SP6
nope.
n/a
nope. fresh win2k.
well, on SP3 now. we'll see. always reapply the sp after installing anything.
BUT.......... doesn't reapplying a SP undo some M$-updates? ie: if i apply the fix for the latest RPC vuln, won't reapplyiny SP3 undo that fix?
n/a
nope.
too bad it can't update me to the latest Mandrake. :(
dell.
nope.
it HAS been a while since I changed the ice cubes...;-)
nope
heh :)
nope. ran Mdk memory test: all good. that was one of the first things i did with my 2001+ problems.
tons.
running all locally. plus network is 100M. WILL be switching to samba server for SW files soon tho. will speed things up.
nope. cleaned reglarly.
nope.
n/a
using AVG.
well, this is a SW bug. hardly something i should HAVE to check for. tho
2004 doesn't use excel.
??
n/a
again. n/a don't use it. whatever SP3 has tho i now have.
always reboot.
nope. don't get those. only have MSword and Msexcel instaled. outlook isn't even configured.
n/a
i have been smelling something...thought it was my coworker
you forgot one: bad/lazy/marketing-droid-driven SW programmers.
and this: MS OS (half of all crashes are caused by Windows)
A compatriot had this problem and I tested it without complaint. He did a clean install (registry cleanout) and made sure virus monitoring was off. The problem went away. The same person, with Nvidia running real view, has problems with crashing when doing certain types of in-context model/save operations. Fixed by disconnecting realview.
It has a major limitation. Only one weldment per drawing sheet. I tried to put 4 separate handrial weldments on the same drawing sheet today, only to find that the first view selected was the only one that a cutlist would attach to. All weldments worked on their own sheets.
After reading your post again, I decided to comment on weld bead. What a joke. They won't even handle a mitered pipe corner used in handrails. The add into the BOM as parts in normal assemblies and can't fill a gap. If you have to weld beveled, gapped pipe(normal in many instances for high performance welders) All welds crap out. It is one of my pet peaves.
SW2004 is IMO, a major step forward. I only wish that they could do the same with Drawings.
All parts and assemblies remember where they came from, but everydrawing BOM only knows where its at.
I design conveyor systems and unless you insert a several thousand part assembly into your manufacturing detail prints (which will bring your drawing to a halt) the BOM give you the correct Item No. or Quantity for the master assembly. You would think that by now SW would have gotten a clue and allowed the BOM to be pointed to an assembly and get the proper item number and quantity for the manufacturing print.
We always have to work around the fact that no SW employees deliver drawing for a living. They only write and sell software!!
Having all items in a 60 page drawing set is also not my idea of fun. So for the last five years and probably several to come I have to work around this SW limitation.
END OF RANT!!!!
SW 2004 is quite a bit better and you will like it. IMO!
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