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We expect to finally upgrade our Solidworks version this summer, up from 2018. I expect we'll upgrade to 2021, but it would be interesting to hear arguments for only going to 2020. Note that 2022 is not an option.

Thanks

Dwight

Hello Dwight,

I don't remember anything from SW2021 that made me especially happy, but I did like https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... nedv0Wkxvg. If you use slots in Parts it may help you make up your mind, especially if you're like me and pretty much always want hardware and/or holes centered on the slot.

I just remembered another good one that may be of some benefit if you ever use sketch entities in Drawing views: http://help.solidworks.com/2021/English ... 29776c#Pg0.

Unfortunately, like so many enhancements the implementation could have used some improvement. When attempting to apply a relation between a sketch entity and an edge or something belonging to the model you only get the pop-up if you select the sketch element last. If you reverse the order it doesn't appear, but of course you can still go to the property manager and apply it there.

We just upgraded to 2021 from 2020 mostly for pdm/manage reasons. Whatever you do, make sure you turn OFF enhanced graphics performance.
As long as that setting is OFF I think you'll be fine with 2021.

Even after only a day of being upgrade I had multiple users (that hadn't yet run the swsettings file I provided) report issues that were fixed by turning that setting off. It's the magic "make solidworks buggy" checkbox.

nordstjernen740 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 28, 2022 12:35 pm We just upgraded to 2021 from 2020 mostly for pdm/manage reasons. Whatever you do, make sure you turn OFF enhanced graphics performance.
As long as that setting is OFF I think you'll be fine with 2021.

Even after only a day of being upgrade I had multiple users (that hadn't yet run the swsettings file I provided) report issues that were fixed by turning that setting off.image.png

It's the magic "make solidworks buggy" checkbox.

That's my go-to "become a hero today" trick.

Do gifs work here?

nordstjernen740 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 28, 2022 12:35 pm We just upgraded to 2021 from 2020 mostly for pdm/manage reasons. Whatever you do, make sure you turn OFF enhanced graphics performance.
As long as that setting is OFF I think you'll be fine with 2021.

Even after only a day of being upgrade I had multiple users (that hadn't yet run the swsettings file I provided) report issues that were fixed by turning that setting off.image.png

It's the magic "make solidworks buggy" checkbox.

Huh, seems like it was just yesterday our VAR was hyping up the all new "Enhanced" graphics performance how it was going to revolutionize how SW made use of GPU. Now it's all grown up and taken its place in the list of features we make sure to turn off.

I can't find the original post, so it must have been edited.
I'm still on 2020, hopefully 2022 is better. The performance doesn't really matter if it renders the program unusable due to graphic problems.

nordstjernen740 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 28, 2022 1:09 pm giphy.gif Do gifs work here?

Hah! That's a gif by Finnish Tax Administration

All

Thanks for your replies. I expect we will go with 2021.

Dwight

bnemec wrote: ↑Fri Jan 28, 2022 1:50 pm Huh, seems like it was just yesterday our VAR was hyping up the all new "Enhanced" graphics performance how it was going to revolutionize how SW made use of GPU. Now it's all grown up and taken its place in the list of features we make sure to turn off.

Yes...in my experience....ONLY VARS and Solidworks employees get any benefit from that check box.... (honestly, not sure that I believe them)

I used Enhanced graphics since beta to do design and while I had some minor graphic glitch, the 3d graphics speed increased a lot. Depending on the hardware setup it could be different, but on HP workstations in different companies more improvement than glitches according to my experience. Give it a try before throwing it out of the boat.

Our org just made the transition from 2018 to 2021 at the end of last year. I used 2020 at home, and I can't think of any differences between 2020 vs 2021 off the top of my head. Like others mention, disable the Enhanced Graphics setting, as it did slow things down (noticeably) and the hardware I'm running should be more than sufficient.

I think the 2021 upgrade for both PDM and SWX was well worth it. One of my favorite features I had at home but missed at work was the Trim Entities but Keep as Construction Geometry.

With being on subscription, I always begin to feel that twinge of guilt pushing me to upgrade around this time each year. We are currently on 2020 SP.5, and I always keep our machines a year behind. Came on here to hopefully find out if its "safe" to move to 2021 SP.5. Just having read another thread about issues with the pack and go on 2021 SP.5 makes me think that I can wait a little longer.

The irony is we are currently running a backported dll from an earlier 2021 service pack, to fix a pack and go issue that had lingered since probably 2017, on our 2020 release.

TRKemp wrote: ↑Tue Feb 08, 2022 7:47 am Came on here to hopefully find out if its "safe" to move to 2021 SP.5. Just having read another thread about issues with the pack and go on 2021 SP.5 makes me think that I can wait a little longer.

You can upgrade to 2021 SP 5.1.
5.0 lived for a couple of hours before being retired.

Alin wrote: ↑Tue Feb 08, 2022 8:13 am You can upgrade to 2021 SP 5.1.
5.0 lived for a couple of hours before being retired.

That long huh?

Our organization just switched from PDM Pro and SW 2018 SP5 to 2021 SP5.1. The upgrades themselves went smoothly and I haven't encountered too much issue with the update other than some functionality moved around within PDM.

- If you have customized column views within PDM, they added the ability to move the standard columns inside the admin view. The update will override any machine specific column re-ordering and apply the column view from the admin tool. I had to go in there and move the Part Number, Revision, Description, etc. back to the far left and move all the file size, date modified, etc. stuff all the way to the end. A bit annoying, that's all.