Upgrading from 2008 to 2010

[steris]

We are considering upgrading from 2008 sp3 to get some of the newer features in 2010. Does anyone know of any issues with upgrading? I know SW tries to make it as seamless as possible but there are always issues. For example, can files from 2010 be opened in 2008? Do you have to re-populate PDM? Do templates port over?

I just want to make sure that I don't spend thousands of dollars on the upgrade and then hours and hours with upgrade related issues.

Thanks in advance!
-Steris

 

[ctopher]

Why not upgrade to 2011?
No version is backward compatible.
Before you upgrade save your settings "Start/All Programs/SolidWorks 2008/SolidWorks Tools/Copy Settings Wizard".
Make sure virus protection is turned off before and during upgrade. Reboot after upgrade.

Chris
SolidWorks 10 SP4.0
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[JMirisola]

No, 2010 files can't be opened in 2008.
You won't need to repopulate PDM, but you will have to upgrade the server to 2010.
Templates do port over.

To do it properly, you'll want to do a clean install of 2010. You can google how to do it, or just go to this post about it on my blog.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
Design Manager/Senior Designer
M9 Defense
My Blog

 

[steris]

The main reason for not going 2011 is that last year we expanded purchased a number of new licenses of 2010 for the new buys. However we installed them as 2008 for compatibility with our existing seats. If we move to 2011, our 2008 licenses and 2010 licenses will need to be put on subscription and that will cost an additional deal killing amount.

 

[fcsuper]

Your access to 2011 should not be affected by your choice to install as 2008 or otherwise. As along as you have your maintenance up to date, you can install any version of SW that is currently supported by SW (2008 being the oldest, I think). If you haven't been maintaining your subscriptions, then I would suggest trying to work out a deal with your VAR (or if you have enough licenses) with SolidWorks directly.

Either way, there's really nothing stopping you from installing 2010 versus 2011 if the 2010 is kept on maintenance.

Anyway, that isn't what you asked. There will be issues with templates and sheet formats if you ever edit them in 2010 (or 2011), since older versions of SolidWorks will no longer be able to open them.

Matt Lorono, CSWP
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources & SolidWorks Legion
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[samuelm]

One issue we ran into was that that 2010 used more memory (RAM) than the previous version for a given part/assy and due to the fact that we were running on 32 bit we ran into a cases where it was impossible to open a few very large assemblies that were fine in the previous version. If you don't have large assemblies or already running in 64 bits with plenty of ram then you should be OK otherwise consider upgrading the operating system and perhaps the hardware. YOu should be able test this easily by loading Solidworks 2010 on one of your machines and see if your largest models perform OK.


sam

 

[steris]

Hi Sam,

Thanks for the tip - that's a good point. We will try that for sure since we currently sometimes have trouble with our large models. Thanks again!

 

[fcsuper]

I ditto Sam's comments. We ran into similar issues with 2010 and had to upgrade all of our systems to Win7 despite our IT departments desires to stay on 32-bit.

Matt Lorono, CSWP
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources & SolidWorks Legion
Follow me on Twitter