SolidWorks 2012 Has Arrived 1

[macduff]

What are your first impressions? I'm not impressed very much with the additions at all. There's a couple of cool features in drawings. It looks like they want us to become "Buyers" with the cost tools. Don't get me wrong, it is nice to get a ballpark price on items, but every supplier will have there cost. I don't know if SW took in account for processing the part ie. paint, anodize, chem film etc...I didn't see it in the demo. I didn't watch all the demos due to lack of interest of the ones i did watch.


Colin Fitzpatrick (aka Macduff)
Mechanical Designer
Solidworks 2010 SP 5.0
Dell T5500 Windows 7 Pro (64-bit)
Xeon CPU 2.53 GHz 6.00 GB of RAM
nVida Quadro 4000 2 GB
3D Connexion-SpaceExplorer

 

[loki3000]

just about the only good thing about the maintenance are the service packs, which are restricted (to maint. customers) on most platforms (autodesk being the exception)

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

just about the only good thing about the maintenance are the service packs

SPs should be free. With only a few exceptions, Sps are fixes to software bugs. We should not have to pay to fix the flaws in SW programming.

 

[looslib]

Most mainteance contracts are priced in the 10-12% of initial cost range per year. You need to calculate that into the cost of the software.
In the case of NX and Pro/E, if you skip a year, you have to pay back maintenance to get it reinstated. Where I used to work, they stopped their UG maintenance after 18 years because corporate had decided to move them to Pro/E. So they stayed on UG V18 for their legacy files. About 5 years later, they needed to upgrade to NX4 for a project so they bought 1 new seat as it was cheaper than the back bill. Plus they could still run the 30+ seats of V18 which they would have lost if they had only upgraded.

Backward compatabilty is more than just lost features of the newer release. It also involves the data structure of the file as saved. One of the files that SW was to upgrade is the Parasolid schema that changes with each release of the kernel. This is just one file that means that each install is larger because the latest schema has the methods for updating older versions to its structure.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[sldwkmin]

CorBlimeyLimey,

I would agree if SP's were just fixes that you possibly should not have to pay for them...but on that same front if you bring your car in for the system control updates you pay for those.

Interesting thing about SolidWorks SP's is they bury ehancements in them more regularly then you think. One of the more recent ones being the complete uninstall that is in 2012 was included in late SP's of 2011 if you knew where to find it. There are little enhancements in each one if you look for them.

Cole M
CSWP, CSWST, CSWI, CPDM
Certified DriveWorks AE

 

[KevinDeSmet]

Separate bug fixes from enhancements and bob's your uncle, no?

Certified SolidWorks Professional

 

[1Mperios]

Excited to see all the new changes and additions they have implemented!

 

[macduff]

Looks like I'm going to miss our "Tee Up SolidWorks 2012 at DDi's Rollout Event" next week. I have to travel to Brazil for work. I really want to see the new 2012 product and what's really been added. Also, I like networking with the other Tucson users. Oh well...

I agree with separating the bugs from the enhancements.

Colin Fitzpatrick (aka Macduff)
Mechanical Designer
Solidworks 2010 SP 5.0
Dell T5500 Windows 7 Pro (64-bit)
Xeon CPU 2.53 GHz 6.00 GB of RAM
nVida Quadro 4000 2 GB
3D Connexion-SpaceExplorer

 

[dogarila]

I just got the SW2012 SP1.0 DVD from my VAR. Is it ready for production use? Large design review could be quite helpful for us.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

From testing on our products, SP0 was suitable for production ... but you should always do your own testing before using a new version on production files.

 

[macduff]

I agree with CBL.

Colin Fitzpatrick (aka Macduff)
Mechanical Designer
Solidworks 2010 SP 5.0
Dell T5500 Windows 7 Pro (64-bit)
Xeon CPU 2.53 GHz 6.00 GB of RAM
nVida Quadro 4000 2 GB
3D Connexion-SpaceExplorer