DISQUS

Unfortunately it looks like the same truncated beta deal as last year..but at least they are admitting they are only looking at finding and fixing the gross stuff.
I would guess the only purpose to reporting 'minor 'stuff is to earn points for potential prizes then.
Possibly they should call it something else other than beta testing , hmm.. tire kicking session ;) - yeah ok Ricky only winding them up..

I suppose it also means SW2010 actually arrives a little later too -unless they miss out RC altogether? -so that some folks who anticipated their subs would allow them sp0 are going to have to renew anyway..
I wonder if it means the release of 09sp5 will be held over slightly as well?
These things are usually strategically intermingled..

Be interesting to see how many companies pass on subs this time with the economic seizure and all. In hindsight SW might regret not following through with their attempted forced subs march.
I am one of those who are looking to buy other stuff with my $ this time - maybe Rhino, some textbooks, tools etc
Forgive me for sounding weary of the upgrade cycle and cynical of beta testing program as it exists.
I am sure there are many users who will be keen to participate come July.

Keep up the good work :)

one look at this and you just know Autodesk are going to take the p___ out of this dont you? ;)

Gosh! all my Xmases have come at once
This has only been asked for for maybe 5-6 years or more..
Indeed how often was this and other things requested to be met with no response no matter who asked or how
At one time there was a private site along the lines of this
I wonder if old time users remember that...
Back in the days when we had real forums and not sound bite opportunites
Well better very late than never :)
I'll bet agreeing to this was very painful to some of the SW management eh guys?

hmmm strange cos its quite low vol for me..
since no one else has mentioned it iI guess it must be my issue here(?)..
I need to run the pc vol up to max and wind the stereo amp up a notch or two
ordinarily that would be pretty LOUD
in fact I have just tried this level on the BBC news site and a few others and there is a fair difference between your voice level and those
...still if its not an issue for other folks I can adapt I suppose
Perhaps Santa will bring me an ear trumpet...(yeah I've been good too) ;)

Merry Xmas to you and yours Ricky
keep that megaphone away from the children
rousing 5am starts to opens presents is not good for the nerves

but very very quiet...

are these done at midnight when nothing is stirrring not even the mice?
perhaps Santa may bring Ricky a megaphone if he's been a good little blogger ;)

>stay tuned

a special Xmas message? a word from our sponsor? :D

The creation of real world welds is something the SW R&D; people really need to spend some time on IMHO.

In the news today: The Quadro FX 5800 is available now at an MSRP of US$3,499.

Yeah right!!
This is a GTX280 based card but with 4gb ram
Whats it worth? well maybe ~$600 as a gamer
Lets double it for cert drivers,support etc = $1200

ok so lets say this card is over priced by $2300
Many people could buy a decent workstn for that difference
Why should SW users pay a ridiculous premium for openGL hardware if directx will do the job and the card is 99% the same
Bring on the revolution!

thankyou Mr Cronkite
I found the recorded volume to be quite low...could be just my playback though

PS. sorry for writing too much about the graphics issue on your blog Ricky ;)

More on topic of the post - I havent really understood what the role of Jon H is now that he isnt in the CEO seat anymore.
Is he an advisor on direction setting and new technology for SW? or does he just have a general interest in keeping up re his old job?

You know I am not so sure SW arent being a little self serving with that 'feeling' because it means they dont won't have to redo their graphics to suit = avoid direct cost to the company.
Also I suspect that they either have agreements or obligations to Nvidia having had close association with them in the development of Realview.
If 500,000 users stop using Quadros then thats a hole in Nvidias wallet
However surely if Autodesk can do DirectX, SW can.
I suspect too there are advantages in using DirectX with MS Windows that may make integration of new technology easier
If SWare paying close attention to their user base opinion and the competition they really should be picking up on this and running with it.
I wouldnt like to think the reason we have attained the CAD nivana of a 'blank screen on every desktop' is because no one has a graphics card : either because they couldnt afford one, or the technology died out and you cant buy them any more.
Perhaps we should buy pc with 2 PCI slots in the future - one for a 'proper' card based on DirectX and one for legacy openGL CAD support.
Why would SW, the company that pioneered easy to use moderate cost CAD on Windows penalise its customer base by making them pay a price for graphics hardware that belongs in the high end exclusive box era?
Given the amazing performance of todays graphics cards I very much doubt that DirectX would be inadequate for CAD even if it was less than ideal.
Time to take another step forward
Unfortunately because SW never speak about anything of real interest to users in preference to pumping out feel good messages I wouldnt hope for too much meaningful interaction but yeah it would be good to hear from the boffins at Concord.
They might also like to talk about how much of their program is multi core as well, and other closely guarded secrets that users have no right to know or be interested in

Ricky,
Please follow it up.
Here in New Zealand I can buy 10 Nvidia GTX260 for the price I am expected to pay for 1 Quadro FX5600 !!
The 5600 is like 99% based on a 8800 Ultra for goodness sake.

I have had expensive CAD cards die on me just after 3yr the warranty ran out.
Having learned that lesson I will only buy lower cost cards now that are only adequate for the task at hand.
According to the benchmarks a humble FX570 runs pretty darn decently for SW in comparison to a high end card anyway so the performance ratio doesnt pan out either.
It certainlty isnt 10x - more like 1.01

Whilst I might be Ok with paying a premium of say 2x for application honed drivers and certification 10x is just obscene.
People should not be reduced to buying cards for SW that are a couple of generations behind commonly available gaming ones because the asking price doesnt make any practical sense.
SW needs to stop playing its part in allowing hardware makers to exploit the Pro niche for all the market can stand and then some.
I am sure openGL is a fine thing but not if the hardware for it is a rip off.
If SW can run on common old DirectX like Inventor can at least give us the option to decide for ourselves which card we want to utilise.
Even if using DirectX for SW results in a performance drop to half in comparison to openGL I would rather spend my money on a shiny GTX260 and know it will run everything else I might have on my computer at a rapid clip.

cheers

honestly I would rather have SW able to run on std graphics cards first.
openGL has become a rip off for hardware makers.
if you corner Jon again somewhere please impress this on him.

well there is someone who definitely needs more sunshine and fresh air...

So thats what he looks like...I dont think I'll tell him he has sheetmetal underpants - looks like he goes to the gym...still as long as he is less than 6'3" I might be ok

I tried some experiments DAVID myself a while ago (like probably more a year ago I think)
I remember I emailed one of the bloggers that the handiman laser I used (since I found out on his blog that his company designed it) was a useless tool - which it was, sorry man- .the laser itself was good enough for my purposes though.

IMO DAVID was ok but not great. It would definitely help to get the best results to spend a little more on a fine line laser and a better webcam than I used..
I would consider this solution for some things but still go for a proper scanning service for important missions.

BTW DAVID 2.1 has just come out in the last few days

I think you might be a little misplaced as a soundbite blogger because it is obvious you can write very well.
This is a good talent to have. I have struggled a lot with communication over the years cos I am slightly 'autistic'. I frequently mix tenses and subjects in the same sentence and repeat myself without noticing.
More worryingly the older I get the more I transpose letters when I type.
It takes a while to do things half well...
I dont know if you prefer direct people contact or not if education attracts you but have you ever thought about being an author working from home? Seems to me there is a need for an update of the like of Solidworks for Dummies but in several languages now that SW is well and truly world wide.
Something well explained and generously illustrated without bogging down in technical jargon.
Maybe Solidworks would help you out since I think Greg J was the author of the last one.
Also I have thought it is time that Solidworks had a consolidated e-magazine website. How about being an editor or such?
Another possibility is to become a teacher of distance learning students or co-ordinator of Solidworks student edition courses in highschools of isolated or rural areas or even less developed countries.
...dunno just thinking out loud...keep working at it ;o)

Very good. Actually this reminds me of the UV texture unwrap process in Blender.
I wonder if the concept could be extended to include a flattening of simple pressed parts by least squares.

P.S. It does sound a little like you have sheetmetal underpants but at least there's no heavy breathing with it this time ;) - or maybe you took that out? :D

Very good.
I have no problem with following that
Sure it would be a little better with a foam wind muffle but hey good start
Thanks Ricky
Keep em coming

Well there's always a first for everything I suppose.
I'll put it down to not being in tune with your NA accent/culture.
I wouldnt call them poor but seriously I do find them hard to listen to.
While we are off topic a bit with this, I will say that as a pseudo marketing/publicity service for SW you guys do well but I would actually far prefer SW to host one super site that people(anyone) could submit content to rather than having to skip all over the net for snippets of SW interest. Sorta a SW e-magazine or cafe
Continuous multiple connection stuff like Twitter, RSS and Disqus etc has no appeal to me at all, sorry.
Thanks for your indulgence Ricky
Neil

....actually while I see you are here Lou
I have some feedback about your podcasts.
I have tried to listen to some of these and I find they are ...well I am not sure exactly...I try to concentrate but after a while my mind just wanders off to other things...
Perhaps it is because I am not used to listening to your accent.
I have tried slowing the replay down slightly in WMP and changing the equaliser settings to boost the 2k zone a bit to assist comprehension but ..well..I dont know..there's a lot of content with a fairly continuous delivery and not much dynamic..or something..um...er...
Could be just me of course
I appreciate your efforts anyway.
cheers

nice videos Ricky..hope they are rewarding you appropriately for your time
you gotta know though when I read 'undocumented' I am tensing in my chair and trying not to crush my mouse..I will say no more for danger of launching into an uncontrolled rant...

Hello Mr Jordan, tidy wee site you have here these days..
I dont want to detract from your 09 rollout enthusiasm but I must admit I am a bit confused about what exactly being able to rotate the preview mesh achieves if the underlying UV stays put for these patches, especially if the user is someone inclined to obsess about continuity. Perhaps you can give a video demo later showing how to use this new tool to its best potential. Maybe someone at SW will supply some examples or insider info - as you know the Whats New isnt exactly overflowing with detail about some things

In the long run you arent doing anyone any favours by blabbing about modding on your blog.
I also wonder if any of the companies concerned would be happy to have this publicised through this channel which is now also being picked up by CadDigest..
Both Nvidia and ATI have changed their drivers and the hardware internally as reqd to kill this type of substitution off and you cant blame them for that.
Sure CAD cards are overly expensive but they arent going to sit there and loose a lot of money from loophole 'piracy'.
It wouldnt surprise me if SW get told by Nvidia and ATI to do something about Realview.
and it wouldnt surprise me if SolidSmack gets a solid smack form higher up the food chain

No I am sorry you cant mod a 8800 into a quadro or any other nvidia card since some 6800.
SW will enable the Realview ability after recognising the cards altered identity but the performance is not changed. Typically there is a 50% performance difference between a quadro specifically tuned for CAD and a GeForce for games.

Matt,yeah but why is this a crusade?
You know thats the way it is.
Everyone knows thats the way it is.
Why is this so unpalatable to SW that you need to deliver up a cross referenced offering with a bow tied around and in short order?
It seems some unseen unnamed divine SW entity has feigned to channel through charman matt for a limited list of pre filtered submissions...
OK well I suppose we can be grateful for some attention if even reluctant, disbelieving, or secretly perplexed but doesn't that say something unflattering about the receptiveness to customer experience in general.
Why can't the writers department just have listened to the comments already made and use their brains and initiative to redo it?
All along the help notes should have been evolving as a matter of course.
What have people been doing that they havent noticed users looking for 'how to' video, surfacing tutorials and explanations at forums?
hmm well enough already its only a comment..

PS hey Ricky I thought I would visit.. :o)

BTW I think most savvy people who have been around the traps know SW really doesn't make the grade at sp0.
It has been this way for years.This is why many companies leave their install to sp3 or so.
To learn SW cut short the beta program for no good reason is not confidence inspiring.
As a solo designer I stopped subs because of the unacceptable number of bugs and sp issues. Really it was SW2005 that killed my enthusiasm.
If your company had that release and waited 6 months for sp1 and the rest you know what I am talking about.
I am waiting for the quality to be addressed before resuming subs.
Honestly though it may never happen. There appears to be little serious interest from SW in tackling what counts. However useful SW is as a 3dCAD program having 2000 bugs in a 'fit for production' release pushes the bounds of credibility.
Despite the apparent success of successive beta programs the total number of bugs continues to grow.
SW2006sp5 -final- has more than 400.
I'll leave it for individuals to decide for themselves if they agree or not with my concerns based on their own experiences of previous releases.
Thanks to Ricky for allowing diverse posts.
I would be interested to know if sam@msn is actually an SW employee or someone in the real world trying to make a living with the software....