New Windows VISTA & SolidWorks

Hi, Don,

I can't say about Solid Works bacause I am an AutoCAD/MDT/Inventor guy, but I do provide software installation support for Autodesk student products, so I have seen the Vista compatibility issue.

Check the support pages at the maunfacturer's website for patches or updates that handle that problem. If you don't see any, there is a workaround to run programs under Vista.
Instead of clicking on the icon on your desktop, right click. A menu should pop up. One of the options is Run As Adminstrator. Click on that to run the program. You will see a message about compatibility, but the program should run normally.
Also, you could click on Properties after right clicking on the icon. Click on the Compatibilty tab and set to run the program in compatiblity mode for XP.

I assume you are thinking of replacing your computer, and most new computers sold today have Vista already installed. If you don't want to mess with Vista just yet, check with independent computer stores in your area to see if they have a copy of XP they can install on your machine. I know some are waiting for Gates and his gang to fix the bugs in Vista before they switch over, and some have "upgraded" from Vista to XP. The only advice I can give is to look over your situation. Determine if you want, or need to stay with something familiar so you don't lose time messing with bugs and learning something new, or if you can afford to take those risks because eventually switching to Vista will be needed so you can continue to operate.

Whatever you decide, I wish you the best!

Hi 3Doug, Many thanks for your input & best wishes.

As you surmised, i am looking to replace my old beast. The SolidWorks website states that they are compatible w/ Vista; so far, so good.

My next stop was at Dell (a SolidWorks 'partner'), to ask if i would be better off purchasing their industrial (Precision) or home version (XPS). I was a bit surprised that their sales line doesn't take e-mail questions!

In addition, i want to run an Office Suite, drive a printer, or 2, & manipulate some photos. Most of theas are common on home PCs these days, not so much so on workstations.

Any recommendations on the path i should take?

I have SolidWorks 2007 running over Windows Vista Ultimate and work fine. Autocad 2008 and Inventor 2008 work fine in Vista too.

Need about 4 gigs of ram with Vista and Solidworks, eh?

My Solidworks is on my old dinosaur computer, I'm so dismayed at the sluggishness of my super wonderful Vista Laptop I've come close to throwing it out more than once. It's only got 2 gigs on it with an additional 2 gigs of fast flash boost - and even though the Vista has been dumbed down so far it looks worse than XP, it's all it can do to open up a Word file. It has to think on the order of thirty seconds just to respond to nearly any command. Instead of an hourglass it now has a symbol similar to Apples rotating disk - appropriately symbolizing spinning your wheels and wasting time. Probably best to just use it as an infuriating GPS system and let the kids watch movies on it.

I just got a new Dell Precision 690 and SolidWorks Premium. I got the 64-bit version of XP rather than go with Vista because of compatibility with my company's servers and SolidWorks. It works great for everything you mentioned.

When shopping, I talked to a SolidWorks guy that said they had not run into huge problems with Vista, but that it tended to run slower since Vista used up more memory and time on the graphics card. They also hadn't done enough testing to guarantee to me that they could provide support if I did run into anything. 2008 is coming out before too long, which will have Vista compatibility, so you should be fine either way. Just double check that there are Vista drivers for all your other stuff (printers, etc)

(note, you had to go to the medium or large business section on Dell, then to 'show all workstations', or something like that to see the option of 64-bit XP. 64 bit is required for more than 4 gigs of ram. the option wasn't shown on the small business or military part of the web site.)

For the hardware, I also looked at Alienware, which looked great. I went with Dell because of the graphics card availability at each company at the time.

I recommend going with the workstation if Solidworks is primary application - particuliarily if larger assemblies are good part of your work. I'm sure you are aware of the importance of a good video card and from I have read their does appear to be issues with Vista and nVidia video so that may be an issue as nVidia has for me always been the preferred video card manufacturer. Also, if you didn't know, Dell has an outlet as well - I've taken this approach on just about every computer I have purchased in the last 5 years - as long as you are patient, you can generally find a system configured as you need and quite often save a bunch. Check out www.dell.com/outlet.

I haven't run Vista and Solidworks as of yet, but I have a few computers at home that my kids use that have Vista home premium installed - I haven't seen anything about Vista that really makes the case for making the change.

Good Luck - there can be nothing more frustrating than running Solidworks on an outdated system.

Make sure your nVidia video card is 7000 or 8000 series - my Vista laptop has an nVidia 6150 and that is the weakest point in the laptop - makes it a real dog with Vista. In Vista there's a performance rating - the laptop gets generally 5 +/- in every category except the video - there it gets a 3.0. And I'm told with a laptop there is nothing that can be done about that.

Thanks to all for their comments!

Does anyone have comments on the merits of Intel's "core 2 quad" VS their XEON processors. It looks like that's the departure point in dell's home/industry differentiation.

I'm still wondering if i should domesticate a workstation, or, bind a homebody into service?

If i live long enough, i'd like to do some advertising graphics (with photos), too.

Vista is a peace of S***

That is a huge understatement- Microsoft deserves to fry for this latest travesty - we ought to get a class action suit going against them seeking compensation for their failed system. It is a massive dissappointment, a horrendous waste of time, and in the end you are left with a minimally functional computer with hardware specs that with any other operating system would shine.

Point taken!

My 1st computer had Win 4.01; if you're old enough to remember that fiasco, BLESS YE!

My first computer was DOS - how sweet it was. I still have a machine running Dos 6.11 with the option of opening Windows 2.something so you can run Word and Excel 1.something. Newer GUI systems have tremendous capabilities, BUT... at what cost.