Hi,
I wondered if you could shed some light on a problem that I havejust encountered with your favorite CAD program. To begin with I amCAD illiterate, others I work with will be able to understand theintricacies of any reply you are able to give.
(This may be T.M.I.) : I am an industrial designer with a lifetime of experience designing, consumer and industrial products ,both in the USA and Europe. Half of this time was spent sketching,at a drawing board, in the shop, and 2D computer drafting. TodayI'm helping a small company upgrade its product line up, I have twonew young recruits, one a EE graduate the other an ME, bothaspiring to be an ID professionals and both with respectable CADskills, using Pro E., Solidworks, Alias, and Rhino.
So we started them up with the latest version of SW 2008, and offthey went, modifying existing SW 2007 files in the process ofdefining new designs. Only to encounter major compatibilityproblems with the rest of the companies SW users, vendors etc.
A note I received:
"All company SolidWorks needs to stay on 2007. This is important inorder to communicate among ourselves as well as with outside peoplewe need to work with. Do not install or use other versions ofSolidWorks. (We just had an unfortunate instance of files beinginadvertently saved in a newer version, making those filesunreadable. This also resulted in work required to restore to theoriginal condition.)"
I asked: "How long do you expect we shall continue using the 2007version?"
The reply: "Indefinitely, and only when there is a very compellingset of reasons to change. It would be expensive in time, effort,communication, incompatibility glitches, etc., for us to changeunless absolutely necessary. It affects many people to be smoothlycompatible.
I have no problem turning back the clock to be compatible with therest of the team, but I can't help thinking. "Something is wrongwith this picture".
What are your, or your readers thoughts on this matter?
BarrySolidworksAdministration
I wondered if you could shed some light on a problem that I havejust encountered with your favorite CAD program. To begin with I amCAD illiterate, others I work with will be able to understand theintricacies of any reply you are able to give.
(This may be T.M.I.) : I am an industrial designer with a lifetime of experience designing, consumer and industrial products ,both in the USA and Europe. Half of this time was spent sketching,at a drawing board, in the shop, and 2D computer drafting. TodayI'm helping a small company upgrade its product line up, I have twonew young recruits, one a EE graduate the other an ME, bothaspiring to be an ID professionals and both with respectable CADskills, using Pro E., Solidworks, Alias, and Rhino.
So we started them up with the latest version of SW 2008, and offthey went, modifying existing SW 2007 files in the process ofdefining new designs. Only to encounter major compatibilityproblems with the rest of the companies SW users, vendors etc.
A note I received:
"All company SolidWorks needs to stay on 2007. This is important inorder to communicate among ourselves as well as with outside peoplewe need to work with. Do not install or use other versions ofSolidWorks. (We just had an unfortunate instance of files beinginadvertently saved in a newer version, making those filesunreadable. This also resulted in work required to restore to theoriginal condition.)"
I asked: "How long do you expect we shall continue using the 2007version?"
The reply: "Indefinitely, and only when there is a very compellingset of reasons to change. It would be expensive in time, effort,communication, incompatibility glitches, etc., for us to changeunless absolutely necessary. It affects many people to be smoothlycompatible.
I have no problem turning back the clock to be compatible with therest of the team, but I can't help thinking. "Something is wrongwith this picture".
What are your, or your readers thoughts on this matter?
BarrySolidworksAdministration
