So, last week we looked at a lot of new features in SolidWorks 2010 – the ‘best’ features and how to use some of the more prominent ones. It was, by far, a brief look at what will spill onto your screen come release day.
There were a few mentions of what was lacking in the new release, but now we swing right through the middle, as hard as we can, tearing as few important ligaments as possible. I’ll touch on ten, but no doubt you could add a few more. What would they be?
Some Things That Just Plain Suck it
- Download and Installations
I started a game of Stratego, gained 5 levels on Mafia Wars, clipped my dog’s fingernails and dusted a screaming bum while waiting for SolidWorks to download and install. In the era of installation, we’ve moved from multiple CD’s to a DVD to downloads. I can only imagine the next phase is a browser-based installer or a SolidWorks-on-a-Flash-Drive that only requires updated to core files. (Totally thinking one-touch WordPress updates here.) - Same Sketch Tools in 3D Sketch
Yeah, so maybe I want to show my aunt how to mirror a circle in a 3D sketch. It’s not gonna happen. Auntie is gonna get depressed, not eat and deplete herself of minerals because only some sketch tools are available in 3D sketches. The hope here? 2D or 3D, no difference. Why should there be? It’s all 3D space right? - Lost References/Unable to Locate
Spilling hot soup on your face and being slapped with a 2×4 may be more attractive at this point, especially with Vista. A name is change, a file is moved. It’s not SolidWorks’ fault, and yes, you can set up search paths. OK, that’s all cool. But, I’d rather have some message, like. “Hey, some dummy moved your crap. It’s probably here. Yep, I found it. Does this look right?” or heck, no message at all. A ‘virtual ghost’ that could be reconstructed would be nice or a type of location beacon. Call it 3D file GPS. - Large Assembly/File Loading
While certain functionality like coffee breaks, Facebook and throwing thumbtacks have alleviated much of the frustration having to do with loading large assemblies, the problem still persists. Why do components have to load? I can stream a ’4GB movie’ online and add a comment at the same time, but I can’t sketch a line in another part while SolidWorks is loading a file. - Feature Rebuilding
It’s the scab that just won’t heal, is it? Maybe you should stop picking at it first. Features just need to be rebuilt – the skin of your model-ly innards. Then lets skin it. Maybe look at it this way, waiting on the user to create more features rather than the software to rebuild them? So, maybe this is the culprit of all the loading times. Two birds? One stone? - One Feature at a time
Baby steps there, buddy. You’re bound to get yourself sucked into a endless amount of circular references and emotion. I can extrude and draft a profile at the same time, right? why not something amongst the other possible features? While we can only grasp so many steps with our mind and pick so many points with our mouse, there’s bound to be better possibilities to form a neatly organized set of features. - Auto-Configure Features
If you put ‘Auto’ in front of anything, it just makes life easier. Auto delete, Auto take out the trash, Auto hit rude coworker, you get the idea. You get some Configuration enhancements in 2010. Some that, yes, automate configuration creation. But, what if you didn’t have to create a design table of PropertyManager? Mark a Feature or Dimension for Configuration. It’s not there now, but should be. - Auto-Suggest Annotation
There’s that ‘Auto’ again. Imagine typing a search into Google and an auto-suggest feature suggesting your search term. Oh, yeah, you can do that. Let’s apply that to annotations. Say you have a database of common annotations. Instead of storing them in a drawing template, or in the Design Library. - Replace a Part with an Assembly, and Vice-Versa
It’s unnatural isn’t it. Why shouldst thou seek for beauty not thine? … or something. You can replace parts with assemblies using the ‘Replace’ command when the model is open, but try doing that when you open a file through the references dialogue. Nope, can’t do it. I see a point where part/assembly/drawing file differentiation is obsolete. Some of you may be there, with the model serving every purpose of the product lifecycle. You’re cool. - Apply for Options
It’s simple, like a caffeine patch, peel, stick, peel, stick… efficiency. Maybe there are not many options which would require such a button, but there are enough (at least one) that would make this extremely useful. Really, though, options as crapload of settings in a box are about done. Make options part of the environment, in context to what’s taking place. Now that’s some 3D.
Some Things That would Just Really Rock It
This list could go on and on I imagine. I try to avoid what would be typical suggestions (while some probably are. Like selection boxes? Why even have selection boxes?)
- Dimension directly on solid
- Manipulate any geometry with Instant3D
- Jump to next selection box
- Show recommended selections
- Auto-Spline Smoothing/Tolerance
- Multi-core Support for everything
- Adaptive Features/Context menus
- any others?
Whoa Nellie
Ok, so some may feel this is a bit rough on SolidWorks and maybe it’s a bit naive to think problems like this can be solved with a few word at the depths of the blogosphere. From what I’ve used out there, no 3D product development software is doing any of this. It’s really functionality that needs totally revamped on a variety of software. There are improvements on some of this in SolidWorks 2010, by the way. the SolidWorks Installation Manager is laid out MUCH better, even though download take forever and Features are being rebuilt faster. I hope to have more detail on why this is.
There are a lot of things we can pick at, right. The list above would change for each person, depending on what you use SolidWorks for. I’ve tried to touch on some broad topics and push some over the edge of possibility.
Some may blame a lot of this on a parametric history-based system. Uhhghh, tedious. History is Cool. I’m cool with history. I don’t think all the problems are solved with going history/feature-free. Forget that. Lets just say, 3D needs a little more room to breath. Call it code rewrites, open 3D, a big honkin’ 3D meat tenderizer, whatever. Pucker up.
Lemon Image via Flickr
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I teach highschool Technological Design and we have old generic buisniness compputers. Has any work been done on making SW 2010 be less of a resource hog on the low end computers typically found in a school?
Yes, there are some functions that are faster. Matt did a writeup of it here: http://www.dezignstuff.com/blog/?p=2685
Is is just me, or does that look more like an orange than a lemon…
Izzy, definitely take a looks at Matt's write-up. I'll be posting my own findings soon. Another thing some people will need to consider is hardware upgrades, not only because of SolidWorks 2010 though. . Windows 7 is coming on A LOT stronger than Vista, and while some may stay with older hardware for a while, there will be huge advantages. Windows 7 launches late October. I'd focus upgrades around that time and see if you can fit a budget for at least one upgraded computer/solidworks license, simply to test to show the advantage.
ok, yeah, it was a lemon. You know how hard it is to find an image of a lemon to use? huh?
so I switched it out to one that looks more like the lemon we all know and love. Thanks Charles!
My school recently recived refurbished HP's with generic office specs running XP. I'll be stuck with them for the next 5-7 years. I have alreay been told that if the hardware specs get any more onerous, our 30 seat network licence will be cancelled, and I will have to go back to AutoCAD 2000 light.
wow. hmmm, that's rough. If you're going to be using solidworks 2009/2010 for the next 5-7 years, you'll probably be allright. XP won't be supported by SolidWorks after 2010. Not that 2011 and onward won't run on XP, it's just going to be optimized/written for Vista/Windows 7. Doesn't seem like the best situation, but will be workable for learning, small model and assembly development.
You may want to contact SolidWorks or a SolidWorks VAR and see if there are any type of education grants available for their partners.
My school is already using the Education Edition of SolidWorks, and there are no other grants available, plus we are locked into using school board approved hardware.
Sounds like you should start calling technology and engineering business in your area to see if they have any old workstations they would like to donate to the school. You never know what kind of partnership could be created that could even allow for on-site tours and possibly internship opportunities when they go on to college… Just an idea.
Josh – FYI from my understanding, SolidWorks 2011 will be like SolidWorks 2007 and Windows 2000 – it will NOT install at all (the installer will actually stop if you're not running Vista or Win7).
You just need to get an old version of SolidWorks and stick with it. For a high school, there is no reason that won't serve your needs. If you don't have real graphics cards, you're not going to be able to use anything after 2007 anyway. I'd go back to 2005. It has all the basics that you're gonna need, and will work with what you have.
I agree with Matt, 2005 is solid. Also, if students have their own laptops they would be able to check out a seat to use at home. More than likely their laptops won't be workstation grade, and would have the sub-standard graphics card. So, there's one more reason to stay with an older version.
too right, just asked my source again and confirmed that is how it will work. 2011 will not install on XP. Thanks Joe!
I already subscribe to the Student Design Kit for my students. SolidWorks has just posted SolidWorks 2009 Edu for download, and I will have 2009 installed at my school soon. It would be hard to keep an older version, while my students have the latest version. SolidWorks complete disregard for backwards compatability make the above suggestions very difficult to impliment.
I have alreay spoke to SolidWorks about this isue.
Joe, just got an update one the SolidWorks 2011on XP question. There are no plans to block installation of SW2011 on XP. So, while it may not 'play nice' it could still be installed.
Clearly my Kung-Fu is no good. : ) good sources there.
one source is good, the other is getting a direct application of kung-fu.
“Replace a Part with an Assembly, and Vice-Versa”. Hell yeah. While they're at it, how about “Raplace Component” command in drawings so we don't have to shut down SW and open SW Explorer to do this.
“Replace a Part with an Assembly, and Vice-Versa”. Hell yeah. While they're at it, how about “Raplace Component” command in drawings so we don't have to shut down SW and open SW Explorer to do this.
I just can't take it anymore. Is SolidWorks going to continue to be such a resource hog. It is almost unusable. I have what was considered a fast computer until 2010 came out. Do I have to replace my hardware and upgrade the crap out of everything just to keep up each year? I am a contractor and I can't afford this BS anymore…..
I'm wondering. What set-up do you have? graphics card? processor?
Ahhhhhhhhhhh! I am in a Solidworks class and my instructor is awsome enough to have every project for the semester due on the last day of class. The problem is, it is the last week of school and I have 2010 whereas my school only has 2009. I have no way to turn in all my work! There is no way to save it as an older version. Ridiculous… it never even crossed my mind that it would be a problem because every software I have used (ex. AutoCAD, Microsoft Office, etc.) can be saved in an older version. How can something so smart be soooooooooo stupid!?
You can save it out as a .STEP or .X_T and open it in 2009. If your instructor isn't grading on features or FeatureManager structure, it will at least show that you completed the models. good luck.
I consider it to be a miracle provided by God when I choose Photoworks as an addon and it ACTUALLY loads at the top of my screen. I remember when solidworks and photoworks actually work and was fairly stable … but that was 2001. Even drawing with crayons would probably be better than using solidworks.
I just switched from Autodesk Inventor to Solidworks, and it has been like pulling teeth with pliers. There are things that are seamless with Inventor that are just plain clunky in Solidworks. We do a lot of custom threading, and to add custom thread sizes to Solidworks database is not user friendly. It took me hours to figure it out, and still it does not show up on the drawing correctly. The file sizes are huge in comparison and take forever to load a large assembly. Over the years Inventor in my opinion has debugged their program and it’s smooth and beautiful, also it allows me to think outside the box where as Solidworks wants me to stay within common Standards! As a company that has bought out a few competitors, its no wonder why we got so far ahead! And now I have to go by the companys we bought out design software package. God help us!
Everyone on this board just needs to make the switch to Pro/ENGINEER
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