SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 467 - SWW14: New Products

SWW14: New Products:

SolidWorks World 2014 came with quite the list of new products that are going to hit the scene soon and some closer to the launch of SolidWorks 2015 in the fall.  Topics covered:

New Product Announcements:

- SolidWorks Plastics Advanced - Design and analyze mold cooling line layouts and part warpage.  Announcement

- SolidWorks Inspection - Creation of Inspection reports, first articles (FAI) and ballooned drawings.  Announcement

- SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual - Next generation concept tool on the 3DExperience Platform. Announcement

- SolidWorks Industrial Conceptual - Next generation industrial design tool on the 3DExperience Platform.

- Collaborative Sharing - Social portal in SolidWorks on the 3DExperience Platform.

- eDrawings Pro for Android - In-app upgrade for eDrawings to have markup, measure and Augmented Reality (AR).

- eDrawings Meetings - Live collaboration in eDrawings

Looking back through the years I cannot remember a year at SolidWorks World that there were more new products announcements  In fact, I think it is safe to say this was the most Dassault-inspired tools that have ever been shown on a SolidWorks World stage.

A few of the products were the evolution of existing products like SolidWorks plastics and eDrawings, however with some of the new products coming on Dassault's 3DExperience Platform, it was a product model that is brad new to the SolidWorks community.  Subscription-based software, hosted model database and connected teams.

Some of these products will make their way into the existing SolidWorks release and others will ship later in the year along with SolidWorks 2015.  It will be interesting to see how SolidWorks users will react to these new solutions and how/if they can implement them into their design workflows. ~Lou

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SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 466 - SWW14: General Sessions

SWW14: General Sessions:

This podcast covers the general sessions from SolidWorks World Conference 2014 from this past week.  The general sessions tend to be the major outlets for SolidWorks to announce to the world what they have been up to.  Topics covered:

General Session Day 1:
- 5600 Attendees
- 2.3M+ users world wide (largest engineering community ~Bertrand Sicot 2014)
- PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT: SolidWorks Inspection 
- PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT: SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual (April 2nd, $250/mo)
- 3DVIA - HomeByMe (Free home layout - selling to home improvement centers)
- 3DVIA - 3DByMe (similar concept to HBM)
- PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT: SolidWorks Industrial Conceptual
- SPEAKER: Hugh Herr - MIT Lab Biometronics Director (Awesome!)

General Session Day 2:
- EatArt (Maker of the Spider and Alpha Leg)
- SolidWorks 2014 Beta Winners
- User Group Awards (Congrats to the San Diego User Group on their 200th meeting)
- MarkForge3D and Gian Paolo Bassi - VP or DS R&D
- Bertrand and bobsledding in Utah
- SPEAKER: Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project 
- Special Event at the Embarcadero

General Session Day 3:
- Model Mania Winners (15th year... wow!)
- New Certifications (100, 000 user certifications)
- Eduction - Mt. San Antonio Community College use of CSWA and now CSWP
- Top 10 List (Delivered and this year's request list)
- SolidWorks 2015 Revealed (blog post with more details)

SolidWorks World 2014 was another huge event, registering more than 6800 users by the end of the conference.  I guess it is fair to say this is not the same as my first SolidWorks World back in 2002.  This year's speakers were not in the same league as previous years but I have to say, Hugh Herr on day one had many of us in jaw-dropping amazement with his prosthetic legs that he designed.... and used on both of his legs.  Amazing and inspiring.

Day two was full of customer interviews and contest winners from Beta 2014 and another great speaker in Bo-Dyn, the bobsled project behind the US Olympic team who race the Night Train 2.  Bo-Dyn was started by a Nascar racer and 1984 winner of the Daytona 500 Geoff Bodine.  His pit engineer, Bob Cuneo is the brains behind the designs and has produced some of the best sleds the sport has ever seen.

Day three, also known as the "REVEAL" started off with this year's Model Mania winners and certification and then finished off with a Batman parody called  "CADMAN".  This skit allows the Product Marketing team to show off the long list of early reveal features coming in next year's version of SolidWorks 2015. ~Lou

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SolidWorks:Heard! - Episode 393 - Tech Alert 2012 SP4

Tech Alert 2012 SP4:

This podcast covers a few new features and news that was pushed out in the latest service pack of the SolidWorks 2012 product line. The May support monthly FAQ also was pushed out late so we will cover that as well.  Topics covered:

- 2012 SP4 technical alerts

- New features in SolidWorks SP4

- Recap of addressed SPRs

- Upgrading EPDM and Toolbox

- Support Monthly FAQ (May 2012)

Last week we covered the tech news but after EPDM 2012 shipped, I wanted to read through and dig into the release notes to see what has changed. After doing so, I found a few things worth mentioning and figured we'd talk about them now instead of waiting a month to roll them into the July tech news.

SolidWorks has also aligned they operating system support with Microsoft, as they have in the past, and now is sharing that 2013 will be the last version to support Windows Vista.  Along with Vista and XP, Windows Server 2003 will be dropped for the server support of products like EPDM and license managers. It is good to be aware of these retirements early in order to avoid this creeping up on you.

Beta season is close and SolidWorks has begun sending out reminders to get your customer portal profiles updated and to check the option to be notified for beta programs.  They have also explained the benefits of getting into the beta program in their FAQ so I am hoping the launch is close.  Are you going to test or are you of the belief that should be left to SolidWorks? ~Lou

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