SolidWorks Legion

My SolidWorks World 2011 presentation

I’ve first attended SolidWorks World in 2008 in San Diego, CA as a customer. At SolidWorks World 2009 and 2010, I attended as a member of the Press. In 2010, I participated on the panel in the Stump the Chumps II breakout session. My short debut as a co-presenter was less than glorious but not terribly horrible.

At SolidWorks World 2011 in San Antonio, TX, I will be presenting my first breakout session, Establishing CAD standards within SolidWorks environment. The session will be on Monday 24 at 2:45PM (local time), scheduled in room 202 of the convention center. (All sessions may be viewed at the SolidWorks World 2011 website.) My breakout session is one hour long and will discuss the general areas that require documentation which are essential for establishing company CAD standards within an engineering environment that utilizes SolidWorks.

This session will cover as much as I can in one hour. There will be a discussion on procedure writing techniques, important considerations when establishing standards, and the types of documents that should be written. I will offer some specific advice, but the breakout session will focus on the big picture by providing a general road map for creating and maintaining your own CAD standards.

Monday is a busy day for many attendees. Even still, I’m hopefully that many will join me for my breakout session.

New head at SolidWorks Corp

Today, Dassault Systemes SolidWorks Corp accounced that executive vice president of sales, Bertrand Sicot, is now the new CEO. Former CEO, Jeff Ray, was promoted into a leadership role at Dassault Systèmes based in Vélizy, France. Sicot started his career at DS SolidWorks in 1997 as the regional sales manager for Western Europe and Scandinavia. SolidWorks Corp stated that ” Sicot has consistently improved worldwide distribution performance, revenue, profit, and global market share.”

Ray is moving to DS corporate HQ in France as Executive Vice President of Geographic Operations and “will oversee the company’s 12 geographies to enable local DS teams to better address the specific local challenges facing customers and partners.”

Sicot brings his own brand of excitement and interest. In his first public message as CEO, he declares, “one of the first things I ever designed and built at the age of 13—a remote-control boat with full wood hull and electric drive—still works.” He also talks about the excitement he has for “technology [SolidWorks is] building with our next-generation platform” and for the SolidWorks company and its customers.

Both Sicot and Ray will attend at SolidWorks World 2011.

SolidWorks World 2011 Linkedin page

SolidWorks World 2011 has a Linkedin Event page where people with Linkedin accounts can connect. You can show others how you will attend SolidWorks World 2011 and get other information about others. It is a good resource for linking up with other SolidWorks users on Linkedin. To view the Event page, go here and login.

Another reason to go to SolidWorks World 2011?

There is yet another contest for those of us who register to attend SolidWorks World 2011. SolidWorks Corp is conducting a random drawing for a one-hour group blackjack lesson with Jon Hirschtick (SolidWorks Corp founder) at SolidWorks World 2011 in San Antonio, TX. According to Vic Leventhal (another SolidWorks Corp founder), Mr. Hirschtick was part of the MIT Blackjack team and he used money earned from that effort to start SolidWorks. Mr. Hirschtick has conducted similar sessions at past SolidWorks Worlds. I was fortunate to join one such event at SolidWorks World 2009 in Orlando, FL. The experience was amazing.

For more information and rules from SolidWorks about their contest, see the Contest Website.

SolidWorks World 2011 Keynote speakers announced

Reposted from SolidWorks Blog

Two men who helped save the Apollo 13 crew 40 years ago by finding ingenious solutions to catastrophic mechanical problems will headline SolidWorks World 2011, the world’s largest gathering of the engineering and design community. Their heroics provide an inspirational example of engineering under pressure.

In April 1970, more than 200,000 miles from earth, Apollo 13 sustained a sudden failure of its cryogenic oxygen system. Commander Capt. James Lovell Jr. and his crew successfully modified the craft’s lunar module into an effective “lifeboat” to provide power and water for an emergency return to earth. Gene Kranz, lead flight director, headed the ground-based “Tiger Team” that helped coordinate the successful detour.

Their actions earned Lovell and Kranz Presidential Medals of Freedom. The pair will tell their stories at SolidWorks World, which takes place Jan. 23-26, 2011, at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas. This year’s event is the 13th annual gathering of customers, partners, resellers, and employees of Dassault Systèmes (DS) SolidWorks Corp., maker of software for design, simulation, data management, technical communications, and sustainability assessment.

“I faced the ultimate challenge when imparting the words ‘Houston, we have a problem,’” says Lovell. “But we all face challenges – some life-threatening and inescapable, others more routine. I look forward to sharing my story and learning about the unique challenges faced by DS SolidWorks’ customers.”

“Throughout my career I have seen the role teamwork plays in assuring ultimate victory in any circumstances. DS SolidWorks as a team provides engineers and designers with the tools they need to build products for which, as in aeronautics, ‘failure is not an option,’” says Kranz. “I am interested to see firsthand how SolidWorks enables its customers to solve problems in a variety of industries.”

See the SolidWorks World website for more information about this year’s conference.

Vote for your ideas to improve SolidWorks

Without much fanfare, a new feature was added to the SolidWorks Forum under the SolidWorks World area. Its called Ideas. Heres a link (you’ll need to be logged into the forums to gain access to this area). In this new tab, you’ll be able to create and vote on ideas on how to improve SolidWorks. Presumably, the most popular results will be presented at SolidWorks World 2011. So, if you have some zany ideas on how to make SolidWorks better, go to Ideas and submit your idea. Be sure to vote for great ideas submitted to others.

As of right now, it appears that the most popular Idea tag is “Drawing” and the second most popular is “Drawings”. I think that speaks volumes about where SolidWorks needs to be focusing their resources to improve SolidWorks. Happy voting!