Yesterday was the Windows Phone Summit in San Francisco where Microsoft announced Windows Phone 8. You may have already seen Windows 8 (for the desktop) which has been available in pre-release versions for some months (I think Devon Sowell has spent some time with it). You may have noticed that Windows 8 looks a lot like Windows Phone 7′s Metro interface. I’m not really a big fan of the Metro interface, although I haven’t used it. At the bottom of this post I have some links if you want to look through them to get an idea of what Windows 8 / Windows Phone 8 / Windows RT are all about.

Windows 8 metro-like interface

There are a few things it seems to do well, such as display content as part of the interface, expanding the concept of Widgets which Windows has used for some time, and sees greater use in Android OS. They call this Live Tiles, where the content of the tile updates automatically. This allows you to show content right on the desktop, without needing to click to get into a program. It’s probably also a huge memory hog, but today’s machines are pretty stacked with RAM. My new box has 16 GB, and not even close to maxed out.

Windows Phone on Samsung, Nokia, and HTC

Here is a screen shot of some phones with Win 7 using the Metro interface. Notice a whole lot of cyan in there.

This is important maybe not specifically for CAD users, but certainly for computer and mobile users. Especially when you combine it with Microsoft’s other presentation a couple days ago.

The name Microsoft Surface probably conjures images of that coffee table sized multi-touch interface that Microsoft was parading around a few years ago. The coffee table is great as a demo piece, but not so good to work from, and not very good to carry around with you.

So they created a new Surface, which is that intersection between tablet and laptop that companies like Asus and Motorola have been flirting with, but it looks like Microsoft is nailing it.

Microsoft Surface Tablet-laptop

A lot of future addicts are fond of declaring things dead. Like Microsoft, desktop computing, laptops,  Rock & Roll, and 2D drawings. I laugh every time I hear it. Ok, maybe the Post Office.

Anyway, what’s going on here is that Microsoft is unifying the OS kernel on all of these devices. The same file system, networking, drivers, applications, etc. This means that Windows Phone 8 will instantly be able to take advantage of the immense number of Windows developers already out there. You can run phone apps on your desktop, or on your tablet.

Does this scheme have the potential to really make it in the market? I believe so. Even though I think the interface (Start screen) is going to evolve to look less…opaque and monolithic, I think the underlying unified structure is very compelling. So compelling, in fact, that I’m holding off buying a new phone  so I can get into Windows Phone 8 this fall. I’ve got an extra desktop sitting around, so I’ll put the Windows 8 desktop OS on that. The Surface also just makes a lot of sense to me as well, in a way that the iPad never did or will. Having a device just to look at stuff seems like a bit of a waste to me. The Surface would be a travel computer that combines the capabilities of a tablet and a laptop.

Another big advantage is that the Windows 8 OS will be multi-core capable, up to 64 cores, should that ever become necessary. It still remains for individual apps to have the same capabilities, but at least the OS won’t be holding you back.

The iPad with its wonky file system and lack of a real keyboard, not to mention Flash, and the nanny-like Apple parenting you no end is a big turn off. When there is a viable alternative, I think momentum will change. I’ve been a big Android fan for a couple of years, but mainly as an alternative to Apple. With the Windows 8 family, including Windows RT (for tablets) and Windows Phone 8 all unified, I think there is an even better alternative that makes sense with my other devices and data.

Will any of these run CAD? The big limitation is the screen, and your eyes. Portable projectors have not yet made the price break where they can realistically replace a big monitor. Do you really need CAD to be portable? I’m not asking if you can dream up some obscure situation where you could potentially use CAD in a portable situation, I’m asking if mainstream CAD will ever really need to be portable. While home offices are more popular, they are still not the norm, especially for people who have to work together. Technology will never really replace being able to just talk to someone face to face. It will always be a poor second choice.

There are some downsides to this transition. The first is that existing Windows Phone 7 users will not be able to upgrade. There seems to be a real hardware barrier there. But Windows Phone 7 is a distant 4th in the mobile market, and this change could spring Microsoft certainly to #3, and maybe to #2 within a couple of years.

Another downside is that they don’t have all the manufacturers on board. It might be obvious that Motorola (owned by Google) will probably not produce a Windows Phone 8 handset. The main manufacturers are Samsung, HTC, Nokia (which is all in with Microsoft), and Huawei (Chinese).

Probably the most serious downside is that Microsoft has been severely overcompensating for the failure of Vista. A lot of users are still using XP, it’s the second most popular version of Windows for people who visit my blog. People are slow to upgrade, especially when what they have is working. Windows 7 is pretty stable and to me works great, so there is no compelling reason to switch to Windows 8 on the desktop other than this device compatibility. Still, I’m just going to test that with a spare machine. Often I will have to upgrade to write a book. It’s a waste to write a book that won’t age well on an old version OS.

This fall, the new phone hardware is going to be available. I’ll probably make the switch, and set up a test desktop. I’ve been able to share files pretty well between Windows 7 and Android, but I’m guessing that Win8 will enable me to print to my home network from my phone. That would be a big benefit. It would also be nice to be able to re-use some of my existing Windows knowledge in tinkering with my phone. Learning Android customization has been a process.

Do any of you have experience with the early versions of Windows 8?

Here are some links about all of this, notice most of the news comes from cell phone sites:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/20/3096667/windows-phone-8-screenshots-features-nfc-start-screen-dual-core/in/2865586

http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-57457313-85/windows-phone-8-everything-you-need-to-know-faq/

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/windowsphone/

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-21/microsoft-melds-windows-phone-8-with-windows-8

http://pocketnow.com/2012/06/21/windows-phone-8-catching-up-and-breaking-ground/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+pocketnow+%28pocketnow.com%29&utm_content=Netvibes

http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/20/microsoft-introduces-windows-phone-8/

One of my older posts discussing the possibility of SolidWorks being moved to Mac or Linux turns out to be one of the more popular ones for people to comment on. It certainly has had the longest life of any of my posts, in terms of new comments rolling in.

As a part of the partner program for publications, I from time to time get special emails from SolidWorks. Today I got one of those emails with some important information that Solidworks users will want to know. This information was not part of a non-disclosure program or marked as such, so I didn’t feel the need to tell you I’ve got some important information which I can’t tell you, which seems like a silly thing for a blog writer to do.

Some of this has been the source of speculation for some time, and these statements from SW clear things up. Clearing things up is a good thing.

1) SolidWorks 2010 will be the last SolidWorks version to support Windows XP. According to the newsletter:

Due to the fact that Microsoft officially retired Window XP in April of this year; SolidWorks 2010 will be the last release to support both 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows XP. SolidWorks 2011 (tentative release expected in the fall of 2010) will support Windows Vista and Windows 7 (32 and 64 bit versions) only.

2) That goes hand in hand with the second announcement:

SolidWorks will support the new Microsoft Windows 7 operating system as part of its SolidWorks 2010 release (scheduled for October of this year).  Right now Microsoft’s published release date for Windows 7 is Oct 22nd.  Based on this information the earliest version of SolidWorks 2010 that could support the Windows 7 operating system will be SP1 (tentative release expected in November this year).

Well, that’s neutral news to me, since all of my SolidWorks machines are running Vista, Windows 7, or both. Windows 7 should be an acceptable alternative to XP for most people.

3) And finally, the one that is probably not unexpected, but may cause a bit of a stir is that PhotoWorks is being retired after SolidWorks 2010. PhotoView 360 has been nipping at PhotoWorks heels for a while, and while it does not seem to be ready for prime time at this moment, there is a lot of momentum behind the product, and it is headed in a useful direction. Again to quote:

SolidWorks 2010 will be the last release to include PhotoWorks.  In subsequent releases PhotoWorks will not be available and PhotoView 360 will be its functional replacement and the sole photorealistic solution for SolidWorks software.

4) Since we are talking about retirements, SolidWorks 2009 is the last version we will see the Shape featue in. If you look at the FeatureManager of a 2009 part with a Shape feature in the tree, the feature has a yellow triangle with an exclamation point. The message says that Shape will not be in SolidWorks 2010.

I have never been a fan of the Shape feature. It was somewhere in between Dome and Freeform, but never really allowed you to get a shape that I would call “intentional” out of it. Retiring a feature is an extreme step, but I don’t think it is unwarranted in this case.

My experience installing Windows 7 was not bad. I downloaded the 3.5 GB file, burned it to a DVD, and rebooted my machine with it in the drive. The Siamese Fighting fish is the default desktop image. Those are awfully big bubbles from such a small fish. The background appears to change every so often, like a background slide show.

First of all, I don’t mean to offend anyone out there who is attached to Apple products. I’m just calling this one the way I see it, and supporting my opinion with stuff I can look up on the internet. If you think I’ve missed something, leave me a comment.

This question keeps coming up, and I know I can’t stop it, but I can try to inject my take on it. So just take what I have to say with a grain of salt.

Recently, the blog squad added a member who sees Steve Jobs the same way I see him – as a closeted protectionist who would have ruled the world instead of Bill Gates, except for his single supplier, closed system concept that free Americans won’t buy into.

Come and get it! A bigger slice of Apple pie! Apple’s market share grows to 8%

From Yahoo News:

“Computers with Microsoft Corp.’s Windows platform still dominate the PC market, but Apple has made significant gains over the past year, outstripping the industry’s worldwide 15 percent growth rate. Apple, which for years hovered at a 2 percent to 3 percent share of the U.S. market, now claims an 8 percent slice, according to market researcher Gartner Inc.”

Apple is making headway, and I guess that’s good news. I mean, who is really fond of what Microsoft is doing? Still, as a SolidWorks user do you really want to switch to Apple? Do they really have any benefit for SolidWorks users over Windows?

First, the good news. I really like the lighted keyboards you can get with Mac laptops. The magnetic powercord connections are also cool. The Mac OS and hardware is 64 bit, so that is a potential good thing. The Mac OS licensing is great – I think it is ~$200 for licenses for up to 5 computers. That’s cool, but the OS comes with the computer, so I’m not sure I get that one.

You hear a lot of hype about some supposed benefits, like “my mac never crashes”, or “I never get viruses”, or “no one has ever stolen my credit card information”. These things are more perception than anything. I suggest that the folks that think these are benefits watch too many of those Mac vs PC commercials. I have 4 PCs with Windows on them, all made by different manufacturers (HP, Sony, Boxx and Hypersonic) and I can’t remember the last time one of them crashed the OS. Viruses are easy to deal with, and no one has ever stolen my credit card info except at at gas station one time.

It would be impressive if they could tell me that they never receive spam. My guess is that mac owners get spammed as much as anyone else.

My parents own Macs, and I guess that is why I have always associated Macs with AOL, and AOL is associated with… well, its just AOL.

If you listen to Mac fanatics, there are no downsides to owning a mac. Maybe someone will mention that not all software runs on Macs, or someone might admit that there is a small premium for Mac hardware, “but that’s because its better”, they attest without explanation. Just better.

So I decided to look into it a little. Mac says that their hardware is just a regular PC, just better. What’s different about it? Same processor, same memory, same hard drive, same video card, same display. But then technically, that’s not really true, is it? The case is certainly Apple’s own. What about the mother board? Its got a chip that The Mac OS must see before it can boot – this means that the OS is disabled from booting on hardware other than Mac motherboards. So the motherboard makes the Mac, and strike 1 in the “plays nice with others” score. What is it about intentionally blocking your OS from working on equivalent hardware that is “just better?

So let’s configure one. Lets say a MacBook Pro 17″ to compete with say a Dell M6300. I’m not a Dell fan either, I don’t own a Dell.

The base configs -

Dell = $1900 Mac = $2800.

proc = C2D 2.2ghz C2D 2.4 ghz +Mac

mem = 1 gb 667 mhz 2 gb 667 mhz +Mac

display = 17″ 1440×900 17″ 1680×1050 +Mac

HDD = 80 gb, 5400 rpm 160 gb, 5400 rpm +Mac

lit keybd = no yes +Mac

dvd = 8x dvd (same but no option) +Del

wireless lan = no (yes but no option) +Dell

Bluetooth = no (no but no option) +Dell

warr. = 3 yrs 1 yr / 90 day supp +Del

video = quadro1600, 256mb geforce 8600 +Dell

Well, you get the idea. Is the Mac better? Well, maybe, the warrantee and graphics cards are big trade offs. But the Mac is $900 more. Let’s try to spec them about the same, like you would need to run SW, and see what happens.

Dell = $3543 Mac = $4148.

proc = C2D 2.4ghz C2D 2.4 ghz

mem = 4 gb 667 mhz 4 gb 667 mhz

display = 17″ 1920×1200 17″ 1920×1200

HDD = 200gb, 7200 rpm 200 gb, 7200 rpm

lit keybd = no (no option) yes +Mac

dvd = 8x dvd (same but no option) +Dell

wireless lan = 802.11a/g/n (802.11n with no option) +Dell

Bluetooth = yes (no but no option) +Dell

warr. = 3 yrs 3 yrs

fingerprint reader = yes no (no option) +Dell

video = quadro1600, 256mb geforce 8600 +Dell

(and yes, the Dell prices include the overpriced Microsoft operating system).

The Dell also had options for a BlueRay drive and wireless broadband which the Mac simply didn’t. The Dell also has a PCMCIA slot, and the Mac doesn’t. Some how, I just can’t get over that difference despite the video card difference. I mean, that’s a big issue for SolidWorks usage. So when it comes down to it, you’d better like those TV commercials, that lighted keyboard and the Mac styling an awful lot, $600 worth. And we all know Dell isn’t the least expensive box out there.

Ok, but there’s gotta be good news somewhere, right? Who makes the Mac hard drives? I looked at New Egg, and I’ve never heard of any of the hard drive manufacturers listed

Where is my Western Digital Raptor 10k rpm?

If you try to buy a Mac Pro (desktop), you can’t even get a 10k rpm drive for one of those, and the final price goes well over $5k for a SolidWorks ready box.

So you have to buy your hardware from the same people you buy your OS from? And your hardware is expensive with few options? Is this Soviet Russia or competition is king capitalist US?

Your OS will not run on other almost identical hardware?

You can’t get a Quadro card in your laptop, and its STILL $600 more expensive?

There is no option like the Tablet PC I’m using to write this blog post? (pen-on-screen)

Ok, lets try something else. Lets say for some reason, I didn’t care about any of that. I’m a victim of marketing (which seems to be the ONE thing Mac IS undeniably better at), and so I spend the extra bucks to buy an inferior piece of equipment which is intentionally hobbled by the people I bought it from, and now I say that I have to run SolidWorks on it.

Now you’ve added several hundred dollars to the price because you have to buy Microsoft Windows. How do you get Windows on a Mac? Well, how do you get Linux on a PC? You just install it, and then dual boot. But there is no such thing as dual boot on a Mac. Dual boot means that you run one OS or you run the other OS. I called a Mac expert at Apple, and asked her about this. She said BootCamp, which is software that allows you to boot to other OSes other than OSX is virtualization software. This means that a little chunk of OSX is still running in the background. Dual boot is not virtualization. Virtualization is needed on a Mac because of the hardware locking on the motherboard. So Mac disables other OSes from running and then is so kind as to provide a tool to allow them to run again. This is better? Better than what?

Ah, yes, “better than Vista”, you say? Well, Microsoft has gone to great lengths to alienate technical application users with Vista. All of that eye candy, video toy junk is a terrible waste of the hardware improvements that keep coming to try to not fall too far behind the bloated junk that software and OS vendors keep dishing out. Computers have become video game toys marketed toward a style conscious neo-adolescent market, much thought of using them for work has been left far behind. But what is the one OS that has EVEN MORE eye-candy than Vista? Yep, you guessed it, OSX.

Jumping from MS to Apple is going from the frying pan into the fire as far as I’m concerned. MS has some nasty business practices and little regard for the technical application user, but Apple is no better in my opinion.

I’m sorry to all you Mac-o-philes out there. I was thinking of changing teams there for a while, but a rational look at the facts failed to convince me. I know Mac-o-philes are emotionally attached to their macs. Underdogs always evoke extra emotion. I don’t want to be emotional about computer hardware decisions. I’ll stick to a platform where I have a choice about what hardware I buy, and can mix and match hardware, and pay a fair price. I will still miss the lighted keyboard, though.

At Paul Salvador’s suggestion, and after a little bit of net research, I decided to have another go at Linux, this time with the PCLinuxOS distro. It’s easy to download, and easy to burn onto a CD, and the Live CD thing is great for getting the feel of a distro quickly. For those non-Linux geeks out there, Live CD is just a bootable CD that will run the OS immediately without going through the drama of a real installation.

I’m not a Linux afficionado, but of the few distros that I’ve used, PCLinuxOS was easy to use and friendly. Still, I have to admit defeat. It must be the computer I’m using to install Linux. I keep trying to install Linux on some out of the way corner of my computer without interrupting any real work, and I just can’t make it happen. The first problem is that Linux doesn’t work with NTFS partitions, which creates a practical problem with file sharing and drive partitioning.

Other than that, there were 3 big hurdles that prevented me from completing my installation of PCLinuxOS. The first was that the installation wouldn’t provide a driver for my network card. The second was that it wouldn’t provide a driver for my video card, and the third was that it recognized my external USB drive while running fron the Live CD, but wouldn’t recognize it on reboot after the installation.

So is my hardware just “exotic”? Well, its not a gaming or multimedia box if that’s what it takes to be exotic. Typical CAD box. Boxx desktop, AMD 64 Athlon X2 4800+, Quadro FX3450, nVidia nForce chipset, 3GB  RAM, etc.

The other possibility is that I’m just a Linux idiot. Last time I tried this with Ubuntu, I had downloaded a Linux nVidia video driver, but couldn’t get it installed. Also had a problem with the network card, if I remember.

Why am I messing with Linux? Curiosity. And why not? Most distros are free, and that’s saying something in a day when the latest Microsoft offering - Vista Ultimate – runs for $400. It would nice to have an alternative, and at some point things are going to break. Linux is more frequently seen as an option when purchasing new computers these days. Its just a matter of time before the stars align and there is an alternative OS and a killer CAD system to run on it. Currently, I see Linux as a bigger disaster than Vista. No one wants to hear this, but Linux is going to require a big player to make an investment and get a “Matt Proof” installation. Windows seems so bloated because it has to have drivers for everything on the planet. Mac doesn’t have to do that because they are so proprietary with their hardware. We complain about bloatware, but we don’t seem to complain when we buy some crazy off-brand periferal, and plug it in and it just works!

So, Linux is still a great thing for general office or internet/email/home computing possibly, as long as you have a geek handy to install it and hunt down your drivers for you, and don’t have a lot of exotic hardware. I still don’t think its ready for primetime, cuz believe it or not, there are people dummer than me out there. I can at least get Vista to install properly (still only missing my audio driver).

Anyway, either I’m an optimist or just a slow learner. I know I’ll be back to try it again.

Of course, Instant3D and RapidSketch are two gimmicks that get turned off right away. Quicktips help and those warnings reminding me that I haven’t saved in the last 60 seconds are next. The fly-out main menu is still distracting, and will get pinned permanently. The Heads Up View toolbar I’m trying to ignore. It seems that with the release of sp0, SW changed their strategy with toolbars shown in the default installation. Now it is only the new CommandManager and the Heads Up View toolbar. Here is a great shot of the “space saving” capabilities of the new CommandManager:

The first thing that struck me about working in Vista (shown on the right) was that the colors seemed to be different. Maybe this is just a prank being played on the colorblind, who knows? The color for selected items is blue instead of green. Also, the dynamic highlight color is orange instead of red, and the sketch relation icon background is green instead of blue. Sometimes. If you still have SW07 installed, then your 2008 colors will be just like they are in 2007 (as shown on the left). If it is a fresh installation, you’ll get the colors on the right. The value of changing colors, regardless of the reason, seems dubious at best. Anyway, what it comes down to is that Selected Item 1 and Selected Item 4 have been swapped, and the Selected Face Color and Dynamic Highlight have also been changed for God only knows what reason. After working with this for a while, it seems like a completely unnecessary change, although it’s a little unsettling, I don’t think there are any real consequences (or benefits).

***Update*** It turns out that this is just a setting, but it still looks like someone at SW sent out this version (sp0 ev) with a different default setting from usual. As mentioned above, the colors can be manually changed back to normal defaults if you want, but in this case, there are three saved color schemes for highlighting colors – Green Highlight, Blue Highlight and Orange Highlight.

 In SW07, the color scheme had several schemes like Blue Horizon, Hazy Day, In The Spotlight, etc. that used background images and color settings. In SW08 the new RealView Scenes made those kind of redundant. Still, the 07 schemes and the new 08 highlight schemes were both in the drop down list as late as pre-release. In sp0, only the highlight schemes remain. I think someone made a mistake by using a registry setting with the blue highlight defaulted on.

Much thanks to Anna Wood for calling my attention to the color schemes.****

Another difference between the images is that the Vista cursor doesn’t have an indicator for the type of entity it is hovering over. The indicators are really there, something odd just happened with the screen shot.

  Another jarring realization is that the Open dialog is drastically different in Vista. Some of that can be set back the way it was by setting Windows to use Classic Folders, in the Folder Options, but I’m going to try to get used to the new stuff to see if it has any benefit. So far, I notice that the little preview is missing in Vista, which to me is a big deal. On the plus side, though , Vista allows 4 sizes of thumbnails – small, medium, large and extra large. In reality, that’s only slightly more convenient than XP which required a registry edit to change the size of thumbnails.

Add to that, however, the fact that SolidWorks 2008 on Vista enables the “Show Thumbnail Graphics in Windows Explorer” by default, and grays it out so you cannot change it. What this means is that there appears to be no way to show a Detail view of a folder where the small icons show part or assembly icons instead of invisible thumbnails.

Some of this I’m sure is due to the interference of the new OS. Still, I’m hoping SW can get the preview/thumbnails/icons working in Vista the way they do in XP. Having to redevelop new ways of working with the SW interface every couple of releases is getting old. The enhancements that are supposed to bring more productivity in this release will inevitably be obsoleted in a year or two.  It just seems a little disruptive. I have still not forgiven SolidWorks for dropping the support for the QuickView functionality available in NT 4.0 from the Windows Explorer right mouse button menu for getting thumbnail previews. It seems they just can’t settle on anything. Oh, nostalgia has no solace in the computer world.

This part is about 32 MB, built in SW05. As a test, I saved this file out as a STEP file in 08 Vista, 08 XP and 07 XP. All the save times were within a couple seconds of one another. The part has 249 features. The rebuild time was 13 seconds in Vista, 15 seconds in 08 XP and 16 seconds in 07 XP. This isn’t an exhaustive or scientific test, but on first blush, things appear to look good for vista.

The computer this test was run on is a dual boot XP/Vista desktop, manufactured by Boxx, AMD Athlon 64 FX57 processor, 3 GB RAM and a nVidia fx3450 video card. The computer is not quite 2 years old.\n\nIn case you’re wondering, this is a part I did for Rubbermaid called an “Institutional Wringer”. Jails have to mop the floors, but they have to wring their mops with out metal parts that can be removed from an assembly. So this is a one piece mop wringer. Looks more like a big lettuce strainer, I thought. Ribs, draft and fillets…

 

And for all of those people who like to use the dancing dinosaur cursors…

    This is the new hourglass equivalent. The little ring circulates. Not a big deal, just different.

Here’s a little head scratcher. The pop-up shortcut bar that shows up when you select a mate from the FeatureManager has the Normal To option on it. Huh? When you click on it, it asks you to select something to be Normal To. Even the Zoom To Selection seems out of place, although it actually does something (it zooms to one of the parts of the mate, but not both). The shortcut bar is supposed to have the “most commonly used” tools on it. I’m sorry, I’m slipping back into bashing the interface.     

Here’s a little game you can play at home. In SW08 you’re going to have to know all of the icons for all of the RMB menu picks in addition to all of the toolbar icons in order to get the most out of the new productivity enhancements. Have you ever seen the movie Johnny Mnemonic, where Keanu Reaves gets computer data dumped into his brain? I feel a nosebleed coming on.

Anyway, we’ll call this game Johnny Mnemonic in honor of that pre-matrix cyber-punk memory master. Name all of the icons shown above. I was able to get 8 of them. How many can you get without looking at tooltips? (hint: this pops up when you click a part in an assembly)     \n\n

 

‘, ‘SolidWorks 2008 on Vista’, 0, ”, ‘publish’, ‘open’, ‘open’, ”, ‘solidworks-2008-on-vista’, ”, ”, ’2007-09-12 00:55:21′, ’2007-09-12 04:55:21′, ”, 0, ‘http://dezignstuff.com/blog/?p=806′, 0, ‘post’, ”, 0),
(808, 248, ’2007-09-12 00:56:58′, ’2007-09-12 04:56:58′, ‘ \n

I’ve had a couple of comment questions on the setup. First, SteveO asks about the Task Pane. There are more panes available… give me more pane, mamma always used to say. In the images below the right is XP and the left is Vista, both SW08. These are taken from different computers, notice that SolidWorks Search is on the Vista box and not the other. I think the File Explorer portion of it has the same options. Below it is shown with all of the options checked. Recent Docs, Samples, Open Docs, local comp, network, etc. It looks like the Wiley and Public folders are favorites folders, with just about anything in them you could want. These appear to replace the My Documents folder.

The RealView tab at the bottom of the tabs on the left is new, or at least changed from a set of tabs that used to be to the right and take up a column of interface space. Now instead, the Task Pane tabs interfere with the Confirmation Corner icons when windows are tiled. I think the shuffling of stuff around the screen was careless with 2008. There is no other word for it.

The RealView tab allows you to apply scenes and “appearances” (materials) to windows or parts respectively by drag and drop from the pane. It should be noted that backgrounds are now document properties, so you are at the mercy of other users, and can’t set up a consistent background for yourself unless you want to simply turn off RV backgrounds altogether, which isn’t a bad option for real work.

Ricky asked about Software OGL. No. I am not running Software OGL. The graphics functionality is pretty good, even with the RealView fluff turned on (reflections and shadows) which will probably be turned off as soon as I’m done writing reviews. My video card is the nVidia FX3450, and the nVidia site has a Vista specific driver available, which seems to work ok (no problems yet).Jeff says he’s not selling pencils. Maybe we can vote on this later. No doubt he is giddy from all of the interface interference between SW08, Vista and Office 07. Geez Louise, no thanks.

And of course HoffY rants about the Open dialog. I tend to agree. SW needs to spend more time on details, less time shuffling things around. Maybe HoffY could benefit from SteveO’s suggestion of abandoning the Open dialog in favor of the File Explorer. I would miss the ability to sort and change icons with the views in Open, but I’ll give it a shot. I’ve heard other people doing the same thing.

Ok, I’ve shown mine, now you show me yours. I want someone who likes the new 08 interface to show me specifically why they like it and why it makes them faster, and give counter points to my description of why I don’t like it. That would be valuable for me. People just say “it’s faster” or “there is less mouse movement” or “it takes up less space”, but I would like to see someone prove it, because I think I have proven that it is none of those. Maybe I’m just not using it correctly. Really, I’d like to see someone do this. Any takers?

The new book has to be written in Vista because it isn’t going to be updated for 2 years, and I’d like to avoid it looking outdated before it really is. So that meant I had to get Vista. The thought of going through the learning curve with a new OS wasn’t really appealing, but it was one of those things I just had to do.

So.

I’m going to let you follow me around for a while while I get acclimated to Vista. Just so there can be some benefit from me going through all of this.

Which Version

The Which Version question seemed easy, until I got to the store. It was clear that it had to be Ultimate or Business, from the SW website. SolidWorks does work fine on XP Home, when XP Pro is all that is recommended or officially supported. I’ve never seen support denied or the software just not work because of using XP Home. When you see those cheaper numbers, it’s very tempting to cut a corner here or there. The Vista Business edition did have one feature that helped me choose it. This was the Remote Desktop function, which if you’ll remember from posts about a year ago was my ideal solution to my multiple monitor/computer problem. Vista Ultimate was $100 more (for a grand total of $399 – yes, that’s for an operating system).

Then there was the question of whether I wanted to upgrade or just buy a whole new version. I had heard horror stories of upgrades, where you had to reinstall the old OS to verify activation, and then upgrade it. Yech. What I really wanted to do was to install onto an external drive, and then just detach the external to get a dual boot system which maintained my clean XP, and allows me to ditch Vista easily.

Ok, for this test, it is Vista Business, the $299 version, and the lowest recommended OS for SolidWorks.

The Setup

Like most folks in this field, I’m pretty much self-taught when it comes to system maintenance and stuff like that. I’ve learned mainly by recovering from mistakes. Windows XP was an easy install unless you had to mess with something like installing scsi drivers during the install. It still wasn’t too bad. I’ve heard bad stories again about Vista installations with missing drivers, so I thought I was prepared for that.\n\nI started the install from an active session of XP, and it told me I had the option to install to either my older 320 GB external drive or my brand new 750 GB external drive. So I told it to install to the 320, the 750 would be used for backup and storage. When I actually tried it, though, Vista decided neither external drive was worthy, and cancelled the installation and restarted it automatically, without those two options available. It should be noted that neither drive worked when the OS was finally installed, and searches on websites show that my brand new Western Digital 750 GB external drive is not compatible with Vista. Whooda thunk. In the end, I had to enter the product key 3 times.\n\nAnyway, the second go at installation seemed better. I had a 300 GB internal drive with some space to install to, which sufficed. The system is still a dual boot, with XP on C and Vista on E.

The test “Boxx”

I should make note that the computer being used for this installation is a Boxx workstation, with an AMD 64 FX-57 single core processor, with an nVidia nForce chipset, a FX3450 graphics card, and 3 GB of RAM. The computer is not quite 2 years old. It was a very nice workstation 2 years ago, and is still more than adequate for most of the SW work I do.

The installation seemed to be ok until the first reboot, when it wanted the OS disk, and took another 20 minutes to install more files. Then it rebooted again. After a few reboots, it seemed satisfied. I learned by accident that any USB device attached would cause it to hang at reboot. I couldn’t get it to see my thumb drive, external drives or my USB wireless adapter. I had to rearrange things and get a hub close enough for a wired connection to work. Once I had the wired connection, connecting to the internet was no problem, but seeing and being seen other computers on the network was not as straight forward as XP.

Contrary to many reports I have heard, I was able to get a Vista specific driver for my nVidia FX3450 video card, and it seems to work well with SolidWorks 2008, without the slowdowns I’ve had in XP with the FX Go 1400 using the fancy Real View features in 2008.

For drivers, my bad luck at this time is restricted to a Belkin wireless network adapter and my nVidia nForce audio.

The Confirmation

Oh, and the confirmation. It seems everything you want to do system wise requires a confirmation. I have not yet looked for the switch to turn that off, but I assure you I will. It’s like having a paranoid Victorian nanny at your side at all times.

“The Experience”

The much vaunted “experience” of running vista is just a bit of a barrage on the senses, in particular the sense of sight, since my audio card doesn’t hav an available driver for Vista. Everything has a chalky pastellish kind of color, or the look of polished translucent polycarbonate. Dialogs fly, and zoom, and fall back, and there is a lot of transparency. There are warnings for just about anything useful, including overwriting files.Windows Explorer is significantly different in Windows Vista. It will be hard to say if it is better or not until I’ve used it for some time, but I am getting used to it. I still haven’t figured out some simple things like displaying file extensions.

Overall, I must say that the interface is pretty snappy, meaning that it reacts quickly for the most part. There are times where it seems to hang for a few seconds for no reason, but overall, I think it is faster. Of course this is a fresh installation without much clutter added yet (ftp software, SolidWorks, Avant Browser, snagit, BitDefender).

For the book screen captures I have to run at 1024×768 resolution with specific display settings, which is more than a little annoying, since it does not make the best use of the interface. Still, it allows me to get a feel for the OS a little.

Summary

This isn’t much of a review of the functionality of Vista, but it should give a little flavor for what it’s like to get started with it. I will follow up in a later post with the experience of running SolidWorks in the Vista interface.

If you read blogs, you already know that SolidWorks has a Vista version in the works. It has been in beta for some time. I was lucky enough to get an evaluation copy of Vista along with a dvd with the SW Vista disk.

There are bunches of Vista evaluations on websites and blogs everywhere. I will link to a few of these later, but I”m not going to add to those, I just want to chime in on what this all means to SolidWorks users.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20070220/tc_pcworld/129126

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/29/xp-vs-vista/

http://www.geardigest.com/2007/02/19/ballmer_blames_pirates_for_slow_vista_sales/

http://www.tgdaily.com/2007/02/20/microsoft_vista_migration_tools_release/

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/vistab2.ars

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9011523

Ok, I had to get your attention. John McEleney (known affectionately as Johnny Mac around the office), who recently spoke at the Huntsville AL and Atlanta GA user groups, also spoke at Charlotte, NC. I was able to attend, and I took some notes.

First, the room was pretty swank. It was on the 33rd floor of a building downtown. Definitely not characteristic user group fare. The usual pizza had been replaced with fancy finger food. The place even had a dress code. I had to sneak in through a ventillation shaft and listen from the broom closet. Inevitably I arrived in shorts and sandals, soaked to the bone from the rain and sweaty.

John was already speaking when I arrived. It was a presentation I have heard before from Jon Hirschtick on the history of CAD, but Mr. McEleney had added a few items of his own.

I’m a bit of a book worm, so when he recommended a couple of books, I was sure to write them down. First was The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. This is about globalization, and how we are all connected through modern communications. John spoke a little on globalization, and the inevitability of losing jobs, and the equal inevitability of American innovation to replace those jobs. He says the best thing you can do is to change the channel when Lou Dobbs comes on the TV.

The second book John recommended was Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug. This is a book on web interface design, but is relevant to SolidWorks users in the design of the interface. Stay tuned. As soon as they remove the gags, this blogger will have a few things to say about the not too distant future of SW interface design. You might also remember that the phrase “don’t make me think” came up in Jeff Ray’s (SW COO) talk at the Charleston SC user group meeting as the mantra for interface design at SW. You will be the judge as to how well they are achieving that goal…

The image to the left is a link to a little video clip of John making a point about the current and future trends in software. And for those with a sharp eye, yes, that is the incomparable Wes Cobb and Rodney Hall in the front row, leaders of the Western NC and Hickory NC user groups respectively. Van Pfifer, leader of the Charlotte NC group was also nearby.

The next thing John said that really stood out for me came during the Q&A session. It’s great that a guy in McEleney’s position can come to a user group meeting with 50 guys and take direct questions from end users. That really impresses me. He is a totally approachable guy, unpretentious, and down to earth. He is even willing to talk shop with you. Anyway, the first question was related to Spaceclaim. John responded that some new functionality in SW08 is going to look a lot like some of the functions of Spaceclaim (which enables you to directly edit model geometry, without sketch constraints, parametrics or history). Again, in a few days we will be able to talk about SW08 and describe that functionality in more detail.

Next was the inevitable Linux question. Van Pfifer beat me to the punch asking that one. On this blog I’ve been sucked into more than one discussion on alternative OSs. I love to hear John’s answer. Tell it to me again! I’ve been lectured so many times by the “zealot prophets” that I just get sick of it. Somehow, these guys think that a product that has been available for however many years Linux has been available is suddenly going to crawl out of the server closet and become a widely used desktop OS. When I say “widely used” I mean in statistically significant numbers, not by university research lab types with taped together glasses or guys programming embedded devices from their room in their mother’s basement. Anyway, I don’t have a direct quote of what John said, but it was to the effect that the body of work to port to Linux is prohibitively large. First you have to port all the products, SW, Cosmos, FlowWorks, PDM, the hundreds of partner products, etc. And then you have to do some localization for the myriad flavors of Linux. I didn’t hear a drop of optimism.

However, with a nod to “open source” in general, he said that PDMW Enterprise is looking at using MySQL. From theMySQL site, “MySQL runs on more than 20 platforms including Linux, Windows, OS/X, HP-UX, AIX, Netware”. So looking for a single ray of hope, does that mean PDMW Ent Server will run on Linux? That still might be a stretch, but it will likely run on MySQL. Stuff that penguin back in your pants.

On the other hand, what about Mac? I mean, OSX is as close to Linux as the mass market is going to see. After a convoluted tale of woe which some how involved Sarbanes-Oxley, John McEleney, the CEO of SolidWorks Corporation, revealed that he had bought a Mac for his home computer. SolidWorks already has a few products that work on Mac, such as eDrawings and Cosmic Blobs. John went on to say that Mac has a 5% market share, and “it’s all about market share”. (Linux market share is less than 1%, or if you believe some of the extremely optimistic reports, as high as 2%). Oh, say it again for me, John – “It’s all about market share”.  Next time you get cornered by one of those penguin types, just tell them that “it’s all about market share, twiggy”.

The reason I like this is that it brings rationality to the Linux argument, and to the Mac argument as well. SW is not going to go out of business relying only on Windows for the time being. If/when Mac usage crosses say 15-20% and shows a continuing upward trend, it will make sense to reevaluate. Maybe by the time they have 25% it would be good to have a few products port over. Unless Apple starts selling their OS to run on any Intel box tomorrow, they aren’t going to gain that much market share that fast. I’m sure this mess with the transition to Vista is driving some folks to Mac, but not in really significant numbers. Anyway, the Mac and Linux devotees who are still holding their breath are going to start dropping like flies. Reality check, guys.

As a little aside, every time you hear someone really talk about the future of CAD operating systems, they tend to talk about interoperability through the web. At one time that meant Java. Can you program a CAD application using Flash? Maybe a Google OS which integrates the web? I’m not clear exactly what they are talking about, but I guess that leaves a couple topics for John to use at future user group meetings.

Finally, talking about the future of 3D to try to encompass more and more 2D users, John talked about a paradox. In order to win over more 2D users, SW feels that they have to make it much easier to make a 2D drawing from a 3D model. This is in part what is behind several of the new enhancements in SW08. The paradox is that once they have achieved that goal, 2D really is no longer necessary. John acknowledges that for the foreseeable future, 2D is going to play a role. I personally think it will never really go away completely, it is simply too convenient for some things.

Anyway, thank you very much to John McEleney for coming to Charlotte to talk to the users! John also purchased his own copy of the SW Bible at the meeting.