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Discussion created by Jim Sculley on Sep 6, 2017
Latest reply on Mar 20, 2018 by David Matula

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What functions or features in SOLIDWORKS do you wish would go away? I'm not talking about crashes or slowness or any of that. What specific things do you think shouldn't exist? Here are some of mine in no particular order:

1. Hide/Show All Types

2. The EPDM Change State button in the task pane is a drop down button. Clicking the main part of the button does nothing. The drop down should be eliminated and clicking the button anywhere should show the drop down menu.

3. Rotate View. I know this one is controversial, but I think the cons outweigh the pros.

Message was edited by: Jim Sculley Corrected spelling

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Dan Pihlaja Sep 6, 2017 11:02 AM
OK, I know that you wanted to know what things shouldn't exist, but I have been moonlighting with CATIA V5 and when I get back to Solidworks, I get really jealous that in CATIA, you can change almost anything about any dimension.
Edited to be closer to the subject line:
So, I guess what I am saying is that I would like to get rid of the silly "Standards" and just allow the ability to customize the dimensions how we want.

Here are some snapshots from CATIA on dimension properties and what you can change.
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Andy Sanders Sep 6, 2017 10:58 AM
I agree with #1
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Glenn Schroeder Sep 6, 2017 11:29 AM
I will respectfully disagree with your #3. Strongly.

Other than that, as far as I can remember all the "Enhancements" that I've really hated were either given ways to turn them off right away, or in later releases, but if I think of others I'll post again.
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Dan Bovinich @ Dan Pihlaja on Sep 6, 2017 1:20 PM
99% of the time I agree with you Dan, but not today. To add all that capability looks like a time waster. I once used Inventor for a couple months, it has a similar thing that I thought was so annoying ~ page after page in the program to modify everything to the nth degree. I hated it.

Secondly, the OP wanted to get rid of things in SW, not add more stuff....

Dan
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Alen Topic @ Glenn Schroeder on Sep 6, 2017 1:24 PM
I would definitely agree with this! Rotate view is super handy.

Alen
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Christian Chu Sep 6, 2017 1:26 PM
Ouch ... Ii'd better have more than less ...
Might be "con" to me, but "pro" to others ...
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Dan Pihlaja @ Dan Bovinich on Sep 6, 2017 1:28 PM
Dan Bovinich wrote:

Secondly, the OP wanted to get rid of things in SW, not add more stuff....

Dan

I know. I just wanted to get rid of the silly Standards listing, since that just locks us into what Solidworks thinks is the standards. The nice thing about the CATIA portion is that, once you set those up, you never have to change them again.....unless you have to re-install...
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Alen Topic Sep 6, 2017 1:30 PM
Hey Jim,

How about the pre-selection of sketch entities which are selected for dimensioning... The automatic attachment of dimension to my last selection is very annoying. Never found out if they made a turn off button for that one...hmmm

Alen
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David Dinius Sep 6, 2017 1:31 PM
I too am with you on #1. I hit it most of the time trying to get to temporary axis and never see anything happen when I do. Then click it again to toggle off, click the pull down arrow then click the temp axis. Why would I want all of that crap turned on in the first place!!
Get rid of it......
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Dan Bovinich Sep 6, 2017 1:32 PM
How about the SW Costing? Does anyone use that? I looked at it and thought there are many other programs that would handle that task. Furthermore, it seamed like you had to guess or get quoted many of the operations you had to input (PITA).
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Andreas Rhomberg @ Alen Topic on Sep 6, 2017 1:33 PM
Rotate View Interface could use some improvement, maybe add the Alignment tool in to this Interface. Or possibly a Triad?
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Alen Topic @ Dan Bovinich on Sep 6, 2017 1:37 PM
Hello Dan,

That is not really an issue since you can turn it off and not install it...

Alen
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Alen Topic Sep 6, 2017 1:55 PM
How about this one:

Foreshortened or Standard section view? For those of you who dont know the difference, the foreshortened section view is what it would look if it was sectioned properly, standard gives you the overall length of your pre-positioned section lines (Cutting lines)...Very easy for a beginner to hit do not show again to this message and select standard view thinking he is getting a foreshortened view...

Thoughts?

Alen
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Paul Risley Sep 6, 2017 1:53 PM
Quick mate popup box.
Remove lock and tangent mates from this option.
I use tangent very infrequently, primarily as a place filler until the assembly becomes more defined. Never used the lock mate.
That being said I have used the tangent/lock multiple times a day when I wanted concentric.
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Dan Pihlaja Sep 6, 2017 1:55 PM
Or how about removing this phrasing entirely (specifically, the 2nd paragraph):
Since it doesn't work at all the way it says it will work. And get rid of the auto centerlines completely, because it adds centerlines to things that aren't even shown in the view (like hidden holes!).
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Dan Pihlaja Sep 6, 2017 1:59 PM
Another one is remove the "hole wizard data" from this selection in the Mirror components dialog. Since this doesn't come through anyway.....or if it does, it is flaky and doesn't work at all.

You can't select which hole to place the tolerance on (when it is a counter bored hole, for example), and sometimes, you can't edit the dimension text at all.

So either remove or fix it, because right now, it is just a time waster.
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Glenn Schroeder Sep 6, 2017 2:17 PM
I'd like to see the need for the "Select Seed Position" button removed from Pattern Driven Component Patterns. If there are four holes created by a Hole Wizard feature, and I've placed a Bolt, Nut, and two Washers at one of them, shouldn't the software be smart enough to figure out that maybe that should be the seed position? Why would it be anywhere else?
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Walter Fetsch @ Alen Topic on Sep 6, 2017 2:20 PM
That is one of my biggest peeves. It wastes a lot of clicks because every time I start dimensioning, I have to delete my first dimension and start over because of this terrible feature.
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Walter Fetsch Sep 6, 2017 2:23 PM
The #1 all-time worst feature that needs to be removed in its entirety, or at least completely disabled is the automatic assembly destruction when mates are in conflict. Never, never, never fix my mates. If there's a problem, I'll fix it myself. Never, never, never ask me if I want SW to 'fix' the problem, I'm sick of clicking on that box.
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Andy Sanders Sep 6, 2017 2:38 PM
Remove the ability to freely and easily delete/suppress sub-assembly features and components while in a higher level assembly.

Many assemblies have been goofed up around here because a user wasn't paying attention (myself included). Just remove that ability, force the user to open the sub separately and do whatever at that level. Then it would be obvious.
Or at LEAST force the user to select "Edit Sub-assembly" exactly like it makes you "Edit Part" when you want to manipulate a part inside an assembly.

As an experiment, I just dug 3 sub-assembly levels deep, finding a part, selecting the top feature in the tree and suppressed it. Immediate red errors popped up. No warning what I was about to do. Hitting undo fixed the top level feature I suppressed but left all other features suppressed.

Why was that so free and easy to accomplish, without ANY warning dialog boxes popping up?
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Walter Fetsch @ Glenn Schroeder on Sep 6, 2017 2:48 PM
Seems ridiculously obvious to me.
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John Stoltzfus Sep 6, 2017 2:54 PM
I wish that the Custom Properties Tab Builder would go away and be placed with a pop out dialog box similar or be Excel... Only because I might be the only one using CPTB like I do, where we have one CPTB for every ECN. That makes for a lot of CPTB files..
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Jim Sculley @ Andy Sanders on Sep 6, 2017 3:15 PM
Andy Sanders wrote:

Remove the ability to freely and easily delete/suppress sub-assembly features and components while in a higher level assembly.

Many assemblies have been goofed up around here because a user wasn't paying attention (myself included). Just remove that ability, force the user to open the sub separately and do whatever at that level. Then it would be obvious.
Or at LEAST force the user to select "Edit Sub-assembly" exactly like it makes you "Edit Part" when you want to manipulate a part inside an assembly.

The maddening part is that it used to work that way. This 'improvement' is nothing of the sort. Hey, look I can change the station on the car radio while standing outside with the doors locked!
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Dan Pihlaja @ Jim Sculley on Sep 6, 2017 3:18 PM
Jim Sculley wrote:

Andy Sanders wrote:

Remove the ability to freely and easily delete/suppress sub-assembly features and components while in a higher level assembly.

Many assemblies have been goofed up around here because a user wasn't paying attention (myself included). Just remove that ability, force the user to open the sub separately and do whatever at that level. Then it would be obvious.
Or at LEAST force the user to select "Edit Sub-assembly" exactly like it makes you "Edit Part" when you want to manipulate a part inside an assembly.

The maddening part is that it used to work that way. This 'improvement' is nothing of the sort. Hey, look I can change the station on the car radio while standing outside with the doors locked!

Would be good for a prank though! About all it is worth, I guess. I wonder if that ability can be turned off...
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Andy Sanders @ Jim Sculley on Sep 6, 2017 3:19 PM
Starting out, I remember trying to stupidly suppress a part in a sub assembly. POOF the whole sub went away. AHA! That's not what I was supposed to do! It was a big fat red flag that you screwed up.
They added the pop up when you try to delete something in a sub, but NOT if you suppress something. It just happens.

Hit save on your top level, and you have now saved your compromised sub assembly too! So convenient!
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