Category: News

SolidWorks Technical Summit – Los Angeles, CA

The SolidWorks Technical Summit is coming to Los Angeles, CA on December 16, 2008!  A Technical Summit is a day long event that is is kinda like a SolidWorks miniWorld.  Included are sessions covering a wide range of SolidWorks topics to help users expand their knowledge and experience.  Technical Summits are held once a month at various locations throughout the United States and other countries.The line up of presenters for the Los Angeles Technical Summit beings promise of yet another powerful conference!

Presenters

One inside heavy hitter is Hari Padmanabhan, who is experienced in presentations for CosmoWorks, now called SolidWorks Simulator.

Another insider is Patrick Rainsberry, Territory Technical Manager, SolidWorks.  Mr. Rainsberry has been on the Summit circuit before, so he’s an experienced veteran.  He also can be seen at local SolidWorks User Groups from time to time, with demonstrations about the greatness SolidWorks’ current release.

As icing on the cake, several blog squad members will be presenting sessions about various topics.  These include (in no particular order) Mike Puckett, Devon Sowell, Matt Lorono (oh wait a minute, that’s me!), and Anna Wood.

Then, of course we have the serial presenters Casey Gorman, Phil Sluder, and Richard Doyle, whose tireless contributions make SolidWorks User Groups and Technical Summits even possible.

Return on investment

The great thing about the Technical Summits is that they are official SolidWorks Corp events.  They are only $40 to attend.  Attendees get to pick which sessions they will join.  Breakfast and Lunch are included (worth the price of admission alone).  If you are within the Los Angeles and San Diego areas, I highly recommend attending the LA summit!  If you are even within a 2 hour flight from Los Angeles (such as: San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Las Vegas, NV, and Phoenix, AZ), I still recommend attending. If you are a supervisor with staff within these areas, I highly recommend sending the entire staff for the day.  They will easily come back with enough new knowledge to pay for the $40 and for the 1 day gone (and even the flight and one night hotel stay, if applicable), many times over.

I’ve mentioned in the past that similar type summits in other industries can easily cost $800 for the day, and the quality and diversity of those presentations may not even equal what you will find at a SolidWorks Technical Summit.  This is likely the best bargain available in the industry.

Sign up on the SWUGN website.  Click the black Register Now button near the bottom of the screen.  See you there!

Matching game

In the meantime, let’s play a little game.  Match the head shot below with each name here:  Richard Doyle, Mike Puckett, Devon Sowell, Phil Sluder, Anna Wood, and Matt Lorono.

“Brand New Car”

In case anyone is in doubt, but not over finances, right now is a GREAT time to buy a car.  I cannot overstate this fact.  With the economic woes causing our system to collapse all around us, there are many opportunities for which to take advantage.  Stock market is one, if you don’t mind the rollercoaster ride.  Another way is in using one’s buying power for the big ticket items (cars in particular, but yeah, I’m sure boats and such are going for huge discounts too).

I recently traded in my old 2003 Acura TL Type-S for a 2009 Pontiac G8 GT.  As I began on this strange move months ago, I got asked “trade in an Acura for a Pontiac?”.  Yes, without reservation.  I waited to make this exchange until the end of Sept, and I’m glad I did because I got great pricing.  (OK, the reasons why I readily dumped my Acura for a Pontiac are best covered some other time.  I’ll just say that no one asks why once they see my G8 GT and ride in it.)  Anyway, the point is, right now is a great time to get some really great deals on the cars.

This isn’t a message to tell people “Hey, go out and support the American economy.”  This is a message saying “Now is the time to strike; to get the really great bargains.”  The consumer advantage is not limited to GM.  All the car companies are in pain right now.  As I shopped around in recent months, many of the dealers put on a brave face, but there is an air of desperation.  I guess a better way to put is that they are willing to actually deal.  No more dealer mark-ups.  I’ve actually seen quite the opposite.  Some brands are selling 2008’s for WAY under even the invoice price (prolly close to what is actually paid by the dealer).

Of course, if you invest your money, you might score a 3.0% yield CD, which is running at about 1/2 the current inflation rate.  You can try to time the stock market, but much bigger money is likely timing you instead.  If you are going to lose money, you might as well enjoy the ride (literally).

SolidWorks World 2009 is coming together

If interested, I encourage everyone to check out the SolidWorks World 2009 website.  Included are details about SolidWorks World 2009 (SWW09), of course.  Yes, it’s that time of year already.  Time flies by, doesn’t it?  The first announcement of Breakout Sessions and Hands-on Sessions is now available for viewing too. This is useful for planning attendance and maybe even in justifying the trip to one’s boss.

As usual, there are diverse topics covering the basics to advanced ideas, and the abstract to the very specific.  There is already a large selection to choose from.  Here’s the list of the categories.

CAD Administration
Data Management
Design Automation
Design Validation
Education
Modeling Essentials
Productivity Tools
Customer Success/Designing Better Products
Tips and Tricks
Design Communication

And, here’s a quick snap shot of just a few of the actual sessions:

  1. Surfacing for Beginners
  2. Using SolidWorks to create a greener World
  3. Connecting SolidWorks Enterprise PDM to your ERP system
  4. Saving time using Smart Components

From the looks of what scheduled so far, this promises to be a very educational conference.

Free Training: SimulationXpress

SolidWorks is now providing free online training for the new SimulationXpress at this website.  SimulationXpress represents a rebirth of sorts to CosmosXpress and the new direction which SolidWorks Corp is taking with the Cosmos product offerings for FEA.  Check out the training site, not just for training, but also general information regarding this stress analysis application.

Drawing ER Blitz results are in

The results are in for the SolidWorks Drawing ER Blitz by Dwight Livingston.  He listed the results in order of popularity.  Here are the topic five.

  1. 60% Provide hole callouts for holes in non-planar surfaces.
  2. 59% Greatly reduce drawing user interface delays.
  3. 55% Provide the ability to item balloon sub assemblies that are inserted after the BOM is created using the Top assembly, ie 3.9 from BOM in a separate sub assembly.
  4. 54% Provide option in view properties window to add view title and/or view scale to view.
  5. 54% Create ability to combine multiple identical hole callouts in a single callout with a combined quantity.

It surprizes me a little that the view title/scale issue is in the top five.  That’s why we vote, though!  The top five seems to be a list that spreads across several difference topics, with a bias towards hole callouts.  In general, the list seems to put a higher priority for dimensioning and more ability to control tables.  It seems to put a lower priority of symbol functionality and handling.  There is a common complaint that broken views cannot be added to detail views.  For whatever reason, this appears low on the list.

The list is a bit surprizing.  Of particular note, very few items even got a majority vote.

Results

SW Real Rewards Program Update

Ok, so some time ago, I squibbed SolidWorks Real Rewards program in an article called SolidWorks Real Rewards (Smart Button).  SolidWorks Legion got a lot of attention because of that article.  That article is still in the top ten articles here on SolidWorks Legion.  So here’s the deal.  I did make fun of the program; didn’t see  a major reason to take it seriously.  However, there was an unintentional side effect, both to the program and to my article.  If you look at the article, you’ll find a lot of requests from individuals who wanted to be signed up for the program.My Rewards!!!

Program Purpose

As described to me by the program’s initiator at SolidWorks Corp, the purpose of this program was to encourage individuals to spread the word about SolidWorks.  If someone knew another person or company that could benefit from 3D CAD software (particularly SolidWorks), they could sign those individuals up via the Real Rewards website.  In return, if a purchase of SolidWorks was made as a result of the referral, the referrer would get a snazzy little prize.

Something Strange Happened

However, in practice, my article has attracted many people looking for a trial of SolidWorks for various other reasons.   I’ve dutifully submitted the email of each person that requested such within the comments of that article.  I never expected any of those leads would turn into a qualifying purchase of SolidWorks, but I thought I’d do it anyway, just in case (and kinda for the fun of it).

Well, guess what?  Recently, I contacted SolidWorks Corp about my many referrals to see if anyone did indeed make a purchase.  It turns out one did!  Of course, I’m a little annoyed that I had to ask instead of SolidWorks Corp just surprizing me.  But hey, free gifts, right?!  I earned the level 1 gift.  It is a package including a SolidWorks backpack (not the same one from SWW8 or given away at user group meetings), a business card holder all jazzed up with faux wood, and an insulating coffee cup that is so heavy, it could prolly be mistaken for a mortar shell.  I’m moderately delighted that I earned something from the program.  Maybe I can earn those Logitech Speakers at level 2!

Real Life Use

So, although this isn’t the word of mouth promotion SolidWorks Corp was hoping for, it has lead to the some good promotion and realization.  Several people who asked to be signed up for the program where looking to practice on SolidWorks before a job interview.  Those aren’t necessarily going to lead to future sales, but it does indicate that new SolidWorks users are entering into the job market due to job demand for people with such skills.  It also may indicate that the U.S. economy isn’t doing poorly in every sector.  (The program is limited to North America.)

One final comment.  Technically, the program only ran in the first quarter of 2008.  The rules for the program have not been changed.  It would seem wise for SolidWorks Corp to officially update the rules to make this an on-going program; if for no other reason than to give me a chance to earn my Logitech speakers!

Update (12/18/2009)

This program was cancelled by SolidWorks Corp as of December 2009. I am not able to fulfill any further submission requests for the trial version of SolidWorks. It is my understanding that SolidWorks still has other programs available. Please contact a local VAR for details. To find a local VAR or for information about current offers, please see the SolidWorks.com website.