Do you love-hate SolidWorks?
Sometimes I get such great questions from readers, that I have to just make a new post based on the question. I’ve had several questions like this recently, not just from readers, but also some people in face to face meetings.
So, the question is, how do you balance your SW love-hate relationship with the fact that you do exceptional work with it, write books and support users’ groups? Did I make the right choice in SW, instead of Pro-E, Solidedge or Inventor?
Wow, that’s a loaded question. The answer is complex. Let’s take it a piece at a time…
how do you balance your SW love-hate relationship
Ok, to be clear, it really is a love-hate relationship. To me, the ability to express designs in 3D or to solve geometrical problems visually on a computer is one of the most compelling motivations I have ever run into. The pursuit of modeling geometry on the computer has fascinated me since I was a kid. In the 70s I didn’t really know what to do with all that, but once I found 3D CAD, I was hooked. AutoCAD 10 allowed me to explore a little 3D. Mechanical Desktop 1.1 was the place where I really got started, but it was an insufferable pile of junk. Once I first used SolidWorks, I knew this was something that I could really use. My main difficulty with Mechanical Desktop, besides being difficult to use was that I spent as much time rebooting my computer to recover from crashes as I spent actually getting work done.
The early versions of SW were different. They were simple, but for the most part they just worked. The slogan for SolidWorks was “Putting the power of 3D on every engineer’s desktop”. Ambitious, yes, and probably in need of some adjustment as well. SolidWorks these days likes to talk about design, but I don’t think they understand design. Design happens in your head. Period. Visualization happens in SolidWorks. Allowing the computer to handle the visualization freed me up to think about other things. When you work in 2D, all of the 3D visualization is in your head. This is hard to do. As a professional, do you get paid to visualize stuff or to make things that other people can visualize? Stuff in your head really doesn’t do anyone else any good. You gotta get it out of there. If visualization and design are both happening in your head at the same time, you’ve gotta be really smart to be able to manage all of that. Offloading the visualization to the computer is the thing. It enables you to do the design in your head. This is what really grabbed me and inspired me. I could visualize and communicate stuff that was just in my head.
I might have grown really passionate about some other product, like Pro/E, Unigraphics, or whatever, but I was exposed to SolidWorks. My relationship with the SolidWorks software is really based on this passion for visualization and communication of geometry. When something I am passionate about doesn’t live up to my imagination, or worse if it starts to violate my philosophical values, it disturbs me. I’m using the software as an extension of myself, but the software does not reflect my values. This conflict creates the “hate” part of the love-hate. It’s disappointing that something that I relate to so strongly also does stuff I disagree with pretty strongly.
…you do exceptional work with it, write books and support users’ groups…
Yeah, you should see me at user groups. I go back and forth between saying how amazing it is that SolidWorks can do something like the Fill or Boundary, and show examples of stuff where they got the workflow exactly right, and then follow that up immediately with an unbelievable error of execution, like the Undercut Analysis. Imagine you have a son of whom you are very proud, and he conducts himself exactly as you would have him do it, and executes even better than you could yourself, but then he makes some sort of a mistake that shows a flaw in his character. You feel that reflects on you personally. You want to correct the flaw, but it’s his life, not yours. That’s the sort of juxtaposition of approval and disdain that I feel for this software.
If I do good work with the software, it’s because I feel like it’s almost an extension of myself. It’s a tool that I’ve integrated into my way of working so that it’s an almost natural extension. When it goes in a direction which is not natural for me, I feel betrayed. But it’s this weird relationship that gives me an almost zen-like ability to make it do what I want it to do. This concept is weird and definitely overstates or overdramatizes the case, but I think you know what I mean. Software is just a tool, it’s not an extension of your person, but when you’re in the zone, it almost feels that way.
There is a lot to know about the software, and the more you know about it, the more successful you can be with it. That’s why I write the books. That’s why I do stuff with user groups. I like to convey some of this information to other people who want to learn.
Did I make the right choice in SW, instead of Pro-E, Solidedge or Inventor?
CAD is not a religion. You can be passionate about stuff without being married to it. There is a practical side to decision making. Your choice of CAD really depends on you. Do you relate well to the way of doing things in Pro/E? Sometimes I think that is the package I really should have been using for all these years. I wanted to get a job where I would get trained on Pro/E because it seems to allow a lot of power and control over the result, much more so than SolidWorks. The interface is difficult, and it might be conceptually more rigid. Solid Edge is certainly a worthy product. It’s roughly equivalent to SolidWorks, maybe without some of the depth or breadth. The Synchronous Technology stuff is definitely intrigueing for machine design applications. Inventor? hmmm. Wouldn’t touch it. Alibre? Maybe if I were really cheap and just needed simple CAD models.
No, I still think SolidWorks is a reasonable choice when compared to the rest of what’s available. Especially if you are doing machine design. If you work on surfacing and swoops for product design, though, I’m betting that there is a better choice. I’m in the process of trying to discover other products that might be able to fill this need better. So far I’m looking at Solid Thinking, Think3, Rhino and Moment of Inspiration. Do you need production data or concepts? Tool selection really depends on what you are trying to accomplish with the tool.
Finally, my biggest disappointments with SolidWorks are philosophical. When I was a kid, I always thought it was shameful to fight with someone smaller than me, so I would usually just fight bigger kids, and usually when they were picking on someone smaller than them. There’s a little of the Robin Hood or Underdog about me. I prefer standing up for the little guy. I’m independent, and inherently mistrust organizations that are too large to be nimble. SolidWorks 95 was the type of product that I could admire. Something new, standing up to the big bad arrogant PTC. SolidWorks 2008 was the product of a company with a stated goal of becoming a billion dollar company, a company that lies with its marketing campaigns, and that has lost touch with the users that made it what it is today. It’s still a decent tool for many applications, but its no longer the mavricky renegade I was originally so passionate about.
Hey Matt can you put some of your training tip and methods to music. You may start an entire new jenre of entertainment 😉
I want to share with all of you a original Song of Solidworks
Thank you and enjoy it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=427-8kNCl-Q
Buon Giorno, volevo informare gli amministratori del Blog che questa maglietta è un plagio di un marchio registrato internazionale, questa immagine è un abuso, vi prego di reindirizzare la fonte del marchio al sito proprietario http://www.lovehate.it
Vi chiediamo cortesemente di comunicaci la fonte dell’immagine
saremmo anche lieti di fornirvi l’immagine originale,grazie
Please , take note that The LOVE HATE ambigram is an international registered trade mark ,deposed and internationally registered at the WIPO (Geneva, Swiss ). The official web site is http://www.lovehate.it ,it’s important to check the right source.Thank’s
Ok, thanks, I had no idea. Now I do. Interesting.
having been raised on Ashlar-Vellum products, everytime i use solidworks i say those three little words that mean so much….
i hate solidworks!
seriously, never in my life have i had to stop creating for so many reasons
I’m with you on ‘communication of geometry’, the whole design and visualization and the philosophy of large companies. SolidWorks has their moments as the independent go-getter that doesn’t bend to industry whims and commentary, but yeah, definitely a bit different since 95.
What I find interesting is, for me, it’s easier to learn another program than to change my methodology in SolidWorks. That may just be my ‘muscle memory’ making it harder to change rather than adapting to a new environment.
anyway, good post man, opening up the emotional side and all 😉
We started using SolidWorks late 1995 because ProE would not return my calls and Ideas was going to be $68,000.00 for one seat with a 266 mhz Unix workstation. We got seat one of Cosmos Works. We had the first DEC Alpha running Windows NT in the State of Washington to run SolidWorks and Cosmos Works on. We looked forward to updates until 1997 when several hundred files got corrupted and had to be sent back to Concord for repairs. This was the first year I went to their office to explain why Tool Box was a poor concept and why file maintenance was a problem. I went back in 1998 and 1999 to show a semi intelligent parts library of about 10,000 components that should have been included with every seat of SolidWorks. Until then we mostly loved SolidWorks, buy the end of 1999 when we tried to do a complete update of all files to 2000 for the impending Y2K problems and spent over 100 man hours and were only about 80% done it turned into more hate than love. Currently we have 15,900 parts, 2,800 assemblies, 7,400 drawings and 1780 DXF files in a company that has 1 designer and 5 total employees. File maintenance must be low.
After waiting two years to have an Excel BOM SPR fixed this fall they stated they were not going to support Excel any more. Now it is mostly hate, 2008 sucks almost as bad as 1997.
Currently we are considering SpaceClaim as they can open a 2007 1000+ piece assembly better than 2008 could.
Hi Matt,
You make some very interesting points in this post and in the main I would agree with both your comments and sentiment. As an AutoCAD, MDT and Inventor user there will be differences in both our views and our approach but you clearly state products have to ‘fit’ the users and this is not only very true it is widely misunderstood by the vendors and their dealers; hours of discussion here ;-)……….however;
The comment I would like to make about my similar ‘love/ hate’ relationship is that very often large vendors (actually their employees) simply hate any form of criticism, and they have a very bad tendency to only want to communicated with those customers that make them feel good as they ‘pat them on the back’, and ignore or denigrate those who may criticize, however justified that criticism may be. This is certainly Autodesk’s position: I sell, train and promote Autodesk products (24 years+) into appropriate situations but because I have taken Autodesk head-on in several areas they go out of their way to ignore me – that in itself is not of great concern, to me, except it shows the caliber of the people and involved!
What is more important is that to Autodesk, many companies and individuals, any criticism is seen as ALWAYS destructive and they fail to recognize users who criticize may well be making a point that affects many who simply choose not to speak-up and addressing the issue(s) may well have a very positive reaction in the market place.
They also miss the point CAD software is about giving designers and drafties tools to design products ‘tomorrow’ that have not yet been thought of and it is often the users ‘pushing’ software to its limits that is doing this. These users are small in number, adventurous and can be outspoken but that should be viewed as an asset, as I hope you are, not an insult or an impediment.
****
RPW,
Thanks for the comment! Many individuals at SolidWorks have thanked me for my sometimes controversial opinions. Right or wrong, the discussion usually benefits the product, or would benefit the product if the company would let it. Lately the new upper mgt at SW has placed less value on my opinions, but like you, that doesn’t really affect me too much. The things I dislike about SW are even more evident with Adesk, so I’m glad I’m not involved with any of those products, more power to you for your patience over all those years.
Matt,
Yo! a short email would have suficed, but that wouldn’t be you. Thanks. About 5 years ago when I was torn between Solidworks and Solidedge, I contacted the late Joe Greco and he steered me toward Solidworks because it was easy to lean and had better support at that time. By the way, I loved Joe’s articles in Desk Top Engineering.
By nature, I’m an optomist and only hope that SW management sees the light and goes back to actually listening to their base customers.
Also, the program has really gotten bloated, has their been any discussion on modularizing it. Like being able to load only what you need? For example, we do machine design and don’t use, Design Checker, Photoworks, Animator, or Surfacing (sorry). Would the software work better if you could install only what you needed?
Ray
Wow, You got my attention with this one.
I put down my pencil and sat a CAD computer (Tektronix) on my drawing board in 1982. I later went to Anvil. In 1992 I started my own business and went to Anvil 1000 In 1998 I bought SolidWorks based on my son’s experience with ProE in college and SW at his first job. Wow, it was “real” (3D) it was fast. and it was associative so my drawings were correct. I thought I had it made. I learned to adopt a sympathetic tone when a customer would tell me they used ProE When customers asked if I could do the job in AutoCad I told them It would cost more because it would slow me down.
Life was good until the CRASH. I still love SW until it crashes. Then I hate it. My son uses SW at work as well. He uses it full time and even ray traces optics with it. At home he uses SW 2005 He says he is faster with it because it runs instantly and doesn’t crash.
As a guy who sold more then a few of my customers on using SW I am starting to look around.
Very sad
Frank