I haven’t done enough real work to say how I like 2008. I need to spend some time working on the UI, trying to work the way that folks like Charles Culp suggest. Right now I spend too much time searching and clicking. My natural tendency is to want to have all my likely picks on screen, so almost everything is a single pick and that doesn’t seem to be the way that SolidWorks wants me to work. I’m fighting the tendency to just make it look like my version of 2007.

I’m about to start Chapter 8. It’s a joy to read!

Jerry

I think I got mine just a couple of days after you did. I pre-ordered it along with another copy of the SW Bible. A good deal and money well-spent! I’m only up to Chapter 3, as things are a little hectic right now, but I’m already glad I spent the money. I think those people on 2007 shouldn’t worry too much about having an old version. I only started using 2008 this morning and didn’t feel any need to open it while reading through those first couple of chapters.

Jerry
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Glad you like the books. How are you liking 2008?

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Thanks, Rick! I’m glad you found it useful!

The new book is great! I’m on SW 2008 3.1 and am new to surface development although I’ve been a casual SW user for a year or so. The information in the book is going to be a big help on several new products I’m working on.

Joe

I got mine on Tuesday (I ordered it last Thursday), and I’ve already read quite a bit. Your in-depth detail of how the surfacing functions work will be invaluable.

My interest in the subject goes beyond curiosity, I use surfacing to design my parts.

Congratulations on the book.

Just received mine today, 1 May 2008, all the way down here at the bottom of the world in New Zealand. Look forward to reading it over the next few weeks. Even though I am still using SolidWorks 2007 (and in no hurry to install 2008) I’m sure to find it very useful.

Regards
John Layne

I have SW 2007~2008 educational version; I read that all exercises are in 2008, is it possible to benefit from the book with SW 2007 version?

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This is turning out to be a common question. I should have anticipated this, but maybe I was hoping that the blind optimists were right after all. It turns out that adoption of 2008 is slow. Slower than anyone, even me, anticipated. This is why I held off on writing an update to the 2007 Bible.

The surfacing book was written in 2008 mainly because it seemed silly to write against an out-dated version, and there were some new surfacing functions in 2008 that I couldn’t ignore. Most of the book is written in a way that you could use any release that had the relevant tools.

So the question is, can you benefit from the Surfacing book even if you have 2007? Well, yes. You can’t get full benefit, though. The things you will miss out on are all of the models, including partially finished models, and a couple of important changes to the Boundary and Fill surface features.

Unless there is a major outcry, I’m not going to go back and re-model everything in 2007, mainly because it would be a lot of work, and also partially because at least some of it couldn’t be done in the same way. What do I mean by a “major outcry”? Well, if I multiply the number of hours it would take to remodel everything (80?) and multiply it by my hourly rate ($75), and divide that by the amount of money I make on each book ($2.50), I would have to have 2400 people buy the book only if it included the 2007 parts in order to break even on my time. I think that’s an unlikely number. As much as I like to support being open with information, I’ve got a mortgage and car payment like anyone else, and still can’t afford to work for free.

So. I’m sorry that SW Corp won’t allow you to do something with future version files, but I think you’ll agree that I really did have to make the files in 2008. Other suggestions?