What would you spec out for a new SolidWorks workstation?

[Mike Gera]

I need to spec. out a new SolidWorks 2024 workstation. The current equipment is 7 years old and wasn't cutting edge when purchased.

What PC company, what processor, what video card, what type of RAM, and how much RAM?

Thank you so much for any replies.

[AlexLachance]

I need to spec. out a new SolidWorks 2024 workstation. The current equipment is 7 years old and wasn't cutting edge when purchased.

What PC company, what processor, what video card, what type of RAM, and how much RAM?

Thank you so much for any replies.

This is what we spec'ed for our last order a year and a half ago:

Lenovo ThinkStation P360
Intel i7 127000
32GB RAM (Possibility of 128) DDR5
512GB SSD
nVidia RTX A4000 - 16GB GDDR6

[Craig Schultz]

BOXX has been solid for me over the last 10+ years. The S Class is what I have at work and at home. You can look into different processors they offer depending on what else you do along side of SSW.

Order with minimum RAM.
Order it with the best video card you can afford and then add RAM (as much as you can afford with that as well)

[AlexLachance]

BOXX has been solid for me over the last 10+ years. The S Class is what I have at work and at home. You can look into different processors they offer depending on what else you do along side of SSW.

Order with minimum RAM.
Order it with the best video card you can afford and then add RAM (as much as you can afford with that as well)

I've been pondering over Boxx for our next orders, the only thing that's keeping us 'tied' to Lenovo is our IT Partner + the support provided. I've always heard marvellous things about Boxx but never went with them because of the price tags, though the S Class seems a lot more in the price ranges we are looking for. The S Class is about 10% more costy then what we are currently buying so I'll definetly give it a glimpse next time.

[Mike Gera]

BOXX has been solid for me over the last 10+ years. The S Class is what I have at work and at home. You can look into different processors they offer depending on what else you do along side of SSW.

Order with minimum RAM.
Order it with the best video card you can afford and then add RAM (as much as you can afford with that as well)

Thanks. I'm going to check out BOXX. I remember looking at them years ago. Quality builds, I imagine.

[Mike Gera]

This is what we spec'ed for our last order a year and a half ago:

Lenovo ThinkStation P360
Intel i7 127000
32GB RAM (Possibility of 128) DDR5
512GB SSD
nVidia RTX A4000 - 16GB GDDR6

Thanks. I'm figuring either an i7 or an i9. BOXX is trying to sell me on 96 GB of RAM. I never knew 96 was an option. Thought it went from 64 to 128.

[Craig Schultz]

I've been pondering over Boxx for our next orders, the only thing that's keeping us 'tied' to Lenovo is our IT Partner + the support provided. I've always heard marvellous things about Boxx but never went with them because of the price tags, though the S Class seems a lot more in the price ranges we are looking for. The S Class is about 10% more costy then what we are currently buying so I'll definetly give it a glimpse next time.

I've had one software issue over the years. I sent it back for repairs, it was back in the office 2-3 days later.

[Craig Schultz]

Thanks. I'm figuring either an i7 or an i9. BOXX is trying to sell me on 96 GB of RAM. I never knew 96 was an option. Thought it went from 64 to 128.

Like I said previously, buy 32GB of RAM and then upgrade through OWC or Newegg. I'm at 128GB

[RichGergely]

You can get a good deal on the nVidia RTX A4000 card at the moment as the new version has been rolled out. Plenty of 'open box' on the market. Sure the a4000 isn't as fast as the new version but it's not a mile behind and it still is substantially better than the new 2000. If you can get an open box A4000 on a good deal with full warranty it is worth considering. I picked a Dell open box a4000 card up for not much more than the new version of the 2000 not long ago with full warranty.

[Bradfordzzz]

These are our Lenovo workstations. We found them considerably cheaper than the Boxx systems that we used to use.

Processor：13th Generation Intel® Core™ i9-13900 vPro® Processor (E-cores up to 4.20 GHz P-cores up to 5.20 GHz)
Operating System：Windows 11 Pro 64
Graphic Card：NVIDIA RTX™ A4500 20GB GDDR6
Memory：128 GB DDR5-4400MHz (UDIMM) - (4 x 32 GB)
Storage：2 TB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 Performance TLC Opal
AC Adapter / Power Supply：750W
WLAN：Intel® Wi-Fi 6E AX211 2x2 AX vPro® & Bluetooth® 5.1 or above
Warranty：3 Years On-site Premier Support
Operating System Language：EN:English

Currently on Sale for around $4000 CDN because of black Friday sale.

[Mike Gera]

I ordered a Boxx APEXX E3.

A copy-and-paste from the order:

Processor: Intel® Core i9-14900K (14th gen) Processor (3.20GHz, Turbo 6.00GHz)
System Memory: 96GB DDR5-5600 MHz (2 - 48GB DIMMS)
Expansion Card Slot(s): NVIDIA RTX 2000 16GB Ada Generation
M.2 Storage: 1.0TB SSD NVMe/PCIe 4.0 M.2 Drive
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Professional High End
System Warranty BOXX Premium Support 1 Year (Years 2 and 3 Standard) - US and Canada Only
BOXX T-Shirt Boxx T Shirt

Intel CoreTMi7/i9 14th Gen Processor - Liquid Cooled
Intel B760 Chipset
Dual Channel DDR5--5600
. . (4 DIMMS)
(4) 6GB Serial ATA 3.0 port
. . (RAID 0, 1, and 10)
(1) Display Port
(1) HDMI Port
(1) 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port
(2) M.2 Slot
7.1 Channel HD Audio
. . Front Panel Mic + Audio Out
(6) USB 3.2 Gen1 Ports:
(2) Front, (4) Rear
(1) USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A Port (Rear)
(1) USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C Port (Rear)
(2) USB 2.0 (Rear)
(1) Intel 802.11AX Wifi 6E + Bluetooth 5.3
750W Power Supply
6.84"w x 15.28"h x 17.80"d
Expansion options:
(2) 3.5" hard drive bays or (4) 2.5" hard drives
(1) PCIe 5.0 x16 slots Single at x16
(1) PCIe 4.0 x16 slots Single at x16 (x4)
(1) PCIe 3.0 x16 slots Single at x16 (x1) (1) PCIe 3.0 x1 slots
* The speed of the drive is determined strictly by the speed of the port.

[AlexLachance]

I ordered a Boxx APEXX E3.

A copy-and-paste from the order:

Processor: Intel® Core i9-14900K (14th gen) Processor (3.20GHz, Turbo 6.00GHz)
System Memory: 96GB DDR5-5600 MHz (2 - 48GB DIMMS)
Expansion Card Slot(s): NVIDIA RTX 2000 16GB Ada Generation
M.2 Storage: 1.0TB SSD NVMe/PCIe 4.0 M.2 Drive
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Professional High End
System Warranty BOXX Premium Support 1 Year (Years 2 and 3 Standard) - US and Canada Only
BOXX T-Shirt Boxx T Shirt

Intel CoreTMi7/i9 14th Gen Processor - Liquid Cooled
Intel B760 Chipset
Dual Channel DDR5--5600
. . (4 DIMMS)
(4) 6GB Serial ATA 3.0 port
. . (RAID 0, 1, and 10)
(1) Display Port
(1) HDMI Port
(1) 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port
(2) M.2 Slot
7.1 Channel HD Audio
. . Front Panel Mic + Audio Out
(6) USB 3.2 Gen1 Ports:
(2) Front, (4) Rear
(1) USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A Port (Rear)
(1) USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C Port (Rear)
(2) USB 2.0 (Rear)
(1) Intel 802.11AX Wifi 6E + Bluetooth 5.3
750W Power Supply
6.84"w x 15.28"h x 17.80"d
Expansion options:
(2) 3.5" hard drive bays or (4) 2.5" hard drives
(1) PCIe 5.0 x16 slots Single at x16
(1) PCIe 4.0 x16 slots Single at x16 (x4)
(1) PCIe 3.0 x16 slots Single at x16 (x1) (1) PCIe 3.0 x1 slots
* The speed of the drive is determined strictly by the speed of the port.

Nice build mate. Even comes with a T-Shirt for fanboys haha that's awesome

[mp3-250]

generic specs

cpu with single core clock 5ghz or more

32gb ram enough for most applications
64-128 for heavy simulations

pci express 4.0 or higher with
videocard with 12gb vram

500gb fast SSD

optionally leave solidworks for a better CAD...

We use HP Z series workstations, quite noise and decent setup in general, but their newest xeon processors have dropped the high frequency to go back in the 4 something GHz range.

[Mike Gera]

optionally leave solidworks for a better CAD...

@mp3-250

What CAD package do you recommend?

I'm all ears. Seriously.

[mp3-250]

@mp3-250

What CAD package do you recommend?

I'm all ears. Seriously.

it depends on a lot of factors, what kind of projects you do and your budget. I came from NX and it was a way better than SW: less memory leaks, more stable, more responsive 3D in general. plus a coherent UI.
it is not for all, too many commands, cost of licensing could be too high,depending on your job or legacy tools your workflow could be negatively impacted and it must be accounted for.

[Mike Gera]

The Boxx workstation that I ordered has an RTX 2000 Ada Generation video card.

I wonder if it would be worth it to upgrade my current RTX 5000 (another workstation) to the RTX 2000 Ada Generation.

I am not expecting the 2000 Ada to be significantly faster, rather, my hope is that it wouldn't do some of the squirrelly stuff that the RTX 5000 does. For example, sometimes reference geometry axes appear in different spots than they actually are.

[KennyG]

it depends on a lot of factors, what kind of projects you do and your budget. I came from NX and it was a way better than SW: less memory leaks, more stable, more responsive 3D in general. plus a coherent UI.
it is not for all, too many commands, cost of licensing could be too high,depending on your job or legacy tools your workflow could be negatively impacted and it must be accounted for.

Siemens Solid Edge is marketed at the SMB market as a stand-alone product or a co-authoring tool to NX, and the UI's are somewhat aligned if you are using both or already familiar with NX, and it is stable also. Solid Edge ends up being less expensive and easier to use than NX but is missing some of the high-end features of NX as well as the integrated downstream apps.

They actually sell a Mechanical Design bundle with both NX and Solid Edge included. Typical use case in Automotive is NX used by OEM's and Solid Edge used by the smaller component manufacturers. NX and Solid Edge can use each other's models interchangeably, so this works rather well from what I hear.

[Mike Gera]

How does NX handle sheet metal?

Sheet metal is my biggest gripe with SolidWorks.

Thanks.

[DanPihlaja]

How does NX handle sheet metal?

Sheet metal is my biggest gripe with SolidWorks.

Thanks.

The biggest difference will be the price tag. $3,000-$8,000 per seat for Solidworks. (iirc) $15,000-$20,000 per seat of NX.

[SPerman]

I didn't/don't do much sheet metal work, and I haven't used NX since early 2017. NX was much better with corner reliefs, flange setbacks, etc. More generally, NX just behaves as expected 99.999% of the time.

A few years ago it was possible to get a free "Student Edition" of NX. I don't know if all of the sheet metal functionality is enabled in that edition, but you could give it a test drive and see.

NX CAD/CAM Student Edition

[KennyG]

How does NX handle sheet metal?

Sheet metal is my biggest gripe with SolidWorks.

Thanks.

You will want to look at Solid Edge for brake formed sheet metal if that's what you are talking about. If NX does any of that well, it probably came from Solid Edge

[Mike Gera]

The biggest difference will be the price tag. $3,000-$8,000 per seat for Solidworks. (iirc) $15,000-$20,000 per seat of NX.

Wow. OK, yeah, that's...not happening. LOL

[SPerman]

i just double checked and the seat of NX was 2/3rds teh cost of the SW seat. The ongoing maint. for SW is also higher then the NX yearly.

HercalloY is from Australia, where the DSS people have lost their mind. I don't think the pricing comparison is the same in the US.

Interesting, Siemens is publishing pricing on their web site.
https://plm.sw.siemens.com/en-US/nx/pro ... -standard/

NX Standard is < $7400/year. According to their comparison, sheet metal is included in the "standard" package.

[DanPihlaja]

HercalloY is from Australia, where the DSS people have lost their mind. I don't think the pricing comparison is the same in the US.

Interesting, Siemens is publishing pricing on their web site.
https://plm.sw.siemens.com/en-US/nx/pro ... -standard/

NX Standard is < $7400/year. According to their comparison, sheet metal is included in the "standard" package.

Pretty sure that is just Maintenance. License cost is more I believe. Of course...I have been wrong before.....and this is generally what it looks like when I am wrong.

[SPerman]

I don't think this is a perpetual license with annual maintenance. It looks like an annual charge, the same every year. If you stop paying, it stops working.

image.png (19.12 KiB) Viewed 1956 times

[jcapriotti]

I don't think this is a perpetual license with annual maintenance. It looks like an annual charge, the same every year. If you stop paying, it stops working.

Yeah, that is the annual subscription cost. I never could find exact costs for the perpetual license for NX. SolidWorks annual subscription is $2820 / $3456 / $4716 for Standard, Pro, Premium. I would expect NX Design Standard perpetual to be around 14k up front.

[KennyG]

Yeah, that is the annual subscription cost. I never could find exact costs for the perpetual license for NX. SolidWorks annual subscription is $2820 / $3456 / $4716 for Standard, Pro, Premium. I would expect NX Design Standard perpetual to be around 14k up front.

Nobody wants to sell you perpetual licenses anymore. They quote only subscription and tell you the accounting departments at all these companies want yearly expenses instead of large up front capital expenditures that they have to depreciate.

[jcapriotti]

Nobody wants to sell you perpetual licenses anymore. They quote only subscription and tell you the accounting departments at all these companies want yearly expenses instead of large up front capital expenditures that they have to depreciate.

They have never advertised purchase or annual maintenance costs. But for some reason you can find subscription pricing.

I've never understood why management and the bean counters push for "OPEX" subscriptions instead of "CAPEX" purchases. Unless you only need the tool for a one off use, perpetual is always cheaper. At the end of the day, engineering's gotta pay.....just forecast and budget.

[KennyG]

They have never advertised purchase or annual maintenance costs. But for some reason you can find subscription pricing.

I've never understood why management and the bean counters push for "OPEX" subscriptions instead of "CAPEX" purchases. Unless you only need the tool for a one off use, perpetual is always cheaper. At the end of the day, engineering's gotta pay.....just forecast and budget.

I think the software vendors are trying to change the "perpetual is always cheaper" perception if you are one who pays the yearly maintenance... maintenance renewal prices used to be roughly about 20% of purchase price, but over the last couple years or so they have been raising the maintenance price by 15%/year. The "break even" point is being moved out to the point where it no longer matters... basically a "wash".

[jcapriotti]

I think the software vendors are trying to change the "perpetual is always cheaper" perception if you are one who pays the yearly maintenance... maintenance renewal prices used to be roughly about 20% of purchase price, but over the last couple years or so they have been raising the maintenance price by 15%/year. The "break even" point is being moved out to the point where it no longer matters... basically a "wash".

Except they start raising the subscription price yearly as well. I've already seen that happening with other subscription software, goes up every year.

[mgibeault]

How does NX handle sheet metal?

Sheet metal is my biggest gripe with SolidWorks.

Thanks.

If you do a lot of sheetmetal, have a close look at SolidEdge.
At one time it was far ahead of SW (but it's been a while since I compared directly).

[jcapriotti]

Sheet metal is my biggest gripe with SolidWorks.

What specifically?

[Mike Gera]

What specifically?

Any radiused (rolled or bump-bent) part usually requires workarounds.

[jcapriotti]

Any radiused (rolled or bump-bent) part usually requires workarounds.

We mostly just do press brake 90° bends, sometimes other angles. We have some simple roll form parts from coil stock, takes some trial and error to get the bend numbers right.

I did one part that had an arc where they bump bent it. The loft bend can be used for this I think.

[DLZ_SWX_User]

I did one part that had an arc where they bump bent it. The loft bend can be used for this I think.

image.png

This is what we use for bump bent parts & it seems to work for us. @Mike Gera what work arounds are you needing to do? We don't roll a lot of parts, but we have made 12" OD pipe that we laser cut the flat and rolled and it seems to work. We have also done a few transitions, like from square to round, or one size of round to a larger round. For this we use lofted bend & bump bend it. I have attached a snapshot of half of the 12" round to 14" round, ¼" material transition. For a square to round, it works better to give a small radius on the sharp corner.

[AlexLachance]

This is what we use for bump bent parts & it seems to work for us. @Mike Gera what work arounds are you needing to do? We don't roll a lot of parts but we have made 12" OD pipe that we laser cut the flat and rolled and it seems to work. We have also done a few transitions like form square to round or one size of round to a larger round. For this we use lofted bend & bump bend it. I have attached a snapshot of half of the 12" round to 14" round ¼" material transition. For a square to round it works better to give a small radius on the sharp corner.image.png

That is also what we use, man am I glad I don't have to do the whole process manually anymore... I used to create segments and then have to split the line to add segments if the production asked for more kicks.