When Are You Upgrading to SolidWorks 2008?

• Kevin Silbert
  Maybe more relevant would be the question "When will you upgrade to 2008". The new features are awesome, but it's also massively different, which will be seriously uncomfortable for some... Once I got used to it (during Beta), I hated going back to 2007!
• Josh
  You're right Kevin, so I've updated the poll. It's now multiple choice. :) I realized too that there are different factors driving it. For us, it's largely dependent on when the clients can upgrade, as well as making sure everything else works with it. Thanks for the comment.
• Shawn M.
  I agree with Kevin, not "if" but "when". Considering my past experiences with upgrades, I will wait as long as possible. I'm sure the new features are great but not worth moving from a relatively stable/robust platform to one which is sure to be much less stable/robust for AT LEAST the first several service packs.
  
  Our department just upgraded to 2007 SP4.0. Even at this stage of "development", it is significantly less stable/robust than 2006 SP5.1.
• Josh
  I hear ya Shawn. The last company I was with used 2001plus up till 2005 came out. It was mostly because of what you state. I've updated the poll so feel free to vote again. Thanks!
• Will
  I used to jump in both feet when it came to upgrades.
  After getting burnt a few times on projects that needed to be gone yesterday...I now wait at least to hear from the community, including my VAR how its going overall...
• Josh
  good point Will. It's easier to upgrade if you're a freelancer or consultant, but then if you have deadline, the excitement of some new features will wear of fast if it has some issues.
• Anna Wood
  Josh,
  
  We will update towards the end of the year. We use our native SolidWorks data downstream in our production areas. I need to co-ordinate the SolidWorks 2008 rollout with the upgrade to CAMWorks 2008 and Esprit 2008.
  
  I will actually rollout SW08 to our manufacturing areas before we upgrade Engineering. We want our production folks to always be able to read the SW data native and not get into saving them step/iges translations.
  
  This year with the new UI I will most likely do a training session on the SW08 UI for our users. I really like the new UI, but it will be a shock to our users. Not all of them easily adapt to change... :-)
  
  Cheers,
  
  Anna
• Josh
  That reminds me of the guy balancing all the spinning plates on those sticks while he stands on the back of a bear. that sounds like an excellent plan to get production up and running first. engineering's customer right. good luck anna.
• khorram
  I would consider it after a much more improved surface modeling/analysis features, otherwise 2006 SP5.1 would do the job for simple solid works and for surface jobs I use a capable surface modeler instead.
• Josh
  another post. What surface modeler do you use?
• khorram
  Hi Josh,
  
  primarily I use StudioTools(AliasStudio)though, with StudioTools and Maya there is simply nothing you can not model when it comes to surface modeling, Also I use Imageware for certain tasks and know Rhino well.
• Frank
  I was a die hard 2001 user then after much heated debat with myself I up graded to 2004 with the exception of the defer to mate 2004 was a huge improvement I installed 2005 on 1 computer and transfered only some of my files to it after less than a month I refotmated the computer and revertad back to 2004 to do this I lost thousands of changes I had made and had to re make them again in 2006 and 2007 I gave both a trial for the things I use solidworks for neither were worth the effort mostly because many of my associates were still using 2004 and they could not use my files made in the newer versions durring these years I changed computers many times up grading to handle the bloated programs that kept coming out. 2 months ago I finaly went all the way and bit the bullet and up graded to 2008 I will never do that again I lost so many parts-libs I had been usingwith theold tool box browser that it is not a subject that anyone wants to talk with me about.
  I will never up grade in solidworks again unless they stabilize their platform to be compatable with the older versions and create a save back feature like the other cad programs have. nor will I upgrade any more microsoft products
  the most stable and usable years for all programs no matter whose they were. was between 2001 and 2004 windows 2000Pro was the single best plqatform ever created XP pro after SP2 became the second.
  Solidworks 2001 was a stable program then 2004 became their best ever. they may not have had the salad dressing of the newer programs but if you dont need the flow concept and melted Hershey bar lines in models then 2004 is the best if you need to make your models look like a futuristic concept machine that will never be built then I highly recommend 2008 Of you need t odo structural load testing then get a program designed specificly for that.
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• boko
  thanks you

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