What is Joe's CAD Co?
Joe's CAD Co is a SolidWorks consulting company run by Joe Rowsey. Since 1997, Joe has worked with Pro/Engineer, thinkdesign, and SolidWorks. Joe's CAD Co started in Chicago in 2005 and moved to New Orleans in 2007. Joe can provide SolidWorks modeling, documentation, and training services throughout the US.
SolidWorks World 2010
SolidWorks World 2010 was held Jan 31 through Feb 3 in Anaheim, Ca.
Direct Editing and Working with Dumb Solids
I gave a presentation on 'Direct Editing and working with Dumb Solids'. Almost everybody stayed all the way through to the end, even though I think I went a little bit into lunch. They even put up with my pitch for New Orleans and the Saints.
It was a good audience who asked a number of good questions and made it much more of a discussion than a lecture. That makes it better for everybody. I also learned some things from the audience which is always a good sign as well.
Looking back at my presentation, I realize that there are at least three places where I fell short, or should have included some extra information. I can't go back in time to fix the actual presenation, but I can put that information here.
I want to post some images with my updates, so I'm not going to post anything until I've had the chance to document them. For now, I've posted the topics below. Please check back in the next few days for the updates.
Forum - Move Face dimension limit
Rolling Back - Create Sketch, Delete Face, Extrude Sketch
Co-Directional Cylindrical/Conical - Different Sizes
Robotics and Nerds
James McLurkin gave an excellent presentation centered around his multi-robot systems research. He included entertaining robot demonstrations and he clearly enjoys his work. He also encouraged the nerds in attendance to take pride in our nerdiness and to encourage kids to get excited about science and math. He wisely pointed out that it'll take nerds to solve the technological problems that we face.
James Cameron and Engineering
James Cameron had a conversation with SolidWorks founder Jon Hirschtick. One thing that I took away from the discussion was that titles and schooling are not as important as other factors when it comes to design and engineering.
Cameron also pointed out three interesting guidelines:
- - Hope is not a strategy
- - Luck is not a factor
- - Fear is not an option
More from Cameron can be found in this excerpt from an address to a 2004 NASA symposium on risk and exploration.
The Big News
The big news of the convention was the 'cloud'-based CAD system that SolidWorks/Dassault has in the works for down the road. SolidWorks does not usually show software that is not almost ready to be released. This year was an exception.
Installation, maintenance, operating systems, stability...
We saw a demonstration of a new CAD system that could eliminate many installation and maintenance issues by running over an internet connection, requiring only minimal setup on the computer of the end user.
This could also allow the CAD system to run on any operating system, which should make Apple and other Linux users happy.
Such a system could also address software stability issues, as well as potential data loss problems, as the heavy computations could be handled by 'the cloud' and data storage (and potentially back-ups) could also be handled by 'the cloud'.
Nothing official
Please keep in mind that no official announcements or claims were made. Also, keep in mind that 'cloud' computing is a hot, marketing, 'buzz-word' right now. However, the fact that SolidWorks stayed relatively quiet during the recent 'Direct Editing' buzz-period may show that SolidWorks does not typically jump onto fads.
SolidWorks goes away?
While there was a lot of discussion about the 'cloud' CAD demonstration, one big item seemed to be swept to the side. As far as I could tell, the new 'cloud'-based CAD system will replace SolidWorks. One rumor I heard even had the 'cloud'-based CAD system replacing both SolidWorks and CATIA simultaneously.
Nobody expects SolidWorks to go away any time soon. However, it seems as if the eventual plan is to replace SolidWorks with a completely different system.
Wait and see...
There was a lot of discussion about 'the cloud', but we don't really have much information to go on at this point, so we'll just have to wait and see.
New Orleans
If any of you would like to help the great city of New Orleans rebuild, come on down for a visit. If you cannot travel right now, my nola page has other ways to help out.