By: fcsuper on September 2nd, 2010
Draftsight (free .dwg 2D editor) is currently under public beta release. Users are welcome to try it out and use it. The beta release EULA seems to make some statements about how Draftsight may or may not be used. Many users have expressed concern that the EULA forbids them from using Draftsight for commercial use. I asked Arron Kelly of Dassault Systemes for clarity on this issue.
He stated that the Draftsight EULA is standard for all beta releases of Dassault Systemes products. Statements like this are both common from large corporations and dangerous. First, it implies that no one (not even the large corporation itself) bothers to read the EULA. Second, it also implies an understanding that EULA’s are (at least in part) unenforceable. Kelly shouldn’t be held over the coals for making his statement. Similar comments have come out of the mouths of other Dassault Systemes employees over the years for similar questions about other products. In fact, there are likely hundreds of examples where software corporations blow-off the strictness of their EULA’s in the face of customer angst. Yet, they rarely change the wording that causes that angst.
Kelly did clarify the issue, however. The Draftsight EULA means that commercial use is not supported under Beta release, but it is not restricted.
Categories: Complaints |
Tags: Arron Kelly, DraftSight, EULA | No Comments
By: fcsuper on September 2nd, 2010
The user interface in SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2011 is getting some much needed, though incremental, improvement.
All Enterprise PDM commands are now grouped into four menus that appear just above the file view pane in SolidWorks and Windows Explorer. The advantage of this change is that the shortcut menu (RMB click) is now somewhat shorter. The most frequently used commands are still available in the shortcut menu. Hopefully, this menu reorganization will help clean up the notoriously lengthy shortcut menu of previous Enterprise PDM versions.
For example, Check in and Check out functions are now available within the Actions pulldown menu, yet are still also available in the shortcut menu. Take your pick!
The new pulldown menus and the shortcut menus are still context sensitive, in that the commands which are available still depend on user selection.
Categories: News, PDM, Product Review |
Tags: Enterprise PDM | 1 Comment
By: fcsuper on September 1st, 2010
SolidWorks 2011 promises to have better performance and reliability in a few areas. This is a topic that sometimes is not well represented in the What’s New file that are included with SolidWorks products. However, the improvements are still very important.
Memory management
One area of improvement is better memory management. Previous versions tend to eat up more memory as a SolidWorks session remains open and active in Windows. Though this tendency is not completely gone, SolidWorks 2011 is reported to be better at releasing memory when closing or suppressing parts and files. According to Jeremy Regnerus of SolidWorks Corp, users should be able to keep SolidWorks 2011 open longer and with more stability than previous versions. Generally speaking, SolidWorks seems to have taken major strides in stability over the past couple of years.
Better performance logs
To to a better job of tracking issues when they do arise (such as crashes), performance logs will now be more comprehensive to give SolidWorks support better information to determine the cause of the problem.
Simulation
Regnerus also brags about improvements to SolidWorks Simulation performance. He stated that users should see a 20% faster solve time with 15 to 20% fewer number of equations. Additionally, multicore CPU use will allow Simulation to run single simulations much faster.
Categories: News, Product Review |
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By: fcsuper on September 1st, 2010
The countdown is over. The SolidWorks 2011 launch website is now up and running. It’s a bit fancy. Even though it may take a couple of minutes load, it’s worth a look to see much of what’s coming for the next version of SolidWorks. It’s not going to show you every improvement in SolidWorks 2011, but it covers the What’s New extremely well.
Categories: News |
Tags: SolidWorks 2011 | No Comments
By: fcsuper on September 1st, 2010
SolidWorks 2011 launch is now official. The funny thing about launches is that this doesn’t necessarily mean the product will ship right away. That comes later. For this launch, SolidWorks Corp invited a panel of bloggers and journalist to their headquarters in Concord, MA yesterday and today to get a first hand look at SolidWorks 2011. As a matter of disclosure, my accommodations, travel and most meals for this event are covered by SolidWorks Corp. No one has made any requests regarding article creation nor content in connection with this event. Some material (such as images and basic information) was derived from the SolidWorks 2011 What’s New (beta) file. The content of this article is solely of my discretion.
As with each year, there are a number of enhancements in SolidWorks 2011. Here are a few, briefly covered. More detailed articles will follow over the coming month.
Assemblies
One area of note is that SolidWorks now supports fillet and chamfer features within an assembly. Though these new features can be useful by themselves, their is another feature enhancement that helps set a theme. Fillet welds will no longer be necessary as components within an assembly. Instead, simplified weld beads is a new feature that is a simple representation of a weld contained within the assembly itself. These additions and changes will give users more abilities in adding welds and weld specifications to assemblies and drawings.
Design Checker
Design Checker is one of those functions that has a more stealthy existence in SolidWorks. Well, maybe not stealthy, but under-utilized. It is a function that sees incremental improvement each year, but without much fanfare. In the past, I’ve been a little critical of this function’s lack of functionality. SolidWorks 2011 has eight enhancements for Design Checker. The enhancement that I feel is most important is the ability to create standard files (.swstd) from existing SolidWorks file formats. This is step beyond the Learn Checks Wizard currently available. This allows the user to create a new set of check rules based on an existing file.
Drawings
For some reason, SolidWorks never had an automatic way to add a scale label to orthogonal views. There is a macro (that I helped create) which gives the user a non-dynamic method to add scale. The limitation of this macro is that if the scale of the view changes, the macro must be re-run. SolidWorks 2011 now gives the user the ability to add a true scale label to orthogonal views.
The macro may still be of use if there is a need to add pre-established labels to drawing views. For example, if view is pictorial or isometric, the macro provides a quick way to add that label.
ASME drawing standard
I’m not really sure why SolidWorks still calls ASME by the other name ANSI. The switchover to ASME happened like 20 years ago. Either way, SolidWorks 2011 claims that it now “supports some of the requirements of ASME Y14.5-2009″.
One of the important areas of support is geometric tolerance symbols. ASME Y14.5-2009 expanded the role of the ALL OVER modifier to a Profile feature control frame. With this expansion comes a new symbol (the double circle leader). Also included are the new Independency symbol (encircled I, which declares an except to Rule #1) and the Continuous Feature symbol (oddly boxed CF, which applies Rule #1 more broadly).
Parts and Features
More end conditions are now available with the Revolve feature: Up to Vertex, Up to Surface, and Offset from Surface. These can be specified separately in each direction (clockwise and counter-clockwise) of the revolve. These new end conditions are available in Revolved Boss/Base, Revolved Cut and Revolved Surface. This allows for better control and more flexibility in the use of Revolve features.
More enhancements available
These are just a few of the enhancements available in SolidWorks 2011. The What’s New file for SolidWorks 2011 has a fairly impressive list. However, none of the improvements this year seem monumental. I am impressed to see minor improvements continue on the Workgroup PDM product. There are improvements to Sheet Metal functionality, Motion Studies, and a new Walk-through function to expore or create a video of 3D geometry in large scale designs. More details will be discussed on later dates.
Categories: ASME Standards, Drawing, Model Assembly, News, PDM, Part, Product Review |
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By: fcsuper on August 27th, 2010
The launch of SolidWorks 2011 is only days away. SolidWorks Corp even made this countdown website to celebrate the impending release. It isn’t obvious what will happen when the countdown is done. An unwrapping of some sort?
As per the new tradition (starting last year), SolidWorks Corp will launch the new version of SolidWorks from their headquarters in Concord, MA. The official release date was a little confused last year. However, this year it’s quite obvious (just count up from the countdown).
One enhancement that didn’t make it into SolidWorks 2011 is discussed on the SolidWorks Forum. That enhancement would have been a Feature/Model Lock or Freeze. According to Mark Gibson of SolidWorks,
Unfortunately, we have determined that even with the limitations discussed earlier, we’re not going to be able to deliver the Freeze functionality for SolidWorks 2011 due to quality concerns.
That sucks! However, it is wise to avoid adding functionality before it is ready for use.
I cannot discuss enhancements actually included in the 2011 version yet. However, expect plenty of articles after the release date for both SolidWorks and Enterprise PDM.
Categories: News, PDM |
Tags: enhancement request, modelling, SolidWorks 2011 | No Comments
