Well, waited until SP1 before upgrading.
Mistake? could say that, random crashes etc in the middle of doing something/anything got very annoying.
VAR recommended and gave a registry hack to do with PDM and said that they would be in SP2.
Well, that came out so in for a penny as they say.... installation crashed with couldn't register file. Cancelled it and two other error boxes.
Well at least SolidWORKS loads .... aye without PDM! Its thrashed that.
getting more like MicroSHITE every upgrade. 
Lol....made sense to me. Waited for SP1 on 2021 before upgrading from 2020. Hopeless. It crashed randomly and would sit forever generating an error report. Spoke to my reseller who gave me a registry file as it seems they'd screwed the PDM settings in 2021. They said those fixes are in SP2 so ......tried to install that.
it failed to install, rolled it back and it's destroyed my PDM installation. 2021 is a disaster as far as I'm concerned. Tested? Nope, roll it out to people who have paid thousands for a licence and hope it works.
Have you brought this up to your VAR yet? For your situation I would recommend you check-in all your files in PDM (if possible) and then complete a clean uninstall of SW & PDM and then install the version you want. And just so you are aware, most companies will wait until at least SP3 of releases to avoid issues like these that are more common to occur in earlier versions so I would recommend waiting a bit when 2022 comes out.
Stephen Soper wrote:
Lol....made sense to me. Waited for SP1 on 2021 before upgrading from 2020. Hopeless. It crashed randomly and would sit forever generating an error report. Spoke to my reseller who gave me a registry file as it seems they'd screwed the PDM settings in 2021. They said those fixes are in SP2 so ......tried to install that.
it failed to install, rolled it back and it's destroyed my PDM installation. 2021 is a disaster as far as I'm concerned. Tested? Nope, roll it out to people who have paid thousands for a licence and hope it works.
When having that kind of day, I try to calm down before posting. I can understand your urgency and feelings of frustration. Trust me, anyone that's worked on CAD systems has been there before. Please remember, people aren't paid to help others in the scope of the forums. I get that you need to vent but you're probably not going to get much constructive help in reply to a rant. Again, speaking from experience, I've tried too. Best way to get a constructive answer is to ask a concise question.
Lastly, did you read the existing threads here about updating SW and PDM before updating?
Yep, and they've been brilliant. All back up and working on 2021 SP2 but PDM left at SP1.
I will be thinking twice before going to 2022 seems SW are causing more issues than improvements with each upgrade. As for waiting for SP3? The change to SP4 on 2020 caused chaos and I had to go install some ancient old Access pack to get it working. The package is getting far to complicated
Aye Ben, it's been one of those six months/days.
I thought forums were for general discussions, exchange of information etc but I get the feeling this one isn't like that. I've generally found answers elsewhere rather than trawl through here but thought I'd share my experiences as I'm likely not the only one.
Seems I misjudged so I'll just step out the door and just peer in the window
As I said earlier, my VAR have been monumental in helping get it sorted. Can't fault them
Geez someone gets easily offended.
Here, I'll take a stab at rewriting your first post for you
_____________________________________
I've recently upgraded from SolidWorks XXXX(Please fill) to SolidWorks 2021 SP1.0 and it seems that I have ran into some mildly annoying issues.
My VAR recommended to me a registry hack to do with PDM and said it would be included in SP2. Alas, SP2 has came out and I've installed it and the error happens again.
SolidWorks does load, but it's missing PDM.
_____________________________________
Now that we've got this excerpt figured out, do you mind going a little further into details? The only thing that I've figured out is that you're having an issue related to PDM with SolidWorks upon installing, but nothing describes the issue you're facing.
This forum is indeed for discussion and exchange of information, as you've stated, though what you've accomplished is neither. When you're done with your little tantrum, and if you do indeed want help, then take a deep breath and realize we are not paid to help you, we're users browsings the forums, most likely having difficulties once every now and then, just like you.
I have noticed that the intensity and quantity of complaints are inversely proportional to the experience level of the complainer. Not always......but often.
(IOW, power users typically complain way less about the software than new users. And if they do complain, it's constructive and not just a rant.)
PEBKAC
PEBKAC, first time I hear that. In french we call it an issue 18 inches in front of the monitor.
Upon training users, I've noticed it doesn't pertain to their skillset but their general mentality. Some people are open to change, some aren't.
If people cant add anything other than "you must be stupid" insinuations... please jog on.
Must be great with that feeling of all knowing self importance and looking down on the small people.
And yep ...... you've mightily pi$$ed me off with the condescending replies. Little wonder people are so reluctant to come into these type of forums.
Have a nice day
Sorry you're so upset. If you had followed the advice of us "condescending people" you wouldn't be so triggered. You still have the opportunity to back out and start a new question......and a fresh outlook on life.
Also, I have a hunch that this site may be one of the more respectful places on the internet. There are plenty of places where crocodile skin is a daily requirement.
Michael Miller wrote:
Sorry you're so upset. If you had followed the advice of us "condescending people" you wouldn't be so triggered. You still have the opportunity to back out and start a new question......and a fresh outlook on life.
Also, I have a hunch that this site may be one of the more respectful places on the internet. There are plenty of places where crocodile skin is a daily requirement.
Yeah, microcontroller bit-twiddlers tend to use acronyms about the manual that would get me kicked out of here.
I have got to say I am with the OP on this one. I have been administrating SWX since 2006 and there have been some real doosies released by "The Company" over the years and I certainly empathize. I actually found this post because I was waiting for SP2 before going to 2021 and wanted to see what experience others had so I did a search. I want to hear when people have both good and bad experiences so I can make a more informed decision.
Steve
Steven Dod wrote:
I have got to say I am with the OP on this one. I have been administrating SWX since 2006 and there have been some real doosies released by "The Company" over the years and I certainly empathize. I actually found this post because I was waiting for SP2 before going to 2021 and wanted to see what experience others had so I did a search. I want to hear when people have both good and bad experiences so I can make a more informed decision.
Steve
We started Solidworks on 2019 SP4 (So I've been attempting the task since fall of '19, far fewer years than you. ) A few strays installed SP5 then had problems and had to wait for hotfix or uninstall. What I am concerned about, as the guy that's supposed to make this software work so others can be productive, is how to test whichever version we would go to before the update. Since there have been SPx.1 and hotfixes for any SP there is no "perfect" release. The question isn't, "Which release is safe to use?" It's "Which release has the best chance of producing an ROI after the full cost of updating is considered, testing, planning, new licensing (SQL licenses for PDM Pro now), and others have been factored in?"
That's where I'm at with it.
Just installed 2021 SP2 on laptop and desktop.
No problem yet.
No PDM.
All non-certified hardware
We will be going on 2.0 this week... SP 1 has been ok, a few hiccups but not bad for what we do here
I might be wrong about this but it seems like a lot of people posting issues with SW21 relate to PDM. Although we haven't updated from SW20 yet I sometimes wonder if the reason we seem to have fewer issues with any version is that we don't use PDM here at the shop I work for as you indicate that you don't either. We have seven users with their own license and work over our network from a common server. Since most of the time we are each working on our own projects collaboration is not an issue and we have practices in place to make sure we don't end up with duplicate file names. We have libraries on the server of commonly used purchased components. Working over the network gives a little bit of a performance hit but it isn't crippling.
We have looked at going to a PDM system several times but have always concluded that for us the added complexity and administration necessary would not be that valuable. We mostly do one-off custom designs for automation and the need to reuse existing things from past projects isn't really an issue but if that is needed we just do a pack & go from the old project to the new one to use it.
Anyone else working like this? Or is using PDM the norm for most places with multiple users?
Richard Lundy - Here we are pushing for PDM, with SW being only part of the equation. Most "People" relate to PDM as a SolidWorks Only Data Management, here I look at the SW being only a small percentage of our Data.
PDM = Process Data Management - so all your files can run through the PDM system. We are now a company that has multiple locations and that creates another issue in the data structure, especially if there is no data management structure...
Again - PDM is for more than SW
John,
Re have a software package called ETO which does perform a lot of PDM type functions. We export our BOM's to it and purchasing and fabrication then process them as needed and it allows us to keep track of where items are in the process.
Well I'm glad I checked this thread. Off topic aside. We have been using PDM for nine years now. The OP is correct, over the last 15 years I've been administrating SW, the level of unintended functionality has been growing. In some respects its an off shoot of trying to be all things to all people. Back in 2017 I even wrote an open letter to SW asking them to not give us new functionality for a year. take a year and get all the current modules working at 100%. My Open Letter to Solidworks and Our Future tog... | SOLIDWORKS Forums
My VAR, a few years back advised us to wait until SP 4.0, then go up to 5.0 then wait until next years 4.0. My issue with that is, when you run into a bug, and you always do, SW is all about the next years release. You can't get any bug fixing done on last years release. So it's a kind of a damned if you do damned if you don't proposition.
We went from 2021 SP1 to 2021 SP2 last night. Now we can't open any older files without SolidWorks crashing to desktop. Not sure yet where the cutoff is for "older", but we have files that we use regularly that were created in 97-98. VAR has been working on it with us all day so far. Hopefully we can figure something out.
He'll tell you that every file that isn't created from 2021 is using outdated templates and then say that you need to recreate them with the correct templates. This isn't 2021 related from my understanding. They'll also refuse to explain how it relates to the template and why the file which was working in previous versions won't work in a new one.
The analogy that I would use is to buy a new car, and then every year add things to the car and sometimes make big changes to it. After many many years, it would be understandable if after one of your changes for the car to have issues. This is the same with templates inside of SOLIDWORKS. The file is built on a set of code and every year SOLIDWORKS is changing the code and adding new features to it and eventually after many years, issues can arise. Files that are only a few years old would be unreasonable to say that they need to be rebuilt in a new template. But files that are 20+ years old would be expected to start running into issues. That is the reason that every year you should be making new templates.
Just a reminder that you don't have to upgrade to a new version if you don't want to.
So are we saying that if I have a total of 2000 files split between assy, part & dwg I need to re-create them from scratch using the current applicable templates? aka default Assy, Part & Dwg files.
Josh,
Tell me then how other companies, that some are even in direct competition with SolidWorks, manage to get this done?
The analogy would be better fit if it was your car's dealership who switched things around and messed things up and then told you it's your problem because your car is too old for the original components to exist.
I read your post twice and it still makes no sense.
(Hint: we can't read your mind...)