SOLIDWORKS Compatibility with LOTUS NOTES

[jamesh8448]

Does anyone have experience (good or bad) running Lotus Notes along with SolidWorks 2004? We have done everything we can to improve performace here, but still not satisfied compared to my home machine with half the horsepower. Our typical workstations are dual xeon 2ghz with 1 or 2 gig RDRAM, scsi hard drives, ghz network cards on dedicated server, and quadro pro or quadro fx video cards. Now I'm just grasping at straws.

 

[JNR]

Was it a problem with SW2003? We are still on SW2003 (it's a SmartTeam compatibiliy thing, not a SW issue). UNFORTUNATELY we are also saddled with Lotus @#$^%#%# NOtes.

We NEVER leave Notes running in background and expect to keep going without a crash. It has problems with all kinds of software anyway - heck it has problems with itself fer cryin out loud. Hands up everyone who hate Lotus @%#$%$* NO-I'm-not-going-to-play-right-TES!!

\o/ \o/
| |
/ \ / \.............

Notes is not a very clean piece of code. We just bring it up when we need it and close it again. Now, I know that does not help if you want to monitor incoming email or reminders, but it is better than crashing all the time. I have had problem with it and several other softweare products including MS Office modules.

Not very helpful, but at least you know it ain't you.

I was - and he did. So at least I didn't get coal.....

 

[automationbabe]

Nothing BUT bad with Notes, from 2001+ to 2004. We do the same as JNR and turn it off and on as needed, but me thinks Notes leaves its little gremlins running around even after its closed. My best experience with Notes was not opening it at all.

 

[jamesh8448]

Yes JNR, we had the same problems with 2001+ and 2003. I agree with automationbabe, the best way to deal with Lotus Notes is to leave it closed! I am not aware of any issues with MS Office apps.

No matter where I go.........there I am!

 

[macduff]

I almost agree with jamesh8448. But instead of closing Lotus Notes down, you should uninstall it from your and everyone else's computer. Lotus Notes is like IBM, you could buy better, but you can't pay more......Sorry if I offended anyone.....

 

[Luca83]

Like everyone said, don't bother leaving Lotus notes open, its a memory hog.

 

[SBaugh]

I use M$ Outlook and I can leave it open all day long with both versions of SW (03 and 04) running and I don't run into hardly any problems.

I ran Lotus notes a long time ago when SW was in infancy stage, and it was bad then. SW was still recommending 32 Megs of RAM then. I would have thought they would have improved it but I guess not.

Here is a solution:

Check your email in the morning, reboot your computer and start SW. At the end of the day close SW, open up Lotus Notes, check email and leave it till morning. Repeast process as needed.

or send nasty emails to your IT admin

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[JNR]

Wow: Quite a show of hands! I agree with all of you.

Unfortunately we can't switch. The entire Rockwell Collins company uses it and it is integrated into our ebusiness.

Lessons learned: Large company A want to standardize on an email/sheduling software. A division B gets the job of investigating and happens to be the only ones using Bloatus and has some anti-Gates nazis in the testing group. So they choose Bloatus and company A spends untold $$$ on multiple site licences. A couple of months later large company C buys division B from large company A. Company C uses Outlook and promptly forces division B into line. Meanwhile the remainder of large company A are stuck with Bloatus cos its too late and expensive to change. Do I sound a little bitter?

We do not seem to have problems as long as we close Lotus after using it. It does mean that we can't really use alarms, etc. Unfortunately I have to use Notes frequently during the day. The luxury of only checking email once a day is not possible for me. It seems to be best to not have Lotus up while any other major software is running which is when I suspect the gremlins get left caught up in the works. It least it is definitely best not to switch back and forth. I do sometimes bring up Lotus, use it and close it while SW is up, but never try to switch to and fro between them. It kinda harks back to single tasking DOS days, but there ya go.....

Some observations - anyone else noticed this? It seems like they got their nose out of joint after they finally got over pretending they were a competitor to Windows (duh?). It is a Windows application, so why can't they use the standard Windows programming tools and functions. But no they have to make their own icons, their own colors, their own eveything and make darned sure it LOOKS different. And then they have to put the close file icon somewhere completely different from EVERY other Windows application, so half the time you close the entire Notes and have to relaunch it again. Then things vary depending on what you are doing. Like the address book interface is different for creating an email and forwarding one!!!!

I guess the point of my whining is to warn off anyone looking to select a new email, etc. system. Go for Outlook. It ain't perfect but it's at least a 9 as opposed to a 4 max for Notes (and that's being generous). I use Outlook at home and my only beefs are that some interfaces are a bit ugly or obscure, but at least it works and does not screw up anything else.

I was - and he did. So at least I didn't get coal.....

 

[MrPickles]

I'll raise my hand...halfway. I am "forced" to use Lotus Notes, and haven't had issues with it (other than it stinks). Been running it with SW 2001 thru SW 2004sp2.

Of course our Lotus Notes is like 3 years old, but 3 year old software ought to be worse at memory leakin'.



-----------
Mr. Pickles

 

[Roller1]

There is an application included with Lotus Notes 6.0 called 'Notes Minder'. This app sits in the task bar and notifies you of any incoming mail and/or alarms. It should be in the 'Lotus Applications' folder if you do Start > Programs. I am not sure if this is included in earlier versions of Lotus Notes.

Alternatively, I have found another great litle app called 'Lotus Notes Notifier'. You can download it from:

http://aw-soft.newmail.ru/lnn/.

This app allows you to read and reply to email without ever opening lotus notes.

Using either of these apps allows you to use Solidworks and still be notified of incoming mail (and also to use alarms and reminders) without the need to have memory-hungry Lotus Notes running as well.

Roller1

 

[Yogibear]

I'm in the same situation as MrPickles. We are forced to use it. I leave it running all day and haven't really noticed alot of problems. If the machines are slow then we can use that as justification to get a faster machine, because I don't think there is anyway they are going to wise up and get rid of Lotus.

 

[darnell]

Hey Mr Pickles,

Is that a typo or is SP2 available for 2004?

 

[macduff]

Yeah Mr.Pickles, is that a typo or is SP2 available for 2004? Also, what fixes are in SP2?

 

[SBaugh]

SP2 is not available yet. It was out for only a short time and if were lucky enough to go there and DL it while it was there... like Mr. P and myself. Then you would have gotten the SP with the PDF translator error in it. They pulled the SP the same day it came out and it hasen't returned since.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376