I was pretty unsure what to expect when I arrived here in Barcelona. First off, it's always nice to catch up with the other bloggers, and it was fun to put faces to names of new friends I had made since SW World 08. The event itself is pretty casual. It has all the normal marketing stuff, but being an actual user of the software, and then hanging out with other users, the marketing stuff is easy to see through. On Thursday, I was most satisfied with the presentations that had technical content included. They had a few great examples of people using Solidworks well beyond what most of us do. It was neat to hear the stories like how Dassualt almost originally bought Solidedge instead of Solidworks, and to hear Jeff Ray's musings about the industry.
What really stuck in my mind after listening to Jeff Ray, and Bernard Charles, was the push internally at Solidworks over the last year to really improve the performance of SW 2009. Its always easy to hear the same nice tag line over and over again, but ever since SW World 08, that has been the mantra. I can say that it was more than just that. The focus was really there, and the development team did what appears to be a fantastic job in the area of performance.
Over the past couple of days, i was asked by some members of the non-cad using press if in fact 2009 had the big performance enhancements that they were claiming. I was able to answer yes to them because I had experienced it through the beta and PR releases. Luckily for me, my opinion was further back up by some well thought out displays of the software. Solidworks 2009 is the version you are going to want to have, and once you switch, you will never want to look back.
Probably the coolest thing I saw yesterday was a demonstration of the 3dvia product. I had pretty much ignored all the press release stuff that came out when they first announced it, and that was mainly due to the fact it wasn't a product I would ever get to use. Well they did a great demo of the product, and the thing is amazing what it can do. If you are using Solidworks, and your company produced technical manuals that include illustrations, you are loosing money and productivity if you don't have 3dvia. It makes the creation of technical manuals and brochures so easy, and the best part is that the software is linked back to Solidworks, so if your model changes, so does your manual! Again, I would love to explore this program more, but our company simply doesn't have the need for the $12,000 cost.
Today we got the chance to do some hands on training. For me the only new function to explore was the new solid to sheet metal command. In a matter of minutes, I had my first ever flattened sheet metal part! The session was a nice addition, they covered the new Speedpack technology, the Solid to Sheet metal command, basic Simulation, and also the new Photoview360 product. They also through in a demo of PDM, but it was all power point slides, and didn't seem to fit into the whole hands on theme. Honestly, the way they were using PDM on Thursday was more of an explanation of its benefits. It was entertaining to see some members of the press trying to click through the software for what had to been their first time, but it seemed like most of them picked it up pretty quick. A few of them sat next to some of the bloggers, and used them to help them through it. Mark Schnider and the rest of the technical team did a fantastic job with the demos, and with answering questions.
All in all the event went really smooth. Nancy Buchino and her team did an excellent job getting everything set up, and making sure things went as planned. Its nice to have that kind of support when you travel to a different country. I of course am glad I came, but even more, I'm very appreciative that I was even invited. There was talk of having next years event in Rwanda, which would be very interesting to say the least. As that is a year away, thats something that can be contemplated later.
For now, be sure to replay the recording of the live blog from the first day. It contains minute by minute info, some pics, and some links. Thanks again for following along!
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