RANT: Inventor 2013 Is The Flakiest Version I've Ever Used!

[brian.cranston]

I've been using Inventor since ~2005. I have 14 years of solid modeling experience.  I've never seen so many crazy, unexplainable feature errors than this year. 

• Once a sketch was consumed, the sketch lost coincidence constraints and went open loop.
• Sketches that can't "extrude distance".
• Today's whopper- I'm totally hosed by a can't save this segment or that object of type error- hours of work is shot.

I know, I should have saved more often.

Anybody else have this same feeling this year?  I really hope 2014 is better.  I can't wait for it's first service pack so I can move onto it.

-Brian Cranston

[SeanFarr]

I have had about 10 instant inventor crashes today, I use 2014, I am working with very simple models, maybe 20 features, nothing that crazy, not even assembly files, just single parts. The screen closes and the send error report pops up. I simply close them. I used to fill them out, and the typical response was please send the data-set. Well I don't have the data-set, because Inventor crashed before I could save the data. I do save quite often, but you can't predict when the crash will occur, so what good is the data set, if it isn't up to point right before the crash.

I typically just pick up where I left off, which isn't usually that far from where the crash happened.

The software is is great and has some cool features, but don't ever expect a "bug/flaky" free program. Haha,

I expect the worst, so when a day goes by with no issues or weird error responses, it's a good day.

Cheers, it's Friday,

[jdavis417]

“If you want me again look for me under your bootsoles.
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, 
But I shall be good help to you nevertheless 
And filter and fiber your blood.
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop some where waiting for you” 
― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

Brian,

     I tried to contact you through the Beta forums with some (actually pertinent) Whitman quotes.  Did you ever get them?  Our humble moderator saw fit to intercept them, I think.  While that person obviously didn't "get it", you might have.

     I choose Whitman's 'Leaves of Grass" as a play on your name and the TV series 'Breaking Bad'.  I often speak in puns, analogies and draw upon art and cultural references in my posts.  Let he who hath understanding... right? 😉

“O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

..."

I am very concerned about the bugginess of the last several releases!!  I see things that aren't broken being moved to less convenient localtions (more clicks) and being told "that's where they belong".  I notice un-polished bells and whistles that do not increase my productivity.  Is anyone at the wheel on this ship of parametric rules?  I'm no 'Learn'd Astronomer', but you must lay down the sextant in order to complete the journey by pulling up to the dock!  I'm not sure what star Autodesk has sighted in on but surely there's a horizon out there?  I dunno... it's awfully dark.

Yours in Good, Clean Fun,

John Davis

[jdavis417]

So, rant??? I'm in!!!!
To twist that first quote into another, "I smell what you're stepping in".
The reason I'm searching the DG late-night Friday is that I am agonizing on the craziness and inconsistent behaviour of my previously beloved 2012 version and considering if I should advance to a later release. When I find the Knowledge Base posts, pinned to the top of the list, and see that there are installation issues with "other Autodesk products" I don't get warm, fuzzy feeling. Why do keep lumping all that stuff together? How many of your great, new software features are never supported and quickly abandoned? How many products (Autocad Mechanical... or Autocad for people who don't know how to use Autocad, as I like to call it) and modules (ahem, Frame Generator) will you buy up from the (former) competition and never integrate nor develop?
Please stop the yearly-release-cycle madness. Take the time to fix what you know is broken, inconsistent and/or buggy THEN move on the more-fully-developed and more-fully-supported (and more-fully-thought-out) great, new thing. Please and thank you!

[jletcher]

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Inventor-IdeaStation/Don-t-add-anything/idi-p/3685008