Solidworks 2009 Beta Ends. Pre-release begins.

August 4th was the official end of the beta program for Solidworks 2009.  Overall the program was executed just as Solidworks said it was going to be.  Cut down from 15 weeks to 8 weeks, this years program looks to have still garnered quite a bit of participation, and based on my observations, took into account way more direct user feedback than past beta periods.

Major changes were made to the software based on the input of participants in the forums through out the program.  This type of direct interaction between Solidworks and its users should only continue to benefit the entire Solidworks community for the foreseeable future.

The team at Solidworks managing the beta program did a very good job in dealing with issues along the way as they arose.  You could tell there was a desire on their part to get things fixed, and changed as quickly as they could.  Looming over their heads was the fact that there were a few people participating that have a rather large following in the Solidworks Community.  This meant that every move would be scrutinized, and every failure would be magnified.  I think they handled it real well.

If I were to give them a score of how well this years beta program was executed where 1 is a complete failure, and 10 is perfect, I would give them a 9 overall.  The two biggest areas I think need fixing for next year are the SR submission interface, and the fact that more of the people in Concord need to get involved online in the forums.  It was nice to see people like Jim Wilkenson, Sal Lama and a few other folks in the forums taking the brunt of the criticism at times, but there should be a push to get more direct involvement where possible.  And just to hit on it again, I hope they really take a look at implementing a different method of submitting service requests next year.

It's hard to imagine that its been two months since Beta 1 was released, and now today we have pre-release 1!  It was fun getting to participate, and I look forward to next year!  Thanks again to the team behind the scenes at Solidworks that make this program available to all of us, and for putting up with the comments and discussion, who will ever forget the magnifying glass thread!

So for now, stay tuned for the rest of the month to see a new Solidworks 2009 feature explained everyday, and head over to the customer portal to download Solidworks 2009 pre-release 1.