Hi all
Personally, I have nothing to say about this software! (2018 SP4 version). Yes of course it bugs at times, but nothing penalizing! There you go, there you go.
Kind regards
1 Like
Hello;
Am I satisfied with Solidworks? ... Overall "Yes". Especially for the 3D part (parts/assemblies).
For the 2D part (the drawings) my level of satisfaction would be: "Not so much".... can do so much better.
The most frequent (My/Our?) problems?
- Import/export of other formats (especially "Left" shapes).
- the Surface (I prefer Catia on this point).
- PC resource management (graphics, RAM, etc.) Hearts...)
- Having to wait for very late Service packs (sp4) to hope to have a Stabilized version. And redo all your Document templates and a good part of the preference settings with each new Version.
- Global Solidworks / Dassaut system communication on their products, or their new products.
I'll be curious to know the answers to this type of question on the forums: Catia, Creo, sw3D ... and other 3D modeling software.... I think we would find exactly the same feelings.
And don't forget that almost 75% of computer problems are between the chair and the keyboard.... ;)
Kind regards.
2 Likes
I too am into Solidworks from 95 to 2020 currently.
@+.
AR.
Hello
After 15 on SW + other games in parallel: I'm very satisfied with it on a daily basis but I actually find that a large majority of bugs and slowness deserve a firm reprimand that Dassault Systeme should hear.
Satisfied because:
- Ergonomics - Features - Power - Interopability - Permissive and well-documented API - addin-plugins from many partners - At the top when you work alone on your machine on products less than 100 parts, even with complex surfaces (but not imported). Visually sellable. Affordable given the functions.
Scandalous because:
- Lack of obvious functions for the mechanical profession (example: Size of the bending V, bend mark, Toolbox and other standard component badly made and/or not sold with it (profiles for example), non-native mechanical functions such as groove circlip, key, flat etc etc...)
- Ultra-fast sometimes, ultra-slow for nothing often! Example: We are on an ASM with 10,000 coins, we open a coin, we don't even make a click, we come back to the ASM it loads for 1 minute (big asm eh!) (even in complex ASM, speed-pack, removing the list of welded parts, rigorous verification at reconstruction...) Same for input, output of sketch by canceling. Why recalculate?
- Inability to stop the action in court!! = Soliworks does not respond...
- Numerous, serious, repeatable, easily fixable functional bugs that stay way too long. Some on 10 years !!
- Instability, Crash, Freeze, unexpected desktop return... In the end, it's not the most serious but it's very annoying.
- Instability of functions such as constraints, 3D sketches and dimension symmetries in MEPs (we understand that this is hard, (CF: Persistant-ID) but this point should be worked on)
So the subject is huge, but I've been talking about it for 15 years and I've known soliworks from the inside since the program and I can say with certainty:
- The windows file database is the ultimate source of a lot of problems (whether local, network drive, UNC or PDM), put all your templates, settings everything everything locally on an SSD or a RAM-Disk, it helps a lot. When you are 20 people you have to administer and synchronize all this = 1 dedicated person). PDM bugs but the local cache is a good thing!
- Look at the "Prereqs", it's a stack of more than 10 versions of visual basic, .NET and other frameworks, which are loaded and coexist. ouch ouch
- With the API you can get around some bugs, you can see them set up before the crash etc etc... And it crashes for not much sometimes. A little error handling wouldn't hurt. (Proof = We rarely see a critical error message, it's more of a crash...)
- Of course, the methodology has a lot to do with it, but I manage to find in a single day 3~4 official bugs recognized by Visiativ that correspond to an SPR at dassault, so we're not talking about the human. When on an SP1 you have "extracted" and it crashes 100% you make sure they haven't tried anything, the beta tester is us.
- External references and configurations are big advantages of SW, but the interface should be richer in order to make people aware of their proper use.
- CPU overclocked very high in frequency (5.20Ghz) with bcp of cache + 2x SSD, Xeon, ECC memory and Quadro may bring satibility but no power and is expensive. Rebuilding a 15,000 parts ASM = Several minutes at 25% CPU, fixed RAM, GPU =0%. Simu or render = 100% CPU-ALL-CORE throughout.
When you see an Autodesk-REVIT that loads a 30-storey building all detailed from the topology to the toilet connection through all the cable trays, which loads quickly, changes windows quickly, that you work at 50 on it and that no one crashes all week, you say wow it's possible.
When you see the latest version of Catia V5 and its s**t toolbars, you think LONG LIVE SOLIDWORKS.
Yours truly,
Rafael
(If you need to manage complex external references, conditional custom properties, as well as "Cross" BOMs contact me privately)
5 Likes
I really like Solidworks, it has a lot of qualities. But unfortunately at least as many flaws and shortcomings. However, one of the things that exasperates me the most is the time it takes to open the property manager when you want to add/edit a function, a quotation, etc. 2 seconds minimum each time ends up being hours wasted for nothing considering the number of times you access it... Add to that that you have to click an icon in a context menu to edit a function instead of just having to double click; More stupidly wasted seconds that accumulate... In the end, you lose less time with the loading of the software and files than with the property manager. The dialog boxes are also incomprehensibly slow.
2 Likes
Hi all
Well, I see that the question asked in January 2021 remains unanswered and is causing a lot of ink to flow!
To answer some questions about my installation and my installation method of my SW.... after my ASUS ROG gamer which has given me very good service for more than 5 years but with a graphic card not referenced at SW I switched 2 years ago now to an ASUS studio book with a windows 10 pro an intel core I7, a Quadro RTX 3000 and 64GB of memory..... I'm not a computer scientist and it's not my job, I'm an industrial designer and proud to be one after 35 years of activity but for having invested 3800 € in a laptop I hoped to correct some problems!
I had graphic bugs on my other pc and I can still have them now too, there for example I make a drawing by importing a view and well when I put the view the lines don't appear.... nothing!! I have to switch to shaded display style mode so that the lines appear in wireframe!! The problem is not recurring!
3D sketches on which the constraints are laborious, the dimensions on the drawings are not fluid (I go 10 times faster on autocad to detail and piss dimensions)
And what about the import of automotive WWTP parts.....
Thank you for your answers and feedback.....
2 Likes
Hello @Toutes and @ All
We should also listen to other companies than large companies.
And also that we are not sent back to the ropes when we talk about a problem (cf. the Lynkoa tour).
In my practice what I see is that when I make static assemblies I have moderate problems (provided I don't make too many modifications in the sketches), but as I do a lot of kinematics that's where it gets messy.
From my point of view, it's the memory management that is not good. After a while when I move articulated parts it crashes.
Obviously I have adapted and I force myself to leave SW every hour or half an hour for the consequent articulated ASMs.
I can now even predict when it's going to crash. I see that for example a basic icon becomes inactive or malfunctions even in sketches.
In these cases I save paying close attention when the automatic backup has been made. Indeed, if I save at the same time as the auto save, then it gets waffled.
I talked with a Visiativ manager during the lynkoa tour about this memory management and well I was told that it was because it allowed me not to recharge certain things that only happen once all the deaths of bishops. So I'm wrong to use solidworks for what it should be done.
Escalating these problems is useless (except for blocking bugs which are released quickly).
There are two reasons they are racing for new features but they just forget one thing : in mecha there are two essential things in an assembly, these are the two main fixing methods, namely screwing, bolting and welding. But try to do welding in SW as any companion in the workshop would do and well I wish you a lot of fun. For the tapping, I refer you to the fair remarks of our colleagues in this discussion thread. As for the taps or threads regularly mentioned on the forum, it's our fault. We just have to create them ourselves with the tools that exist. (that's service).
As for the management of large ensembles, you first have to pass a tightrope walker's certificate at the Pinder circus. Look at what was recommended during the lynkoa tour to manage them more or less. The solution is explained right after
In any case, any discussion is in vain for the following reason, which was communicated to us verbally during the Lynkoa Tour
SolidWorks wants to get out of the Windows system very quickly and go through software on the net that would allow the use of more modern and efficient coding technologies (dixit).
This means that in less than 2 to 5 years everything will go on the net and that today we can think that the version with software on pc or server will no longer be maintained or will not evolve (except maybe a minimal adaptation to W11 and higher windows version).
This means that all SMEs (90% have less than 5 workstations) that use Solidworks will have to define how many years they can live with a technical deficit.
Also, we must not lose sight of the fact that everything will be on the cloud (software and files).
We talk about listening !! my eye it's just if we don't get called a dinosaur curtly. With the following argument that cybersecurity would be better ensured than on individual workstations or company servers at the mercy of any virus.
But it also means that SMEs will have to change their business model.
What for
1°) Dassault Sys wants to have recurring revenues (as Croc$oft and Autodesk have been doing for a few years now with exorbitant software costs for the latter) indeed many SMEs are not under maintenance and have older versions. So no maintenance purchase = no recurring revenue or at least, less than they could expect.
2°) the technique of slicing the modules: when you have rented all the modules you need, you will realize that the annual cost of your software is multiplied by three or four in abstracto of the storage capacity that will be billed in addition. And what about the retention of file versions that sometimes have to be kept for up to ten years?
3°) The arguments that will be put forward to encourage small businesses and SMEs will be unlimited computing power, unlimited storage and a supposed guarantee of cybersecurity, and modularity adapted to your business.
Such is the way the world goes, but let us not be taken for whelks cooked with the IQ of a periwinkle!
Kind regards
8 Likes
Hello@tous
For my part, I'm not going to talk about the bugs even if there are even more than what has been said, but rather to mention two points that I can't understand or find explanations,
The first is performance, what SW makes me understand when each new version is released is "performance improvement means and can only be obtained with more cpu, ram... etc and not because they have revised and improved their concepts", knowing that my SW18 works very well on a 2.5g of cpu 8g ram, I even managed to load assemblies of order 35000 components in solved with references in less than 2 minutes, while most of you use turbo boost, important rams but still spit out.
The second point is the mechanical-welding, it seems that solidworks has changed the modeling strategy as well as the management of these mechanical-welders at the beginning of 2019, it made believe that it brought new features on the subject but no, it really aborted the "welded construction" application by creating a new application called "structure system" which does not allow to work the bodies created by "welded construction", The opposite is also not possible, "welded construction" cannot work the bodies created by "system structure", not to say that the latter sucks as an app, it took 3 years (2022) to be able to insert a mouthpiece with it!.
3 Likes
Hello
Version after version, I'm less and less satisfied as well. The software seems more and more unstable to me, especially since the switch to SW2022 SP3. Paradoxically, it seems to be getting better since the automatic backups were disabled, which I had reactivated after years of non-use.
But above all, I lose patience with the slowness of correcting some major defects , for which I regularly take the time to pass on the information, through videoconferences and others, including one directly with the developers based in India. I'm not talking about the representations of threads that don't (always) appear on plan views, layers not displaying properly, plan views only exporting in black and white in pdf, or other "minor" problems of this type... I'm thinking of a really handicapping defect concerning bills of materials, a basic function of all CAD software, but of crucial importance in our business. How is it that a BOM created in an assembly is no longer the same when it is imported into drawing files (number of mixed articles) and that this problem is not "quickly" corrected (bug reported to the publisher in January 2021 under the reference SPR 1208114)?
I have scheduled a training course on Inventor and I plan to switch to it completely by the end of the year. The memories and feedback I have of it lead me to think that the latter is more stable but also more advanced (direct and fluid integration of large point clouds in the form of part files, no BOM bugs, possibility to have a point of view from inside the parts and assemblies, interoperability with other Autodesk software, etc.), for a similar cost .
1 Like
Hello @julien.zirnheld
Ask to be in contact with the technical director of Visiativ, it's up to them to make a complete diagnosis of all your problems. They are not stingy in giving us a bit dry lessons during the Lynkoa Tour 2022 (especially on ASM and others).
That said, I'm surprised that you can have direct contact with the developers, especially in India. (you're going to get hacked for sure).
As for inventor, don't think that the transition from SW to Inventor is easy, especially when you have thousands of parts and plans under SW.
I did it in the Inventor to SW direction and fortunately I only had 1200 parts and plans without configuration, family of parts and other joys that complicate and without PDM.
On Inventor, if you do cinematics, you can forget about it, it's almost unusable as soon as you have more than four moving parts.
In addition , take a good look at Autodesk's commercial policy , especially if you can't for one reason or another not renew your annual license. In this case you can't use an old version if you're not in maintenance.
Kind regards
1 Like
Hello everyone,
I can only agree with everything that has been said before.
Today we have a subscription but I'm still in SW2019 SP05 because the returns from 2020 or 2021 are bad and would also force me to change equipment.
I also agree with the fact that in some cases you feel that it will crash in the next 30 seconds, sometimes you manage to avoid and close everything in time, other times not .
For the alternatives there is SW3D: super strong in file conversion but I gave up when we can't make the assembly tutorial which doesn't work a few years ago. The advantage is that it is cheaper than SW and is intended as an alternative to SW.
Otherwise I have a client who don't bother at all and take freecad, I just wanted to do tests during the holidays to see what we can do, obviously there are plenty of modules (or Workshop) including the analysis of forces (subliminal message for @Zozo_mp and I'm sure your analysis is crisp as usual ;) ). I'll probably test it, you just have to motivate yourself with the heat hihihi)
The other alternatives we all know.
2 Likes