And don’t let the door hit you on your way out!
This will be my last post on ZW3D. I have been using Solid Edge for design for four years now whereas I used to use VX. Quit VX because SE was everything a top mid-range MCAD program should be. Real direct editing (don’t base your opinion of direct editing on ZW3D’s worst in class implementation of it) great sheet metal and tons of other good stuff + 64 bit done years ago. Lots of progress at Solid Edge whereas ZW3D is actually going backwards.
http://www.zwsoft.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=3
Read the latest stuff on the ZW3D forums and see what these poor customers are having to deal with. Loved a reply from ZW3D’s Collin on 6-14 talking about how Transmagic V9 fails to work on Win 8. His advice was to load Transmagic V8 and it will work. Problem is that Transmagic is now on V10 and to get the best translations you need the latest version of Transmagic which will recognize the latest versions of various geometric kernals. Here, have another bandaid to put over your ZW3D wounds that aren’t being healed. There are many things not working well as a trip through the forum posts will prove.
Solid Edge will have it’s annual convention in Cincinnati the last week of June.http://www.siemens.com/plm/solidedgeu At this convention will be the roll-out of the first true integration of CAM and Solid Edge. I have been one of the beta testers and I have to tell you that reminiscing about all the grief I have had with VX/ZW3D in CAD and CAM makes this new integration of SE and CAM all the sweeter. I FINALLY get to pull the plug on ZW3D cam and that will be the end of ZW3D for me forever. I knew this was going to happen a year ago so I just gritted my teeth and dealt with all the ZW3D crap in the mean time. Last version I updated to was 2012 and it was strictly for CAM as the CAD side is pretty crude in so many ways for MCAD. Downloaded ZW3D 2013 and it was so bad I spent one hour with it and took it off. Now remember I was a customer of VX/ZW from V9 until ZW3D 2012. V14.5 was the most stable trouble free version ever and since the Chinese have bought them out it has been going downhill. I have tons of tech support and local VAR’s to support me with both Solid Edge and the new CAM program. Numbers here in the USA where I can talk to TRAINED warm bodies where English is the native language during MY business hours. I remember when VX thought support here in the USA was important too but not the Chinese. You are not important enough to them as customers to have good support although they will take your money. These guys in China try hard but they are running in circles and this while the program slowly deteriorates. Tech support STILL after a couple of years can’t adequately answer many questions sent them. You see the American support guys that actually knew what they were doing were “too expensive” and so they were fired. Type up that email boys and wait for answers that don’t work well to problems that aren’t being solved well seems to be the current primary support paradigm for the Western Hemisphere ZW3D customers.
Up until recently I had enjoyed the prospect of having a contest for the best use of a useless ZW3D dongle. Things like a dust cover for a USB port or perhaps as a body to a spinner fishing lure amused me. You see I resented the idea that gobs of my time and lots of money were put into something that was failing and the cause of it did not care one iota about my problems. I really do know how many Solid Works guys feel while idiots are yanking the rug out from under them! But as the Solid Edge convention approaches and my time in durance vile nears it’s end I am just so glad this chapter of my life is over that I have decided not to do this. I will keep it so if I need to bring files out of ZW to use in the future with Solid Edge I can. It’s sole and only future use in my company.
SO bye bye ZW. You had value over the years to me as a stepping stone to real CAD and CAM programs. I am glad I knew you back in the day where good stuff was happening so I can have some fond memories to offset the bad taste of the last three years of programing ineptitude. You China guys bought a 3D modeling Kernal and you apparently have very few good ideas of what it takes to develop it or support it. Nor do you have the slightest idea of how to correctly support your foriegn customers. Here is a hint by the way. Look at what ALL of your competitors do and remember you are the only ones who don’t. I figure that ZW3d will be up for sale again soon as it is clear that if it is not sold to someone
who does know what to do with it ZW3D’s remaining days will probably be short and most likely fraught with problems. Everyone has trouble integrating their software for 64 bit. Even the big guys who actually know what they are doing have problems. So imagine with me the upcoming travails of the Keystone Cops of the CADCAM world at ZW3D. I am going to follow ZW3D for their release of 64 bit not as a user but rather like someone who is watching a tornado on TV. You don’t want to be there in the middle of it but you do want to watch it happen. So buy your popcorn and lean back in your easy chair and enjoy the view on your TV as the tornado of ineptness rips through the town of ZW3D.
RIP VX now ZW3D, you were decent in your day but that was then and this is now.
Machined Audio Horn Lens 