Mike Puckett's Blog

Ready, Set...........Go!

Well if you were hoping to be the person whose name gets announced at Solidworks World 2008 for being the first to register, you have by now probably missed your chance.  But why not be one of the first?

As I wrote about a few weeks ago, Solidworks World was quickly approaching.  Well now its official, the Solidworks World 2008 Website is now live.  Here is a break down on some of the highlights:

• Early bird pricing #1 ends Sept 28th
• Early bird pricing #2 ends Dec 14th
• 3 for 2 pricing is back again
• CSWP & CSWA exams will be offered

So why attend?  Well until you go, it's hard to describe.  This event is so much more than a user conference.  Its a 3-4 day blur at times where the days aren't long enough, and you can't seem to write fast enough! 

Is it beneficial?  150% YES.  Let's look at it from a purely training stand point.  While the training available from the VAR's is good, it's not like being at Solidworks World.  the Var Training will cover whatever topics the training course is outlined to cover.  At SWWorld, you choose the agenda, by selecting which topics you want to attend.  Cost.  VAR training runs $1000+, SWWorld is $695, and $995 at it's most expensive which is still cheaper!

So how do you convince your boss to send you?  Well if you work for yourself, I will let you struggle with your inner self as to how to determine that.  If you work for a company, the best place to start is here: Boss's Justification Letter.   There you will find five different form letters to use to sway the upper management guys to send you.  I also offer to my usergroup members to have their bosses to call me personally, and I will discuss it with them.  So maybe you might want to look up a local usergroup meeting.  SWWorld is basically a huge usergroup meeting except it has much more fun off site activities!

For educators, there is a flat fee of $495 to attend the entire event.  You are not subject to any pricing deadlines.  Education is normally highlighted throughout the conference is different themes.

So how about the fun stuff?

Well unfortunately there will be no Super bowl party this year.  The conference falls on the weekend between the last playoff games, and the big game.  So that pretty much means Sunday evening will be free and open.  Monday night offers an off site event for all Certified SolidWorks Professionals in attendance.  If you aren't certified, you can take the test on Sunday, and if you pass, you get to go to the event!  I got to go for the first time last year, and lets just say there is no shortage of drinks or food!  And then of course there is the big event!  The Tuesday night off site event.  I am sure that the SW team will deliver another quality event filled with fun, food, drinks and games.

So how much is it going to set you back?  Here is an image to give you a quick look:

So hopefully I will get to see some of you there.  For those that do attend, stop me to introduce yourself, it's always fun to meet new people.  If anyone is having a hard time convincing your boss as to why you should go, feel free to have them send me an email, I will do what I can to help change his mind!

One of the Nicest Guy's I Ever Met....

So there I was, sitting in the second row in a packed convention hall in Caesars Palace Las Vegas at Solidworks World 2006.  It was barely a month after hosting the first inaugural meeting of the Los Angeles Solidworks Usergroup.  Among the sights and sounds and the over 3,500 people, sitting right in front of me is Jon McEleney, the C.E.O. of Solidworks.  Just a day earlier, I got to hear from Jon in an up close small meeting of user group leaders.  During that meeting, Jon offered to attend any of our meetings and speak.  So as I see him thumbing through his PDA, I start to think that I could ask him, and see what happens.  Whats the worst that can happen?  So after a few minutes of going back and forth in my mind, I get up, walk around to him and introduce myself.  Instantly Jon greets me like an old friend.  And once I mention being a group leader, he thanks me for being a part of the community, and asking how can he help me out.  So I remind him of the offer he made the day before.  He simply grabs his business card, hands it to me, and tells me to send him an email, and he will make sure to get it set up.  Two months later, I'm sitting in a meeting room watching Jon speak to 60 members of our group.

Here is a guy that heads up a multi million dollar company, yet he comes across and speaks to you like he is an everyday CAD user, and thats because he is.  This is what separates Jon from everyone else.  He took the time to make sure he could make it out to our group to speak to some users.  Prior to that meeting, I had received an email from a user that was frustrated with a feature that wouldn't work the way he needed it too.  I told him to make sure he showed up, and that there would be someone that he could complain to.  After the meeting I introduced that guy to Jon, and the next thing I knew, they are sitting there on a laptop recreating the guys issue.  After a few minutes, Jon looks up from behind the screen, looks to the tech support guys in attendance, and says "he's right, its a bug."  He then reaches into his pocket, grabs a business card, and tells the guy that the problem will get passed along to the correct people, and be fixed.

Fast forward to Solidworks World 2007 in New Orleans.  After a day of excellent sessions, I make my way back to my hotel.  As I"m leaving the conference center, I see Jon sitting with a fellow usergroup leader, and they are looking at a laptop.  No doubt, Jon is once again consumed in Solidworks, trying to fix something, or make something better.  It instantly reminds me of his tech support he gave to our member at our meeting.  I am once again reminded just how much this guy loves his job, and how much more he loves interacting with the people that use it.

Recently on Roopinder Tara's Blog, a story was posted announcing that Jon would be stepping down as C.E.O. of Solidworks at the end of 2007.  When I first read it, it was almost unreal.  I have seen how passionate this guy is about Solidworks.  Take a few minutes and read the story over at Roopinder's blog, and you will quickly see just how much of a nice guy Jon really is, and his reason for stepping down.

I like to think that introducing myself to Jon that morning set in motion what is now referred to as his 'Annual Usergroup Tour'.  After he appeared at our meeting, I got a few emails asking how I got him to show up.  My answer was simple "I just asked him." 

So Jon, thanks for being so cordial to myself, and for taking the time to come out and speak at our meeting.  I would like to let you know that tomorrow night we will announce that we will be naming you an honorary permanent member of the Los Angeles Solidworks Usergroup.  To this day I still hear conversations among the members about how they couldn't believe he came to speak to them.  I'm sure your position will be left in good hands with Jeff Ray, but you will be missed by many. 

I look forward to bumping into you next year in San Diego, and if you ever need a vacation out to Sunny So California, you are always welcome as a permanent member of the Los Angeles Solidworks Usergroup.

It's Beginning To Look Alot Like Christmas...

Well not really, especially here in So Calif with our 100° temps!  It is how ever starting to look like Solidworks World 2008!  Ah yes, Summer is in full swing, most of our fingers survived the 4th of July, and the lazy days of summer seem to drift on by.  So that can only mean one thing:  The call for papers for Solidworks 2008!  Oh yes, it's time to crack open Power Point, and dust off those notes and start to get your presentation going!

I have always wanted to present at SW World, but it seems as if there is just never enough time to prepare something, and even if I could, there isn't enough time to squeeze a session in with all the other excellent sessions going on.  Next year will be no exception.  With Usergroup related meetings, interviews for the blog, and lurking in the shadows to ambush Solidworks execs to get a meeting visit commitment from them, there wont be much time.  But who knows, there are others that do it, so maybe it's time to bite the bullet and do it!  Besides, wouldn't it look cool to have four ribbons hanging off my conference badge!

Anyhow, for the real presenters, you can find all you need at this LINK , and who knows, maybe I will get some time to put something snazzy together.  Besides, it's only 194 days until we once again all get to gather once again.

Relations & Sketching in 2008

In it's effort to allow users to focus more time on their work, as opposed to focusing on software interaction, Solidworks has added functionality to it's sketching interface to achieve that.  Mouse movements on the screen can take up time, and multiple tool bars can take up valuable screen space.  Also if you have your tool bars laid out in a certain manner, and go to a different users station, how hard does it become to then use their tool layout?

In 2008, many of the common sketching tools used now appear by simply clicking on a line, or in the case of relations, they appear by clicking on multiple lines.

In thins picture I simply control clicked two lines, and this new menu popped up.  As you can see I'm hovering over the collinear selection.  Also available to me are horizontal, vertical, parallel, equal, and fixed.  In 2007 I'm forced to control click, then move my mouse over to the feature tree area to add a relation, or use the right click method and search for the relation I want in the huge pop-up menu that appears.  They have taken that method, and refined it down to do what you want it too for the most part.

Are rectangles always horizontal or vertical?  Of course not.  So why have we been forced to only be able to sketch them that way for so long?  Well relief is on the way in 2008:

In 2008 you will find a new option for sketching rectangles.  Currently there are 5 available, and if new ones are suggested, hopefully they will get implemented.  My favorite is the center rectangle.  So much easier and quicker than sketching it the old way.  Again, allowing me to spend more time on my work as opposed to the cad interface.

So these are a couple of the many sketch interface enhancements available.  Many more are included, and are sure to be featured here, or on the other blogs.

On a side note, the Beta for 2008 is winding down.  The contest for prizes officially ended a few weeks back.  I was awarded a whopping 6 points total for my bug submissions!  I obviously don't participate for the reason of discovering bugs.  I mainly do it just to monkey around with the new features.  Beta 4 is now available but it has an expiration date of July 13th during activation, which leads me to believe the fun with 2008 is just about over.  As far as pre-release being available?  No word on that yet.  So far the only unconfirmed dates I have heard from anyone at Solidworks is a late Sept or early Oct beginning for the VAR roll outs!  Hopefully that moves up a tad earlier!  If I hear anything different, I will be sure to post it here.

If there is an area of 2008 you may have seen on a webcast or other blog, and you want to see a more detailed explanation of it, submit a comment, and I will try to get something posted about it with in the guidelines available to me!

Taking a Weekend Off....

Being as how work has been crazy, its nice to get away and relax for a day.  Recently Scuba diving has been a good way of spending a day relaxing.  So here are a few pictures and a video from yesterday:

Here is a video of a close up fly by of a good size Bat Ray:

Youtube Video

And here is the same Ray sitting in the sand:

The rest of the pictures can be found here:

Scuba Pictures

So thats a quick glimpse into a day off and away from the real world.  Tomorrow, back to the real world and a busy week with meetings, user group meeting, and more SW 2008 stuff!

Solidworks Responds......

For those that don't get a chance to click on and read the comments posted by blog readers, I went ahead and copied and pasted one that I got from Mark Biasotti from Solidworks in response to the last blog about the video card issues with 2008.  When I originally wrote that post, I was hoping to get a response from someone at Solidworks, and it worked.  I am pleasantly surprised by his response, and what Mark had to say.  I have always believed that Solidworks does whatever it can to make their software as friendly to its users in anyway they can.  When you have a product that is being used by over a half a million people though, its hard to please every single one even as hard as they try to do.  So based on that, I'm sure there are some reading this that believe Solidworks isn't listening to them!

Anyhow, I was glad to read that Solidworks is working on certifying additional graphics cards for 2008.  It's one thing to replace a $10 keyboard due to compatibility issues, but graphics cards is a whole different issue.  What seems to be the biggest road block is the issue of your graphics card ability to use Shader Model 2.0  For those that have a few free minutes, and are somewhat technical, visit this site to see if your card supports it.  The site is somewhat geeky, but you may be able to wade through it (disclaimer: I didn't attempt it since I did'nt feel geeky enough).  Otherwise, for now lets wait and see what happens between now and the launch in a few months!

Quoted from comments:

Mike,

Good article, and yes it is okay to post this info on graphics cards since we want users to see this list and it was published and posted even before Beta started.
A few of our development people and myself are responsible for publishing that list and we will certainly be updating it with more cards that meet the requirements of 2008. There are three points I want to make; One, the new capabilities of RealView 2008 can easily be switched on and off and should be viewed as "value added". For users that do not want these new features, and from the sounds of it on forums there are a group of customers that do not want them, they don't have to have them and can simply turn off the RealView icon and they will not suffer any performance over 2007 regardless of whether they have a certified 2008 card or not. Also bare in mind, that the new graphics and UI of 2008 are only a small part of enhancements that we've put into 2008 (in case the argument of wanting something that we did not ask for comes up) Two, like auto companies in the 40's, in the past couple years, the graphics card market has consolidated to only 2 major players, NVIDIA and ATI. So this will, in many ways, make it easier for us and the SW customer to help choose the right card because there will not be a ton of cards to try to determine the right features from. Three, we are not the only industry that is affected by the software/hardware dependency. Take for instance, my 15 year old son, who plays video games. I can only go about 3 months until he comes to me complaining that his latest game is running slow, graphically, or not supporting visualization features due to the fact that the 4 month old “state-of-the-art” graphics card is not longer STA.
Once Shader model 2.0 is supported by the majority of cards coming from ATI and NVIDIA, regardless of price range, this whole issue of 2008 graphics will become mute; and I would guess that to be within 8 to 10 months max.

Regards

Mark Biasotti
SolidWorks Corporation