#TraditionalCADsucks

michael_mcclain

@john_mcclary
I have been using GrabCAD workbench with my SW clients and its not so bad, but there is nothing like true cloud CAD. My colleagues praise it since it has solved many of their issues so far, but they just have no clue how good it can get with a full cloud like Onshape. Even using F360 feels like a half measure when I cant edit a design while someone is accessing it. I'm spoiled with Onshape!

romeograham

We've been lucky to have already changed 100% of new development over to Onshape - and only use 2018 SW for pulling up legacy files, or getting started with updates & transition to OS.

The days working from home are just like any other day!

brucebartlett

I couldn't imagine using anything else for working from home other than Onshape, so many advantages over onsite installed applications. I saw some traditional CAD people saying lockdown/work from home is a great time to catch up on CAD tutorials, shows how backward they are, I would think a great time to make the change to Onshape for seamless work from anywhere in the future. 

homebrewdesign

I've been away from Onshape for a little over a year. Just started with a new company last month, and pitched OS to my new boss, but he just signed a 3 year contract with SW in September. Been dead in the water the last 2 days because we forgot to borrow our licenses before we started working from home. SW is supposed to be sending us temporary ones, which is great that they'll do that for us, but still we haven't heard back from them in 2 days.

Krz

I fill you pain @homebrewdesign with no access to license server.

I have extracted CATIA license for 30 days but it will expire April 2nd. I cannot go to office as it is in another European country and some borders are closed.

But I found solution. I will use anydesk to connect to remote computer at the office (I already use it for some remote activities) then I setup TCP  tunneling in anydesk to redirect port 4085 to CATIA license server at office network. Then on my laptop I setup CATIA to search license on localhost:4085.

john_mcclary

uughhh... no... No it hasn't... 

john_mcclary

FML...

I had to run out to the office this morning because my licences expired, it only lets you check out for a month or so.

I can't seem to get checking out a lic over VPN to work, so we have to physically haul our computers in and grab the Lic.

Well, I was working up until SW decided to crash (like normal) but this time it lost it's grip on the license too....
ugghhh... The server still shows the lic is checked out. So now I have to go in again today. And hopefully resolve this without the dreaded reset of the lic server. Which would mean everyone would have to come in and physically check out a seat again.

It's only a 3 mile drive for me, but some of them are a good half hour trip.

Sadly one doesn't have a laptop.. so he has to haul a full size tower in each time.
And we all just reset our lic checkouts last week... 

What a pain.. The whole company will have to bend because one computer crashed...

john_mcclary

Nope, they're screwed and will have to come in... 



One good thing. Now I get to work the rest of the day in an Onshape project

john_mcclary

FML...
Now everyone is broken...

michael3424

Seems like SW would have a better way of working in this situation.  My old CAD software (Alibre) lets you remotely log off of one computer and transfer the license to another and the data acquisition software that I use lets me install versions on both work and home computers or I can log in remotely to the work license server from home and the license will work for 30 days or so before I need to log in to the server again.  Both processes are pretty painles and take a minute or so.  Did SW lose all the good developers to Onshape?

john_mcclary

I thitk that is exactly what happened. Sw was starting to show decline about the same time onshape went into beta... 

john_mcclary

Yeay, main assembly is corrupt... happy Wednesday!  

NeilCooke

So how long after "Contacting Technical Support" do you get a resolution?

MBartlett21

@NeilCooke

It was only a possible solution.

john_mcclary

I'm sure the first thing they would say is "Oh, we see you're still using 2019, please try upgrading to 2020 

konstantin_shiriazdanov

john_mcclary said:

I'm sure the first thing they would say is "Oh, we see you're still using 2019 ...

emagdalenaC2i

Please, tell the technical support:

• The SW2019 service pack
• your cpu
• RAM
• graphic card

john_mcclary

I got lucky,

It looks like it corrupt a week or so ago when I last saved.

I've been on other tasks lately so I haven't been in the main install.

I have another project that was pushed in front of this (yeay it can be done in Onshape!)

but If I didn't want to check in on this before I changed over to the new Quote, I would have lost it forever in about a week...

Still Lost a couple hours from the old backup I needed to grab...

But at least I didn't have to rebuild this and the 10 configurations of it... and all the drawing section views that would have broke.. etc.. 

Bullet Dodged

john_mcclary

Déjà vu?

I like how it says it can't open the file, even though it has been open most of the day and I am trying to same changes to it...
Stupid SW...



2 seconds after posting:

Oh, I guess it decided to go for broke...


Did it again immediately afterwards. NOW I know what is going on...
Someone else had the main assembly open in read-only so they could reference a hole location, while I was trying to rename a file in a weldment. This is a know bug with SW for as long as I have been using it. Good to see it still ain't fixed. Not sure what I was expecting...

Yeay SW Collaboration

alnis

Some Inventor fans I know are getting very excited about an Autodesk product (VRED).

It lets you easily take an Inventor model, import it, tweak it, export and package an executable that's only 100 to 200 MB (bigger projects are 4+ GB), and share that with a client through cloud storage to download it and then view the model (can't send it through an email because it's too big), for only $1,500 per month per seat! An excellent deal!

It only takes about 10 to 15 minutes to prepare a model for sharing, and the only things the client needs are a high-speed internet connection, a computer running Windows (OS X was deprecated in 2018), and permission to run arbitrary .exe files! I can't believe it is so incredibly easy to do. It even comes with tutorials that just need a Flash Player to be viewed!

Truly, that software is pushing the limits of what can be done with modern technology and the power of the cloud. This is truly the pinnacle of innovation--something that has never even been attempted before. It's amazing how simple it is to create a view-only representation of your design data to protect your IP* while making it easy to access on any device**, anywhere***, anytime****!

* As long as you trust the recipient to not change their system time to get around the expiration date
** As long as it is Windows 8.1 Pro or Windows 10
*** As long as you can connect to high speed internet without a data cap, mobile devices don't work
**** As long as you can wait around for a few hundred megabyte download

You know, there's a certain program out there that can import Inventor assemblies, share view-only representations, protect your IP* while making it easy to access on any device**, anywhere***, anytime****, and the billing increment for the $1,500 is one year, not one month, and it includes a full CAD modeling suite while you're at it... 

* Yes, really you can revoke the share
** Yes, really any device
*** Yes, really anywhere
**** Yes, really anytime

EvanReese

@alnis_smidchens
Absolutely dripping with sarcasm and I love it.

john_mcclary

Tried changing configurations in SW.. went to lunch,  came back, I don't think it's doing what it says it is...

steve_shubin

@john_mcclary

Well we’ve read how your boss wants SolidWorks to be used because I guess the other CAD folk have him coerced him into thinking that SolidWorks is ‘the program’ you must use

So now you got all the excuse in the world to take loooooooooong lunches

😁

sebastian_glanzner

@john_mcclary

john_mcclary

LoL

Ste_Wilson

Brilliant. 

alnis

I've been learning SolidWorks for university, and I must say, it's been a struggle.

An allegedly round filleted edge:


Another filleted edge in a "solid" model, not a surface model:


A cursed linkage assembly:
https://youtu.be/08xbo5GGoS8


This is just the tip of the iceberg. Other issues I've had:
- UI elements zipping around in the viewport, completely of their own free will
- Random features are suppressed when re-opening a document when I am 100% sure I did a rebuild without anything suppressed before saving
- Can't select some of the entities onscreen
- Editing child features causes parent features to randomly change selections and break (entering and exiting the parent feature without doing anything fixes this)
- "Automatic Rebuild" in the configuration table does not always automatically rebuild (took me a while to figure that one out...)
- Appearance randomization
- View pings off into infinity sometimes (seems to be correlated with having infinite length lines in sketches)
- Onscreen gizmos for feature manipulation sometimes don't match what the model actually looks like
- Endless "unknown error" and "error while saving" pop up dialogs

Unfortunately, I can't reproduce many of these issues because there isn't a way to step back through each change in history like you can with Onshape.

I'm sure some of these issues are my fault, but it's still been quite a hassle to try to be productive.

john_mcclary

Solidworks we call 'sometimes works' it's good most of the time but it has a bunch of common bugs. And zero collaboration 

alnis

Yeah, seems like it's decent enough software as long as you have a good backup scheme, patience, and a solid workstation. Admittedly, I am using an older service pack of 2020-2021, but that's because the web portal for downloading SolidWorks says the education key I purchased over the summer for a 1-year term is invalid (even though it's just been 6 months!). Fortunately, I should be able to upgrade to SP5 now since I just got a new key from the CAD class I'm taking this quarter. Maybe there will be fewer bugs.

john_mcclary

Fewer bugz lol that's cute....