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2007 PROS-CONS.....
3

2007 PROS-CONS.....

2007 PROS-CONS.....

(OP)
It seems to me that everything is negative about the 07 release. We are trying to decide if we should use our update/subscription whatever you call it. How much better/worse is 07 from 06? Any info would help... Thanks!

Go Honda!

RE: 2007 PROS-CONS.....

Since SP 1 came out, I've had good results.  I really love the new features in 2007, particularly for modeling/surfacing.

As with most upgrades, you'll probably need to evaluate your hardware to see if it's up to the task of increased capacity (which the software demands).

I don't recommend using 2007 unless you also install SP 1.  Loads of bugs that I found, including file corruptions in large assemblies.

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all.  And awe trumps reason.

RE: 2007 PROS-CONS.....

Contrary to what Jeff found, I had better results with SP0. After installing SP1.0, I've run into some issues. I'm actually contemplating rolling back to SP0 and waiting for SP2.0 to come out.
That being said, '07 is much better than '06 in my opinion. The added functions (DimXpert, FeatureXpert) have made my job easier. I like the way PDMWorks has been integrated into SWExplorer. Also, the improvements to PhotoWorks and Animator are great! I'm definitely glad that I upgraded.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
CAD Administrator
SW '07 SP1.0, Dell M90, Intel 2 Duo Core, 2MB RAM, nVidia 2500M

RE: 2007 PROS-CONS.....

If you search this forum you can see my posts that describe the problems I had with SP 0 and therefore see the differences between what I've experienced and what the other Jeff experienced.  (Search Theophilus for the past 30 days or so and you'll see threads I've started detailing my problems.)

Ironically, I was pushing PhotoWorks and Animator extremely hard during the time I saw the problems I had.  Since then, I've upgraded to 3GB of RAM, enabled the /3GB switch, done a clean uninstall/reinstall to have only SW 2007 on my machine, and upgraded to SP 1.  These items seemed to have solved the issues I was seeing (with the exception of some geometry failures for surface work done in SW 2006--not sure why that's happening).

I just had my RAM up to 2.5 GB in-use, and SW was very stable.  I shut down SW and restarted to clear up some RAM and everything still looks good.  That's great stability I wasn't expecting, since I was just about out of RAM doing some complex things again.

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all.  And awe trumps reason.

RE: 2007 PROS-CONS.....

See not all SP's fix all the issues, they can cause more harm sometimes then good, but it varies between users and what kind of work you do. Thats why I continue to say "If its not broke don't fix it"

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
www.scottjbaugh.com
FAQ731-376

RE: 2007 PROS-CONS.....

I should listen to that axiom more often, Scott. If my comp crashes one more time today...
If I were in large assemblies or complicated part files, I *might* understand but I'm working with very simplistic parts. If I'm working in a drawing and the screen saver activates, the graphics field remains black. Attempting to get the graphic to return (read: shaking my mouse, clicking, etc) locks up SW, my memory usage spikes and then everything is locked up. It's been so long since I've had any problems that I forgot that CAD stood for Control Alt Delete...
Now, while working in a sketch, SW will lock up just because...(I say that because I don't know why it's locking up).
We're going roll back to SP0.0...and, in the future, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
CAD Administrator
SW '07 SP1.0, Dell M90, Intel 2 Duo Core, 2MB RAM, nVidia 2500M

RE: 2007 PROS-CONS.....


mirisj ... The following "note" accompanies the driver for the nVidia 2500M card.

Quote:

SolidWorks graphics window may be corrupt after standby/hybernate.
If that problem exists, there may be unknown others for SW07. Are you using the 8429 driver.

cheers
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to find answers ... FAQ559-1091

RE: 2007 PROS-CONS.....

It is the 8429 driver...is that bad? Any suggestions? If there's a known problem with that driver/card, that aggravates me. I ordered this laptop specifically because it was supposed to be good with SW. I'd hate to think it's a $4k lemon...

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
CAD Administrator
SW '07 SP1.0, Dell M90, Intel 2 Duo Core, 2MB RAM, nVidia 2500M

RE: 2007 PROS-CONS.....

The 8429 driver is shown as the only one certified for the 2500M card, so it should be good.

Try deactivating the Screen Saver. There is a known problem with that card/driver after a standby/hibernate, so it might also be affected by the screen saver.

Have you tried running previous versions of SW on that machine?

cheers
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to find answers ... FAQ559-1091

RE: 2007 PROS-CONS.....

I haven't tried running any other versions. I'm going to turn off the screen saver and see what happens.
Thanks, CorBlimeyLimey!

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
CAD Administrator
SW '07 SP1.0, Dell M90, Intel 2 Duo Core, 2MB RAM, nVidia 2500M

RE: 2007 PROS-CONS.....

With Nvidia cards the only way I have seen to install the drivers that are certified, is to first uninstall the old ones, reboot, Install the new ones, reboot, and test. This makes sure that the drivers have been removed and there is no conflict of drivers. I would try that same process with your machine even if the drivers are the same.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
www.scottjbaugh.com
FAQ731-376

RE: 2007 PROS-CONS.....

Right--I recently had to do exactly what Scott said for my FX-1400.  In fact, I even downloaded a free utility called Driver Cleaner Pro to make sure the originally-installed drivers were really gone (which they weren't, although I uninstalled them--apparently they're a bit sticky--hence the need for something like Driver Cleaner Pro).  After that, all has been well.

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all.  And awe trumps reason.

RE: 2007 PROS-CONS.....

Jeff,

Thanks for the info.  This is their website http://www.drivercleaner.net/professional.php  I just downloaded the free version for our 2007 upgrade.

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
      o
  _`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

Never argue with an idiot. They'll bring you down to their level and beat you with experience every time.

RE: 2007 PROS-CONS.....

I hope it works for you.  I noticed I had a problem when I couldn't specify SolidWorks in my application settings within the nVidia driver interface (it was blank).  Obviously something was wrong, which turned out to be the fact that the driver didn't properly uninstall (even after a reboot, registry clean, etc.).  But I'm using nVidia drivers for my chipset, ethernet, and other areas in my machine--so perhaps that had something to do with the problems I had.

(Thanks for posting the link--I was in a hurry earlier.)

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all.  And awe trumps reason.

RE: 2007 PROS-CONS.....

I had a problem with my FX-3400.  After installing a new driver, none of the desktop management tools would show.  I asked for help from NVIDIA and it took a long time to get a response, but they replied with the following:

Hello Colin,
The drivers or registry may have been corrupted . Usually uninstalling and reinstall the driver will solve the problem.
Would you please download this utility from www.drivercleaner.net and use this to remove the "NVIDIA"driver from the application.
Afterward, try to reinstall the same driver you were using before and see if that will take care of it.

Best regards,
David
NVIDIA Customer Care

I got impatient and did the uninstall/boot/reinstall process again and got the problem solved, so didn't need to use the drivercleaner program.  But it appears that NVIDIA endorses it when needed.

--Colin--

RE: 2007 PROS-CONS.....

(OP)
This has turned into a driver thread. I was wondering what do you like better / worse than 2006....? Isn't the toolbox local now?

Go Honda!

RE: 2007 PROS-CONS.....

I like the improvements made to PhotoWorks, the way PDM is in SW Explorer, the new SWIFT technology. Many things seem the same to me, yet just a little different. Does that make sense? Maybe I should have had another cup of coffee before responding...

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
CAD Administrator
SW '07 SP1.0, Dell M90, Intel 2 Duo Core, 2MB RAM, nVidia 2500M

RE: 2007 PROS-CONS.....

If you do much surfacing, that area has had lots of enhancement in 2007--much more flexibility in getting filled surfaces, face tangency, etc.

So if you're asking about the benefits of 2007 from 2006 (all bugs aside), you should probably check some of the items posted at the SolidWorks web site:
http://www.solidworks.com/pages/products/SolidWorks_2007/SolidWorksOfficePremium2007.html

There's also a What's New guide in PDF format, link found on Rob Rodriguez's blog:
http://files.solidworks.com/Supportfiles/Whats_new/2007/English/whatsnew.pdf

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all.  And awe trumps reason.

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