SWW09: Tuesday General Session (Part 3: Jon’s customer visits)

I brought two pairs of shoes with me to SolidWorks World, black dressy pair, and sporty comfortable New Balance atheletic shoes.  I wore the dressy pair to the General Session.  I’m wearing New Balance shoes right now, for two reasons.  First, they are more comfortable for all the walking around.  SolidWorks Worlds are expansive, with sessions spread out over the entire site.  Comfortable shoes are a must.  The second reason?  Jon Hirschtick showed us several customer visits he recently conducted.  The first company profiled was New Balance shoe company. 

It was amazing to see the level of integration of SolidWorks within the rapid design process at New Balance.  Since shoes are attached to the fashion industry, quick time to market is essential.  New Balance is able to go from a SolidWorks model to actual shoe prototype in just a couple of days.  Before New Balance used SolidWorks in their design process, it took fifteen days to create 2D drawings in CAD.  With SolidWorks, they are able to produce 3D models in just 5 days.  Their models average about 1300 features, with one model reaching 1800 features.  Speed and accuracy seem to be very important as each design of shoe will eventually require over 1000 different molds and dies to support 176 unique shoe sizes.  During their design process, they use 3D printing to produce rapid prototypes.  It is not uncommon for them to produce a hundred or more 3D printed prototypes per month.

Sony Ericsson was then introduced by Hirschtick.  His visit to their site revealed they used rapid prototyping, both SLA and 3D printing processes.  In fact, they produce 4000 rapid prototype models per year.  It is common for them to produce prototypes for phones after only 2 to 3 hours of SolidWorks modelling time.  In the mid-1990’s, they switched to 3D CAD and have since seen a 75% drop in the design cycle time.  They went from producing 4 designs a year to over 30. 

I am impressed by seeing the type of rapid concept to prototype design processes being employed by Sony Ericsson and New Balance.  I’m also more appreciative of my New Balance shoes, though I already know these are well made and very comfortable shoes.

SWW09: Tuesday General Session (Part 2: Talk about the future)

Jon Hirschtick gave a great presentation today.  As one of the five founders of SolidWorks Corp, he has a unique perspective on the software.  He also has an interesting view point.  He stated that even though SolidWorks has been around for a long time, most of the work for SolidWorks Corp still lies ahead of them.  He expressed confidence in Jeff Ray and the current management time by calling them “the best management team in the history of SolidWorks”.

Hirschtick then discussed some of the possible innovations that are yet to come for SolidWorks.  These technology trends include significant improvements to touch/motion user interface, online applications, inclusion of video gaming technology in 3D CAD applications, and 3D printing.

He mentioned that on the Partner Pavilion floor, there is already one example of Touch/Motion UI involves the use of hands as they are meant to be used.  There’s a prototype of a Microsoft Surface that has an application similar to SolidWorks operated by instruction via human touch and gestures.

Hirschtick then talked about Blueprint Now, which is an online CAD application developed by SolidWorks Labs.  This allows some 2D CAD work to be accomplished via the Internet.  If applied to 3D CAD, the advantage is that resources for CAD applications can be kept in huge server farms, suggesting that users need not require high end computers themselves.  Another advantage to this approach is that it requires no upgrades or installations.  Even another advantage was simplification of data management.  Because everything is online, data can be automatically organized in a vault-like storage system, eliminating current issues file management issues.  Though an online application for 3D CAD seems unlikely soon, Hirschtick suggested it will likely be developed.

Video gaming technology in terms of both hardware and software have exceded that of CAD in some areas.  Hirschtick talked about bringing some of that technology into use within SolidWorks.  He revealed that PhyX (physical simulation software) is already employed within SolidWorks.  He showed one example of Ambient Occlusionas a display option to give parts the look of realism within SolidWorks.

He briefly covered 3D printing before then introducing several companies using SolidWorks in the development of their products.  It turns out this was a segue of sorts.

SWW09: Tuesday General Session (Part 1: Partners)

The General Session today was full of partners and customers of SolidWorks.  There was a parade of well known companies demonstrating how they use SolidWorks in their daily product development.

 

Fielder Hiss introduced us to Tom Salomone, the World Wide Manager for Mechanical Design and Automation at HP.  He stressed that great companies innovate during the tough times in order to prepare for when the times improve.  This echoed yesterday’s theme set by Sir Richard Branson’s interview.

 

Jeremy Luchini, the Certification Program Manager at SolidWorks Corp stated that SolidWorks World is a unique chance to celebrate its users and those who have become CSWP’s.  To stress the importance of certification, he introduced us to Yanick Tremblay of Mega Brands Inc.  Mega uses SolidWorks from the early stages of design to create buildable transforming robot toys.  Tremblay wanted to create a strong training SolidWorks program for his designers.  This is when he discovered the CSWP program.  However, Luchini noted that companies such as Mega may not be able to take engineers out of designing for four hours straight (the current length of the CSWP test).   To address this problem, he announced a new program in development that will allow users to take 1 hour of the CSWP test at a time, and allow their employers to track the progress of CSWP training.

 

It was great to see SolidWorks partners enthusiastically embracing not only the SolidWorks software, but also everything that goes long with it, including SolidWorks World and the CSWP program.  They seem to understand the importance of these events and programs.  They “get it.”

 

Part 2 of this article to cover real world uses of SolidWorks by several companies during their design process.

SWW09: Monday, final thoughts

The experience of coming to SolidWorks World 2009 as a member of the press is certainly unique to me.  Beyond access to the Press Room, the pass pretty much allows me any opportunities while here.  The way I look at it is this, my experiences are meant to be shared with everyone.  That is to say, they are your experiences, not mine.  When I first accepted the offer to join the Press Pool at SWW09, my focus was writing for those individuals who were not able to come to this grand event.  However, I now realize that I’m also writing for everyone, including attendees (and even fellow bloggers).  My experience is really unique.  It is something that even other attendees may not even image.  How many regular Joes can say they were in a press conference with the likes of Sir Richard Branson, or joined others to sit down with Jon Hirschtick for a quick lesson in the Blackjack, or went to a Press Event, or attended the CSWP Event, or watched Richard Doyle be honored by his peers and Jeff Ray himself, or sat down with vendors for sneakpeaks of products still in development?  And this with in a 36 hour period?  So, I am here for everyone else, to expound upon my unique experience, to give a more complete picture about SWW09.  This gift granted to me from SolidWorks Corp is really a gift granted to all SolidWorks users.

Day 3 of SolidWorks World 2009 starts now.

SWW09: Monday General Session (Part 3: Sir Richard Branson)

Sir Richard Branson is an amazing man.  I don’t think I’ve ever said those words about anyone before.  He has started over 360 companies that shook up industries that vary from Limo services to Airliners.  As far as personal achievement, he has had wondrous adventures to break (or at least attempt to break) world records in travel.  He self-denigratingly jokes when he claims to hold the world record for being the person who has been rescued at sea the most number of times (poking some fun at his failed attempts, but still proud of having the adventure he did).

Sir Richard Branson

Unlike past keynote speakers at SolidWorks World. Richard Branson opted for an interview style presentation, where the CEO of SolidWorks, Jeff Ray, sat down on stage with him in a friendly and informative exchange.  The many topics covered included his first business, childhood business ventures that never quite made it, the start of Virgin Records and of Virgin Atlantic Airways.  Branson made it clear that successful companies are constantly innovating, and that they “listen, listen, listen” to their customers wants.  Branson’s green heart comes through when he discussed trying to make this world a better place, stating that we “need to ween ourselves off dirty fuels.”

Earlier, Jeff Ray talked about examples of products designed using SolidWorks that are improving our world.  One of these struck home for Branson.  He seemed to passionately embrace Design that Matters efforts to provide incubators to poor countries.  This passion spilled over into off stage discussions.  Jeff Ray noted that much of the post interview conversation he had with Branson was about getting those incubators to where they are needed.  As Ray put it, “he is the real deal.”

There’s a lot more about this conference, such as in the article SWW09: Monday General Session (Part 2: products to make the world a better place)

SWW09: Monday General Session (Part 2: products to make the world a better place)

Though Monday’s General Session only had two speakers, the content was jam packed.  Jeff Ray gave several examples of SolidWorks being used to design new products that have the potential to improve our world.

The first invention mentioned was a wind turbine by MicroWind Technologies, LLC.  This innovative technology is meant to be installed right at the home or business.  Each turbine produces 3Kw of power derived from the wind.

He followed up that environmentally friendly device with one that has already saved hundreds of lives.  It is a device that is able to recover 100% of the tissue from a donor’s bones.  With current technologies, the process of cleaning bone tissue producers a high percentage of damaged material that cannot be used.  Regenerative Tech’s new machine allows a much higher recover rate.  It even enables the used of the chips and dusk from the grinding process to be used a binding for the core material when implanted into the patient.  This means that the material from one organ donor can be used to save or improve the lives of over a 100 individuals.

From this Ray described how a cable TV salesperson realized that small villages do not have safe drinking water.  This salesperson, named Hank, discovered a technology that bombards water with UV light in order to sterilize it.  His company, Trojan UV Tech, is preparing to install a 56 unit site in New York to produce 2.2 billion gallons of water per day.

At this point, most in the audience was feeling pretty good about being associated with these inventions through the software used to design them.  However, Ray bested even these examples.  He described Design That Matters innovation.  The amazing non-profit organization that developed a method to make infant incubators from salvage car parts that can be maintenance by someone with car mechanic skill set.  This is most valuable in the 3rd World countries where modern incubators may have been donated but have since fell into disrepair due to the lack of qualified individuals to maintain them, and parts to keep them working.  If enough of these incubators are made, there the potential to save millions of infants each year!

This one innovation hit close to home for the Keynote speaker, Sir Richard Branson.  More on that later.