I used to get real excited about this time of year and with great anticipation looked for the latest and greatest from Solid Edge. This is the first year since ST1 that I am not a customer of this great design program so I will have very little to say about its capabilities as an actual user. I have also lost most interest as a blogger in this product so I won’t comment on much else about it insofar as new features above and beyond what I have already said. Namely that genuine game changing innovations appear to be giving way to cutesy marketing gimmick stuff some of which from what I gather in reading on the Siemens forums is only partly done. The pace of transformative innovation regarding pure cad design improvements have slowed down with SE in my opinion but it is the best mid range MCAD program out there as far as I am concerned. To bad it is owned by people who hold it in contempt
In any case if you are a current customer check in to GTAC and get your latest and greatest. If you wish to try SE, and if you never have I recommend you do so, they have a 45 day trial period. We all know how quickly 30 days goes by so 45 is much better. Solid Edge has not gone subscription only stupid so this is a HUGE plus for them. I intend to use SE ST8 for as long as I can. I try to learn Inventor on occasion but it is so clunky and un-intuitive to me compared to SE that these brief sojourns into masochism quickly end. I see the great work done with Inventor so I know it is capable. The mindset behind how it works is alien to me compared to SE though which just clicked for me right away. I don’t have to learn it and at this time don’t intend to either.
To bad the only integrated CAM program for SE is such a PITA to use and of course Cam Express which clueless sales droids will sell to you in a heart beat is not integrated at all. Such is life here sadly. Going by the CAMWorks for SE site this week and there has been one post in the last sixteen months. SE users are not amused nor enticed to be there.
Is this a new trend with software companies? To release something to say there is fabulous new stuff you just have to have even though it is not finished and has serious usability problems? Looks like Autodesk Inventor Pro HSM is doing that and Siemens from what I read is too with SE. Just a tip here to software authoring companies. Something actual manufacturing concerns learn very quickly which is sales people will get you in trouble every time with promises just to close a deal and then YOU have to make it work. Or not.
I think with SE and Inventor Pro HSM the sales guys have run ahead of reality and just to let you sales brainiacs know customers are not amused when their yearly fees produce new features that do not work right or at all. Carts do not pull horses although the cart driver can choose to get on a steep hill and run over the horses. Sales and Marketing or is it S&M ?
Moral to the story is do not let sales people or Marketing and Publicity off the firmly held short leash of reality if you want happy and satisfied customers.
Machined Audio Horn Lens 
Hi Dave
Owing to the need to do a clean install of Win 10 over the weekend I have just installed SEST9. Although it doesn’t seem to have loads of extra blingy features they do seem to have cleaned it up quite a bit, and it also seems faster, but that may be more down to a fresh copy of Windows.
Open windows are much easier to switch between, Copying and renaming files & assemblies is now done within SE though Design Manager, which has a new GUI interface – and about time, too.
There is built in data management so you don’t need to buy SharePoint or Teamcenter if you only have one or 2 seats.
Data on the cloud is now possible / easier IF YOU CHOOSE and you can also have your licence in the cloud so you could use a pc away from home / office on the same license (so long as you shut down the other PC!)
For me, probably a better upgrade than ST8, but I am locked into a 3 year deal. I would not have wanted to upgrade otherwise reading the PR, but the actuality is better in this case.
This appears to be an Engineer’s release rather than a Marketeer’s one. Time will tell
Alan
(Isolated in the UK!)
Hi Alan,
Isolated in a soon to be much better UK I might say!
I have thought at times it would be far better to have a release with nothing new in the way of bells and whistles but rather they make what is there to work right. Good to hear your comments. Some people think I hate SE but what I don’t like are the overlords so your input is indeed music to my ears. Is the copying and renaming/export of files and assemblies the same basic function that that http://hitteamtools.com/activePach2Go.html provided for SE 2+ years ago? LONG over due if it is. I gave up on using the SE parts library some time back because of all the link problems with exports. If I did use the library I would export selections as a parasolid and bring it back in to break the link. That way I could copy the assembly files and never get that dreaded file not found stuff. Engineers need to be in charge of design software. Check in after you have used it for a while and let me know further thoughts.
Regards, Dave
I agree with Alan. Not too much “blitzy” stuff, but the non-“blitzy” stuff is a lot of useful things like being able to see the Ordered body when in Synch mode, placing a single feature across several multi-bodies at once, blocks in sketches, Synch relationship Maintain Offset Faces (awesome for thinwall extrusions), Synch associative mirror, Duplicate feature (like Duplicate Component), Solid Sweep (barrel cam cuts), Assembly Relationship Manager, custom occurrence properties, new assembly view commands, inclusion of stick fonts (etching), and tons of stuff in Draft and translators. Quite a lot of stuff that is useful to the existing user base, just not great for marketing to new users…
Hi Ken,
Good to hear. Since I am not a current user I can only guess at things based on what Siemens and SE put out in press releases which did not impress me. What you and Alan say is far more important. You guys do a write up or video and I will be pleased to put it up here. Just as long as it is not that cloud anywhere stuff 😉 I extend that invitation to any current ST9 user by the way. Send me links you might be aware of too and I may just post them also. Thanks guys for checking in.