it has been a while since I have seen a live what’s new meeting that was exclusively for SolidWorks.
Very little to get excited about anymore. I too used to write pages of notes. Not I got a small note pad that fits in a jacket pocket and may jot down one or two commands.
I think the feature slowdown is happening to all the desktop apps in the MCAD arena and frankly most other arenas “across the board” as everyone is focusing on web delivered apps that will eventually replace them. Where it gets “sticky” is if the web delivered app/s are totally different from the desktop app (no file or feature compatibility), then there is no shared collaborative development, and the feature list gets even shorter for the desktop app as it is now the “odd duck”.
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Market has been saturated. Most AutoCAD 2d companies that need to upgrade to 3d have already done so. Most of whats left probably don’t need 3d (Civil, arch. etc). Since there is little reason to compete, they shift to cloud and their PLM systems which get all the attention.
It’s easier to create something totally new (to cloud) than create something new over the existing desktop app without destroying compatibility with older versions. Afaik, Catia has kind of done this, V5 was not compatible with older versions. It’s a very risky thing to do, but I think it’s still the right way to get things forward.
The right way for whom?
Their investors…unless they lose customers first.
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Pretty much for everyone. Sure, it’s painful for users, but so is sticking to old stuff.
Not if the old stuff works better than the new. I’ve search for videos and info on xDesign and even CatiaV6 and customers that use it. All I find is users complaining that its slow, buggy, and crashes. Most users are still using Catia v5 and desktop SolidWorks.
We store our data and files in Windchill, 3d cad in the cloud is not an option. If SolidWorks continues to neglect the desktop environment, they will lose users.
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SW/DS did not invest money enough to xDesign. It has been around almost as long as Onshape, but got just drawing tools couple years ago…so it’s still little bit hard to take as a serious tool for engineering…and it’s of course same path for all softwares, no matter is there cloud or not, it takes time and if you have money, time is shorter.
Onshape has the benefit of not having an existing userbase to try and convert. So their focus is 100% Onshape. SolidWorks has a huge userbase on desktop. Then they offer a cloud tool, and promote it heavily, however its not complete, nor is it compatible with the existing desktop created files.
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I am sure they were getting left behind by F360 and other online offerings. I wonder if they felt rushed to release the product, or if they always intended to release something that looked like solidworks, but was far from the same.
I believe the history on the 3DExperience stuff is way older than you might think it is, and they have been trying to push it on Solid Works users for a lot longer than the last few years.
Here is a good article that outlined the start of it in 2010…
The Death of SolidWorks? - DEVELOP3D
Desktop SolidWorks was developed in 1994, so 15 years later would be SolidWorks 2009 which would be considered fairly mature by most users. And xDesign is still not really adopted by the userbase after 15 years.
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It seems that one of them was created in response to user/customer needs as technology was evolving. The other was created in response to marketing/board needs as technology was evolving.
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