Our company is looking to purchase a seat for SolidWorks 2013 Professional but are unsure whether the support service is worth the investment or if the software itself will do. The only thing that is making us unsure is that the software updates and bug fixes are shown to only be available with support. Does anyone know if it is worth the extra £1000+??
Hi HPS Well unfortunately you don't have a lot of choice if you want to keep the software current. As every new release has bugs (sometimes critical) you really need the service packs. Why they think its acceptable to sell buggy software and then expect you to pay for correcting it I don't know. I am not sure of the split between reseller support and Solidworks but I feel I get more value from the reseller side of the equation.... They are always very helpful and can usually dig you out of a hole. It would be great if you could do a PAYG approach but I'm afraid you are locked in.
I cannot comment about support in UK, but the vars do an excellent job in Toronto, Ontario Canada. Yes you must purchase the maintanence to get the updates & phone help.
My company used a non support license (subscription) for a couple of years which is fine untill you get to adding a new seat. I found that you cannot get the last service pack of a version unless youre on subscription, the last service pack now allows saving forward to the new version. So if you add a license (at version+1) you have isolated the old license, since it cannot communicate with your new license version. Its a gotya thats probably intended.
My company uses a reseller with a support license. To be honest, we don't get as much out of it as we could, but it has proven invaluable in the past. Also, typically by the time you get the new seat of solidworks, they already have a update out there so if you can't get them any other way, it is definitely the way to go. If you have no concerns about keeping up with the latest and greatest version of the software though and plan on using the purchased version for 3-5 years, I wouldn't worry about it so much. Our reseller in the New England are of the US (CaddEdge) is very supportive if you have an issue or have an interest in evaluating a new addition to the software suite (i.e. PM works, simulation) and offer training and user group meetings separate from Dassault Systèmes at a pretty reasonable price, so if you have a bunch of users that will be learning the software I would recommend it, just for the training support alone it could be worth your money.
Dear friends, if anyone can advise me to a website or link where I can learn or practice SolidWorks. What is the best way to learn this software fast & be capable of doing mechanical drawings.
After using SolidWorks for 12+ years (my first version was SW98+) I have decided that there are good reasons for continuing the support agreement and there are sometimes good reasons for discontinuing it ... temporarily. When first implementing SolidWorks in a new user environment the subscription service is much more important than later after your users are seasoned experts. After a while you will determine whether you use technical support very much at all, whether you will stay with a particular release (after some service pack or other results in a stable and relatively problem free platform), and whether you want to add new seats. In the future at some juncture your company may come to identify (as I have) some diminishing point of returns to the investment, but that point is usually debatable and can be very difficult to determine. A lot depends on your company needs and its culture. If you have multiple engineering locations which share data then subscription service is likely to remain really needed. Also if you implement the SolidWorks Enterprise PDM, you need really support at all points of implementation. If you share data with almost anyone, especially if you depend on importing good models with parametric history intact, you will probably need to continue subscription service. If your company decides at a point that you like the version you are on, especially if no more service packs are planned for that version by SolidWorks (Dassault Systemes), and don't plan to upgrade any time soon, you may save a little money by discontinuing subscription service. The longer that condition persists, of course, the more likely it is that you'll benefit. Benefits are marginal, though, if you EVER want to upgrade. The money that you will spend on the "reinstallation" fee will likely be more than your company can gain through earned interest on investment of the money NOT spent since the service was allowed to lapse. As an independent I can see more benefits to letting the service lapse (or less benefits to continuing) every once in a while than most companies will be ever able to see.
Any time you buy a new license of SolidWorks you are entitled to install an older version if you so choose. Just ask your reseller for a disk for that version. Or you can just install it using someone else's disk but using the new serial number you received with the new license.
In New Zealand, you have to pay the subscription for the first year - but then you can let it lapse - you don't get any upgrades. When you wish to upgrade or add a service release you just pay another years subscription and away you go. There doesn't appear to be any other penalties at the moment for letting the subscription lapse till you need it. cheers D.
In answer to the original question, Solidworks is so bug-ridden and unstable that you will struggle to get by without support. I speak from very bitter experience! If you eventually get to a point where an installation is reasonably stable after several service packs, by all means stop at that version and don't upgrade. Remember though after a few versions you can't upgrade and will have to buy new again.
