Dumb question: why is anyone still using 2004?

[MMike1]

When you sign up with your VAR, your updates are included with your monthly "support fee".... so why wouldn't you upgrade from 2004?

 

[drawoh]

...because I am on 2003.

I am not sure what the problem is. I'm not the administrator here.

JHG

 

[ctopher]

A lot of companies do not pay the support fee. Management either doesn't think it is important or don't want to spend the money.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP3.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site

FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

 

[Heckler]

There could be a multitude of reason:

1. Main customer still using old rev.
2. Did buy support
3. In the middle of a long development project and no available resources to test and validate the integration of a new release. I've been through that....not wanting to trash the data due to new release.

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 2.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NIVIDA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

"There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea" Bernard-Paul Heroux

 

[EdHulse]

Because we have crappy hardware and speed will only get worse with 2005.

Plus we are a LARGE company and there are to many people with their hands in the cookie jar.

 

[MadMango]

Why are you asking about SW04 when SW05 is current, and SW06 is just around the corner?

The main reason I think is a lack of justification to those with the check book.

[green]"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."[/green]
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[R1100S]

Heckler's #3 is one very good reason not to upgrade. If you have a version that works, why "upgrade" to something unproven when you don't have the resources availabele to check it.

 

[ctopher]

I always prove out each release and SP on one PC for about a month. If OK, I upgrade others. Never had a problem doing so. Running 2004 and 2006 comming up, IMO it is time to upgrade.
I hear all the time people waiting for PC prices to come down before they buy one. Wait too long, you will have a different OS and prices jump up again or your software won't run on it.
I say don't jump on the band wagon right away, but don't wait too long either.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP3.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site

FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

 

[Heckler]

Chris,

I agree about the price point of computers....it's an interesting issue when talking about running highend MCAD software. I'm at the top of the computer food chain at my company....I just got a brand new Dell 370 and it filters down to the designers But with the new performance enhancements hardware will become less of an issue....according to Jeremy (SWx Corporate Rep) they have totally reworked how SWx handles the raw feature geometry which in turn has increased performance....anyway, a little off topic.

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 2.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NIVIDA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

"There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea" Bernard-Paul Heroux

 

[MimiN63]

Looking back to '05, I don't blame people for hanging onto a tried-and-true version when they know it works. Think of how many bugs existed when that first came out. Not just with new features, but mainly with ones that have been around for years! This is why we will wait until 2006 is a few service packs into the game before we upgrade. Some people may even space them further. Like not upgrading to 2006 until the next major release comes out. I love the program. But I deffinately think they should have been a little more careful with '05.

 

[ctopher]

I don't see any more bugs in 05 than 04.
IMO, it depends on your settings, hardware, and the way models are created.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP3.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site

FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

 

[aamoroso]

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$, no problems with 04 so cannot justify the expense to 05, we will be looking at 06 closely.

Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. And scratch where it itches.

 

[Heckler]

MimiN63,

I thought it was 2004 that was the problem release! I went from 2003 to 2005 and noticed a big difference. 2006 looks extremely promising

 

[PDMAdmin]

We held off on upgrading for about six months, primarily because our IT department didn't want to support multiple versions. (It wasn't realistic for everyone to upgrade at the same time.) Plus, each new version of SolidWorks tends to be more resource-intensive, so companies that prefer to hold onto computer equipment as long as possible (like mine) have lots of incentive not to upgrade. Shortly after we upgraded to 2005, we had major crashing problems. The main reasons were outdated computer equipment, insufficient RAM and registry corruption. (SBaugh's FAQ about properly uninstalling SolidWorks came in very handy for that one.)

 

[alexit]

We usually wait until SP1.0 at least before upgrading...by then they usually get it within 50% of the previous release stability. Got a nice suprise with SW2005, only get hard system reboot 1x daily instead of 4x and not getting the Unhandled Exception every hour anymore.

Getting all new hardware when we hit 2006SP1.0 so maybe that will let us go a whole day.

 

[MMike1]

Hmmm. I guess our VAR pretty much gets you... They would not sell us the software without the monthly support. But I suppose it never occurred to me to ask for JUST the software. And really, their support is kinda lame. I get quicker answers to my problems here.

 

[MimiN63]

Heckler –

There were verifications of problems w/ 2005 such as the following:

- blocks not coming in or coming in w/ lots of errors
- cropped views screwing up
- problems selecting things
- Problems patterning radius’s and components
- Problems w/ layers
- Nuances like cosmetic threads in shaded mode stopped working when ’05 was released.

Most of the fixes for these issues came out in SP’s 1.1 and 2.0. I mean, just look how long the list of fixes was!!! But that didn’t happen until nearly 6 months after the release.

I agree that 2006 looks very nice. I’m looking forward to using it. However, I and many others remain skeptical.

It was so bad, that SW and Trimech each sent a representative out to the company at the same time to try and address all the issues.

 

[ctopher]

The way I see it, all SP's and releases are going to have various bugs for everyone. Unless you hear of something major, I don't see a reason not to upgrade. IMO.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP3.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site

FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

 

[GBor]

I agree with you, Chris, but the problem is defining "major". A "small" bug may push production to the right while you figure out a work-around. Too far to the right loses money, contracts, etc. I stay current because I need to interface with clients that remain current, but I also keep my VAR close by in case of emergency.

 

[ShaggyPE]

Wanna hear the reason I am still stuck on 2004. My company decided to implement a pdm system called Windchill. For those that don't know, Windchill is a PTC (Pro-Engineer) product. It is not in PTC's best interest to keep their pdm up to date with the changes made in other software. The latest version of SW that windchill can handle is 2004. The clincher is my company pays the SW support fee. We have had 2005 sitting on a shelf here since it was released.
Fun Fun Fun.

BTW the pdm decision was made before I came on board.