New free version ...

disappointing - but I would assume that they are focused on subscribing customers - and the new SASS offering.  

I believe we need to have a grass-roots customer session at ACE - assuming this happens in 2023.  I used to lead part of the PLM Word user community - now rolled into Siemens.  We used to do customer development projects and support roadmap planning.  

Any interest in this?  

D

Hi David,

sound interesting! In general I am happy when PLM community starts to show more activity again. In the past I just saw ACE or similar events as nice option to see some presentations and to exchange with others. But it´s not just that. These kind of events are necessary to keep the momentum - for end users AND vendors. I don´t believe Aras will discontinue the free version. It´s a signature aspect of their software since the beginning. They simply forgot about it cause focus was somewhere else - just as you said.

Innovator 12SP9 is still a solid Innovator version. It contains the most important features and no major bugs (I use 12SP7, I know what I am talking about...). 12SP9 is technically not outdated. But Aras underrates that it looks outdated when the latest version use the number "25".
The main "selling points" for a new version are from my POV not even the new features. Most of the new people who test the software will not even notice them. But they will notice something else: The outdated UI, especially regarding form design and all the other elements that weren´t updated to the new unified styling yet. This is really something that triggers people, even it´s an less important aspect compared to features (especially for a tech nerd like me).
Design is something people see and rate. 12SP9 isn´t old, but it looks old. There are too many elements that give people the feeling they travel back into the year 2000. I personally have no problem with the Innovator 11 vibes, but the first impression people get when using one of the newer Innovator versions is just so much better.

Best regards

Angela

Aras Innovator 2023 Release is ready to download now.

Thanks Yanfeng!

What a nice Christmas present from them.

They did it very quietly, the marketing is lagging behind.

Kind Regards

It is interesting that the designation is 2023. I checked, it is not the same as V23, but fix-wise at least up to the level of V23.The Release notes is a delta from the previous open version. So they are seeing it as a parallel product line.

Everything seems to be as expected, no additional limitations or additions as far as I can tell.

Thanks Yanfeng for the news! This version was definitely not there yesterday. 

But this release leaves more questions than answers. What is "Release 2023"? Thanks Riaan for doing the release notes cross check. It also looks like v23 for me. This was a extremely wise choice from Aras. Kudos, well done!

Most important reason: It contains the patch for F-005730 (Fixed several similar bugs that were related to changing an item's lock status with an old generation open.). Funny, cause I often said v23 is the only one of the new versions I would use. Without this patch I would probably have burned down Andover because I wouldn´t have seen any other way to express my hurt feelings. Thanks Aras for paying attention to this detail - intentionally or unintentionally.

Release 2023 doesn´t contain "Copy Grid Cell to Clipboard" patch from Release 24. But: This is not a uncommon customization, so this very useful feature should be more or less easy to rebuild. Bug fixes from Release 25 are more relevant for very large implementations, so nothing I would miss right now. So Aras really made a excellent choice by not providing the latest version, but the latest version that makes sense to average community. 

Not sure if the whole version was rushed after this discussion started up again. All documents have the date 19th December. But I expect more marketing promotion in spring. Right now many people prepare for holiday season, not for update.

Big question: What about application compatibility? Haven´t checked Aras Update tool yet. And note that there is a new license agreement. I don´t expect much changes, but it´s better to be on the save side regarding legal topics.

I will test it out beginning 2023. Let me hear your test results if any of you made some test already!

Short update regarding applications: They haven´t forgotten them!

This day just get´s better! 

Second update: There are no specific languages packs for release 2023. But we high-likely can reuse regular packs. For German v22 should work.

The link to language packs on the homepage currently doesn´t seem to work. I wasn´t able to select a specific language. But you can access the pages via search machine.

this is part of the new release strategy post v14 - apps are all supposed to work for all releases. 

Unless you are scrapping the Aras apps and building your own - in which case you need a good CICD process to manage the updates with custom reworks.  

"Without this patch I would probably have burned down Andover"