Is it worth upgrading from 2008 to 2009??

[liberian]

What is your upgrade strategy?

Do you upgrade every year? Skip years? Don't bother upgrading, just buy a new licence every few years?

Decide depanding on what modifications there are?

I bought 2008 in July last year and now wonder ....

[panta rhei]

I don't think you need to upgrade now (you are just starting to use CAD, aren't you?), but in future the most sensible strategy is to get every upgrade. Skipping a year doesn't save much money since the next upgrade will be more expensive that way and there are nice things in every version.

However, I must say that the new 12-month version cycle is a bit too fast to my humble taste (or is it my slow pedalling?)

[j.christ]

In my case I like keeping up to date every year. However, with the next upgrade I am going to wait 4-6 months, as SP's should have been released to iron out any bugs.

Additional comment...

Maybe NNA will get the message when all their uses wait 6-12 months to purchase the next version/upgrade. We all know that NNA rely on us to help develop their software.

Edited January 15, 2009 by j.christ

[monkey]

i agree with with both J & P, but due to VW using a new 3D kernal etc in 2009 i think it would be better to wait until 2010, as more of the bugs and oversights will have been ironed out.

I think it also depends on what module you use in VW, i like you use landmark and renderworks, and have scoured the forums on what people think of landmark in 2009, and to be honest it doesnt seem like there has been a huge leap in what you can do with landmark, so i have decided to wait until 2010 or 2011 before i upgrade, depending on what changes and improvements are made. I have been waiting for ages for them to do something with ZVI analysis as the current one is pretty poor, so as soon as i see that on the list then i will be upgrading

[holsteinson]

There are too many bugs to be eliminate yet on VW2009 wait until SP3 at least

my oppinion is that from the added new/improved features it is not worthy to upgrade for 08 to 09

[Christiaan]

We've decided to wait for a number of reasons but one major reason is NNA's decision not to fix critical bugs in current versions but, instead, to role such bug fixes into the next version.

The rational response to this, you might think, is to upgrade and take the fix but then you should expect a new critical bug that will crop up and then never be fixed until the next version.

This is a horrible way to work because such bugs are a moving target and you can never expect them to be fixed in the version that you own. So our response to this has been to decide to sit on v2008 because we've learnt to work around the major bug in it for us (a problem with circular referencing). Know thy enemy, as they say.

[liberian]

Thanks. Yes, I am new to CAD, very new indeed and I find it somewhat painful. There are no tutors in the Czech Republic, nobody seem to use VW Landmark. There is a local program available, but I thought VW was better ....

anyway, sorry for the runt and thanks for your help!!

[GWS]

I upgraded quite soon after the release of 2009 and now think I might have been a bit hasty. I use machine design and in my opinion there is not much to upgrade for. (e.g. 3d filleting which is a really pain)

There were some real problems with the bolt tool, some of which were fixed but not until SP2 and I still have issues with 3D hole, tapped hole and bolts realigning themselves to the ground plane on an intermitant basis even inside a solid subtraction.