CATI Tech Notes

Updating Solidworks Service Packs for HUL Serial Numbers

How do I update my Home Use License (HUL) for all of the service packs? Because when I go to do the update Solidworks will not let me. If you have a network license you also have the ability as per the Solidworks license agreement (Please take time to read) to install 1 additional Home Use License per seat that is the lowest level of software you have in your package. Let me explain. If you have 2 seats of Premium and seat of Professional and then 5 seats of Solidworks Core, you will get a serial number that entitles you to install 8 seats of Solidworks Core on your home computers. Read the license agreement for further explanation of the legalities of all that.

Getting back to the solution of updating the HUL serial numbers. From the XP OS you’ll want to go to the Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs and hit the change button at the Solidworks installation.

 

 From the Windows 7 OS, its a little different looking. Navigate to the Control Panel or God Mode. You’ll need to get to Programs and Features and right click on Solidworks and hit ‘Change.’ I would show a picture here from the Microsoft Snipping Tool (which is cool by the way!) But I do not have access to this OS as of this article.

When you hit the change menu Solidworks will launch the Installation Manager and then do its normal checks and start up. You will be modifying the existing installation and the next screen will be the serial number screen. At this screen you will change your number to the Network license number and then get your updates to whatever service pack you will be going to. As of right now the current service pack for 2010 is SP 2.1. It might ask for the original installation files which were on the disk (sp 0.0) so have that handy as well.

After you run your updates you will need to repeat the process to once again change your serial number back to the HUL number and continue on. Hope this helps!

Todd Werginz

Technical Analyst-CATI

 

It's Just Time to…Stop building Frankenstein.

The easiest way to provide some insurance that your users are in a stable environment is to buy certified systems.  I am not saying that it is impossible to buy all of the parts that it would take to create a great system, put them together, and have an awesome machine.  Dell, HP and the rest of the computer makers pay engineers a lot of money to produce a product that will be as stable as possible.  It is pretty hard to put a dollar value on that.  I don’t get any kickbacks, but it is pretty hard to beat a certified system.

   Your double mother board, quadruple graphics cards with dual 1080p monitors on each. running 11 gig of ddr3 for ram (this is a very odd number) is not doing you any favors.  The stability of this machine and the ability for support to reproduce the issues that you may run into is almost nonexistent.  The through put of issues on this machine is going to more than double the time trouble shooting takes the support staff.   In a certified machine there are a number of things that can be taken for granted, and assumed.  In Frankenstein, there is zero.  Start packaging up all the spec, event logs, and every bit of info that you have, because we are going to need it.  I have enough trouble trying to keep track of one or two monitors, let alone the six that Frankenstein has, and what drivers do we have going on here?  That is anyone guess.  The fact that Frankenstein is has three 1tb drives raided together, and is being used as your home DVR streaming wireless HD, you guessed it, not helping.  We will talk more about hardware and software next time, but for now, STOP BUILDING FRANKENSTIEN!!!

It's just time to...

    Hello all, I have some opinions that I would like to throw out to the blog world.  Hopefully I can get all of these to fall into one cohesive thought pattern, but if not bear with me I will do my best.  I am going to call this series “It’s just time to…”  I have worked with CATI for more than 8 years now and cover a variety of roles.  From presales meetings and demonstrations, to phone in technical support, and on site consulting I have worked with our cad customers through tons of issues. From their networks and workstations, setups and installations, to training and support.

    Let’s start with a few things from the support department.  The fact is that sometimes the support tech on the other end of the phone is afraid of coming off as rude, blunt or pushy.  We do our best to understand your business, and what you are trying to do or what you are expecting from the software.   Techs are great at finding work arounds or loop holes to help get the job done.  This can be seen day in and day out on support.  I think that some of the work arounds given by techs often do a great disservice to the customer.  Yes, the fact is he will more than likely find a way to do whatever you are trying to do, but the reality of the situation is that the customer is now using work around for a function that does not, or should not be used in that way.  Many times the work around adds a magnitude of complexity. Though yes they found a way to work around or give the customer what they were looking for, the fact is that it could take much longer in the long run for the workaround than doing this the right way from the start.

Sometime the answer should be no.   Sometimes what you are trying to do really is a bad idea.  Sometimes the answer the customer gets they may not like.  I’m sorry; sometimes it is in your best interest to hear the hard truth.  (The Hard Truth was a contender for the name of the series too.)

 I brought the idea for the series to my boss.  I told him that I have an idea that I believed would over flow with content.  One that all of the techs could contribute to, but most of all one that I thought people would be interested in and read.  That got his ear, but it was then that I dropped the bomb shell.  I told him that there was only one condition that I would even pitch the idea to him.  I wanted full publish rights.  The articles had to go straight to the blog, no mediator, or fact checker, and no one checking for the politically right thing to say.  It needs to be straight forward, and the fact is that it may make some people a little mad.    It took a little convincing, but here it is.  Please understand that the articles are being written by me or the other techs, we are not writers by trade, just a bunch of tech guys that would like a venue to level with our customers and the cad world.  We are not trying to make anyone mad or put anyone down.  This is about telling it like it is, and the fact is, It’s Just Time to:

Hidden Bodies and Transparency

Hello,

Just a little information to pass on. We here at CATI tech support have seen a few calls regarding the files opening up with the ‘solid bodies hidden’ in Solidworks 2010. It has been reported to Solidworks and an SPR has been identified as SPR 524372. The workaround is to manually go into the solid bodies folder and 're-show' the missing body. There is also an SPR for some bodies showing transparent when rolling the bar back and working on the model. When you roll back to the end the transparency still stays with. You will need to remove it manually until this is fixed. This is SPR 538127. There is no target date as of yet for the fix.

Todd Werginz

Technical Analyst

 

SolidWorks World 2010 Presentations

Why do I keep going back to SolidWorks World? Because the potent combination of people, presentations and fresh insight get me charged up enough to power through the rest of the year. SolidWorks World 2010 did not disappoint.

In the next few weeks the CATI team will be sharing what we learned, and what we presented. You can find the first installments of our SolidWorks World 2010 presentations over on the CATI website.

Enjoy!

Main Stage 2010 This message

SolidWorks 2010 has begun!

SolidWorks 2010 has begun!