Category: SolidWorks World

James Cameron Press Conference

Using the word “press conference” is often a sure way to scare readers away.  I hope that doesn’t happen now.  There’s nothing boring about James Cameron (as far as I can tell).  He can discuss a range of topics, using simple terms peppered with “big words”.  He can seamlessly use the words “buttload” “proxy resolution” while discussing the same thought.  Cameron describes himself as someone who tries to evolve himself outside of the Hollywood culture.  Instead he opts for other areas, such as what he calls the “NASA culture”. 

He promoted large displays.  According to Cameron, 7 million large screen TVs were sold in 2009, and are slated to double this year.  When it comes to stereoscopic technology (3D movies), the display is “racing ahead of content.”   There needs to be a lot more movies such as Avatar.   International soccer is already embracing the new technology by recently showing their games in 3D.

When asked why he was working on a camera to be sent to Mars, yet he will be going to the bottom of the Marianas Trench himself, Cameron stated that it is easier to control a robot on Mars than 7 miles down on the ocean floor.  He also stated, “I believe in the physical present of the observer” and that controlling robots are “not as much fun” as being their in person.

When discussing the origin of the creators in Avatar, Cameron alluded to some mythical inspiration, but that the 10 foot tall blue characters were actually based on a dream his mother had once.  Jokingly, Cameron said that he told his mother he would make a movie about them someday.

When asked about his environmental message, he did iterate, “people need to be inspired to go into the environmental sector” to make our civilization better.  Technology is causing many of our problems and we will need to think and design our way out of those problems.

Selection of James Cameron as SolidWorks World guest speaker

James Cameron was so impressed with Infinite Z (brought up during the first presentation of the General Session) he requested to see their booth right after the end of the General Session. This meant that the press was kept waiting for awhile at the press conference in his honor. Jeff Ray and Jon Hirshtick entertained the press with a pre-press conference of sorts.

They discussed the selection process in choosing guest speakers for SolidWorks World. Ray stated that they look for people that are both entertaining and relevant. Ray also stated that they want someone that goes beyond just saying they like and use the product. Hirshtick stated that they do not prep guest speakers to say good things or not to say bad things about SolidWorks.

When they were first considering Cameron, the release of Avatar was still off in the future and not widely known.  There was concern about how relevant a Hollywood type would be to the core 3D CAD audience. After looking up his wikipedia article, Hirshtick was excited about this former machinist, inventor and innovator in working with cameras.

Cameron’s cool statements about 3D printing and CAD during his presentation where not planned. As mentioned previously, he stated that the bulldozers shown in the movie would have been 3D printed in the storyline.

The press conference will be covered in an article later today.

SolidWorks World 2010 General Session – Monday (part3)

James McLurkin isn’t the most polished of presenters, but he is extremely interesting.  In a plug for SolidWorks, McLurkin stated, “I’m not just a SolidWorks speaker.  I’m also a client.”  He is an engineer and roboticist specializing in swarm robotics.  He demonstrated his swarm of little micelike robots at SolidWorks World this year.  He talked about how they move round within the group, including comments about communication limitations between of a swarm.  Though his technology and research may one day lead to the great robot revolution, he stated that will not likely occur in our time.  “Only a handful of robots can open a door, and none if you have to pull [it open].”  He gleefully added, “If the robot revolution happened tomorrow, you’d be perfectly safe just by closing your door.”  I still say the robot revolution will one day come, and I welcome our future metallic overlords (once they are in power, of course).

McLurkin talked for some time about “Nerd Pride” and extolled engineers to release their nerd to the world.  This can be done in a number of ways, such as giving nerdy gifts, voting for education candidates, helping out schools and related projects, teaching, etc.

At the press conference that followed, McLurkin was asked about the value of simulation versus real world.  He answered, “the problem with simulation is that you can only test what you put in.”  He also talked about the difference of biological inspiration and biological mimicry.  To him, biological inspiration is understanding and applying how nature works; biological mimicry is simply copying a successful system within nature.  Though I understand his general point, I do not think he fully made clear any meaningful distinction as they would both seem to be interrelated.

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

James CameronJames 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.

My 1st (very brief) SWW

After 10 years of using SolidWorks, I attended SWW10 in Anaheim for the first time. But, I can only get as far as the Partner Pavilion. For the tenth year, my employer could not pay for me to attend. http://www.solidworks.com/swworld/2580_ENU_HTML.htm

Luckily I live here in Orange County and could attend for a few hours.

A lot of the companies I have seen or used before, but a few were new to me. None really caught my attention except for Solido. http://www.solido3d.com/

My hope for the past several years was to someday see the price of 3D printing drop. It seems Solido has broken the mold. They are also eco friendly by using a rolled mylar –looking material into the machine and creating parts based on the sheet thickness. The parts were comparable to other 3D printers, at a lower cost! I past their info to my boss…

Another company that caught my, not because of the new touch screen fad, but because of the hardware that was used. SolidWorks, Microsoft (Surface), and Identity Mine teamed up to create a UI ‘sketcher’ to work with SolidWorks models by the touch of the hand on a flat table.

Some of the technology was interesting, although it has been around for a couple years, but the templates that were used to create ‘buttons’ were cheesy and the touch screen not very clear to me. http://www.identitymine.com/Products/SurfaceSkins.aspx

The biggest downfall for me was the large screen sitting horizontal, or flat. I would be sitting on my local chiropractor’s table getting my neck straightened every week after sitting on a uncomfortable stool all day looking down onto a flat table. IMO, poor design. It should rise similar to the old drafting tables (some of us remember those, right?) so that the screen was more eye level.

Thanks to Matt for a fun time and helping me meet up with some other online friends. It was great finally putting a face to a screen name.

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.