One of my clients has been on 2022 SP5.0 for approx 3 yrs now and the discussion of whether to upgrade to a later version has been casually raised. Generally 2022 has been fine. I tend to hear mostly buggys issues surrounding later releases, so I’m reluctant to advise them to upgrade when I can’t see any obvious benefits. Anyone out there got any good reasons to?
They use SW PDM standard (which works fine) and Photoview 360 for some render work; so I’m guessing 2023 SP5.0 would be the most likely path that wouldn’t upset the apple cart.
My recommendation would be for you to have your client review the What’s New documents for the newer versions and see if there is anything there that he or she believes would significantly improve their workflow. If yes, then I’d say go ahead and update. If not, then don’t.
Here’s all the “What’s New” docs for reference. If you are going to go through the pain of upgrading, especially with PDM, I would go to 2026. Of course test any version with your data beforehand.
2024 and 2025 have 2026 have bug which means drawings don’t update to the latest changes and revert to a older version. I am currently on 2022 but there something’s which run faster in the later versions, copy with mates comes to mind and the slot tool.
Its an know Issue as I several other have come across it and reported it to the VARs
You would update the part update the drawing, when you reopened the drawing the dimensions would move to the updated positions but the view would show the old part. If would like the dims were not attached but there were.
I was not using PDM and also did it when you packed and go an part and drawing to modify into a new part.
Unless there is a good reason to upgrade, I would avoid it. Some bugs will be fixed. Other bugs will be created. Service packs are no longer reserved for fixing bugs, they are just another chance for DSS to release “new features.”
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned here yet (my company was three years behind a couple times) is future compatibility. SolidWorks will not open files saved in future versions. Because of that, there have been times when we had to go back and forth with a customer or vendor to get models shared, and there is also a limit to how far back McMaster models will work.
If those are not deal-breakers, I am always a fan of not changing things.
I too was on 2022 SP5 (on Win10) for a few years, and I would still be now except, a new Win11 PC was put on my desk. For some reason 2022 would hang and lag for minutes at a time, locking up other functions/apps too. I did not have this problem with 2014 in the same machine. I’m running 2024 SP5.0 now and that seems quite adequate. I will download 2026 while still on subs and trial it… tentatively…
I will never use odd year numbers tho. Only ever had problems with 2015. And 2021 almost broke me. 2022 literally saved my career. (Yes, I know that sounds a bit dramatic. I was seriously considering a career change.!)
I generally do not like to update; aside from new features I generally don’t need, it almost always brings new problems/bugs.
Yes, they will. They did to us. IIRC, it’s to a max of up to three years. But they also have a clause stating if your version is more than three years out of date, they will not update it to the latest version. Essentially, you will pay for every year, in ever increasing amounts, until you decide you never want to update again. Who else runs a business model like that.?
Most vendors with an eye on yearly subscription leases vs. perpetual + yearly maintenance are either cutting off maintenance altogether on perpetual licenses or gently raising the yearly perpetual maintenance fee to convince you to use the yearly subscription lease instead. They are also only including some functionality with the leased version to further sway you towards it.
And then there are some that want to sway you to the cloud too…
