Dual Computers?????? 5

[Heckdogg]

anyone using a dedicated "Solidworks only" workstation and a second computer for email/internet? Our IT guys are convinced that this is necessary. Right now, they are starting to roll out a new computer to us just for Solidworks, and we are keeping our old computers to run M$ office and internet access. Anyone have anything I can show to them to disprove their theory?

 

[handleman]

Well, for me anyway, to work efficiently I must have email (customer interaction - sending models, etc), internet access (downloading purchased parts from internet), and Office (at least Excel - design tables, exporting BOMs) on my SolidWorks machine. A separate machine for any of these things would be a major PITA. Of course, any or all of these may not apply to your case.

 

[Heckdogg]

well we use the internet for download of our vendor's parts, and of course outlook & excel, but "Our Convienence" is not a good enough excuse for them.

 

[Heckdogg]

I guess what I am really looking for is some sort of "proof" to show that running a machine with Solidworks & Office & internet access has no performance issues as compared to ones running just Solidworks.

 

[handleman]

Who convinced your IT guys that this is necessary? I would require some evidence from them. Again, Office must be installed in order for all of SW's functionality to work. Unless you're installing via admin image, each workstation will have to have access to the internet in order to upgrade service packs due to Product Activation.

That said, I could understand if you were running a lot of FEA or something to where you need to be able to do other work while your PC is just sitting there chugging away. Otherwise, although I've never run a SW dedicated PC myself, I've never had issues with running office, Lotus Notes, IE/FF, etc. alongside SW. Dual processors actually help in this, because if I am doing taxing stuff in SW the other processor is free to do email, office, etc.

 

[lumenharold]

Anyway to run one of the SW benchmark programs side by side with the different setups? I ran my PC w/ and w/o my add-in to see if there was any difference just for kicks(there was none).

Harold
SW2007 SP4.0 OPW2007 SP1.0

http://www.lumenflow.com

 

[rstupplebeen]

If you are not actively using the other programs the draw on your CPU will be low with basically only a hit on the ram. So tell them to save the money and get you more ram, faster and more CPUs with more cores, larger monitors. Also, have them bench mark it on one of you current computers. If you aren't maxing out the ram there will be little difference. Hope this helps.
Robert Stupplebeen

 

[Heckdogg]

we actually ran the SPEC benchmark on our old machines (1 w/just Solidworks, the other with Solidworks & office) and came up with no significant difference. But the new machines, they are not willing to install anything but Solidworks.

Just looking for something to help back up my plea to have 1 machine in my tiny cube, not 2.

 

[Eltron]

How will you be able to ask questions efficiently in this lovely forum without internet access and access to SW on the same machine? Sounds like the bosses either hired some real peaches for IT guys, or they are looking for things to buy so they can write it off when they sell the place. Either way keep your head down.

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

 

[fcsuper]

I'm torn on this issue. Having a dedicated system without virus protectin causing issues would be great! I believe VP is prolly the single most aggressive offerder when it comes to performance. However, full functionality and interfacing is a much in connection to the internet and office itself. How are you to email edrawings? Do they expect you to thumb drive everything? This isn't a matter of convenience, but actual work effeciency. When your computer is running hair slower, you can focus on other things and still be working. When you are copying files to and froe, there is no work going on.

Matt
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
sw.fcsuper.com
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group

 

[GregLocock]

FWIW that is exactly what I do. I have one PC for the internet, and a fast, stable, machine for analysis. It gets NO OS revisions, runs no AV or firewall, and as such has worked perfectly for four years, with the occasional mobo upgrade. The nice thing about using sneaker-net via CD is that backups are created automatically.





Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[Heckdogg]

well, our Solidworks only machine is still attached to our network, and our non-Solidworks computer (on the other side of our desk) is how they expect us to download parts from the internet/email drawings to customers, and use office as needed.

One day, we get an answer that this is just temporary (due to the fact the new machines are our company's first x64 systems) until we get the bugs worked out. The next day, they tell us this is just how it's going to be from now on.

We started on the mission to get new machines in hope they will help us open our larger assy's quicker & more efficiently, but I fear now while we can open them quicker, we are not gaining any time by having to switch back & forth on two different machines.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Having two machines shouldn't create much of a problem other than taking up precious space. Using an A/B switch you should be able to use the same monitor, and maybe even the keyboard and mouse.

If both computers are connected to the network, each should be able to access information from the other.

Having said that, the IT guys are just plain wrong if they think that a worthwhile performance gain will be seen.

 

[GregLocock]

I don't do it for performance, I do it so that once the system is stable it can be left entirely alone.

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[fcsuper]

HeckDogg,

My only other comment is that unless IT has a CAD expert in their department, IT has no business tell Engineering what and how its Engineering tools should be set up. Real world, of course, means that most IT departments have somehow gained this authority without the knowledge base necessary to exercise it. This is a petpeeve of mine. The computer you use is an Engineering Tool. It's not just some computer like everyone elses in from accounting (glorified calculator) to the receptionists desk (toy). That makes its requirements for operation under the authority of Engineering or at least someone with Engineering/CAD expertise. Just my two cents.

Matt
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
sw.fcsuper.com
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group

 

[EEnd]

I have a two PC setup that works fairly well. The cases sit next to each other under the desk and the monitors sit next to each other up top. Both monitors have two inputs. On both monitors input one goes to the new PC and input two goes to the old PC. That way both of them can run with dual screens. I also have an AB switch for the keyboard and mouse, but I rarely us it.

In normal operation everything is set to the new PC. I then use remote desktop to connect to the old PC, which I use for internet, office apps and e-mail. The remote desktop window is on the second monitor. Maximized it is almost like working directly on that PC, minimized it is out of the way.

I have a folder on the old computer where I put any files that I download. That folder is shared on the network, and I have write access to it on the other computer, so there is almost no hassle to get files from one to the other.

This setup resulted from getting the new computer when I was busy enough that I didn’t care to take the time to transfer e-mail and all that stuff to the new computer. But it has grown on me, the new computer can stay lean and clean while the old computer deals with anything sketchy.

Eric

 

[pietje]

Sounds like a doctor prescribing someone with an occasional, small blister on his foot a third, prosthetic leg that you have to wear always. You will not walk any faster, only the chance that you might stumble will increase! Costs a lot of money too.

Did the it-guys have to fix a lot of problems because of non-sw software crapping up your systems?? It's the only argument I think of that could justify such an investment. The perfomance argument can be ignored because it is solvable with a good multicore processor and lots of memory as other people pointed out.

If every year you cannot use your system for about five hours because of non-sw software causing problems, and taken in account a three year period of use, one can buy a acceptable new system (five hours that you are not working and five the it-guy has to spend on your pc makes 10 hours of loss). I assume the return money on your old system is more than cancelled out by the energy costs of running an extra pc with screen (sharing one screen is very impractical imo), extra datatraffic hardware, more importantly the hours that IT has to spend to setup AND support all extra systems, cost of extra software licenses, extra time and maybe annoyance too to switch between pc's over and over again.

If you want to discourage IT, put in the right numbers to make your calculation show that it is a crap idea.
Then propose to spend a fraction of that money on backup-software and an extra harddrive to put on several periodically taken images of your systemdrive. If you experience slowdown and suspect non-sw causes, you have your system running smoothly again within ten minutes.

have a nice weekend, pietje

 

[Heckdogg]

Right now, they are using the x64 as their biggest excuse. They don't ahve any drivers for printers, or x64 anti-virus software, or x64 versions of Office. We are still hoping this is just a temporary thing. Unfortunately the IT dept has a very, very strong influence in many of the company's decision making.

 

[audiv8]

You can tell the VP software to ignore certain filetypes and folders and so it doesn't mess with SolidWorks. (Don't your IT guys know this?) Why don't they put at least the bare bones Office on the SW computer so it can access Word and Excel? Even FloWorks uses Excel to write out data to files. Who knows what 3rd party software you may add on later requires Office products? I think they are making a big mistake ...

 

[Standing]

I have been using 2 pc for years. What I like about it is that I can have SolidWorks do something that takes a long time. While working on the other PC.
My SolidWorks PC has everything except Lotus Notes which is e-mail.
Our IT people have been removing other users 2nd pc's with 1 big fast workstation. They have no complaints. IT does not want to pay for 2 OS's.

Bradley
SolidWorks Premim 2007 x64 SP4.0
PDM Works, Dell XPS Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 5 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB, nVidia 3400