CAD Forum

https://help.solidworks.com/2025/Englis ... elcome.htm

I looked over the "What's New" website this morning. I saw a few things that made me think "That's nice," but nothing that I was really impressed with.

I don't envision any situation where I would use it, but I know some people have been asking for the ability to pattern reference geometry. That's now possible.

A few of the adds that made me go "nice":

-Ability to pattern geometry
-Display state tables
-Ability to "Copy component" with mecanical mates
-Ability to search in the design library
-Folders will now show the (-) next to it if a component inside it is not fully mated

Nothing extraordinary, but a bunch of little tweaks here and there.

I would get excited about the new Z up enhancement, but I don't have much expectation that the new Z up will be better than the old Z up.

AlexLachance wrote: ↑Wed Sep 11, 2024 2:04 pm A few of the adds that made me go "nice":

-Ability to pattern geometry
-Display state tables
-Ability to "Copy component" with mecanical mates
-Ability to search in the design library
-Folders will now show the (-) next to it if a component inside it is not fully mated

Nothing extraordinary, but a bunch of little tweaks here and there.

This one looks like it would be helpful in some situations: https://help.solidworks.com/2025/Englis ... eabc1e#Pg0.

While I don't think I would get any benefit from it, I can see where people who frequently use the same few weldment profiles would like this one: https://help.solidworks.com/2025/Englis ... 687247#Pg0.

Here is one that people have been asking for for a long time: https://help.solidworks.com/2025/Englis ... e686fd#Pg0.

Read my text......... there are NO new base features here so please just keep it moving. Most of these enhancements are really just little tidbits. Le Sigh!!!

Arthur NY wrote: ↑Wed Sep 11, 2024 6:15 pm Read my text......... there are NO new base features here so please just keep it moving. Most of these enhancements are really just little tidbits. Le Sigh!!!

Honestly at this stage I'd generally rather they fix and optimise what's already in there than be adding too many major base features each year. I expect there would be more time saved globally if bugs and workarounds were eliminated than could be achieved by adding something new in.

Time for an admission. This week for one reason or another I've been using SW for the first time seriously in about 10 years. There are a lot of little things that have been added, but nothing really big. Nothing that really tripped me up. There seem to also be some things missing, but that may just be bad memory. Where did the Reload command go? If you got yourself in trouble in your model, you just hit Reload, and essentially exit without saving and reopen all in one step. SW Connected combined with the Maker version has me kind of spooked with the file management stuff and my old files.

Anyway, 10 years and they didn't add anything that really tripped me up just in modeling. Turns out maybe I'm weird, but modeling is why I use CAD in the first place. All the changes are going into something else, probably 98% into the "don't care" category.

Arthur NY wrote: ↑Wed Sep 11, 2024 6:15 pm Read my text......... there are NO new base features here so please just keep it moving. Most of these enhancements are really just little tidbits. Le Sigh!!!

Exactly. There are SFA enhancements that are meaty. Especially not thousands of dollars a year meaty! FFS.

They've definitely taken the year off / phoned it in / had an easy one. Reminds me of a "we're doing a full re-write, here, have a few crumbs" type of vibe (but i don't mean that in a good ug-to-nx way, but in a , cloud-closed-off and get rid of SW as we know it kinda way).

matt wrote: ↑Fri Sep 13, 2024 5:34 pm All the changes are going into something else, probably 98% into the "don't care" category.

And its not just that its the "dont care" category. Its Cleary a minority of users that'll ever use-category. I dont know how they can justify this year over year. Surely base modelling/assembly/drawings should just about always get huge useability enhancements every year and the lesser used areas just get what the base modes currently do. I mean.. sheet metal... i could list 10 things off the top of my head that are a headache to use and i'm just some plebian!

This seems to be a problem with software development on a larger scale these last decade or two.

I will be the optimist here and assume DSS is doing what we've asked for. I'm happy they took a year off from cramming in half baked add-ons. I'm hopeful they spent that time focusing on reducing the bugs and inefficiencies in all the half baked add-ons they've added in the past.

Arthur NY wrote: ↑Wed Sep 11, 2024 6:15 pm Read my text......... there are NO new base features here so please just keep it moving. Most of these enhancements are really just little tidbits. Le Sigh!!!

How many new "base features" can you put into software year after year? What "base feature" are you missing that would make your life easier?

Adding features for the sake of adding features only makes sense to the marketing people. Especially when there is a limited pool of software engineers and they are already being split between cloud and desktop.

matt wrote: ↑Fri Sep 13, 2024 5:34 pm Where did the Reload command go?

Hidden in the "file" dropdown menu, along with "Replace". That usually throws me, though I use them often enough.

Dwight

Dwight wrote: ↑Tue Sep 17, 2024 10:45 am Hidden in the "file" dropdown menu, along with "Replace". That usually throws me, though I use them often enough.

Dwight

Where was it previously..?

Note you can access it from the right click button when selecting in an assembly, but that only works for the component selected.

Dwight wrote: ↑Tue Sep 17, 2024 10:45 am Hidden in the "file" dropdown menu, along with "Replace". That usually throws me, though I use them often enough.

Dwight

Hey, Dwight,

The File menu was where I expected to see it. I'm using SW Connected, maybe it's gone in this version?

matt wrote: ↑Tue Sep 17, 2024 3:36 pm Hey, Dwight,

The File menu was where I expected to see it. I'm using SW Connected, maybe it's gone in this version?
image.png

Hmm.. I'm not sure but it is still there for me in 2024 SP3.1. I don't use SW connected though.

matt wrote: ↑Tue Sep 17, 2024 3:36 pm Hey, Dwight,

The File menu was where I expected to see it. I'm using SW Connected, maybe it's gone in this version?
image.png

Does this answer the question?
Solidworks Connected - Reloading a Revision

I'm on SW2022.

Dwight

Dwight wrote: ↑Tue Sep 17, 2024 3:57 pm I'm on SW2022.

Dwight

image.png

Awww. I figured it was something like that. I'm not using the "3dx" part at all. In fact, with the Maker version, it essentially saves all your parts as student versions, which can't be opened in the regular version. So I'm being very careful that I don't hose all of my existing files which were created in the commercial version. All my parts are saved locally, and I'm trying to make sure not to send any up to the 3dx server.

It's fine for what I'm doing.

Everything they do is ratcheting control tighter and tighter.

I did find Reload on an RMB menu in the assembly, though. So I might be able to use it as long as my part is in an assembly.

NX has a selection by boundary I wish I could use in SW.
You select only the face SURROUNDING a certain area of your part and all the faces INSIDE your selection are selected. you could fine tune the tangency requirements and other stuff. I have never got the smart selection (the one that pops a floating toolbar too close to the mouse pointer every damn time) to be useful for what I wanted to select having to click and click...

mp3-250 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 18, 2024 5:10 am NX has a selection by boundary I whish I could use in SW....

The selection is a very BASE FEATURE and in SW it has been painful for along time (selecting edges that are small and/or close to others i ridiculous painful. Hell even when alone i have to fanoogle the damn thing for far to long to select the damn thing i want. NX, pure gold.

HercalloY wrote: ↑Wed Sep 18, 2024 7:42 am The selection is a very BASE FEATURE and in SW it has been painful for along time (selecting edges that are small and/or close to others i ridiculous painful. Hell even when alone i have to fanoogle the damn thing for far to long to select the damn thing i want. NX, pure gold.

Have you given a shot at selection filters for when you struggle? Simply press F5 and the bar will appear. Another thing I use is "Select other" on the right click menu. After toggling it I hide what I don't want seen then select what I want, everything reappears afterwards and I move on with my mating/annoting.

AlexLachance wrote: ↑Wed Sep 18, 2024 7:55 am Have you given a shot at selection filters ...

Yes i have them readily accessible as well as main ones on shortcuts. But that doesn't solve the issues i speak of. They are fundamental workings of the software that have been in serious need of resolve for a long time (if i recall, there was a push back against it a while ago and it was "looked at" but it never really fixed things, just made it ever so slightly less broken).

I honestly haven't had any struggle ever since I started using both the selection filter and the select other, but maybe I'm not working in the same environment as you. Most of the times I had struggles were when I was doing mates, I'm guessing your struggles are while creating features and what-not.

Vertices, Smaller Edges are the usual most painful culprits in drawings as well whilst trying to dimension. Also selecting dimensions can get janky AF sometimes to. Like... you can't select a dimension because the location of the selection cursor seems to have moved by some random offset amount and direction just to keep you guessing. Weird $hit over the years.

Going back and forward from SW to NX daily really shows how unprofessional DS are wrg SW. NX's UI is such a pleasure to use (even with some of their legacy UG dialogs still not updated in certain areas/features). It really is a nice, consistent UI. As fast as SW's UI is and has become, the pleasure of working with something that WORKS and doesn't get int he way as much is an absolute godsend and a goal every software dev should strive to forever fix. Because that is the most "in the way" limitation users can benefit the most from. UI that doesn't get in the way and doesn't give you RSI (or an aneurysm).