SolidWorks Rollout Event

In what might be considered the premier SoildWorks Rollout event in the San Francisco Bay Area, Hawk Ridge Systems kicked off their rollout tour for SolidWorks 2010 at the Hiller Aviation Museum.  Now, I don’t normally rave about VARs doing anything, but this event stands out.  Where other VARs are holding events at their offices or even just doing webinars, Hawk Ridge Systems went all out.  Despite the first major storm to hit California in a few years*, attendance to this event was good.

The topics covered during the event included many of the improvements in Solidworks 2010, from predictability and consistancy to the new Dimensions Palette.  Also included in the event were fairly in depth presentations for 3DVia, Enterprise PDM and SolidWorks Simulator.  For the first time ever, I’ve developed an appreciation for the functionality within 3DVia.  I’m still not the audience to which this application should be pitched, but hey, it looks cool.

On top of everything else, lunch from Pasta Pomodoro was an unexpected delight.  I’m also happy about being able to take a free tour of the Hiller Aviation Museum, which has been on my todo list for a long time.  The museum was a little smaller than I expected, though every cubic inch has some aeroplane or other sky contraption and wonderment.  I bought the t-shirt (as I always do).  One complaint I have about using this location for events like SolidWorks Rollouts is that the museum remained open during the presentations.  Once in awhile, arriving patrons did get a bit noisy which made it hard to focus on the presenter.

As usual, sponsors did get their chance to speak.  Fortunately, they kept their announcements short and sweet.  Taken on the whole, this was an event that stands out as being well above par (or below par if you are a golfer).

*A major storm for California consists of an amount of rain and wind that other portions of the planet may consider timid.  We had a lot of slowed traffic and neighborhood debris from trees and turned-over trash cans.  That’s about it.  But it’s enough to cause people to change their plans.

Author: fcsuper

As a drafter, mechanical designer and CAD engineer, I've been in the mechanical design field since 1991. For the first 8 years of my career, I was an AutoCAD professional. I utilized AutoLISP and many other AutoCAD customization features to streamline drafting activities for 6+ drafters and designers. I authored several custom functions, one of which was published in the March 1997 issue of Cadalyst Magazine. Since 1998, I've been used SolidWorks non-stop. I've worked to utilize the SolidWorks' user environment to simplify drafting and design activities for 20+ engineers. I've created this website to provide current information about SolidWorks from a variety of contributors. More recently, I am now employed by Dassault Systemes as SOLIDWORKS Sr. Product Definition Manager to improve drawing, annotation and MBD related areas. View all posts by fcsuper