Stability of v2008 vs v2009?
Stability of v2008 vs v2009?
(OP)
This might appear as a rant, but it's really a bit of research. I've recently endured a change from v2007 to v2008 for a hand tool design--lots of surface work with Fills, Sweeps, Lofts, etc. I had some rather predictable bugs pop up when my assembly was in v2007. My client had someone else working on a different model of hand tool, but he did it in v2008. So I had to move to v2008, get up to speed instantly with the interface updates, and get cracking. I have a way of modeling things that makes editing later a piece of cake--usually involving a master part with bodies split and then saved as separate parts at the end of the tree for detailing as separate parts later. After seeing this other colleague's assembly for this tool (not that it was bad--just more difficult to edit/tweak forms later on), I decided to remodel the whole assembly, figuring it would be quicker. (If using v2007, I'd have been correct--lots of later tweaks to handle curves and other geometry.)
I was instantly faced with a barrage of bugs. My v2007 hand tool had a couple of consistent bugs in the feature tree (things like forgetting what surfaces were included in a Trim), but these were always consistent, and I simply labeled which features would fail and fixed them as the edited part was rebuilt (roll back, fix along the way). Annoying, but no big deal. My rebuilt v2008 hand tool has had many more critical failures, but this time they switch, depending on the edits I make upstream--no more predictability. My problem with this is that the failures aren't the typical geometry corrections that are needed, but software bugs that have features that once worked fine failing flagrantly. I cannot merely delete and redo the feature, since up to ten hours of downstream features would be lost if I did so. So the feature problems must be (somehow) solved by keeping the same features. This involves lots of surfaces, so most of the time I add in lots of patches/hacks/fixes rolled back before the failed feature to solve things.
Here's the big question I've got:
For those who do modeling of this sort, are you seeing fewer bugs in v2009 than in v2008? This is wasting huge amounts of my time and I've got to solve this issue--I have other projects that need my attention, and this current hand tool design is stuck in v2008 (I could have done it much better with v2007 and saved all this hassle--it simply handled surfaces much better with fewer bugs). Please let me know your experiences with the two versions and I'll push my client to allow an upgrade to v2009 if that's yielded better results.
Thanks!
I was instantly faced with a barrage of bugs. My v2007 hand tool had a couple of consistent bugs in the feature tree (things like forgetting what surfaces were included in a Trim), but these were always consistent, and I simply labeled which features would fail and fixed them as the edited part was rebuilt (roll back, fix along the way). Annoying, but no big deal. My rebuilt v2008 hand tool has had many more critical failures, but this time they switch, depending on the edits I make upstream--no more predictability. My problem with this is that the failures aren't the typical geometry corrections that are needed, but software bugs that have features that once worked fine failing flagrantly. I cannot merely delete and redo the feature, since up to ten hours of downstream features would be lost if I did so. So the feature problems must be (somehow) solved by keeping the same features. This involves lots of surfaces, so most of the time I add in lots of patches/hacks/fixes rolled back before the failed feature to solve things.
Here's the big question I've got:
For those who do modeling of this sort, are you seeing fewer bugs in v2009 than in v2008? This is wasting huge amounts of my time and I've got to solve this issue--I have other projects that need my attention, and this current hand tool design is stuck in v2008 (I could have done it much better with v2007 and saved all this hassle--it simply handled surfaces much better with fewer bugs). Please let me know your experiences with the two versions and I'll push my client to allow an upgrade to v2009 if that's yielded better results.
Thanks!
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
A people who value security over freedom will soon find they have neither.






RE: Stability of v2008 vs v2009?
RE: Stability of v2008 vs v2009?
This is a tough question. I saw problems with surfaces and composite curves when jumping from 07 to 09. I found going to 08, then 09 solved the problem in some respects, but didn't solve everything. I still have has some buggy issues, weird relationships, in context sketch stuff, and feature failures. I feel your pain.
My 2 cents in terms of 08 v 09 is that you should go to 09. It is 08 SP6 and more. SP2 on 09 is rocking. I've got my S key and RMB rocking, and am now moving faster than ever, when at times I was so reluctant to abandon my precious 07 and my fine tuned workflow. Old habits are hard to break though. I've seen some major complaints about 09 on the SW forums though. Speed was the complaint, when 09 was supposed to be so much faster, it was slower. And then everyone blames hardware. I haven't found this. I've crashed a few times hard on 09 with weird things like doing selections and clicking on the decal property manager.
Also, do a test using the converision wizard of 08. bring the 07 into the conversion wizard without opening. Then try and open the converted files in 08. Is it the same results as opening the 07 files in 08 and then saving to update, and having the rebuild failures and feature issues?
My position is go to 09. Then if on 09, do one more step and use the new convert files in the task scheduler to bring up these 08 ones, and test against just opening the 08 ones, rebuilding, and then saving. The one thing about the 09 conversion is that I couldn't keep it out of the toolbox, updating toolbox ref'd parts from previous versions, and also it was finding in context refs that I swear I broke.
Hope you find a solution.
rfus
RE: Stability of v2008 vs v2009?
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
A people who value security over freedom will soon find they have neither.
RE: Stability of v2008 vs v2009?
I've never used the conversion wizard--I guess I have no faith in "wizards" anymore, and would rather have a hands-on approach to my model rebuilds in new versions. Your experience is that the conversion wizard does a good job with the updates?
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
A people who value security over freedom will soon find they have neither.
RE: Stability of v2008 vs v2009?
I will be eager to see if it does make any difference.
rfus
RE: Stability of v2008 vs v2009?
With your type of work I guess you rarely have to reuse files. I am often re-using old bits in new products so have little choice in converting.
If you ever have to go back and convert say a SW01 file to SW09, you would probably have far more problems.
RE: Stability of v2008 vs v2009?
During installation, did you specify software versions in the directories (such as "SolidWorks2008" instead of the stupid and destructive default of "SolidWorks")? If so, you're still seeing the Toolbox interference? That's nuts.
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
A people who value security over freedom will soon find they have neither.
RE: Stability of v2008 vs v2009?
I figured out my best workflow for the migration. Have the backup, and am now a happy camper on 09.
rfus
RE: Stability of v2008 vs v2009?
I have 06, 07, 08, and 09 on here. all have their own toolbox, not default.
RE: Stability of v2008 vs v2009?
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
A people who value security over freedom will soon find they have neither.