How Windows 7 and SolidWorks 2011 ruined my life…
Oh how I long for the old days with Windows XP and SolidWorks 2009. It was nice to be able to say, “I’m waiting for SolidWorks RX to finish its cleanup and then I have to reboot”, when the boss caught me goofing off. It was nice to have the excuse ‘SolidWorks crashed and I lost all my work’ when I was running behind on a project. It was nice to get a couple extra coffee breaks a day when ever I had to reboot the computer. Yes, I miss those days.
Now I seldom have any reason to leave my desk. No opportunity to talk about last night’s episode of Eureka! No chance to catch up on the latest company gossip. It’s a real downer!
Now that Microsoft and SolidWorks have finally gotten their acts together I have one recommendation. Add an icon or a ‘magic’ key sequence that will automatically save all open files and then crash SolidWorks, run the SolidWorks RX System Maintenance and reboot the computer. And even better slow down the System Maintenance by a factor of your choice set in the AutoCrash options.
All joking aside, if you are still running SolidWorks 2010 or earlier on Windows XP don’t complain about crashes or lock ups. If you have less than 4gb of RAM don’t come crying to me or SolidWorks. If you are using any video card other than a Nvidia Quadro (not a NVS) series card you have no right to complain. Just deal with it yourself.
It should be a simple matter to convince your boss or owner that upgrades are in order. They understand dollars & cents. They understand that time is money. You only have to convince them that crash recovery and lost or corrupted data translates to time. If money is an issue but it has gotten to a point where something has to be done at the lowest cost possible then go to the Dell Auction site and take a look at the Precision workstations that are off from lease. They have been check out, wiped clean and are generally great bargains. Find a minimum T3400 with 4 gb of RAM and a Quadro FX video card. Make sure it is a Core 2 Dual or quad core processor and you can’t go wrong. Buy a copy of Windows 7 Professional and install the 64 bit version. Finally install the 64 bit version of SolidWorks 2011 or 2012 and you will start reaping the benefits immediately.
Now your boss can chain you to your desk, there will no reason for you to ever leave it again!
Oh how I long for the old days with Windows XP and SolidWorks 2009. It was nice to be able to say, “I’m waiting for SolidWorks RX to finish its cleanup and then I have to reboot”, when the boss caught me goofing off. It was nice to have the excuse ‘SolidWorks crashed and I lost all my work’ when I was running behind on a project. It was nice to get a couple extra coffee breaks a day when ever I had to reboot the computer. Yes, I miss those days.
Now I seldom have any reason to leave my desk. No opportunity to talk about last night’s episode of Eureka! No chance to catch up on the latest company gossip. It’s a real downer!
Now that Microsoft and SolidWorks have finally gotten their acts together I have one recommendation. Add an icon or a ‘magic’ key sequence that will automatically save all open files and then crash SolidWorks, run the SolidWorks RX System Maintenance and reboot the computer. And even better slow down the System Maintenance by a factor of your choice set in the AutoCrash options.
All joking aside, if you are still running SolidWorks 2010 or earlier on Windows XP don’t complain about crashes or lock ups. If you have less than 4gb of RAM don’t come crying to me or SolidWorks. If you are using any video card other than a Nvidia Quadro (not a NVS) series card you have no right to complain. Just deal with it yourself.
It should be a simple matter to convince your boss or owner that upgrades are in order. They understand dollars & cents. They understand that time is money. You only have to convince them that crash recovery and lost or corrupted data translates to time. If money is an issue but it has gotten to a point where something has to be done at the lowest cost possible then go to the Dell Auction site and take a look at the Precision workstations that are off from lease. They have been check out, wiped clean and are generally great bargains. Find a minimum T3400 with 4 gb of RAM and a Quadro FX video card. Make sure it is a Core 2 Dual or quad core processor and you can’t go wrong. Buy a copy of Windows 7 Professional and install the 64 bit version. Finally install the 64 bit version of SolidWorks 2011 or 2012 and you will start reaping the benefits immediately.
Now your boss can chain you to your desk, there will no reason for you to ever leave it again!