SolidWorks:Heard! - Episode 316 - SWW11 Product Announcements

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SWW11 Product Announcements:

This podcast is a summary of the new products that were announced by SolidWorks at SolidWorks World 2011. There were more product announcements in 2011 than any other SWW I can remember. Topics covered:

- SolidWorks CEO says "ALWAYS a Desktop Version!"

- SolidWorks n!Fuze announced early on SolidWorks Blog

- Post3D - Life-like Immersive 3D Collaboration

- SolidWorks Live Buildings - AEC Building Design tool powered by Enovia Online Platform

- SolidWorks n!Fuze iPad app announced (available later this year)

- DraftSight iPad app announced (available later this year)

- What's New (revealed) in SolidWorks 2012

SolidWorks World 2011 was one of the best venues, best speakers, most vast breakouts and by far the most product announcement packed SWW I can remember.  This was my 10th SWW and I can say it was one of the best of all time.  Despite the great training, most people probalby remember SWW from the speakers, collegues and new product annoucements.

SolidWorks World Day 1 typically has a few little tid bits but Day 3 General Session is the day that everyone waits for so they can get a sneak peak of the next version of SolidWorks.  This year SolidWorks announced 3 new products, all of which were not desktop apps but web-powered apps running on Enovia V6 platform.

Unlike "SolidWorks V6" and "SolidWorks PDS" from last year's SWW, SolidWorks n!Fuze, Post3D and Live Buildings are already products that are in beta (n!Fuze & Live Buildings) or released already (Post3D).  I am anxious to do more testing and will follow up with a review of this new era of online CAD products. ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

SolidWorks:Heard! - Episode 295 - September Tech News

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September Tech News:

This podcast covers the SolidWorks and CAD industry news that broke since the middle of last month.  Topics covered:

SolidWorks Blog:

- Let's Go Design: Steel vs. Aluminum (Asheen's perspective)

- SolidWorks 2011 "What's New" videos

- SolidWorks & Tech Pioneers

- Curbing Energy Demand at the Source

SolidWorks 2011 News:

- SolidWorks Launch site

- SolidWorks World 2011 Connect page

- SolidWorks 2011 blog coverage

- Ricky Jordan

- SolidSmack

- SolidWorks Legion

- Jeff Mirisola

- RockSolid Perspective

- Dezign Stuff

SolidWorks Tech Alerts:

- SolidWorks 2011 Beta 3 shipped (August 23)

- SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2011 Beta 3 shipped (September 1)

- SolidWorks 2011 B3 fixes VPN issues for SolidNetWork License Manager (SNL)

Industry News:

- 15 year anniversary of SolidWorks 1st seat sale

- DS 3dvia.com ships 3dvia Mobile HD for iPad

- Autodesk ships AutoCAD for the Mac ($4K)  (Draftsight for Mac around the corner (Free))

- Vuuch 3.0 ships

- Deelip talk to Jeff Ray about SolidWorks 2011, The Cloud and DraftSight

We are in the final weeks of SolidWorks 2011 beta testing and with the NDA lifted, the news is flooding in about new features to come.  The quantity of posts on 2011 features seem to be down from previous years but the coverage is still there.  SolidWorks 2011 launch site is live and video posts are going up on the SolidWorks blog regularly.

The CAD industry overall seems to be full of new product launches and technology advances, even some news on CAD on the Cloud. Deelip Mezenes talks to Jeff Ray, Matt Lombard stops blogging (for now), and 3dvia brings 3D to the iPad.  Another busy month of tech news without any slowing in sight! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

SolidWorks:Heard! - Episode 280 - DraftSight

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DraftSight:

This podcast is an interview with Josh Mings of SolidSmack discussing the new product announcement from Dassault Systèmes, DraftSight. Topics covered:

- Quick product overview

- Josh's first impressions

- Pros and Cons of this "Professional-grade, open 2D CAD product"

- What "Free" really means 

- What it means for SolidWorks 2D Editor

- 3D Swym DraftSight Community

This was an interesting move for DS, especially since Bernard Charlès took the stage at SolidWorks World this year and shared their mission of "3D Life-like Experiences".  This is a company that eats, sleeps and breaths 3D, so when they announced a 2D product that was FREE, I was a little confused.

Josh explains that DraftSight is much better than AutoCAD for 2D (currently DraftSight has no 3D capabilities like AutoCAD) and is a "hands down" replacement for SolidWorks 2D Editor in his opinion.  SolidWorks has released a statement that they are still committed to the 2D Editor (formally known as DWG Editor) on their blog.

The product currently is available for Windows XP, Vista and 7 (runs on 64 bit and installs as a 32 bit app from what I can tell) and support for both Mac and Linux is coming "later this year".  I am looking forward to installing it but I am not going as far to say I'm Excited about it...being 2D and all! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!