2013 Beta Program Improvements
In addition to the many user-driven enhancements in SolidWorks 2013, we have also focused on implementing your feedback about the Beta Program itself. We appreciate the valuable time you invest in testing SolidWorks software, and the changes are designed to help you get the most out of the program.
Give us your feedback on the changes we have made to this year’s Beta Program.
New Beta Site Web Experience
Complete overhaul of the Beta web site to create a single site user experience. The new site includes improved Beta Sign Up, SR creation, downloads, Leader Board, Forum access, and Beta SR file attachment process. Customers can log in using their Customer Portal accounts. Resellers and Partners can also log in here using their VRC or Partner Portal accounts.
Simplified Problem Reporting
You can begin capturing your problem using SolidWorks Rx and then go to a new, simplified SR submission form that will automatically populate fields.
Resellers and Partners can also use their existing VRC and Partner Portal accounts to log into the Customer Portal for an improved Beta experience.
Enterprise PDM Vault upgrade
You can now continue to use vaults created using Beta 1 in Beta 2 and Beta 3. This allows you to continue testing Betas 2 and 3 by preserving the contents of the local or SolidWorks hosted vault that you created with Beta 1.
SolidWorks Upgrade Assistant
This year we are including the Upgrade Assistant with SolidWorks Beta 1, Beta 2, and Beta 3. We encourage all Beta Testers to use this tool to analyze how a sample of your data performs and rebuilds in SolidWorks 2013.
Please share your feedback with us by submitting service requests and participating in the forum discussions about it. We want to know how your files perform and what you think of the Upgrade Assistant itself.
Other Changes and Enhancements
- Increased the overall duration of the SolidWorks 2013 Beta program to 11 weeks, and added one more release; Beta 1 (4 weeks), Beta 2 (4 weeks), and Beta 3 (3 weeks).
- The SolidWorks Background Downloader will notify you when a new Beta release is available and give you the option to download it.
- R&D staff will be more involved with forum discussions to help answer questions and discuss your User Experience feedback.
- R&D staff will be more involved with forum discussions to help answer questions and discuss your User Experience feedback.
- A substantially more advanced crash data analysis allows more accurate determination of the conditions that caused the crash, making it easier to reproduce and then fix.