Good morning from Phoenix where SolidWorks World 2015 is about to get underway.
We’re happy to be bringing you all the event’s goings on, announcements and some in-depth looks of what is only available for the eyes of the press folks – and we’re doing this with support from the lovely people at Lenovo and Nvidia – aren’t they dolls?!
Everything is underway – just click to read below the line.
Catch up with all the action from DEVELOP3D’s blog from each day of SolidWorks World 2015, here and as it happened:
Day Two – Moon landings with SolidWorks; keynote from Dr Michio Kaku; encouraging female engineers
3.58 – There’s a hell of a lot of ability in this for what’s merely a sketch tool, and the movement into SolidWorks proper looks fluid, expect our full review of SW-ID will be eagerly expected.
3.54 – Lots of render options already in SW-ID, key for nice shiny concepts knocked up fast.
3.46 – You can separate out individual ‘components’ to work on in SW-ID.
3.43 – Has the ability to chat with other users, share models and annotate, realtime collaboration for making modifications (using save and refresh) with control locking (you can pass this responsibility).
3.40 – ‘Drawing with a pen is much quicker and more natural than using a mouse’ – can’t argue with that unless your a battle-hardened CAD jockey, or are missing some digits…
3.38 – Although the lines are all ‘curves’ there is a sharpen tool for when you need straight geometry in a model.
3.36 – ‘This needs to be fast and fluid’ – helps speed up approvals through the collaborative element – why wait till a board meeting next week, when you can put all your ideas up on a sharing platform as and while you’re working for instant feedback.
3.34 – You can select 2D curve and set it as a spline, using the geometry to reference the rest of your model in 3D.
3.30 – It’s working with a lovely new Wacom Cintiq multi-touch – it’s a pen and paper sort of environment. Some good time saving sketch options – great photoshop-esque shortcuts. Anyone sketching product design concepts in PS is going to be interested by this. Draw a quick shape, hit shift to make it instant straight lines, cool things like that.
3.25 – RESPECT THE LEGACY! We’re getting a run through of SolidWorks Industrial Design (SW-ID), the term ‘legacy’ is being flung around for good ol’ standard SolidWorks, but this has our attention as a good ideation tool.
The @thinkstations new P300 Workstation vs last year's S30 with 'same' spec – what a difference a year make… https://t.co/KWI6jfsgX9
— Stephen Holmes (@swearstoomuch) February 9, 2015
The @Parrot drones in action at #SWW15 https://t.co/W9gukfv1wm
— Stephen Holmes (@swearstoomuch) February 9, 2015
BREAK! We’re heading off to the exhibition floor to find you some cool new stuff stick with us here or over on Twitter.
10.59 – More political questions – is Bre running for Office or something?
10.58 – 10 minutes about politics…
10.50 – You need to watch this new video from MakerBot – It’s what Bre is referencing – using PLA to build support structures, and building a trachea with “bio-goo” to use it as an implant. “They took our platform and our communities [and built something amazing].”
//player.vimeo.com/video/117844256
MakerBot Stories | Feinstein Institute for Medical Research from MakerBot on Vimeo.
10.48 – The old school teacher in Bre is getting a good few things off his chest – America wrecked its manufacturing industry and this has impacted education, which has impacted manufacturing…
Meanwhile… this is happening:
Reseller general session…shhhh secrets revealed! pic.twitter.com/4jvJWCHtgu
— Solid Solutions (@SolidSolutions) February 9, 2015
10.43 – Printed electronics, the tricky part is that the electric goods companies can already get a circuit board fixed up in a week, now, for something more than two layer electronics is going to have a lot of trouble, and they need to beat the current speed. Big issue with electrical resistance of printing with the materials we’ve got now.
10.41 – Not sure Bre’s actually answering any of these questions, if not just skirting around straight answers.
10.36 – Product design as a normal thing to do in school – that’s when we’ll see big change
10.34 – “We’re used to a new technology coming out every generation, now it’s multiple times a day”
10.30 – Press conference time with Bre – “It’s the shift from multiple iterations a year, to multiple iterations a day”
10.15 – GPB’s back to close the morning session – and he’s got the SW engineers standing up to take a deserved round of applause. Whooping-galore
10.14 – “I challenge you to think about what you can do together to push the world forward.”
Bre Petitis of @makerbot fame up next. #makers #sww15 pic.twitter.com/biHuL4Hoj7
— Barb Schmitz (@DW_BarbSchmitz) February 9, 2015
10.08 – Bold Machines – the innovation lab at Stratasys – they go looking for people doing cool things with 3D printing and accelerate it with its skills.
10.06 – “3D printing lets you see what you can do. It’s a superpower” – Bre Pettis
10.02 – We’re getting the full sales run through here… Fortus through to Connex… through to Solidscape…
10.00 – Bre says that he sets up parameters for himself and then lives within it. Slightly hardcore – creating a manifesto for himself. He created one for MakerBot before he flogged it for Stratasys.
9.57 – We’re getting the history of MakerBot and Bre’s pivotal involvement. “We’re in a different time. It’s not so long ago that if you wanted to manufacture something you had to be a tycoon”
9.52 – Speking of the Bre, he’s here – he grew up fixing things and became ‘addicted to the feeling’ – “it’s what got me hooked”.
Rumours circulating that @Bre's beard will be sporting a @thalmic Myo band to control the stage lighting later. #SWW15
— Stephen Holmes (@swearstoomuch) February 9, 2015
9.49 – You’re going to want one of these Thalamic Labs Myo controllers – or one for each limb – get strapped up kids!
9.45 – My god there is a lot of science involved in this product – it senses electrical signals from muscle movement, then combines it with the type of movement sensors you get in your smart phone.
9.41 – Rick Chin is up on stage – Rick has been responsible for lots of the development of SW in recent years, including E-Drawings. He’s introducing a company that’s designing wrist-worn gesture controllers – for games or for CAD – Thalamic Labs
I can't tell you how nice it is to have a product focused presentation this morning. Actual substance in an opening session?? Yes. #SWW15
— cadjunkie.com (@theCadjunkie) February 9, 2015
9.40 – “This company started with wireless bluetooth technology, now they are designing products” – GPB about Parrot
9.36 – We’re going to see Parrots’ hydrofoil drone boat (a small one for a pond) developed in SW-ID – lots of nice curves.
9.34 – Smart consumer products company Parrot, are onstage with GPB – they make everything from drones to headphones. “Hi-tech is now like fashion.”
9.32 – The words sexy and beautiful have been used a lot so far today… GPB’s Love Revolution is underway
SW model based definition – can we move away from paper now? #SWW15 pic.twitter.com/6iIrxQizn2
— Manish Kumar (@ManishK_3DS) February 9, 2015
9.30 – SW-ID in the browser – Lots of connection to the cloud exists already, but this is direct through the browser (no crappy apps) and users can work on models wherever they are.
9.28 – In a nutshell: It’s Sub-D design tools for ‘real’ CAD, and can be put straight into ‘normal’ SolidWorks to take further.
Nice demo of @SOLIDWORKS industrial conceptual #sww15 pic.twitter.com/o9evnShHYT
— olegshilovitsky (@olegshilovitsky) February 9, 2015
9.23 – SW-ID has everything as a curve, and the freeform design looks very Sub-D pushy-pully for fast concepts
9.20 – Kishore Boyalakuntla, director of product management is here to tell us more about SW-ID on the cloud. The collaboration functions are available on a browser, so you can get access anywhere, and all people involved can chip in with new data, ideas or designs.
9.16 – SolidWorks Industrial Design! Freeform tools so you can get designs “exactly as you want”, with realtime collaboration tools. A video showing the benefits of the tools is playing – some Americans and French blokes saying how ‘sexy’ the designs can be. Not sure we need the subtitles for the clear english of the French man though
GPBassi already called desktop Solidworks "Legacy." Uh oh. #SWW15
— Daniel Herzberg (@MegaHertz604) February 9, 2015
9.13 – “It’s the generation of entrepreneurs, and we need to be able to work anywhere at anytime, and on any device… We expect tools that let us work this way… We need what we call a true innovation platform.” GPB
9.12 – ‘Plastictronics’ embedding properties into actual parts, through 3D printing – it’s the future apparently. Like garlic bread.
Gian Paolo Bassi, CEO of @SOLIDWORKS on stage at the #SWW15 @gpbassi pic.twitter.com/Rsg6faznYP
— Dassault Systèmes (@Dassault3DS) February 9, 2015
9.10 – ‘In two years, 50 per cent of analytics will come out of products’ need a means of taking this big data into design process easier
A whole bunch of numbers on the screen now. 7.2M youtube views. 1.4M facebook fans. 247 @SWUGN group! #SWW15
— Jeff Mirisola (@JeffMirisola) February 9, 2015
Now on stage, the new CEO of SOLIDWORKS @gpbassi and he predicts 3 MILLION SEATS! #sww15
— Jenn Precopio (@jennprecopio) February 9, 2015
9.07 – “We want to embrace the future, we want you to embrace the future… but we respect the legacy” – Gian Paolo Bassi
9.06 – “What has not changed is my passion for SolidWorks and this community” – he’s smooth at working the crowd is GPB
9.05 – Gian Paolo Bassi has taken the stage – the new CEO who, as Bernard Charles says has been “Putting the Italian Style in the software” for some time
9.04 – Getting the entire company and customers involved in the design process – the ‘experience’ of the product
9.00 – “The possibility to invent a social environment at the heart of collaboration.” – Bernard Charles
Bernard Charles on stage with Bertrand Sicot at the plenary of #SWW15 @BernardCharles @BertrandSicot pic.twitter.com/bafN3n2iMW
— Dassault Systèmes (@Dassault3DS) February 9, 2015
8.58 – “How do you innovate if you only have a mechanical engineer in your team?” The social aspect of design is a big deal
Good God, I thought Googleglass was dead? #SWW15
— Jeff Mirisola (@JeffMirisola) February 9, 2015
8.53 – Bryo watches – a smart watch that can link with Google Glass – the entire platform designed on DS – which I’d show you but they don’t seem to exist on Google…
Bernard Charles comments on common #Dassault inititatives #IoT and #AEC to name but two. More trans-brand commonality coming? #SWW15
— Allan Behrens (@allanbehrens) February 9, 2015
8.52 – ‘A smart, connected world is where we want to be’ – Bernie gets very close to mentioning the Internet of Things
8.48 – Bernie is giving us the run through of the expanse of industry that Dassault is involved in – showing the Frank Gehry concept building – and now how everything will be connected in citys.
8.46 – Bertrand is heading off to develop the PLM side of the business – pastures new and all that – which is apparently a ‘one billion’ bet. I hope this is in US dollars – the Euro probably won’t hold out too well…
Introducing President and CEO of Dassault Systèmes @BernardCharles #SWW15
— SOLIDWORKS (@SOLIDWORKS) February 9, 2015
8.43 – “He always wants to be with us at SWW on day one – please welcome Bernard Charles!”
At Solidworks World today with 5500 of the most passionate and obsessive CAD wizards. #powerfulcommunity #SWW15 pic.twitter.com/0YcDGmL7bI
— Bre Pettis (@bre) February 9, 2015
8.42 – SolidWorks Industrial design is going to be launched later in this morning session – yey!
8.38 – “It’s my last SWW as the CEO, so if you want me in the next three days I’ll be at the bar!” Good man!
8.37 – 2.8M SolidWorks users around the world – the population would be the third largest in the US if it was a city.
8.36 – “Every year we’re waiting to open the doors to see you running to get the best seats!” – probably not what the insurers want to here… especially with 5,500 attendees.
Bertrand Sicot just opened the plenary session of #SWW15 with a #drone and a #pic of the audience 😉 @BertrandSicot pic.twitter.com/6lYSXmfjtb
— Dassault Systèmes (@Dassault3DS) February 9, 2015
8.35 – Bertrand Sicot – outgoing CEO is opening things up by flying a drone.
8.33 – There’s a rush of cheery pop music and more red lights than that area of Amsterdam where people dance in windows, and then we’re into an infomercial – nothing says ‘CAD conference’ more than an enlightening infomercial
Keynote speaker – Bre Pettis, CIO of Bold Machines
Day one sees Bre Pettis take the stage as the keynote speaker.
Now the head-honcho at Bold Machines, Bre is the man who we will always be associated with being the CEO MakerBot Industries.
Having led MakerBot as CEO from its beginning in 2009, establishing its position as one of the leading desktop ‘sausage-making’ machines available and possibly the most powerful 3D printing brand out there.
Since then he sold the business to Stratasys, but instead of retiring off to a tropical island somewhere, he has set up Bold Machines, the innovation workshop at Stratasys.
Its aim is to push 3D printing into new directions, having already set a new course by creating a series of children’s characters, that can be 3D printed, before they transcend to a movie sometime in the future.
