CAD Forum

Posted: **Mon Jan 22, 2024 3:32 pm**

jcapriotti wrote: ↑Mon Jan 22, 2024 2:51 pm IT policy at the time. Servers every 5 years.......engineering user PCs/laptops every 3 and general office users every 4. Old PCs and server would replace older test PCs and server.

Oh you have test servers, dang!

We change a quarter of the workstations in the engineering department every year and the 'old ones'(4 years old) go to employees in the company so that we have computers up to date pretty much everywhere and that have decent hardware also. The server change is quite a task though, which is why it surprises me. I do most of the basic IT stuff and the more major things are handled by a subcontractor.

Out of curiosity, how did you guys handle server changes? I'm guessing you cloned the older server onto the newer server and then did the switch at the right moment so that it would least bother the company.

Posted: **Mon Jan 22, 2024 4:44 pm**

AlexLachance wrote: ↑Mon Jan 22, 2024 3:32 pm Out of curiosity, how did you guys handle server changes? I'm guessing you cloned the older server onto the newer server and then did the switch at the right moment so that it would least bother the company.

This is how I've done it in the past with on-premise. In azure we would clone so that's much easier. I suppose I could do that with on-prem but always started from scratch as I thought a clean environment would be better in the long run.

Order servers (Local IT sets up servers, tape backups, and OS). They get named the same with a suffix.
Install SQL on DB server.
Install PDM DB software on DB server.
Install PDM Archive software on archive servers.
Create empty vault with same name as production.
Restore production backup database to new server.
Update DB tables with new server names (DB and archives)
Login from client on server and can browse files and meta data.
Use file sync program to copy files from existing archives to new archive servers.
Check if I can get files on local client.
Test functions and add-ins.
Instruct users to check in all files and logout before weekend. (If I get 75% to comply, I'm doing good..lol)
-----Weekend go live-----
Shut down PDM services on old and new servers.
Take DB backup from production and restore to new DB server.
Sync delta on new archive server files.
Rename production servers with suffix and rename new servers to production names.
Update PDM server names in registry of old and new servers.
Restart PDM services on new servers.
Test client on user PC...usually mine and some other test PCs.

Obviously, there is more to it than that, but that's an overview.

Posted: **Mon Jan 22, 2024 5:29 pm**

the other day on the swamp.
downtime feels so minimized.

Posted: **Mon Jan 22, 2024 5:47 pm**

jcapriotti wrote: ↑Mon Jan 22, 2024 12:15 pm This I'm not finding to be true in all cases. Our PDM servers for example, we have one DB server and 3 replication servers. Then two development/test servers that are both DB and Archive each.

Before moving them to Azure, We replaced the 4 production servers every 5 years at around $5000 each. The old production servers became the new Dev/Test servers, so they were bought and paid for.

On Premise
$26,000 every five years (4 servers at $5000 each + $6000 for three tape backup systems)
$5200 per year
$433 per month

Azure servers
$4500 per month (6 servers x $750 each)
$54,000 per year
$270,000 per 5 years

There are infrastructure and labor costs I can't easily add for on-prem but I'm skeptical it makes up the difference. Also, we are losing some productivity going from 1ms on premise latency to 35-40ms Azure latency. Any SolidWorks models read from a network drive is 5-10x slower and PDM is slower to download and upload.

There are certainly cases where cloud makes more sense. I think a hybrid approach is better and more cost effective. But our company is convinced that IT needs to be completely outsourced and offsite.

even factoring 6 cloud servers vs 4 on premise and their electricity bill, cloud solution is still about 1.5 times more expensive?
plus loss of productivity due to lag and speed bottlenecks.
An admin inside the company is still needed so that cost too is still there.

I think that there is some scenario that could take more advantages from cloud like backup, geographical replication etc
Putting workstations on the cloud with servers could make some sense, but with those costs is not going to be cheaper than on premise.
which in turn is what we are lookIng for: a cheaper alternative to leased hardware on premise and lower maintenance costs.

iirc 2 yrs ago there was a presentation from cati (not sure) and their solidworks benchmarks shown that a workstation on azure costs more with slower performance compared to the on premise solution.
yes you could pay more to have more cpu clock, but nowhere near 5GHz (and even new cpus are going back to 4...)

Posted: **Mon Jan 22, 2024 7:43 pm**

@jcapriotti may I ask if your production archive server is in the cloud as well?
it was not clear to me in your comment.

Posted: **Tue Jan 23, 2024 5:07 pm**

mp3-250 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 22, 2024 7:43 pm @jcapriotti may I ask if your production archive server is in the cloud as well?
it was not clear to me in your comment.

All of our servers are in Azure....we no longer have any onsite.

Posted: **Thu Feb 01, 2024 9:16 am**

Major update to 3DSwym launches on Feb 10th. Prepare for lots of change and lots of the same. Will be interesting to see how it all goes.

Posted: **Thu Feb 01, 2024 9:37 am**

dave.laban wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2024 9:16 am "V3" of the 3DSwym, which is largely the basis for the whole platform, launches on Feb 10th. Prepare for lots of change and lots of the same. Will be interesting to see how it all goes.

Where did you hear/read that..? Hopefully they get a few more things right.

Posted: **Thu Feb 01, 2024 9:40 am**

Platform announcement is here; https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... EQVs0FLBmg

Posted: **Thu Feb 01, 2024 9:53 am**

https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... BmzgPqWj4g

Let see if BMW quality go up

Posted: **Thu Feb 01, 2024 10:16 am**

Frederick_Law wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2024 9:53 am https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... BmzgPqWj4g
3DEX-BMW-01.jpg

Let see if BMW quality go up

Take the same message, but without all the flashy sales lingo:

BMW Group's with Dassault System will streamline enterprise-wide collaboration and deliver approaches to manage the complexity carmakers are facing in vehicle engineering

I don't know about you guys, but removing all the "sales lingo" makes it sound much less like bullcrap. Wonder if they're getting paid by words when they make these posts sometimes lol.

Posted: **Thu Feb 01, 2024 10:18 am**

AlexLachance wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2024 10:16 am Wonder if they're getting paid by words when they make these posts sometimes lol.

Of course they do.

Posted: **Fri Feb 02, 2024 9:31 am**

Frederick_Law wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2024 9:53 am https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... BmzgPqWj4g
3DEX-BMW-01.jpg

Let see if BMW quality go up

Makes perfect sense considering BMW was moving to subscription for car features. Maybe they were just passing the buck.
https://www.kbb.com/car-news/bmw-quietl ... ns-in-u-s/

Posted: **Fri Feb 02, 2024 9:39 am**

jcapriotti wrote: ↑Fri Feb 02, 2024 9:31 am Makes perfect sense considering BMW was moving to subscription for car features.
https://www.kbb.com/car-news/bmw-quietl ... ns-in-u-s/

Oh need tp login to 3DEX to start the engine.

Wonderful. I won't see any BWM on the road anymore.
3DEX update fail.
Can't login.
Compass doesn't work.
Paid and can't access account.

Posted: **Mon Feb 12, 2024 7:37 am**

So the new version of 3DSwym is live. Basically none of the feedback provided during Beta testing has been resolved, and some more bugs have shown up for good measure.

Posted: **Mon Feb 12, 2024 7:52 am**

dave.laban wrote: ↑Mon Feb 12, 2024 7:37 am So the new version of 3DSwym is live. Basically none of the feedback provided during Beta testing has been resolved, and some more bugs have shown up for good measure.

Isn't it wonderful? They certainly listened and are doing a great job at communicating changes efficiently.

Posted: **Mon Feb 12, 2024 8:16 am**

dave.laban wrote: ↑Mon Feb 12, 2024 7:37 am So the new version of 3DSwym is live. Basically none of the feedback provided during Beta testing has been resolved, and some more bugs have shown up for good measure.

"It will be fixed in the next release"

Posted: **Mon Feb 12, 2024 9:22 am**

mp3-250 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 12, 2024 8:16 am "It will be fixed in the next release"

Posted: **Mon Feb 12, 2024 9:25 am**

Man, I'm just thinking about the issue I have with the bar not showing at the top and how a lot are facing the same issues. This means, the compass is not accessible, I'm guessing this most likely means they can't access the Cloud version of SolidWorks or xDesign or the cloud tools altogether..? If so, what a mess lol

Boy am I glad we're not on that wonderful platform.

Posted: **Mon Feb 12, 2024 11:27 am**

2nd verse same as the first

Posted: **Mon Feb 12, 2024 12:45 pm**

Did everyone in BMW started using SWAMP yet?
I wonder how they like the new update.

Posted: **Mon Feb 12, 2024 2:42 pm**

Frederick_Law wrote: ↑Mon Feb 12, 2024 12:45 pm Did everyone in BMW started using SWAMP yet?
I wonder how they like the new update.

Sounds more like they are getting special treatment, kind of their own platform based on it?

https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/global/a ... anguage=en

Posted: **Fri Feb 16, 2024 12:22 am**

@jcapriotti may I ask the spec of those machines?
For 5000 USD (?) we do not get a single storage unit I think it is about 50000USD the minimum budget here for a db server (dual CPU <3Ghz and under 128 GB RAM with RAID controller)

Posted: **Thu Feb 22, 2024 3:36 am**

Three years to add a row to a list

https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... F94qNwefvQ

Posted: **Thu Feb 22, 2024 8:14 am**

dave.laban wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 3:36 am Three years to add a row to a list

https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... F94qNwefvQ

Still not implimented according to their system.

Posted: **Thu Feb 22, 2024 11:24 am**

Did anyone have this appear on the Platform or is it just me?

Posted: **Thu Feb 22, 2024 11:30 am**

The idea slide thing? Yeah, that now pops up when you turn on the Ideas filter rather than hiding about 3 screens deep. Vaguely kind of almost useful but more show than go.

Posted: **Thu Feb 22, 2024 11:42 am**

dave.laban wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 11:30 am The idea slide thing? Yeah, that now pops up when you turn on the Ideas filter rather than hiding about 3 screens deep. Vaguely kind of almost useful but more show than go.

Oh, thanks! So it showed up because I misclicked on idea and then stayed on permanently until you pointed that out. Thanks mate!

Posted: **Thu Feb 22, 2024 11:49 am**

dave.laban wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 11:30 am The idea slide thing? Yeah, that now pops up when you turn on the Ideas filter rather than hiding about 3 screens deep. Vaguely kind of almost useful but more show than go.

With that in mind, going on the "SolidWorks Enhancement Ideas" community and using the same filter gives us quite a good perspective of how little work has been done towards SolidWorks since the platform's existence.

2111 ideas still in the "process" since the migration to the platform, a little over 2 years ago.
52 ideas are implemented, representing roughly 2% of ideas implemented
1986 ideas are still gathering support. That's a whopping 94%. Really?
2 are marked as duplicates. Again, Really?

Posted: **Thu Feb 22, 2024 12:43 pm**

AlexLachance wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 11:49 am With that in mind, going on the "SolidWorks Enhancement Ideas" community and using the same filter gives us quite a good perspective of how little work has been done towards SolidWorks since the platform's existence.

image.png

2111 ideas still in the "process" since the migration to the platform, a little over 2 years ago.
52 ideas are implemented, representing roughly 2% of ideas implemented
1986 ideas are still gathering support. That's a whopping 94%. Really?
2 are marked as duplicates. Again, Really?

Everyone knows that as long as data is presented in colorful charts that are pleasing to the eye with graphics the instill happy feelings, the accuracy of the aggregation or of the data itself is irrelevant.

Posted: **Thu Feb 22, 2024 2:05 pm**

AlexLachance wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 11:49 am With that in mind, going on the "SolidWorks Enhancement Ideas" community and using the same filter gives us quite a good perspective of how little work has been done towards SolidWorks since the platform's existence.

image.png

2111 ideas still in the "process" since the migration to the platform, a little over 2 years ago.
52 ideas are implemented, representing roughly 2% of ideas implemented
1986 ideas are still gathering support. That's a whopping 94%. Really?
2 are marked as duplicates. Again, Really?

Did they migrate the ER's already in the system when they created "the platform"?

Posted: **Thu Feb 22, 2024 2:32 pm**

I saw a post claiming that more then half of the new top enhancements are In MDB. is it true?
I have no words. nc machinIng aside it Is just useless junk for many other fields let alone it requires an additional license fee...

Posted: **Thu Feb 22, 2024 3:12 pm**

mp3-250 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 2:32 pm I saw a post claiming that more then half of the new top enhancements are In MDB. is it true?
I have no words. nc machinIng aside it Is just useless junk for many other fields let alone it requires an additional license fee...

The good news is no, it's not more than half. The bad news is that it is exactly half (numbers 2-5 and 8).

Posted: **Thu Feb 22, 2024 3:13 pm**

SPerman wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 2:05 pm Did they migrate the ER's already in the system when they created "the platform"?

Nope!

They gave it the swamp treatment, left it to sink to the bottom hoping nobody brings it up again

Posted: **Fri Feb 23, 2024 3:06 am**

AlexLachance wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 11:49 am With that in mind, going on the "SolidWorks Enhancement Ideas" community and using the same filter gives us quite a good perspective of how little work has been done towards SolidWorks since the platform's existence.

image.png

2111 ideas still in the "process" since the migration to the platform, a little over 2 years ago.
52 ideas are implemented, representing roughly 2% of ideas implemented
1986 ideas are still gathering support. That's a whopping 94%. Really?
2 are marked as duplicates. Again, Really?

Bear in mind most of those Implemented ones were already implemented in the software when the submitter posted them on Swym, they just didn't know how to do the thing.

Duplicate numbers are low because after a week (in theory) they get flagged as "Out" so as not to show in the main idea funnel. However what would make more sense is if they actually deleted it, because all the Out ones still show up while scrolling.

Posted: **Fri Feb 23, 2024 9:46 am**

mp3-250 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2024 2:32 pm I saw a post claiming that more then half of the new top enhancements are In MDB. is it true?
I have no words. nc machinIng aside it Is just useless junk for many other fields let alone it requires an additional license fee...

Yes, due to:
1. Using this "platform" for voting is stupidly difficult to navigate and find stuff.
2. Some VARs, Companies, Universities padded the votes with their users.

For companies that don't use 3dx, which is probably 90%+ of the SolidWorks userbase, they likely don't have a login and even know that this exists. I don't recall any email or social media campaign to vote on these things or promote it in any big way.

Posted: **Tue Mar 05, 2024 7:21 pm**

gosh i was nagivating the swmpy to look at the slides/recording for the 3dexperience world
https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... Kuq6RaQ4kg

it is really beyond terrible (why am i not surprised any more)
- clicking on what appear to be a video (with a play button at the freaking center) open a PDF, the resolution is terrible unless i download it to my local
- for whatever reason, the video start playing in the background and i cant seem to figure out how to pause or stop it

Posted: **Wed Mar 06, 2024 7:49 am**

zwei wrote: ↑Tue Mar 05, 2024 7:21 pm gosh i was nagivating the swmpy to look at the slides/recording for the 3dexperience world
https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... Kuq6RaQ4kg

it is really beyond terrible (why am i not surprised any more)
- clicking on what appear to be a video (with a play button at the freaking center) open a PDF, the resolution is terrible unless i download it to my local
- for whatever reason, the video start playing in the background and i cant seem to figure out how to pause or stop it

image.png

There are so many things wrong with the platforms. p2m files which are appearances are not even allowed to be uploaded, figure that one out, can't upload native files to the platform!

Posted: **Wed Mar 06, 2024 1:05 pm**

Yeap, same as photo resolution I complained about long time ago.
Image compression works great with movie.
Horrible with anything with text on screen.

Posted: **Tue May 21, 2024 3:27 am**

Next up in "things I can't believe the platform can't do"; can't export assemblies to STEP?? https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... Rqv1gflrgQ

Posted: **Tue May 21, 2024 9:33 am**

dave.laban wrote: ↑Tue May 21, 2024 3:27 am Next up in "things I can't believe the platform can't do"; can't export assemblies to STEP?? https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... Rqv1gflrgQ

Completely expected, not surprised. Take a look at Simulia, if the analysis is setup for hosted computation instead of local processor, the results cannot be downloaded in a usable form. All the customer can get is a "report", pdf and pictures. No 3D data; stress, strain etc. Data is the next big money grab, it's like we're paying them so we can use their ransomware.

Posted: **Mon Aug 19, 2024 7:32 am**

Pretty impressive slowdown numbers apparently caused by 3DX. Will be interesting to see what kind of resolution is found for this one https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... TbptApe_AQ

CAD Forum

Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?

Re: Does anyone actually use 3DExperience in a productive manner?