2006 Beta?

[engAlright]

Just got the e-mail today notifying me of the 2006 Beta testing program to start at the end of March.

Maybe it's just my poor memory - but doesn't it seem that this is happening a little sooner than for previous releases? Sp2 hasn't even been officially released yet and they're already putting a new version out there?

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

The sooner they start BETA testing the better, but hopefully they won't release it till it is THOROUGHLY tested.


Making the best use of this Forum. faq559-716
How to get answers to your SW questions. faq559-1091
Helpful SW websites every user should be aware of. faq559-520

 

[ElectroMatt]

Hopefully?

Every new release of Solidworks I have ever installed since 2001+ has been rushed to market without being thoroughly tested.

I don't want to see Solidworks 2006... until TWO THOUSAND AND SIX, if it comes out this year, it should be called TWO THOUSAND AND FIVE PART 2: We fixed some of the stuff we broke, and added new add-ins for you pipe-stress freaks.

 

[ctopher]

mfshadow,
Did you participate in 2005 Beta?

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP1.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site

 

[MElam]

2005 has already been out for 6 months, so it is not really earlier in the release cycle than normal.

The SPs for 2005 were delayed (due to microsoft) which is probably throwing your perspective off.

I received the same email last year for 2005Beta in April.

 

[rockguy]

The 2006 beta is starting about 1 month earlier than the 2005 beta. I think it's better to start early and have more time to test. This extra month may allow us to test 4 or 5 beta versions before the pre release rather than the typical 3. I'm not sure why this causes such a stir. You will see the release of SW2006 in June or July just like 2005. Actually 2005 may have been released in August. No one is forcing anyone to upgrade. If you want to stick with 2005 until next Jan it's no big deal.

In response to the "thorougly tested" comments. I think you will find beta testing finds lots of bugs but they are not all fixed before the actual release. I don't really agree with this practice.

 

[J-C]

There's no way to fix all bugs before release. The fixes even creates bugs as they break code they didn't intend to. You hope with the beta testing that most if not all major showstopping bugs are caught.

Of course, what is showstopping for one user isn't for another. I hear people saying that 2005 isn't usable. Well, I've been using it since release. Annoying bugs , yes, but unusable, no.

Sp 2 so far has been doing well.

Jason Capriotti
Smith & Nephew, Inc.

 

[rockguy]

I'm with you Jason. We had a bug in SW2005 Sp0.0 that kept us from installing until Sp0.1 but since then we've been using 2005 for full production and things have been going fine. A few annoying bugs but nothing we can't work around.

I did find a bug in Sp2.0 EV but it wasn't a show stopper.

I agree you can't fix all bugs before a release. It's a little fustrating when you find bugs (not show stoppers just PITA's) during beta but a few SP's into the production release they are still there. In a perfect world..yada yada yada.....

 

[J-C]

You guys should try UG for annoying bugs, there seem to be far more than Solidworks, though it does seem more stable than Solidworks where crashing is concerned.

I crashed sp2 of Solidworks last night after doing some heavy assembly work with complicated configs. I did run out of physical memory so maybe it had something to do with that. Other than that, it's been fairly solid.

Jason Capriotti
Smith & Nephew, Inc.

 

[SBaugh]

I was hurt to see you go to a UG company . It's a loss losing you to UG, but don't come in here and telling us how great the UG package is there Jason... .

Just kidding with you!! !!! I am Serious about seeing you go to UG though!!

Are you still going to Participate in the SW06 beta, Jason?

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376
faq559-716 - SW Fora Users

 

[engAlright]

Don't get me wrong - the new version has some pretty cool stuff so I'm glad to see it.

However, for those of us still on 2004 who don't "require" 2005's functionality, but it would be nice, do we now wait until 2006 comes out to upgrade?

 

[rockguy]

I would beta SW2006 and see how it does with the type of work you do. If you find the bugs minor or easily worked around then yah, I would skip right over 2005 and go to 2006. You have to remeber though...I come from a mindset that says I should be on the latest release weather I need the new functionality or not. It just seems better to stay current with software. I mean would you really want to still be using Windows 95 or 98??

 

[J-C]

Yea Scott, my loss more than you guys though P-). I still get to use Soldworks though for my old company at night, so that's somewhat refreashing after using UG all day, if not tiring |-I.

If I could have found another company using Solidworks, I would have but there's just not much here in Memphis. Plus the benefits here at S&N are outstanding and the products are interesting to work on. More curvy stuff than the large assemblies I'm used to do.

I do plan to participate in the beta still.

Jason Capriotti
Smith & Nephew, Inc.

 

[SBaugh]

Jason,
I hope to see you stay with SW Jason, you are an asset to the SW Community!

engAlright,

If you skip a version, you will be behind on the times and some functionality that was new in SW05 will not or may not be covered in the SW06 What's new. We have a customer that skipped a version and those that didn't see the SW04 there missed out on a lot of new and changed functionality. Some stuff was changed and they didn't like it or it was harder to use, but since it made it through the previous version, made it harder to get it fixed in the new version.

So in the end I wouldn't skip version. I would use it for what time is left on SW05... which will be about 4-6 more months. The release will probably be around Sept.

Regards,


Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376
faq559-716 - SW Fora Users

 

[J-C]

Hey, I'm still here aren't I?

Oh and expect 2006 around June/July.



Jason Capriotti
Smith & Nephew, Inc.

 

[bluesman0007]

Now that I have the ability to download in a reasonable amount of time I would like to get involved in testing. Being new to this... How does everyone handle having two versions of SW on their machine.. anything I should know before I get it installed? Is it as simple as having them in different directories? Thanks.

 

[rockguy]

You are not suppose to talk about beta testing on public sites. The answers to your questions can be found at the SW beta site.

 

[Heckler]

Scott,

You're totally correct about skipping a version. I just got back to using SWx in production, (2003 being my last production usage) and I feel like I missed something. SWx looks and feels extremely different. I've been using Pro/e 2001 for the last two years. I really like Pro/e for somethings but SWx is much more of a progressive MCAD tool. I did 2004 beta testing which was really fun and hope to participate in 2006 at some level.

Best Regards,

Heckler

Do you trust your intuition or go with the flow?