In what might be considered the premier SoildWorks Rollout event in the San Francisco Bay Area, Hawk Ridge Systems kicked off their rollout tour for SolidWorks 2010 at the Hiller Aviation Museum. Now, I don’t normally rave 
about VARs doing anything, but this event stands out. Where other VARs are holding events at their offices or even just doing webinars, Hawk Ridge Systems went all out. Despite the first major storm to hit California in a few years*, attendance to this event was good.
The topics covered during the event included many of the improvements in Solidworks 2010, from predictability and consistancy to the new Dimensions Palette. Also included in the event were fairly in depth presentations for 3DVia, Enterprise PDM and SolidWorks Simulator. For the first time ever, I’ve developed an appreciation for the functionality within 3DVia. I’m still not the audience to which this application should be pitched, but hey, it looks cool.
On top of everything else, lunch from Pasta Pomodoro was an unexpected delight. I’m 
also happy about being able to take a free tour of the Hiller Aviation Museum, which has been on my todo list for a long time. The museum was a little smaller than I expected, though every cubic inch has some aeroplane or other sky contraption and wonderment. I bought the t-shirt (as I always do). One complaint I have about using this location for events like SolidWorks Rollouts is that the museum remained open during the presentations. Once in awhile, arriving patrons did get a bit noisy which made it hard to focus on the presenter.
As usual, sponsors did get their chance to speak. Fortunately, they kept their announcements short and sweet. Taken on the whole, this was an event that stands out as being well above par (or below par if you are a golfer).
*A major storm for California consists of an amount of rain and wind that other portions of the planet may consider timid. We had a lot of slowed traffic and neighborhood debris from trees and turned-over trash cans. That’s about it. But it’s enough to cause people to change their plans.