CAD Forum

I didn't see any posts on this forum about comparing different versions and their preference so I thought I'd start it up now!
Usually people like to read comments like this to help make a decision on upgrading (yes I am looking to upgrade as well).

Soo... let it commence,

What is everyone's favorite version from the last 5 years and why?
Which version did you have problems with the most?
What a some great new features in those versions you liked? (bounding box perhaps?)

The last few versions have all seemed the same to me, aside from some enhancements. I seem to have a bug that I heard from a reliable source officially doesn't exist where context menus in the FeatureManager don't show up if there are error flags on the feature you select.

My favorite enhancements have been the visualization tools like hide/show body/part and tree visualization, like show flat tree, and the dynamic relationship arrow things. Strange things to be excited about maybe, but it helps me see what's going on much more quickly.

2018 by far. Something happened with 2019 where Solidworks went from being a useful tool to a product that spent most of the day showing that "Solidworks is busy." Autosave has been off since the release of 2019, because that is the only way the software was usable. Otherwise it would spend 10 minutes saving, allow you to work for 2 minutes and then start the save cycle all over again. And the worst part is if you talk to someone from DSS they will tell you it's just a new menu you aren't used to seeing. They completely ignore the fact that new menu is up way more than it should be.

Since you're upgrading, I don't see any reason not to go straight to SW2021. I haven't had any problems with this version that didn't exist in previous versions, and I don't remember seeing many complaints from other users either (or at least not any more than for previous versions).

Another reason is to get all the latest enhancements. Improved Slot Mate options (http://help.solidworks.com/2021/English ... 0d43b#Pg0) is one of my favorites.

The addition of the pop-up toolbar for sketch relations in Drawings (http://help.solidworks.com/2021/English ... c0bc8f#Pg0 is another one that I and other users have been requesting for many years, though I'd like to have a long talk with whoever thought it was a good idea to have it not appear if you selected a sketch element and then an entity from a drawing view, like a model edge.

Depending on your situation there might be others that you would use more. See http://help.solidworks.com/2021/English ... Redirect=1 for the list of all of them. There's a little drop-down near the top right corner of the site that will let you check other years.

2020 was the best for me. If I could, I'd go back. None of the enhancements for 2021 were worth the pain of upgrading, and that's ignoring the fact that the bugs affecting me actually increased. 2022 enhancements look cool........but I'm not volunteering to beta test while doing production work. I got burned too many times to fall for that.

The bottom line is: do the timesaving benefits in a new version outweigh the time lost by upgrading to a (likely) less stable version? I haven't seen it work out yet.

You know what would be the best enhancement of all? A software stable enough that I don't hit Ctrl+S every five minutes to avoid losing work! That would be far better for me than moving the command search bar (yes really, that's new for 2022).

Normally latest version is added with new features, therefore it is an updated version. I talking about SP5 of all versions. I do not understand the reason for the doubt.

Regression is the reason for the doubt. I've read several stories on the old forum where SP5 broke things that worked in SP4. It isn't supposed to work that way.

SPerman wrote: ↑Wed Aug 25, 2021 10:50 am 2018 by far. Something happened with 2019 where Solidworks went from being a useful tool to a product that spent most of the day showing that "Solidworks is busy." Autosave has been off since the release of 2019, because that is the only way the software was usable. Otherwise it would spend 10 minutes saving, allow you to work for 2 minutes and then start the save cycle all over again. And the worst part is if you talk to someone from DSS they will tell you it's just a new menu you aren't used to seeing. They completely ignore the fact that new menu is up way more than it should be.

Ive heard of this saving problem you mention with 2019 in a post or 2 out there. Is this as big of a problem that you say? Is this something that has continued to have a big impact in future releases? 2020, 2021?

Things improved with time. I can't say 100% of the fault was with SW. At the same time WIndows 10 forced one of their upgrades that seemed to impact the performance. I also think our online storage at the time contributed to the problem. Things improved slowly throughout 2019. 2020 was also better, but I still feel like 2018 would run circles around the speeds of 2020.

matt wrote: ↑Wed Aug 25, 2021 10:31 am The last few versions have all seemed the same to me, aside from some enhancements. I seem to have a bug that I heard from a reliable source officially doesn't exist where context menus in the FeatureManager don't show up if there are error flags on the feature you select.

My favorite enhancements have been the visualization tools like hide/show body/part and tree visualization, like show flat tree, and the dynamic relationship arrow things. Strange things to be excited about maybe, but it helps me see what's going on much more quickly.

That and Performance Evaluation top the list for me.

The version that was never released. It'll never crash .....

2021 early SP already usable. Fixed a few thing.

2018 was most stable and fastest to me.
Currently we are at 2021 it is much slower , but it has some nice new features which make me happy.

SPerman wrote: ↑Wed Aug 25, 2021 10:50 am 2018 by far. Something happened with 2019 where Solidworks went from being a useful tool to a product that spent most of the day showing that "Solidworks is busy." Autosave has been off since the release of 2019, because that is the only way the software was usable. Otherwise it would spend 10 minutes saving, allow you to work for 2 minutes and then start the save cycle all over again. And the worst part is if you talk to someone from DSS they will tell you it's just a new menu you aren't used to seeing. They completely ignore the fact that new menu is up way more than it should be.

2018 is my favorite too. I got stuck with 2016-17 long enough to realize it was borked. I'm on latest now but theres so many "quality of life" things that make it challenging to work like i did with 18.

It would be really nice if I/we had full access to all our versions (mine would be since 1998) or total crashes reports or sent ER's sent to SW Corp and graph/compare each versions sent reports?

SW2012