News Archives - Page 26 of 52 - SolidWorks Legion

James Cameron in da house in the Tuesday General Session of SolidWorks World 2010

James Cameron was the keynote speaker of SolidWorks World 2010. The format of his presentation was in a sit down interview with John Hirschtick, founder of SolidWorks. Cameron is a fascinating presenter who covered a surprizing number of 3D CAD relevant topics. Though not mentioned in the movie Avatar, Cameron stated that the idea behind the human equipment on the alien world was that it was made on the planet itself and not sent there from Earth. In a cleaver statement, he declared that the huge bulldozers of the movie where 3D printed (fictionally, of course). Though not an engineer or scientist himself, he stated “I geek out on the hard science side”. Hirschtick asked Cameron if SolidWorks was used in the process of making Avatar. Though James Cameron did not give a direct answer, he did state that artists should use the tools with which they are comfortable early in the process of the project.

Cameron’s first step on every project is to go on a brainstorming retreat. He then applies three statements.

Hope is not a strategy
Luck is not a factor
Fear is not an option (Don’t be afraid to be bold)

Cameron is working on projects that will be putting equipment on Mars, and also an exploration to the bottom of the Marianas Trench (7 miles down). He talked about using FEA to verify the design of his deep ocean vehicle. He will personally be going down to the bottom of the ocean in the vehicle, so it had better be done right the first time.

A later article will cover the press conference that followed.

SolidWorks World General Session – Monday (part2)

Another theme of today’s General Session where potential improvements to 3D CAD, much of which is cloud computing based. These include collaboration to allow more than one person to edit the same model at the same time. Searches to use data from the database instead of making models from scratch. Bring a “lifelike experience” (soon to be trademarked term, I’m guessing) to SolidWorks and other applications. Predictive Engineering that can do things like calculate interferences or handle material properties before the user even requests such data. With all these improvements associated with cloud computing, I am willing to predict that there will eventually be no distinction between SolidWorks and Catia.

Up in the clouds at SolidWorks World 2010

A new game has taken SolidWorks World 2010 by storm. Count how many times the word “cloud” (as in cloud computing) is spoken. At one point, it might seem that entire speeches consist entirely of the word “cloud cloud cloud cloud cloud cloud cloud cloud cloud.” There’s a message somewhere. Oh, that’s right. Cloud computing is the future of SolidWorks and the rest of the Dassault Systemes applications (maybe even for high security customers).

Cloud computing has many advantages over traditional installed software, according to Jeff Ray, CEO of SolidWorks. No matter how good SolidWorks is, it is still limited by the computer upon which it is installed. A significant investment is required to purchase computers that are powerful enough to get the most out of 3D CAD software. Also, installed software tends to be limited by computer operating systems. SolidWorks, in its current form, will not likely to be ported over to run natively on a MAC OS. Instead, SolidWorks will bypass these limitations with cloud computing. With cloud computing, “SolidWorks” (in whatever form it takes) may run on any platform. In fact, the user’s computer power will play very little roll. CAD files (even hugh assemblies) can be accessed instantly and edited on practically any platform, such as Microsoft, MAC OS, Google OS, Firefox, and iPhone. This is all accomplished without installing any software. They even discussed SolidWorks running seamlessly with ENOVIA V6, maybe even sometime this year.

According to Ray, the new cloud technologies will be rolled out as they are ready. The customer will choose when (if ever) to implement. These improvements represent a “completely new design environment”. Ray also stated that these new techologies where developed in secret and “run like a start up”. Technically, all this cloud talk represents nothing more than vaporware right now. However, if Dassault Systemes delivers, they may have a massive game changer on their hands.

Enterprise PDM for Word?

Ever wish Enterprise PDM specifically supported Microsoft Office products? Well, actually, EPDM already does support the files from Word, Excel, etc. So, of what value is an application that runs EPDM from within MS Office products? According to Extensible CAD:

Without Office2PDM, Enterprise PDM users who want to manage their Microsoft Office documents in their PDM vault must close their files and then operate on them in Windows explorer. This can be time consuming and requires extra steps. Office2PDM provides access to common Enterprise PDM functions as well as timely access to document status information, all without requiring you to open up a separate interface.

There’s really not much else for me to say without seeing a demonstration. I’ll follow up on this after SolidWorks World 2010.

Here’s some press images of Office2PDM:

SoliDan’s presentation at SolidWorks World 2010

Daniel Bertschi (aka, SoliDan) is a CAD support specialist who will be giving a presentation at SolidWorks World 2010 on how to get more out of the solid models once engineering and design are complete. The presentation will detail how to “keep [models] working for you in manufacturing.”

Specifically, he will detail advantages of using SolidWorks models beyond the drawing, to create a variety of parts, such as: sheet metal, molded/cast, tubular, and machined parts. Dan also plans on discussing various methods of model use in manufacturing; and “potential hurdles to overcome.” Essentially, attendees of Dan’s breakout session should learn the potential their models have to save time & money in manufacturing & procurement.

If you are attending SolidWorks World 2010, you may wish to book Dan’s presentation on your schedule on Wednesday, February 3 at 2:45PM. If you aren’t going to be able to attend, he’ll be posting his presentation online after SolidWorks World 2010.

Structure steel design in SolidWorks with AMV SteelWorks

AMV is a developer that publishes software solutions for structural engineering. They have joined the Bentley Developer Network for their AMV SteelWorks application. According to AMV, AMV SteelWorks was “conceived to streamline the workflow from general structural modelling, to detailing, fabrication, drawing and BOM.”

It appears the partnership of AMD SteelWorks 2010 with Bentley is aimed to move their application towards easier and smoother interaction between mechanical and sructural engineering, with full interoperability with STAAD, structural analysis and design software from the Bentley product line.

AMV predicts that training time for both Bentley and SolidWorks users will be short and competitive. Additionally, they claim designers will be able to create models, analysis and documentation in less time.