Then Solidworks 2009 will fix that for you. A commenter to the blog recently asked about adding an Apply button to the Tools > Options dialog, so once you make a change, it would get written to the Windows Registry immediately. That way if you crashed before exiting Solidworks, your changes wouldnt get lost.
I thought that was a very excellent question, so I posted it on the Solidworks forums in the User Interface section. John Sweeney who is the Senior Manager for Core User Interface Development at Solidworks provided this response about the issue:
"I took a look at this and found an inconsistency in our code. When you hit OK, we actually do write the new registry values immediately if a document is currently open. However, if you use Tools-Options with no documents open, then we don't write the values until you exit SolidWorks (the changes are kept in memory for your working session). So, if SolidWorks were to crash then the changes would not be saved to the registry, and thus the settings would not be restored on restarting SolidWorks. Does this sound like your scenario?"
He went on further to describe steps that have been taken to resolve this issue:
"This problem was fixed in SW2009 Alpha and the registry values are saved immediately on hitting OK for both scenarios. Please let me know if this doesn't cover the cases where you see lost option settings, or if you still this issue in SW 2009?"
Now I dont have a known repeatable meathod to crash Solidworks, so it's hard to test it on a moments notice. Perhaps someone who reads this will see if they experiance anything different.
Well further down in the discussion Jarod Pulo raised the same issue, but in regards to toolbar and command manager customization:
"This is also the case for toolbars and shortcut keys. We've only just installed 2008 and found that if Solidworks crashes before being closed properly they are lost as well.
Most unimpressed after tweaking hotkeys for 30 minutes."
That would be extremely frustrating! Here is John's reply to Jarod:
"Good point. It looks like we also have a similar inconsistency in the Tools Customize dialog. However, in my testing of 2008 SP3 and 2009 SP0, I found that any Menus, Keyboard or Options tab changes are saved immediately, while the Toolbars and Commands tab changes are not saved until exiting SolidWorks. Your keyboard shortcut changes should have been saved for your next session of SolidWorks even if SolidWorks crashed at some point after your changes... Do you recall if keyboard changes were lost too, or just toolbar and toolbar button (commands) changes?
I've written up SPR 457083 to address the problem with the "Toolbars" and "Commands" tab. I realize how frustrating it can be to lose all the customization work you may have done during a session... If this can be safely fixed in a 2009 service pack, we will get a fix in as soon as possible.
Thanks for your input."
That is great news if it can be done and implemented in a future service pack. I'll contine to follow along with this issue, and keep an eye out to see if this SPR makes it into a future service pack.
On a side note, this is another good example of why getting people involved in the Solidworks Forums is important. There are numerous Solidworks Employees that read the forums daily, and reply to users questions. When this issue first came to me, I figured it would be better handled in the forums, instead of screaming about it in a blog post. It seems like it worked out just right. Thanks to John Sweeney for taking the time to reply to the questions, and to also get a fix underway. This kind of direct interaction with Solidworks users is something that I hope Solidworks Management will continue to encourage. Also, thanks to the other forum members that contributed to the conversation.
If you are not already a member of the forums, head on over and get registered via The Solidworks Website.
Writters note: I appoligise for any misspelling in this post. For some reason Typad's spell check is not fucntioning today!
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