Ricky Jordan's Blog » Customer Portal

SolidWorks 2011 Beta – Coming Soon!

Ricky Jordan — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 03:14:45 +0000

Well, its that time of the year again folks. SolidWorks 2011 Beta appears to be just a few weeks away. No official dates have been given, but according to the SolidWorks Customer Portal site, the first Beta will be released in “early July”.

The Beta Contest Details can be found HERE where you’ll see individual competitions for SolidWorks 2011, Enterprise PDM 2011, & Simulation 2011. In addition SolidWorks will feature a “Star of the Week” prize which I believe is new for this year. SolidWorks will also feature Part Modeling, Assembly Modeling, EPDM API, and PhotoView 360 2011 competitions.

The prizes for this year’s contest are looking pretty nice for the folks that have a little extra time on their hands. The Overall Beta Winner will get a $1000 Visa Gift Card! You can see all the details HERE.

As with every year, SolidWorks reveals SOME of the enhancements at SolidWorks World. My SolidWorks 2011 Sneak Peek post has a list of the enhancements that we already know about.

Beta testing is FREE to all customers with current subscription contracts. Access to the Site will be through the Customer Portal.

Stay tuned….there will be more news of “new” programs later this week.

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SolidWorks 2010 Beta Details

Ricky Jordan — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 03:12:42 +0000

Spring is just around the corner (or already here for some) and usually that means it’s Beta Testing Time for many SolidWorks users. A few days ago I contacted SolidWorks to see if I could get some details on the SolidWorks 2010 Beta Contest and they were gracious enough to provide some information that I can share with you. The Beta program will be happening a little later this year as compared to past years.

There are three Beta releases of SolidWorks 2010 currently scheduled. The tentative schedule is as follows:
SolidWorks 2010 Beta 1: 06/08/09 – 07/03/09
SolidWorks 2010 Beta 2: 07/06/09 – 07/24/09
SolidWorks 2010 Beta 3: 07/27/09 – 08/14/09

As with previous Beta programs, SolidWorks is looking for customers that span many industry sectors which include:

Machine Design
Consumer Product Design
Sheet Metal Design
Routed Systems

Remember that you DO NOT need to be an “expert” user to participate! Feedback is always welcome from ALL users. If you want to read about some of the enhancements to SolidWorks 2010 that have already been made public, click HERE.

The priorities of the SolidWorks 2010 Beta Program are:

To Find/Fix customer critical stability/performance/UI bugs not found internally or incorrectly prioritized
Increase bandwith of testing permutations that cannot practically be covered internally

If you want a sneak peek of the new features coming in SolidWorks 2010 this is a GREAT opportunity to test drive the software and provide feedback which can at times be implemented prior to the release of SolidWorks 2010. Many discussions during last year’s Beta Program directly led to changes in some of the new features of SolidWorks 2009.

No details of the contest prizes or point system have been released yet. As soon as that information is made available, I’ll post it.

I can’t confirm for certain, but I believe the SolidWorks 2010 Beta Program will be managed through the Customer Portal just as it was last year. To be eligible for the Beta program last year, you had to be on an active subscription contract. I have not heard whether or not that will be a requirement for this year’s program, but I suspect it will. To sign up for the Beta Program log into your Customer Portal Account and look for the “My Profile” icon as shown below.

On your Profile Page set the option for “Notify me for Beta Programs”.

I’m sure more details will be released as we inch closer to the first Beta period. As with past programs, a special forum will be available for users to discuss the new features while still under the NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement).

Stay tuned….more to come!

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More Updates to the SolidWorks Knowledge Base

Ricky Jordan — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 23:09:27 +0000

A few months back I Blogged about some of the new options in the SolidWorks Knowledge Base. Well, the folks at SolidWorks are at it again. I went to the Customer Portal last night to do a Knowledge Base search and notice MORE new options! I’m not sure how new they are but I certainly haven’t seen or heard about it yet!

The front page for the Knowledge Base has received some attention. I’ve got to admit it was a bit plain with little description as to what it actually was previously. For the first time I have seen, it refers to the Knowledge Base as the SolidWorks “KB” ….interesting. The front page has an explanation of what types of information is included in the KB search. SPR’s (Software Performance Requests – Bugs), and Solutions which have been included in the search in the past have been joined by Service Requests (SR), SolidWorks websites, & Documentation. Below is an image of the new front page.

Once you type in a keyword and hit search you’ll find some nice new options on the left side of the screen. You can refine the search results by Data Source, Product, Area, Sub Area, & Status. Note that the main Data Sources are still from SPRs and Solutions. Another VERY nice feature is the ability to sort the results “Oldest to Newest” or “Newest to Oldest”.

This was already a great tool to find solutions or answers to questions quickly and it seems to be getting better and better!

Stay tuned…more to come!

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SolidWorks 2008 Service Pack 1 is available

Ricky Jordan — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 16:18:30 +0000

I just happened to check the Customer Portal today and saw that SolidWorks 2008 Service Pack 1 has just been released. Some of you out there may have been waiting to upgrade until SP1.0 is out. For those of you in that group, it’s upgrade time! I put up a post in October of last year with some Upgrade Recommendations. Most of the stuff still applies.

You can download the update either thru the “Help” pull down in SolidWorks or by logging into the Customer Portal and selecting “Downloads”. Just a reminder for companies with multiple users: Make sure you check with your system administrator or CAD Manager before upgrading. If you share Toolbox or Hole Wizard libraries across a network, all users will need to upgrade at the same time.

Stay tuned…more to come!

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SolidWorks 2008 Pre-Release 1 is out

Ricky Jordan — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 14:54:24 +0000

SolidWorks 2008 Pre-Release 1 became available for download late last week. It is available to all subscription customers at the SolidWorks Customer Portal.

Stay tuned for more on SolidWorks 2008 soon!

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