SolidWorks

One of the main reasons I configured my laptop the way I did (Uber powerful with the best graphics card Dell offers) was not so I could WoW into the wee hours of the night but because I knew I’d be using programs like SolidWorks to do drafting in college. $2,600 later I was primed and ready to draft my heart out. Then came an unhappy realization: I had ordered my laptop with the best version of Windows Vista, Windows Vista Ultimate. Guess what’s not compatible with Vista! SolidWorks.

This posed a problem because I couldn’t use my laptop for the one thing I designed it for. I began exploring the SolidWorks website and doing some research and discovered that they are coming out with a Vista compatible version in 2008. That means MIT won’t get the license for it until 2009, my junior year. This isn’t good. My solution to this whole issue was to just wait until 2008, bite the $90 bullet, and buy the Vista version, not willing to wait a year for the free MIT license.

I’ve been mulling over this whole situation for quite a while and decided that I’d try SolidWorks 2006 on my laptop, even though it isn’t technically Vista compatible. Turns out, SolidWorks Co. lied to me! It works, fine! There are probably some technical issues deep down that mess with some stuff I’ll never use, but the basics and everything I’d ever use work like a charm! The proof is in the picture:



See my pretty little LEGO blocks? I’ll build something cool soon and show you. Until then, don’t let The Man tell you what’s compatible and what’s not!