Solidworks 3D CAD 2016

[Wendelspanswick]

I've been invited to a free introduction to Solidworks 2016 and by mistake they have reserved 2 places in my name.
If anyone wants the other place it's in Taunton on the 7th of October.
It's just for the morning but you do get a free breakfast.

 

[500e]

How much do you have to understand before it will be any use I know nothing but would like to at least have an inkling as to how it works ?

 

[Rocketman]

It's more of a sales thing to get everyone with 2015 or older version to pay subscription for the next year. Basically they will go through all the amazing new things the 2016 version does that the 2015 didn't.

As a business you have to weigh up whether paying the years subscription is worth it to get the upgrade. Very rarely in my eyes the upgrades come close to anything like the savings you would get in time. So I opt for subscription to maintenance say once every 3 years.

 

[CRB]

I was shown the 2002/3 version. Damned clever then for someone who was just getting to grips with TurboCAD 6 ish 2D shenanigans.

 

[wilbur]

As a business you have to weigh up whether paying the years subscription is worth it to get the upgrade. Very rarely in my eyes the upgrades come close to anything like the savings you would get in time. So I opt for subscription to maintenance say once every 3 years.

I think I read recently that they're changing their subscription model next year so that you'll have to pay for the lapsed time too to rejoin. Sounds like the "make all our customers hate us completely" people are now fully in charge, which will of course eventually open a place in the market for a decent Solidworks replacement. Just like they replaced ProE...

 

[Rocketman]

There is a £300 reinstallation cost now, that has been around for as long as I can remember. You may not have to pay that depending how good the negotiations go.

I will probably upgrade to this version at some point, say when sp3 comes out. That way I will get approximately sp3 of 2017 as well.

 

[wilbur]

There is a £300 reinstallation cost now, that has been around for as long as I can remember. You may not have to pay that depending how good the negotiations go.

Well, apparently that's what's changing: http://www.solidsmack.com/cad/the-new-solidworks-subscription-late-policy-and-how-to-avoid-it/

 

[Wendelspanswick]

How much do you have to understand before it will be any use I know nothing but would like to at least have an inkling as to how it works ?

I am in the same boat, never used Solidworks before but using it as an introduction to see what it can do compared to Draftsite.

 

[Rocketman]

Well, apparently that's what's changing: http://www.solidsmack.com/cad/the-new-solidworks-subscription-late-policy-and-how-to-avoid-it/

I have just email my var to find out if this is true in the UK and if so why they haven't contacted me yet to inform me of the changes.

There has been talk of that for years but it's one of those selling points for solidworks hence why it never came in until now perhaps.

Question would be really how much will it cost.

BTW I don't believe for a second 95% of users subscribe each year.

 

[Rocketman]

I am in the same boat, never used Solidworks before but using it as an introduction to see what it can do compared to Draftsite.

You would be better off contacting a solidworks reseller and they will come out to your business see what you do and show you how soildworks would help. Won't cost you anything doing that.

 

[Sarto]

If you are just starting with 3d cad, call the people from Siemens (with SolidEdge) or
Autodesk (with Inventor) too.
If you are not tied tight with Solidworks, of course.
Maybe not the same morning.

SARTo

 

[Rocketman]

Add

Vero
Rhino to the list.

Really depends how complex what you are doing is, who are you clients etc.

 

[Normsthename]

Basically they will go through all the amazing new things the 2016 version does that the 2015 didn't.

Don't you mean new features that nobody wants!
Instead of adding new features I wish they would concentrate on fixing the bugs that its had for years and try to make the program more stable

Andy

 

[JohnRUFC]

I was trained on Inventor Pro is there much of a difference?

 

[AndyStobbs]

Forgive my ignorance but whats actually updated? Its not as if they bring out a new SI unit every year is it.
I don't know whether it has a CAM aspect but even if it does, how much can things alter in a year?

I update my diagnostic equipment, but new cars come out.

 

[harryb94]

I was trained on Inventor Pro is there much of a difference?

I used solid works at college and spent a couple of hours on inventor, I found that it's fairly similar to solid works and wasn't hard to pick up so I would have thought solid works wouldn't be too hard to pick up having used inventor

 

[Rocketman]

Don't you mean new features that nobody wants!
Instead of adding new features I wish they would concentrate on fixing the bugs that its had for years and try to make the program more stable

Andy

Yes it often feels like that. One year to the next it is very hard to justify subscription unless you are relatively new to the software then the subscription and often free training would have added value.

Certainly in my case it's worth upgrading at the second as I am on 2013 and there is enough improved/new functions now to 2016 to justify. Though as I mentioned I wouldn't touch a SP0 version but wait till at least SP2 or more probably 3 so 2016 is a bit irrelevant until April onwards.

I was trained on Inventor Pro is there much of a difference?

There is differences in all the systems and how they work. Positives and negatives, some systems are very hard to adopt but might have much better surfacing.

Forgive my ignorance but whats actually updated? Its not as if they bring out a new SI unit every year is it.
I don't know whether it has a CAM aspect but even if it does, how much can things alter in a year?

I update my diagnostic equipment, but new cars come out.

They improve (well hopefully as the odd year release is a disaster) with better functionality/new commands. They actually have quite a big team working on bugs/customer requests/their own new ideas/just the basics of how it looks and works. So say they might bring 10 new things to a release - some may be old commands made better or other may be totally new. Then through the year you get updated SP numbers which are usually bug fixes and small improvements to bits and bobs.

So you start adding it up through the years say 2016 is a vast improvement on 2009. Though 2016 to 2015 will be a bit better.

 

[Rocketman]

Wilbur is 100% correct as of January Solidworks are changing their policy on renewals/subscription and really stinging you if you don't.

As I haven't bothered with the Solidworks forums recently I had not seen this, but worse then that my reseller should have told me by now.

Basically now it's not worth missing the odd year that there isn't enough upgrades to justify paying subs. You would have to go without subs for 5 years to make it worth while which is way too long to wait for a upgrade version.

 

[Sarto]

Aren't they digging their own graves doing so?

 

[Rocketman]

Hard to say really, at the end of the day it's Dassault that have decided this and they pretty well own the CAD business for aerospace and automotive with Catia. You would assume then they know what they are doing but as we know even the biggest companies make silly decisions that cost them dearly = VW.