SolidWorks 2009 Task Scheduler - File Conversion

I want to thank Todd Trein, Territory Technical Manager at SolidWorks, for sending me this email regarding File Conversion and Task Scheduler functionality in 2009. Hope this helps some of you out with clarification!

(excerpt from Todd's email below.....)

It is correct that the file conversion functionality is now part of the task scheduler in SolidWorks 2009. This does not mean that users with only a core license of SolidWorks can no longer access file conversion functionality. Users that do not have Premium or Professional will get the task scheduler with the ability to only run a single task: file conversion. There are many benefits to the file conversion functionality in SolidWorks 2009.

1. As a function of being part of the task scheduler users can schedule file conversions to take place at times when they are not using their machines.
2. The task schedule will automatically start up subsequent scheduled file conversions of additional folders. The old conversion wizard will only convert a single folder (and its sub-folders or reference folders) or group of files.
3. The new file conversion functionality converts files in the correct order so that no file is converted before its references, ie, parts are converted first, then the sub-assemblies that reference those parts, then the higher level assemblies that reference the sub-assemblies and finally the drawings of the assemblies will be converted. With the current conversion wizard files are converted in some order in the directory (I think it is in alphabetical order.) This presents the problem where the conversion wizard will attempt to convert a top level assembly when its references have not been converted.
4. The new file conversion functionality has better memory management capabilities so that it forces SolidWorks to shut down when memory consumption reaches a certain point. Traditionally the conversion wizard would continue until SolidWorks actually crashed due to an out of memory error then restart and often skip the conversion of the files that were being converted during the crash.