Jim Riddell wrote:

Matt Peneguy wrote:

 

Alin Vargatu wrote:

 

Jim Riddell wrote:

 

How about full and complete user help files? i.e. I search for a topic and the (abbreviated) description has only about 80% of the information that would completely solve the issue. 

Fortunately, here the solution is already implemented and it is a beauty. Simply tell SOLIDWORKS what is missing. In my experience, they are extremely responsive.

 

Help Improve SolidWorks' Help File 

Alin is ABSOLUTELY right about this.  If you aren't sending in help feedback, you are part of the problem.  When you search the help and it returns results that aren't helpful, please send that feedback in.  I promise you SW people will look at it.  I've seen it happen.

Matt Peneguy & Alin Vargatu Sure, that may help in the long term but does not assist me in getting my project complete and out the door on time. A job is never complete until all the paperwork is done.

A couple thoughts here from my personal perspective.

1) Why should I spend my time (sometimes considerable) in making sure the software gets better rather than doing my job? If the issues didn't exist (here I am speaking about functional issues like bugs and the like) I COULD be working. That is why I purchased the software and pay the yearly fees for - to work and make money with it. Not become a customer advocate for fixing bugs. This model of making the responsibility to be the advocate to get SolidWorks to fix the issues the customer's responsibility is broken. I suspect that it reflects a heavy, meeting filled, bureaucratic culture at SolidWorks where the focus is not on customer experience but on servicing internal metrics that have drifted away from what is meaningful to their business. It's pretty typical for a company with a cash cow like SolidWorks.

2) I have personally tried doing the customer feedback thing. Since I am only four puny seats I think my feedback is a gnat swatting an elephant. I have come to the conclusion that SolidWorks doesn't give a hot s**t about my issues because I am too small to listen to.

I have asked the VAR to enter requests in the past. I have entered them as well. One I remember is if you draw a tangent arc that has a high enough radius so it is close to straight you get an error. Now when you do this it just doesn't create the arc - no error. It looks like the solution was just remove the error dialogue, not fix the root problem. That ticket with Solidworks never even got looked at or commented on by a SolidWorks employee...ever. The bug still exists today after something like 10 years of being a service request, it just happens silently.

It took a movement (One and Two) threatening to interrupt SolidWorks company speakers at SolidWorks World to get them to respond to the crashing issue.