Mike Puckett's Blog

Solidworks World Video Interviews

So even though 99.9% of the non-blogging press were shall we say, boring, the press room still had its highlights.  On one particular afternoon, Jeremy Luchini was being interviewed about the Solidworks Certification Program and he had a surfboard in tow.  I was asked (or more like prodded into) joining an interview with Nancy Buchino, Solidworks Public Relations Specialist, about the surfboard that had been signed by a few hundred CSWP's at Solidworks.  I guess they needed to bring down the level of attractiveness in the video, so here I am joining Nancy to explain a little about the surfboard.

CadJunky Interview

The Difference Of C.E.O.’s

Last week during Solidworks World I wrote about Solidworks C.E.O. Jeff Ray's personal interaction with his companies customers. Today I attended the Pacific Design Show in Anaheim. Among other CAD companies in attendance was Alibre. I had started noticing these little bags of popcorn prominently displayed all around the Autodesk booth:

Upon closer inspection, it was actually a bag with an Alibre logo on it. So off I headed in search of this Alibre. When I found the booth, I found the source of the bags, and decided to see what they had to offer that they felt it right enough to produce such interesting popcorn containers. As I was checking out their demo video, a gentleman walked up and started asking one of the booth attendees about their software. The popcorn, combined with a show special software price of $495, was certainly a draw. Anyhow, back to the guy. Having the benefit of anonymity, I listened in to the conversation and the questions being answered. There was one that really stuck out. The guy asked how it worked. So the guy from Alibre explained it this way. He said that Alibre was different from Solidworks and Inventor in one major way, Alibre was a parametric based system, and the others were not! He explained than in Solidworks and Inventor, you had to draw things to the exact dimension, and in Alibre, you sketched it, and then sized it. So after the guy took his free 30-day demo CD and walked away, I introduced myself to the guy from Alibre. Now this wasn't just any guy, he was Alibre C.E.O. Greg Milliken. So after telling him I was a Solidworks C.S.W.P., User Group Leader, and Blogger, I called him on his comment about Solidworks not being a parametric based system. Needless to say Mr. Milliken was a bit speechless. He tried to explain away his comments to the booth visitor by saying that wasn't what he really meant to say, yet he had said it, and the guy had walked off none the wiser. I next asked him to explain to me what benefits I would see by switching from Solidworks, to Alibre. Choosing his words carefully, he explained that Alibre wasn't meant to target power Solidworks users like myself, but to provide a similar software package for what he called the bottom of the pyramid. He knew he really couldn't slide any more sales pitch stuff my way, so he offered me his business card (just minutes after telling the previous guy he was out of cards), and asked me if I would like a demo CD to play with for 30 days. So I took my CD, and off I went.

The comparison I'm trying to make here is the drastic difference between someone like Jeff Ray, and this guy. While Jeff Ray may be a tiny bit on the stiff side, one thing that is evident is his passion for delivering a product that he can be proud of. He shows that he doesn't need smooth lines, or sales pitches to sell his product. He lets the product speak for itself. This guy from Alibre has obviously only tried to copy what Solidworks does, but he should also take a look at how to create a product that won't require tricky sales lines, or crafty popcorn containers to be successful. So Mr. Milliken if you somehow come across this article, I ask you this: how do you say "Alibre is the future of 3D CAD", and that "The guard is changing" in this blog post, but then tell me your product isn't aimed at a user like me? Maybe Alibre should stick to popcorn bags.

Anyhow, a few more pics from the show:

Where's popcorn? Can you spot the bag in the Autodesk booth?

It looks as if there were two guys at the show who thought Digital Prototyping was a new term from this century!

A New Way To Find Me

In an effort to be cool like CadFanatic, SolidSmack, Matt Speaks, Ricky Jordan, and Rob Rodriguez, I figured it was time to get an ultra easy to remember web address like those guys.  So starting today, you can easily find my blog at www.mikescadblog.com from any computer in the world (except maybe Iran and China).

So tell your friends, update your links, and continue stop by from time to time to follow my rants, raves, and reviews!  Big thanks to Patrick Cook, Web Guru extraordinair, for getting the logistics figured out for those of us that are not so savvy in the web inner workings!

A Post Solidworks World Gift

Just a week after the big show in San Diego, Solidworks has given its users another gift.  No, Microsoft didn't get jealous and decide to send out 4,000 Zune's in response to the iPod give-a-way.  Solidworks today released service pack 2.1 for 2008.  Just a few weeks after 2.0 was released this new mini service pack comes directly to everyone skipping over early visibility.  This is the third .1 service pack for 2008 following .1 and 1.1  Visit the customer portal to get your download going.

Solidworks Technical Summits Coming To A City Near You

If you want to get some top notch training in Solidworks, and you have $40 to spend, the Solidworks User Group Network Technical Summits are for you!  This year the 10 city 1-day tour kicks off in Orlando Florida on March 18th, and even includes an international stop in India (thats 1,574.68 Rupee's at todays exchange rate)! 

These 1-day events feature break out sessions on predetermined topics like drawings, photoworks, assemblies, and other including a regional session selected by an area user group leader to fit local wants and needs.  The sessions are presented by Solidworks experts, and rival what you would see at a Solidworks World session.  In fact many of the presentations are from there!

Visit the link above to get information and locations, and make a trip out to one, you will learn something, and thats guaranteed!

A Pleathora Of Postings

In the Saturday to Wednesday time frame I was at Solidworks World, I posted about 25 posts dealing with the event.  As most normal people have a life, and were not able to follow along with all the posts, it was suggested I do a round up of the more interesting posts into one-liners, and then a link.  So here we go, the links to the posts:

If you want to know when next years Solidworks World is, click Here

If you want to see a sneak peak at Solidworks 2009, click Here

If you want to know what the top 10 enhancement requests at Solidworks World were, click Here

If you want to see highlights from the offsite event at The Gas Lamp, click Here

If you want to hear the Lynn Allen interview, click Here

If you want to download the file of that interview, click Here

To see highlights of Tuesdays General Session, click Here

To find out who the chumps are, click Here

To find out what CSWP's do for fun, click Here

For highlights of Monday's general session, click Here

For pictures of Sunday nights reception, click Here

To get Jeff Rays take on the status of Solidworks, click Here

To read what John Hirshtick thinks the future of CAD involves, click Here

To see that bloggers know how to have fun, click Here

And finally...

To see why I may have a better chance of getting invited to Autodesk University, instead of Solidworks World next year, click Here

And So It Ends

As quickly as Solidworks World started, it has ended.  This year I had the chance to meet and interact with lots of fun people.  I want to take a few minutes to say thanks to some people:

• Nancy Buchino and Laura Kozikowski from Solidworks-Thank you for your hospitality, and making sure I had everything I needed, you guys rock!
• Kerri Dunne and the event team at Solidworks- You guys put on one heck of a show.
• Richard Doyle from Solidworks- You keep us all inspired, and remind us all why we do it!
• Solidworks Bloggers- I have never met a more passionate group of users anywhere.
• Patrick Cook from Solidworks- Thanks for helping me get my word out there.

So thats it.  The parties are over, the drinks are gone, and San Diego says goodbye to over 4,800 attendees.  I got to meet so many users this week, and I didn't talk to one who didn't have a good time.  For those that followed along here, I hope I was able to make it feel like you were here, and possibly inspire some of you to make it next year.

For me reality restarts tomorrow morning with an all day customer meeting.  But like every year after Solidworks World, my batteries are recharged, and I'm ready for anything.

Solidworks World 2009 Dates Announced

Keep those dates open, Solidworks will take over Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin Resort for Solidworks World 2009!

Solidworks 2009 Sneak Peak

So today was the day. At the doors of the hall waiting to get in at 8:15, was the biggest crowd of all three days. In talking with a few, they were all excited to hear about what they will see in Solidworks 2009. Let me say performance was the buzzword the past three days, and today they proved its coming.

Each year the Solidworks team puts on a little skit to preview the next release. This year was "Engineers In Crisis", a Dr. Phil type talkshow dealing with engineers that have slipped over the edge after not being able to deal with P.A.S. or performance Addiction Syndrome.

First up was Tom. He noticed that things started to get real slow on his CAD system a year ago. Let's see what the doctors prescribed to help Tom deal with the large assemblies he works with.

SpeedPak technology was first up. New sliders in the speedpak interface let Tom adjust the resolution if you will of how many parts of this 560 part assembly show up on his screen. Only what's left on the screen is what gets loaded into the assembly

Next up to help Tom out, sketch enhancements.

As Tom sketches, the geometry he is drawing is automatically being dimensioned, and once he drop the line, he instantly can type in the length he wants.

The new slot tool should help ease Tom's stress. A new tool that allows you to create rectangular, or radial slots, that automatically ca themselves.

The final area to help poor Tom, was a new sheet metal functionality, Solid To Sheet Metal"

You create a solid, and Solidworks will wrap it in sheet metal, and then unfold it!

But Tom needed one more treatment, plastic tools.

New lip and groove, automatic draft and shell features, should set Tom on the road to recovery. In fact Tom now has a new name, crazy, crazy for Solidworks!

Next up was poor old Bill. Too many steps in his day to day work made him uneasy, and Bill took his rage out on his ACME coworker Bob:    

                                                                                       

                                  

                              

                              

                              

That's exactly what you see. The ability to generate a complete BOM without the need to create a drawing. Full BOM functionality is there, at the assembly level.

You can even split it off to a separate screen. Again, full BOM functions are available as shown in the second picture.

But Bill also got tired of assembly created features not carrying down to the part level, 2009 now lets him choose assembly features like cuts to carry over to the part level.

Bill also needed new sketch editing tools.

Using the new stretch tool, Bill can grab geometry, and drag them, and the dimension will automatically update, but only when using this tool. He also has the ability to type in positive or negative numbers.

The last area of frustration for Bill is the toolbox. Let's see if any of these new features help him feel better.

Changing the configuration of a washer can be done on the fly:

With Instant 3D that was new in 2008, Bill can drag the length of his toolbox items to the available configs:

Last up was Joe who needed some changes to the user interface, and Solidworks 2009 delivers:

How about the new magnifier, this allows you to zoom in on a certain area, work without needing to constantly pan and zoom.

View orientation in 2009 is also easier, click one of the arms of the triad, and the model rotates to that view.

Working with dual units has never been easier. The measure tool (and the status bar at the bottom of the screen) now supports dual units:

The command manager can now be docked like a normal toolbar on any side of the screen:

The command manager is now shorter, allowing the placement of standard tool bars at the end of it:

Some more enhancements to cables and routing:

How about ribbon cable support?

Drawings are also getting some changes, and Joe could not be happier:

Multi leader bends, you can also drag and drop chamfer, and hole call outs to other locations:

And let's not forget how excited Joe is going to be about the new title block wizard, double ckick the title block, and have direct edit access to the customizable fields, and you can write the data back to the custom properties in the model:

So that wraps up Engineers In Crisis.

One last area that was covered was performance.

Those are staggering stats! Is it true? Well they opened up an assembly on two identical machines. One was running 2008, and the other was running 2009. Once open, they inserted the assembly to a standard 3-view drawing. 2008 took nearly two minutes to complete this task while 2009 did it in well under 30 seconds!

Solidworks World 2008 Top 10 Enhancement Requests

This year Solidworks chose to use some User Group Leaders to help announce the top 10 enhancement requests.

Since 2001, Solidworks has implemented 83% of the top 10 requests year after year.

So here they are:

Solidworks will now try to implement as many of these as they can in future releases. Number 2 and 6 got the largest applause.

Solidworks Takes Over The Gas Lamp

Each Year the event management team at Solidworks has the tough task of producing a better event than the past year. Kerri Dunne and her team did a fantastic job of insuring that trend continues. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Lynn Allen Interview File

I am getting a few comments that putfile is tending to buffer the audio stream, making the file a pain to listen to.  So if you click the link below, you can download the raw audio file from the interview.

Download lynn_allen_interview.zip

Tuesday Miscellaneous Tidbits

Here are some shots from Tuesday's events:

Dr. Bob Ballard spoke about everything underwater, and of course couldn't leave out Titanic                                             

      

Professional? Without a doubt!   

    

My name is circled, can you find it?

   

       

      

          

After the session ended, 4,699 people all headed to get their free iPod's!

      

And there they are, the iPod and Solidworks on a stick!

    

You may have noticed the attendee count keep changing. That's strictly because more and more people keep coming! Just a few hours ago, they updated the official number to 4,700 people!

Stumping The Chumps

One of the most unique sessions I have seen so far was the Stump The Chumps presented this morning in a very informal manner! The idea behind the session is perfect since most users want to see their own personal Solidworks issue solved. The panel did a good job of helping as many people as they could. Next year will hopefully see some improvements with the session including a bigger room, and better audio. My one complaint about the session was that for about 30-45 minutes, one guy was working on one issue on the screen in the room. Power users sometimes take for granted tasks they see as simple. If they could have used the screen to solve each problem 1 by 1, I think they would have hit a home run. In the audience were about 10 Solidworks employees listening intently. Here are some pics:

Lynn Allen Sit Down

For those wondering who she is, Lynn Allen is the Technical Evangelist for Autodesk. I recently posted that she was here attending Solidworks World in San Diego. So if you're confused as to why someone from Autodesk is attending a Solidworks event, Lynn was gracious enough to sit down with me and answer some questions. The interview lasts about 12 minutes.

Click Here To Listen To The Interview

CSWP’s Rip It Up

Last night The Wave House in San Diego was taken over by the CSWP's from Solidworks. As usual, Jeremy Luchini and his team put on an awesome event. Needless to say, there was plenty to eat, and of course plenty to drink! Also announced was a new item Solidworks has released to those in attendance was Solidworks on a stick. This is basically a 4 GB thumb drive that contains a special new version of Solidworks Premium. It allows its user to walk up to any pc, plug it in, and run Solidworks directly from the thumb drive. That's pretty hot!

The CSWP program is unique. The entire certification team does a great job each year putting together the onsite testing sessions, and their event. At Solidworks World this year, 1 of every 5 attendees is a Certified Solidworks User. Just this week, 20 more people added their name to the Certification Rolls. That shows the passion that most users have that attend this event. Thanks again to Jeremy and his team for hosting us once again this year!

So without further ado, here are some shots from last night:

Monday Morning General Session

This will just be a quick post because I am having to post this from my iPhone. I left my cellular card at the hotel, and even though I'm in a press conference room, there is no wifi. If anyone from Solidworks is reading, please blanket next years venue with free wifi. Now onto the tidbits.

The biggest announcement came at the end of the session. Solidworks today launched www.solidworks.com/ipod

In a move to make sure every attendee has access to this sites content, Solidworks gave away a free iPod Nano to every attendee here.

I mentioned Solidworks on a stick earlier. CSWP's were given a USB thumb drive with Solidworks on it. It basically enables us to go to any PC plug it in, and run Solidworks directly from the key! This is some ground shaking technology!

Again, more to come around lunch time when I can get to some wifi, and post some pictures.

Getting Ready For Day 2

The conference has started, and things are in full swing. Tuesday morning is the balance point of the conference being the half way point. As much fun as we have all been having, we try to not think about this thing ending. Luckily for me, most of the press stuff is over for now, so it's time to do what 4,599 other people came here for, and thats to learn. Yesterday I was able to sit in on a few great sessions, and have been able to walk away with lots of new tricks. Today is looking like a nice day all around, the weather looks nice, and we are all holding out for good weather for the offsite event.

Yesterday I POSTED about some Partner Pavilion activity. Let me say this, it's endearing to know that a CEO takes the time to read my tiny little piece of the world. I won't exactly call it thanks that he offered for my words and photos, but I know that he certainly has a great sense of humor (now let's see if I get an invitation next year)!

So now it's off to get in line with the rest of the attendees to grab a good seat for general session. But first I'm off to get Solidworks On A Stick (more on that later)!

The Great Equalizer

They say alcohol is the great equalizer. Well tonight was the best opportunity to see just how the message that Solidworks has been communicating to everyone, would stand up to a few drinks. Well after a very open bar at the press dinner, and then an even more open bar at the CSWP event at the Wave House, I can comment about the commitment of the message that Solidworks has been delivering to us. Let me say, that no matter how many drinks you buy these guys, the message stays the same. That says that these guys really believe in what they speak about. The Solidworks engineers and developers are 100% concerned about what users want, and they are committed to delivering the best product they can.

Tonight I was a passenger on a bus ride back from the CSWP event that had people of the likes of John Hirshtick, Jeremy Luchini, and lots of other Solidworks all stars. It was incredible to hear these guys talk about the passion they have to deliver the best product they can for the rest of us to use. After tonight, I can honestly say, the Solidworks Community is in great hands.

So buy all the alcohol you want, these guys show that what they say, is what the feel!

Matt Speaks, & Gets A Full House

Partner Pavillion Happenings

After lunch each day, dessert is hosted in the partner pavilion.  In the pavilion is the product showcase.  Among the hundreds of unique products is a swim spa.  Since the showcase opened lastnight, there has been a young and attractive model demonstrating the spa. 

Soldiworks CEO Jeff Ray took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to stop by to take a look at the spa unit.             

    

Here Jeff inquires about the settings of the spa, how it works, and how much of a workout it is.            

               

After explaining the setting, and firring up the jets, she was off for what she described as the 'wuss' setting.  Jeff thanked the manufacturer for using Solidworks, and the customer thanked Jeff for making such an easy to use product.

It's nice to see that Jeff Ray has continued the tradition of being accessible to everyone at Solidworks.  It really shows that he wants to be out there among the community interacting.  If you see him walking around, and he isn't on his way to an appointment, I guarantee he will stop to chat, even if you aren't 5'7", 110 pounds, blond, and wearing a black swimsuit!

Break Out Session Audio Interview

I attended the "Shortcuts and Customization with 2008" break out session.  Afterwords, I spoke with Richard Wilson who talked about how beneficial attending Solidworks World is, and that after only the first session of the event, he already had learned new things that he was definitely taking back to his team members.  The download below is a WAV file.  Now this being the first audio interview this week, the sound is a bit low, and you will need to turn up the volume to hear it.  My apologies, but hearing what Richard has to say is worth it.  I promise the next ones will be better!

Download custom_settings.wav

Monday General Session

The first general session of Solidworks World 2008 has just wrapped up.  We are now sitting in a press room for a Q&A session with Danny Forster, host of the Discovery Channel show "Build It Bigger".  It seems as if most of these old media types like to hear themselves speak, as opposed to actually asking a competent question.  Danny is not only an engineer, but a one time stand up comic.

Danny Spoke about how art, design, and engineering must come together as one to produce a world that looks awesome.  By the way, Danny was the scheduled surprise guest.  Once again Solidworks not only kept it a secret, but also picks someone who completely captures the theme of the event.

                     

Todays session was all about inspiring to design.  Continuing on that thought, they next brought out Theo Jansen (click for youtube videos).   Here is a guy that found a way as he described it "To create life".  The inspiration behind his art is a true blend of art, engineering, and design.  Here are some photos:

                                                                                                                                        

Thats it for the general session, stay tuned for an afternoon wrap up of the happenings!

Mac World, Smhack World

Ok, so besides owning the worlds largest collection of jeans and blue shirts, Steve Jobs also get the cool task of talking about new stuff at his annual conference, then announcing that its available that day.  Solidworks is no different.

Solidworks has officially launched the new 3D Content Central.  So now while no official announcement have been made, we are expecting it to be announced this morning in the general session.  So maybe Solidworks has it a bit backwards (announce, then release, ok guys), they also don't have to put up with the likes of 4,000 laptop yielding techno geeks waiting for the latest offerings from Master Jobs!

First up this morning is the first general session.  What surprises are in store, find out here at about 10:45am Pacific time!

Sunday Night Welcome Reception

Sunday night at Solidworks World is the traditional kick off of events.  It starts off at 5:30pm in the partner pavilion with the welcome reception.  Tonight's event is one of the largest I have been too yet.  Here are some pictures from tonight:

People were lining up before the official opening at 5:30

   

Here are some attendees checking out one of the scanners being demonstrated this year.

   

All work and no play makes for a dull time!

   

Solidworks on a Mac? Nah, just some pretty pictures on a nice looking monitor!

   

Touch interactive design reviews?  The future is almost here.

   

How do you keep a few thousand people happy?  Give them lots of free booze!

   

More games.  This one gave you a shot at winning some great prizes from 3D Connexion! (Better luck next time Melinda!)

   

Is that the Hole Wizard?  Actually it looks like his close cousin, the template wizard!

   

Next Engine is here as usual showing that they are a force to be reckoned with in the sub $2500 scanner market!

   

So thats it from what I will call Day .5 since tomorrow is the official first day of the conference.  Check back in tomorrow for lots of updates throughout the day.  Rumor has it that Solidworks will announce a user base that has grown to over 700,000 users world wide!

The First 50 Years of CAD

This afternoon John Hirshtick spoke to the media about the history of CAD over the last 50 years.  John took us through a journey of the beginnings of CAD from way back in 1963, up to Solidworks 2008, and beyond.  When Solidworks was first started as Winchester Design in the early 90's, they had three keys that they felt was imperative to building a great product and company:

• Put the power of 3D on every engineers desktop
• Build an extremely strong business-profitable, growing
• Treat their customers, resellers, solutions partners, and employees with dignity and respect

Using those three rules, Solidworks has grown into the company it is today.  John gave what he thought was the future of CAD:

• Reliability
• Speed
• Ease-of-use
• Data Exchange
• Drafting
• Geometric Modeling

In terms of future trends of CAD that are favorites of John's:

• Hosted Computing (CAD programs running on the web)
• Open Source
• Video Games (Using various aspects of gaming tech to influence CAD tools)
• Touch Interfaces
• 3D Printing

Sunday Press Sessions Begin

First up this morning was a session given by Jeff Ray, CEO of Solidworks.  Jeff spent the most part of the hour describing the business channel, DSS integration, and even touched on the hot topic of the 2008 interface.

• Solidworks World 2008 has received just over 4,400 registrations as of today, making it the largest Solidworks World ever
• In attendance are over 150 members of the press, and for the first time, we are all attending a dedicated 'press day'
• In terms of the design of Solidworks as a whole "We have only just begun"
• Worldwide estimates put about 2.5 million engineers still working in 2D, making the 3D market an open field
• In regards to the ideals behind the design of Solidworks "Anything that gets in the way of an engineer doing his job, is the responsibility of Solidworks to resolve"
• Solidworks and DS will start to share more technology to make each product more powerful
• Jeff described Solidworks 2008 as "Ground shifting, and also in a way, disruptive"
• 2009 will focus on performance
• Jeff's idea of the perfect interface is a blank screen
• 2008 spent the most time in alpha, and beta, than any other version to date
• According to Jeff, adoption rates of 2008 are better than previous versions, and Solidworks is happy with the numbers.

Next up is Marie Planchard to talk about eduction efforts at Solidworks.

Solidworks World 2008 Sunday

Today kicks off the official scheduled activities for me.  Included in the schedule today are a few press exclusive break out sessions, and hopefully an interview or two. 

On the schedule:

Presentation by CEO Jeff Ray, an overview of education efforts at Solidworks by Marie Planchard, a history of CAD presentation by John Hirshtick, and a session with some members of the R&D team.

Tonight is also the press dinner across the street from the Convention Center at the San Diego Wine and Culinary Center.

Last Night I wrote about trying to get an interview with Lynn Allen.  I received an email from her this morning, and she has agreed to meet with me while we are here.  If you have some questions for her, leave me a comment here, and I will try to get them answered.

Edit: Tonight is actually the welcome reception, and the press dinner is tomorrow night!

Blog Squad and AutoDesk

Tonight was what looks like will be the first annual meeting of the bloggers at Solidworks world.  We took a 4-5 block walk over to the Hard Rock Cafe.  There were quite a few of the Soldiworks regulars in attendance.

In this room were pretty much all the bloggers that we all follow on a daily basis.  People from different industries ranging from missile systems, to VIP airplane interiors.

About half way through dinner we were joined by Solidworks Founder John Hirshtick.  John made his way around and spent the rest of the evening with us.  He was also accompanied by Solidworks For Dummies guru Greg Jankowski.

It's always nice to see everyone getting along over dinner and drinks!  One thing about Solidworks World is that its a time for old friends to have fun chatting about old times.

Auotdesk-

Rumor has it that Lynn Allen of Autodesk is in town to attend Solidworks World.  I sent Lynn an email requesting an interview while she is in town if she has the time between sessions.  If you would also like to email her, I would encourage you to drop her a quick note at lynn.allen@autodesk.com

Red Bags Everywhere

As I mentioned earlier, the backpacks that are being given out to attendees are starting to appear everywhere!

Changing Your Solidworks Environment Image

Last year at Solidworks World, Solidworks Labs was launched.  Among other nifty and handy utilities, they have released a step by step tutorial on How To Add Your Own Image As A Custom Environment.  This will allow you to take your own spherical image file, and map it as a selection in the Solidworks scene menu.  Take a look!

Welcome To Solidworks World 2008!

After sitting in traffic on my way down interstate 5, and arriving about an hour late, I have made it to my hotel, and have ventured next door to the convention center.  As you can see, the banners are up, and Solidworks World is getting ready to open its doors to about 4,000 people over the next four days.

The past three years, I have arrived on Sunday which is very different.  By then, everything is set up, and things are starting to roll.  Earlier while walking around to get a feel for the layout, I got to see a little behind the scenes action.  The partner pavilion looks like a construction Zone and a mass of boxes and crates!

The general session room is not quite set up yet, but from the looks of things, this years daily show is going to be a great production.  Rehersals were about to get underway, so I left so as not to ruin the suprise for anyone.

This years grab bag items include a very nice looking Solidworks Backpack, along with other little goodies.  Walking around, its impossible to bump into someone not already wearing their official Solidworks World Badge!

I was even greeted by a nice little snack left for me in my hotel room by the folks from the Solidworks Public Relations team.

I have about 5 hours before I leave for a dinner at the Hard Rock being put on for the bloggers, so until then, I will get some emails replied too, and get a quick tour of the surroundings.

The feeling of excitement is definitely in the air, and I hope to capture it as best as I can over the next few days.  For anyone thats here, if you bump into me, please feel free to say hi!

Solidworks World 2008 Coverage

This year I will be attending Solidworks World as a member of the press.  So in order to earn my trip, I feel the need to provide the best content I can for those that choose to spend their time reading my rants!  So here are a few things to look for over the next five days or so.

Daily updates-

Each day you can expect at the least a morning, lunchtime, and evening update of whats going on.  The morning wrap up will cover the happenings of the previous night.  The lunchtime report will cover that mornings general session, and then the evening report will cover the afternoon sessions for that day.

General Session Coverage-

I have a hopefully pretty unique plan to cover the morning sessions, so stay tuned.

Partner Pavilion-

Lots of coverage of new products, and updates on existing item. 

Offsite Events-

Complete coverage of the CSWP and Street Party Events

If there is something you would like to see covered, drop me a line, and I will try to cover it.  Hopefully it will be the next best thing to being there.

Why You Should Attend Solidworks World Reason #1:???...

Well its been a short 23.57142857 weeks since I first started to explain to you why you should attend Solidworks World.  So lets get onto the number one reason, and save the babble for after.

Plain and simple, the number one reason you should attend is training.  I call it information overload.  It begins at 10:45am Monday morning at the first technical session, and doesn't end until Wednesday afternoon.  The last three years, I have come home with pages of notes that I have taken during the various classes I attended.  The worst part of Solidworks World is trying to choose which sessions you want to go to.  There are so many good ones, its hard to choose the best.  If for some reason you are not going, check out the Solidworks World Agenda and look at all the classes that are offered, that alone will give you an insight as to whats available to you.  Also notice the names of the presenters, and the companies they work for.  The training you receive at Solidworks World is unmatched by any other training out there.  It truly is the number one reason why you should be attending Solidworks World!

P.S.

Doing this countdown has been a lot of fun.  Coming up with my list way back in August was more of a way to try to make Solidworks World get here fast for me.  Aside from all the running around while I'm there, the events, and the classes, it's also a chance to re-energize myself in terms of the kind of work I do.  Each year, I return to work with a renewed sense of trying to be the best at what I do, and that makes work somewhat more enjoyable!  This series of countdown posts have been fun, and I have enjoyed sharing it with whoever is reading them.  I hope that I was able to convince at least one person!

For those that can't attend, I will be posting later on today what you can expect to find here over the next 5 days while I am in San Diego.  There are a surprise or two in store, so be sure to check back.

Getting Around Downtown San Diego...

Unlike the other two major California cities, San Diego has quite a nice transportation system.  If you are staying in town, but not within walking distance of the Convention Center, chek out the Downtown San Diego Transportation Website to see what the city can offer you to help you get around.

Solidworks: Failed To Save Document...

If you have ever received this message, Josh over at Solid Smack has listed Five Ways to try to dismiss the error, and not loose your work!

Solidworks Releases Service Pack 2.0 for 2008

Solidworks today released service pack 2.0 for XP Pro, XP64bit, and Vista.  Upgrading from service pack 1.1 on Solidworks Office Premium is an 83.3MB file.  Visit the customer portal on solidworks.com to get your copy.

Don't Forget Your Umbrella!

Well even though it is Sunny Southern California, we do get rain from time to time.  Now while Kerri Dunne and her team do a perfect job setting up and running this event, there is one small factor they can't control, and that's Mother Nature!

So while today Through this weekend looks nice, next weeks weather for Solidworks World isn't forecast to be as dry.  Unfortunately this years offsite event is an outdoor affair, so if you are heading out to San Diego you may want to pack that umbrella just in case.  Let's hope that the weather guys are wrong, and the forecast starts to clear up!  Where is Global Warming when we need it most???

Need to Waste Some Time?

Well if not, then for sure don't visit this site:

Paper Airplane Challenge

You can even set up your own league, and see who is the top plane flyer!

Why You Should Attend Solidworks World 2008 Reason 2: Networking...

Honda, JPL, NASA, Disney, Rockwell...... What do they have in common?  Employees from those companies, and more, will more than likely be attending Solidworks World once again this year.  Those are just a few of the hundreds of companies that will have engineers, designers, etc there to attend the conference.  Solidworks World is a great opportunity to put yourself in a room with people from every industry imaginable.  The opportunities to promote your business, make new customer contacts, or source new vendors are endless.  By nature, members of the Solidworks Community love to talk about what they do.  As your sitting in a class waiting for it to begin, you will more than likely strike up a conversation with the guy sitting next to you.  If you choose to be one of the people that line up each morning for the general session an hour before it begins, you will meet some very talkative folks!  Each year I have been, I have made a couple of really good contacts, including some that have turned into pretty good customers for our company.

So if your manager needs another reason to let you attend, this is an excellent opportunity to market your company.  Each attendees badge has their name, and also their company name.  As you walk around, you will notice people reading your badge, and if you are what they are looking for, they will stop you.  So wear a company shirt, and take lots of business cards, your companies next big contract may be walking around Solidworks World 2008!

Stump The Chumps...

Have a Solidworks question for the guys from Springfield?  Well they actually come from near and far, but these eight guys will be hosting whats shaping up to be one of the most unique sessions at Solidworks World in San Diego.  If you cant wait for the Tuesday 10:30am session, head on over to Solid Mentor and submit your questions now!  While your there see if you can match a name to the character.   No word yet if Apu, Homer or the rest of the gang are scheduled to join them!

Midweek Misc Stuff...

Instead of spreading this over multiple days, here are a few goings on to have a look at:

A New Blog:

Get your RSS lists updated, and check out the new Solidworks Blog by Gabi Jack.  Gabi is a longtime CAD jockey, and a new member to the Solidworks Community.  Follow along as she embarks on her transition from 2D to the 3D world using Solidworks along the way.  Somehow, I think she will enjoy being a stay at home mom, much more then sitting in front of a computer again!

Solidworks World Online Registration:

Online registration for Solidworks World ends on January 15th.  That is your last chance to register before you make the trip out to Cali for the event.  Of course onsite registration is an option, but none of us are procrastinators right?

Solidworks World Podcasts:

Ok, so you all know how I write, what I look like, but not what I sound like!  Head on over to the Solidworks World Podcast Page to listen to my podcast covering my "Why You Should Attend Solidworks World" series here on the blog.  Through my interaction with the Solidworks Community, I have had the opportunity to do a few unique things, and this is another!

Solidworks User Group Meetings:

As 2008 kicks off, and starts to get underway, the user group meetings continue to grow.  Make sure you stop by the official Solidworks User Group Network Site to get dates and information on upcoming meetings and events.

Does Solidworks Lsten To It's Users?

Do they?  Let's see. 

If you have signed up for the early visibility program, you should have received an email inviting you to attend one or more of the Solidworks World Roundtable discussions.  These discussions are  the day before the conference begins.  At these round table discussions, you get a chance to interact with the product development and design teams from Solidworks.  Take your issue directly to the people that wrote the interface.

Have an idea for a new feature in a future Solidworks Version?  If you attend Solidworks World, be sure to stop by one of the many user enhancement request computers in the partner pavilion.  Each yeah, the top 10 are announced on Wednesday, and better than 80% of those top 10 make it into a future release.

Can't make it, but want to still submit an enhancement request?  Visit the enhancement request page in the customer portal, and submit your idea there.

Have a question about functionality?  Visit the discussion forums in the customer portal.  Many of the people responding to questions there are actual Solidworks Employees that are encouraged to participate in the discussions.

Attend a local user group meeting.  Solidworks Employees regularly attend meeting throughout the year.  Solidworks Territorial Technical managers are actually required to attend user group meetings as part of their job.

Each year at Solidworks World the various Solidworks Employees that present break out sessions, ask that if you would like to sign up for a customer visit, to drop off your business card.  Each year they visit over 200 companies to get a feel for whats happening in the industry.

Want to ask the CEO, or Founder, or Board of Directors Member?  If you see them walking around Solidworks World, they would be happy to sit down and discuss whatever it is you would like with them.

If there are any trade shows coming up in your area, chances are Solidworks will be present.  The people staffing the booth at these events are very technical in their area, and love to be challenged.

Those are just 8 quick ideas that I came up with off the top of my head in five minutes.  The fact is that Solidworks DOES indeed listen to their customers.  I have first hand watched the former CEO of Solidworks sit down at a computer and try to fix a users problem in the software.  And when he discovered that it indeed was an issue, he guaranteed the user it would get fixed. 

Is Solidworks perfect?  Nope.  But thats a good thing.  If a company produced a perfect product, there would never be a need for continued innovation.  As problems arise, their individual solutions promote further development.  It's beneficial to everyone that issues and problems get out there for them to be solved. 

Use your resources available to you to solve a problem in Solidworks to your advantage.  If done right, you will probably find more success that way, as opposed to ranting about it on the Internet!