SolidWorks World 2011 Top Ten requests

Each year, SolidWorks users vote on the changes they’d most like to see included in SolidWorks.  This year, voting was conducted in a special area on the SolidWorks forums.  For the amount of attention this list gets, it should be noted that the top vote-getter on the Top Ten List didn’t get much more than 120 total votes.  There are several important requests in this year’s list.  There are also some that leave me wondering, “what’s the big deal?”

Top Ten Freeze FeaturesTop Ten List

  1. Angle mates that don’t flip at random (Yes, we need this!)
  2. Better utilize processor cores (Yes, of course!)
  3. Option to dangle instead of deleting (A cool option that could be useful.)
  4. SolidWorks should cleanly uninstall itself (Done! …supposedly in 2012.)
  5. Freeze Features (Again, done! …supposedly in 2012.)
  6. Enhanced Equations Input & Editing & Linking (Again again, Done! …supposedly in 2012.)
  7. Convert a Solid Body into a Surface body without having to delete, offset, or knit faces (Ok, cool idea, but aren’t there more critical changes needed?)
  8. Make the ideas section (in the forum) available all year, not just for SWW (huh?)
  9. File compatibility between versions (Every year this is on the list.  Every year this is not implemented.)
  10. Pressing Escape key should immediately return control of the interface (This ESC key request again?  Yes, but let’s move on already.)

Author: fcsuper

As a drafter, mechanical designer and CAD engineer, I've been in the mechanical design field since 1991. For the first 8 years of my career, I was an AutoCAD professional. I utilized AutoLISP and many other AutoCAD customization features to streamline drafting activities for 6+ drafters and designers. I authored several custom functions, one of which was published in the March 1997 issue of Cadalyst Magazine. Since 1998, I've been used SolidWorks non-stop. I've worked to utilize the SolidWorks' user environment to simplify drafting and design activities for 20+ engineers. I've created this website to provide current information about SolidWorks from a variety of contributors. More recently, I am now employed by Dassault Systemes as SOLIDWORKS Sr. Product Definition Manager to improve drawing, annotation and MBD related areas.

3 thoughts on “SolidWorks World 2011 Top Ten requests”

  1. Pingback: fcsuper

  2. #8 is not a ‘Huh?’- it is a simple change that would shorten the improvement cycle of SW. I’m at a VAR, and the main reason we and our customers don’t submit more enhancement requests is that they go into a black hole for years, then are either magically solved or never heard from again.

    Youtube lets you vote on its content and see what’s popular. So does Facebook, Netflix, or any other web 2.0 site. Why not SW enhancement requests? See which is the most requested, vote on ones you want to promote, add others easily, this is the entire point of feedback SW Corp. wants. Why only have it available leading up to SWWorld?

  3. Shuvom,
    It’s a “huh?” for me because it’s not really a request about SolidWorks itself, in my view. I do agree that some sort of ranking system would be valuable, and that the Ideas area is a good way to do it. But for this item to be in the top 10 is like listing the top ten as an item within itself. It’s just kinda illogical to me.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *