SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 443 - Beta Test Checklist

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Beta Test Checklist:

This podcast covers the how to get the most out of SolidWorks' beta program.  Every year they launch SolidWorks Beta in the summer so we are getting close.  Have you every beta tested before?  Learn how to get the most without messing up your production setup.  Topics covered: 

- Introduction to SolidWorks' Beta Testing

- The Dos and Don'ts of BT

- Rules of thumb for install  

- Beta FAQ and Tips

- How to roadmap what matters

Every year SolidWorks launches the next release around the middle of June, opening the doors for those who dare to see what the next major release has in store.  It is well known that the first rule of Beta: "Don't talk about Beta!" however reporting issues and joining the community in the beta forum can add an interesting angle to your experience.

Over the past 5 or so releases, SolidWorks has done a good job to keep the installation of Beta separate in the installer but there are still some "gotchas" that you need to be aware of, especially if there is mission critical systems and data sets in the mix.  Ensuring that shared technologies or aspects of your other products that my use shared resources like eDrawings are in the clear before letting the beta install fly.

Usage patterns can be very hard to break and making a testing plan by looking through the What's New when beta is announced is key to getting the most out of the beta program.  With a roadmap of what to test and a separated install, the risk is lowered and uncovering the new technology can begin!  ~Lou

Check out the SolidWorks:Heard! Blog and follow us on Google+, Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

SolidWorks:Heard! - Episode 340 - July Tech News

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July Tech News:

This podcast covers the SolidWorks and CAD-related tech news that broke since mid-June covering the SolidWorks Blog, various tech alerts and other industry news.  Topics covered:

SolidWorks Blog:

- CEO Sicot's progress on the CSWP

- Let's Go Design starts scanning

- 3DVia Composer V6R2012 launched (Video highlights)

- SolidWorks Beta 2012 begins

- 1-2-3 Present! at SWWC 2012

- Japan's recovery from Sicot's eyes

- AMD SW Partner Profile

Tech Alerts:

- SolidWorks 2011 SP 4 ships, addresses Win7 SP1 & IE9 compatibility

- SolidWorks EPDM 2011 SP4 ships

- SolidWorks 2012 Beta 1 downloads are live

- 3dvia Composer V6R2012 SP0 is available for download (tips for downloading)

- SolidWorks EPDM 2012 Beta 1 downloads are live

SolidWorks Support Monthly FAQ: (not out yet!)

Industry Tech News:

- Google launches Google + (roundtable coming soon)

- Collaboration service booms from SolidWorks and Autodesk

- More reports on Dropbox being used as a universal sharing tool for engineering and CAD

July tends to be a little slow for tech news, especially during "beta season" and the slow nature of the summer months.  There was a steady stream of product patches and announcements across the industry in CAD as well as the tech industry in general.

With the launch of n!Fuze, which was never mentioned by SolidWorks on their blog or any other channel for that matter, a few customers have voiced their opinions thus far and the tone is not that positive.  The good thing is this service does have a not credit card, 30 day trial and is a starting point for them to get feedback, which they are welcoming in the SwYm community.  Autodesk also is trying out a collaboration and markup service and stories are more common about Dropbox becoming a go-to service to share data with others.

In the coming weeks I will be pulling together a panel to talk about Google Plus and the possibilities this new service could offer for product developement teams.  With features like Hangouts, I wonder if Google has got a possible solution for remote teams to virtually be together. ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD! 

SolidWorks:Heard! - Episode 335 - SolidWorks 2012 Beta

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SolidWorks 2012 Beta:

This podcast covers the news around the recently launched SolidWorks 2012 beta site, changes to the beta program and how to best prepare for beta testing SolidWorks line of products. Topics covered:

- Beta 2012 launch page

- How to get notified when beta goes live

- Installing beta in parallel

- How to make the most of your time with Beta

- Contest prizes and details

- 2012 Beta program improvements

So just as soon as you get SolidWorks 2011 installed and deployed throughout your company, BAM, SolidWorks 2012 Beta is knocking on the door again! Yes we are entering "beta season" and SolidWorks 2012 is the next major version to be launched in fall and so the call goes out to those of you who can't wait to get your hands on latest and greatest.

This year SolidWorks has not only added enhancements to the actual software but they have also responded to the feedback from those of you who submitted feedback of our to improve the beta program itself.  Let's face it, you want to test beta but submitting bugs and spending time typing up reports is not fun.  This time around there will be some streamlining to that process as well as better mechanisms to report bugs effectively.

Although there are some who may not want to dive into the unknown of beta, those that do also can, and should, partake in the beta conversation happening over at the SolidWorks Forums.  This is a community of like-minded beta-testers who share their findings and ask interesting questions. Sound fun? Get signed up! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD! 

SolidWorks:Heard! - Episode 295 - September Tech News

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September Tech News:

This podcast covers the SolidWorks and CAD industry news that broke since the middle of last month.  Topics covered:

SolidWorks Blog:

- Let's Go Design: Steel vs. Aluminum (Asheen's perspective)

- SolidWorks 2011 "What's New" videos

- SolidWorks & Tech Pioneers

- Curbing Energy Demand at the Source

SolidWorks 2011 News:

- SolidWorks Launch site

- SolidWorks World 2011 Connect page

- SolidWorks 2011 blog coverage

- Ricky Jordan

- SolidSmack

- SolidWorks Legion

- Jeff Mirisola

- RockSolid Perspective

- Dezign Stuff

SolidWorks Tech Alerts:

- SolidWorks 2011 Beta 3 shipped (August 23)

- SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2011 Beta 3 shipped (September 1)

- SolidWorks 2011 B3 fixes VPN issues for SolidNetWork License Manager (SNL)

Industry News:

- 15 year anniversary of SolidWorks 1st seat sale

- DS 3dvia.com ships 3dvia Mobile HD for iPad

- Autodesk ships AutoCAD for the Mac ($4K)  (Draftsight for Mac around the corner (Free))

- Vuuch 3.0 ships

- Deelip talk to Jeff Ray about SolidWorks 2011, The Cloud and DraftSight

We are in the final weeks of SolidWorks 2011 beta testing and with the NDA lifted, the news is flooding in about new features to come.  The quantity of posts on 2011 features seem to be down from previous years but the coverage is still there.  SolidWorks 2011 launch site is live and video posts are going up on the SolidWorks blog regularly.

The CAD industry overall seems to be full of new product launches and technology advances, even some news on CAD on the Cloud. Deelip Mezenes talks to Jeff Ray, Matt Lombard stops blogging (for now), and 3dvia brings 3D to the iPad.  Another busy month of tech news without any slowing in sight! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

SolidWorks:Heard! - Episode 290 - SolidWorks 2011 First Impressions

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SolidWorks 2011 First Impressions: This podcast is a discussion between Josh Mings of SolidSmack and myself discussing the overall first impressions of SolidWorks 2011 publicly since SolidWorks lifted the beta NDA. Topics covered:

- General overview on the type of release 2011 seems to be

- Defeature tool and common uses

- Assembly features and weld prep

- Global variables in a text file

- Performance and display enhancements

- System requirement changes and XP's soon to be exit

- Installation improvements and background downloading

The buzz around a new SolidWorks release has changed so much from 10 years ago now that the Internet is in play. The VAR rollout events used to be the place people went to see what was being launched but now you can go to http://solidworkslaunch.com and get the rundown, not to mention the 50 or so blogs that will also post updates and screenshots.

Now that DS SolidWorks has lifted the embargo on SolidWorks 2011 Beta, the flurry of posts and reviews has begun. Josh and I talk mainly on how SolidWorks 2011 seems to be staying the course of performance and tuning existing features. SolidWorks 2011's What's New PDF seems to be about 40 pages shy of last year's so it appears to be scaled back. I think as long as bugs get fixed and performance increases, adoption will be high.

Personally, I have a list of files and features that I try to perform that have had issues in previous betas from year's past and 2011 was the first in a long time that some basic functions didn't give me issue at first glance. I have also, unofficially, noticed that a list of long lasting bugs that I have reported were closed so maybe this is an indication that 2011 is digging into the SPR list and addressing as many as it can. ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

SolidWorks:Heard! - Episode 287 - August Tech News

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August Tech News:

This podcast covers the SolidWorks tech news that broke since the middle of last month.  August tends to be a slow tech news month but with beta releases coming out and SolidWorks World registration open, the selection of topics grew.  Topics covered:

SolidWorks Blog:

- SolidWorks World 2011 Registration now open

- SolidWorks World 2011 Hotel Deals

- CRN names Sabine Gossart, VP Worldwide Channel Marketing & Sue Evans, CEO of SW reseller MCAD in "Most Powerful Women of the Channel"

- SolidWorks World 2011 Call for Presentations (Selection gets you in free!)

- SolidWorks, Boy Scouts of America, and the Inventing Merit Badge

- 5 Questions Friday with Robbie Liotta of SolidWorks 

- Submit your design of the 2012 Summer Olympic torch!

- 6 More Excel tips from Darren Henry

Tech Alerts:

- SolidWorks 2011 Beta 2 available for download

- SolidWorks EPDM 2011 Beta 2 available for download

- 5 iPads added to Beta 2011 Prize pool

- Nearly 19,000 views on SolidWorks 2010 SNL and VPN issues

Other News and CAD Blogs:

- 3D graphics performance rundown (Deelip.com)

- Design Intent definition (Dezignstuff.com/blog)

- SolidWorks World 2011 Online? (Dezignstuff.com/blog)

- Dassault's focus on CAD or Gaming? (Dezignstuff.com/blog)

- DraftSight shows up under "Free 2D tools" on SolidWorks website

- Updates and clients for THE HEaRD

- Details about Microsoft's record "Patch Tuesday" (Don't forget to patch!!)

We are right in the middle of beta testing the next release of SolidWorks and Beta 2 just went live, leaving us all digging for bugs.  August is usually a bit slow for tech news but with details now out about SolidWorks World 2011 in San Antonio, Texas and lots of stories among the blogs, we had quite a bit to cover.

Good topics out there this month at both Deelip and Dezignstuff blogs, especially around the comments.  Deelip, a developer of 3rd party plugins to many CAD applications in the market and took his unique access to all these platforms to do a comprehensive comparison of graphics performance.  A ton of videos and great detail of what the various platforms offer.  

Matt over at DezignStuff also had some posts that sparked great banter in the comments around design intent, an online version of SolidWorks World and where Dassault's focus lies.  Dassault's interactive division, 3dvia, has a number of tools for social interaction, gaming, and other artistic tools that was questioned by Matt and some readers of where their focus is and should be.

Beta is still under NDA but that will probably open up in the next month or so and we will begin the flood of coverage, outlining all that is coming in SolidWorks 2011.  We will be doing the famous "What's New Series", brining an audio version of what is to come once that NDA is lifted. ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

SolidWorks:Heard! - Episode 282 - SolidWorks 2011 Beta

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SolidWorks 2011 Beta:

This podcast covers the launch of SolidWorks 2011 Beta program and how to get involved in the testing of the beta builds of the next version of SolidWorks.  Topics covered:

- SolidWorks Beta Program Introduction

- New Integration into the SolidWorks Forums

- Getting signed up

- How to participate

- Getting a plan for beta testing

- Installation and guidelines

- Contests and prizes

Well it is that time of year again.  Time to dust off your testing skills and dig into the newest beta build of SolidWorks 2011!  As a disclaimer, not every user is going to care about testing SolidWorks and some go as far as to get upset about testing the software for free.  Beta testing, in general, is not for everyone and it does take a certain breed of user to desire using software that is not yet released just to see what is to come.  If you are of this "breed" then SolidWorks is dangling the beta carrot for you.

Beta testing at SolidWorks has been surrounded by contests and prizes for years, however for most users this is not the draw.  It is the thrill of the hunt to find easter eggs, try new features and test if this release addresses past issues.  Another important part of participation is getting involved in the discussions in the beta forms since that is the only place to discuss your experiences.  Beta testing comes with an agreement to an NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) so the first rule of beta is we can't publicly talk about beta.

Remember SolidWorks 2011 beta is not production ready in any stretch of the word so make sure you install it as a new install, separate from your production setup and data sets.  Make sure you have an exclusive/disconnected copy of your data and a roadmap of goals for testing.  I hope to see you all in the beta forums over the next few months and happy testing! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!