CAD Forum

Hey Toby,

Mine personally was 2012, because I didn't get to try that many versions, but from what I've read, 2018 seems to be the best version by far in terms of stability and performance.

I started with 2017, so I don't have a lot of experience, but my vote is also for 2018. They drove the performance off of a cliff in 2019 and have been trying to recover ever since.

2018, followed by 2011. Having some surfacing weirdness in 2021 - boundary surfaces failing that shouldn't, surface trims flipping, shells failing etc.

I've never noticed a big performance difference between versions, but SW2010 stood out to me because of some exceptional enhancements that were a big help to me.

I am actually surprised mine hasn't been mentioned yet..
2014 was my first experience with SW. I learnt to use SW with this and worked quite happily for a few years.
Nostalgia perhaps, but every cool experience and powerful new ability it gave me for our business was from 2014.
Every update along the way since has seemed to only bring new issues, fresh bugs and unnecessary changes in everything from icon locations and colours to workflows. Not to mention the makework of new templates, etc. And my happiness and expectations have lowered exponentially since.
I've tried: 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021 and now I also have 2022 and I haven't been as happy with any of them. But I still revel in the happiness of opening my old files that I have been able to avoid updating form 2014 and they still work perfectly fine. Feels like coming home. I will continue to use my 2014 vers as long as is possible.. We have a perpetual license and all the offline install files, inc SP5.
2014 still works in Win 10, but this may change with future WIndows updates and SW Lack of support for newer OS's. That and if solidworks remotely sabotages it will likely be the only reasons I will have to discontinue use of 2014..

TooTallToby wrote: ↑Thu Mar 17, 2022 8:09 am Hi Community! I recently bought a commercial seat of SW pro, and I'm about to do my install. I'm curious about what the community thinks is "the best" version of SW, or their "preferred" version.

I know my answer - it's SolidWorks 2015 :-) Pretty stable and VERY fast. But that's just my opinion, and I'd love to hear what other people prefer.


I threw a video up on youtube with the same question - in case you wanted to read some answers from other SW users:

2014 was my fav for a while. Speed in the later versions degrade.... but.. there are things in 2019 I also like... and/but... not many people are using it.

2018 is a safe choice because of the following features:
bounding box, mirror sketches around planes, tab & slot, three bend corner reliefs

2018 did not introduce too many new features & was fast & stable.

But there are features from almost every version that I REALLY do not want to miss:
2019:
defeature silhouette (SO GOOD!)

2020:
sketch silhouette entities
create mates to ref. geometry in LDR (HUGE, I think)
adjust patterns in LDR (if they improve on that - namely make pattern driven creation available it'll fix all our fastener issues)

2021:
Save defeatured models as configurations, change between full and simplified versions (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), and mimic other configurations


Also: If you make harnesses electrical 2021 is a no brainer (according to my co worker) because of this: Use multiple wires or cables to pass through and arrange through clips

berg_lauritz wrote: ↑Fri Mar 18, 2022 12:51 pm 2018 is a safe choice because of the following features:
bounding box, mirror sketches around planes, tab & slot, three bend corner reliefs

2018 did not introduce too many new features & was fast & stable.

But there are features from almost every version that I REALLY do not want to miss:
2019:
defeature silhouette (SO GOOD!)

2020:
sketch silhouette entities
create mates to ref. geometry in LDR (HUGE, I think)
adjust patterns in LDR (if they improve on that - namely make pattern driven creation available it'll fix all our fastener issues)

2021:
Save defeatured models as configurations, change between full and simplified versions (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), and mimic other configurations


Also: If you make harnesses electrical 2021 is a no brainer (according to my co worker) because of this: Use multiple wires or cables to pass through and arrange through clips

This is exactly what i would wrote!
I would only add that for me 2016 and 2017 were worst (slowest and most buggy) versions.
2018 was so good , stable and fast. We are currently on 2021 which has some nice enchantments but from my experience it is MUCH slower than 2018 .

TooTallToby wrote: ↑Fri Mar 18, 2022 10:35 am Wait you are saying that you think just 'cause a complex surface works in one build, it should also work in future builds?

LOLOL - thanks for the feedback Chris - good to know and definitely something to look out for!

Yep, surely not too much to ask..? Surface trims flipping - wrong set of surface 'choices' selected for trim, leading to an inverted or failed output.
Boundary surfaces failing because one of the entities has flipped and the entire lot has to be deselected and then reselected to work.

To add to my earlier answer, 2014 wasn't bad either.

TooTallToby wrote: ↑Fri Mar 18, 2022 10:41 am Thanks Damo you bring up some great stuff here. And I'm with you regarding the nostalgia! I've always had a place in my heart for 2015, and I'm still rocking that build on a windows 10 machine. Hopefully we can keep using these older versions (that still work great!) for a long time to come!!

Don't get me wrong there are some really cool things added to the new builds - but there's also something to be said for just opening your files (quickly) and knowing everything will work

I kinda skipped over 2015.. I did not choose to update at the time.. Then a collaborative project forced me straight onto 2016.. So, I never got to try it.. I think I regret that now..

Now I have questions.. You were able to use your newly purchased license to install 2015 from a CD.. (Coz I think we can no longer download versions that old..!?)
And.. You are also using the latest 2022..? What do you think of it..?

TooTallToby wrote: ↑Fri Mar 18, 2022 10:37 am yeah there were some pretty big enhancements back in the early 2010s. I think around 2013 they re-vamped the sheet metal multi-body stuff, and I remember that being a really big game changer.

Thanks for the feedback Glenn! Appreciate it and nice to hear from you again! :-)

If I remember correctly 2010 was when they fixed the Mirror components function in Assemblies, so it worked like any other feature instead of just dropping the components in with no way to edit it. I think it was also the version that introduced the "Select Bodies" button in Drawings when detailing multi-body Parts.

I do distinctly remember that we were going to skip SW2010 until I saw the list of enhancements. It didn't take me long to convince management that the software had been improved enough to justify paying for that year.

Well,

I am still on SW 2018 SP5.


The oldest version that I remember using is SW 2011, although it could have been before that. So far, SW 2018 has been the best.

Whatever new version I am working on.... Currently SW2021 SP5.1. We don't do anything that special, and most users don't, that I get wrapped up in such and such version did it better. FWIW

AS SolidMuse said anyone I am on! but my favorites were the ones with no online registration, just the old REG Key, could install on any PC, one at work and one at home, used the old 80\20 rule so not breaking the rules of the time.

God I'm old, been plunking on SW since 97+

I am glade they added CAM, but SW was so stupid not buying HSMWorks when they had the chance could have killed the whole CON-Fusion 360 HSMCAM, but NOPE!

BUT hey EDU gets it for free so I can still use it.

Best is current version of Inventor

Frederick_Law wrote: ↑Fri Sep 09, 2022 11:13 am Best is current version of Inventor

How did I know that's exactly the answer I was going to see you posted?

OR the version I don't use LOL
Like, all.

Frederick_Law wrote: ↑Fri Sep 09, 2022 11:13 am Best is current version of Inventor

You can keep Preventor and we'll stick to SolidWorkAround.

I think my favorite version would be: sqrt(-1)

2014 and 2019