Update gotchas?

[Dtief190]

I've been running 2018 for a while... Why? Because what I do doesn't use much more than fairly basic stuff - I could still work just fine with 2008 for what it's worth. Also, I have always waited for a time when I had a break from SW design projects to update it, in case of problems. I tend to alternate between busy SW or Busy Cadstar, so I update the one I'm not on a deadline for.

Anyway, after the 2016 icon color fiasco, I am even more wary of blindly updating anything.

Are there any big problems [or what is a big problem?] - or big changes in the UI with the newer versions? 2019, 2020, 2021?

Dave

[AlexLachance]

I've been running 2018 for a while... Why? Because what I do doesn't use much more than fairly basic stuff - I could still work just fine with 2008 for what it's worth. Also, I have always waited for a time when I had a break from SW design projects to update it, in case of problems. I tend to alternate between busy SW or Busy Cadstar, so I update the one I'm not on a deadline for.

Anyway, after the 2016 icon color fiasco, I am even more wary of blindly updating anything.

Are there any big problems [or what is a big problem?] - or big changes in the UI with the newer versions? 2019, 2020, 2021?

Dave

There's now 3 different color interfaces you can use. Dark, Medium, medium light.
They also switched the color of features at a certain year and then added an option to put them back to what most are accustomed to.

If you're on 2018, stay on 2018. I read a lot of people saying going from 2018 to 2019 was a bad idea as 2018 was the "best" version they released in a while. Anyway, I think you have both of the changes I spoke of in 2018.

Personally I'm on 2019 and it's rather stable and it's faster then 2014. But, I've never used 2018 so I can't tell the difference.

2020 seems to be a hit or miss, and 2021 seems to be a miss for most so far.

[mike miller]

STAY.

2018 was the last "good" version IMHO.
2019 was pretty good, but slow.
2020 was faster but included some free bugs (surprise, surprise).
2021 has turned out to be mostly a fiasco.

I want to go to 2021 sp5 and stay there. I've had enough, thank you very much.

[SPerman]

I agree with 2018 being the best recent version. 2019 was terribly slow. They introduced a new feature that makes autosave unusable, and still spends a lot of time showing "solidworks is busy." 2020 is better, but if I were still on 2018 I wouldn't change.

[Glenn Schroeder]

I haven't had any big issues with any of the recent versions. I'd suggest reviewing the "What's New" pages for each version after 2018 to see if there are any enhancements you think you'd like to use, then decide whether or not to update.

The only thing I remember in the last few years that caught a bunch of people off guard was the addition of Instant 2d in sketching, but it wouldn't have if they'd taken the time to review "What's New" before hand. (I mostly like it, by the way, though like many enhancements I have an idea or two about how the implementation could have been improved.)

[Frederick_Law]

if you don't use PDM, most likely you'll be ok with 2020 and 2021.
2021 "fixed" some rotated drawing view problems.
I have less crash then 2019 and before.
I was testing since SP0. Move over on SP1 or SP2.
Still have 2019 and 2020 installed.

[Rob]

Ive used
2015 - garbage
2016 - reasonably good
2018 - excellent
2020 - meh

[DennisD]

I am on 2021 SP2.0. I have not had any problems with it, nor with the recent years. I too do not tax the software as most of my parts are machined or bent or molded. Even the molded parts are not terribly complicated (handles for power tools). I don't need to use surfacing so that has never been an issue.

As Glenn said, read the What's New documents. If you are thinking of going from 2018 to 2021 then you'd need to read the What's New for each major release in order to see all the changes. The new features could give you plenty of reason to change, because for the type of work you described I don't see a downside. For the type of work I do I have had no problems aside from a video driver issue that was easily resolved.