You like that title? I did when Richard told it to me. It’s also the title of a new presentation I’m working on. Richard had done a similar presentation back in ’04 and, realizing it was right up my alley, bequeathed it unto me. After much updating, it’s almost done. I’m hoping to be presenting it at the next SASPUG meeting. I thought though, that I’d give you, my loyal reader (the check is in the mail), a peek into this incredible presentation by sharing some of the info in it over a couple of posts.
CAD Hurts!
Seriously, it can. It can cause headaches, bruising (from banging your fist on your keyboard) and serious amounts of stress. All CAD systems experience SSC (slowdowns, stalls and crashes). A lot of what you experience can depend on what you know or don’t know.
Many of the common denominators for SSC are your OS, the maintenance on your hardware and software, how you go about creating your models/assemblies/drawings and by simply not getting any help.
Like any other software package, SolidWorks will only work on certain operating systems. Yes, I know that’s somewhat short-sighted, but that’s the way it is. The current version of SolidWorks runs on WindowsXP (32- or 64-bit) or one of the Vista Business versions (32- or 64-bit). If you work some geek magic to get SW to work on a Mac, or any other platform, you’ll be SOL when it comes to tech support.
Is your network up to the task at hand? While everyone knows that you shouldn’t work across your network, most pull from, and save to, a network drive. If your network is maxed out, SSC, and data loss, are bound to show up. An easy test: Get in early and download/upload a good sized file, tracking the time. Do the same during the middle of the day and at the end of the day. If there’s a noticeable difference in the times, you might want to look at upgrading. If it’s at all possible, you should have a dedicated engineering server. You don’t need another department’s issues corrupting your data.
