The
SolidWorks World 2012 event in San Diego, California kicked off in a big way. International
Metalworking News for Asia wraps up some of the highlights of
SolidWorks 2012, keynote presentation from the father of the iPod Tony Fadell, and
a glimpse of what you can expect from SolidWorks 2013.
Dassault
Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. (DS SolidWorks) CEO
Bertrand Sicot opened the first general session of the week. According to
Sicot, there were 5,650 people from 33 countries who attended. And there are
now 1.7 million users in the SolidWorks community. He said that if they were to
create a city of all the SolidWorks users, it would be the fourth largest city
in America.
Two big names made appearances during the first day. First is Tony Fadell, known as the “Father of the iPod.” He made his mark via his former positions as Apple’s senior vice president of the iPod division and adviser to Steve Jobs.
Today, Fadell is changing the game again as founder and
CEO of Nest, a hot startup that introduced the
world’s first learning thermostat. The Nest Learning Thermostat™ learns about
you and your home to automatically turns itself down when you're away, guides
you to energy-efficient temperatures when you’re home, and frees you from
programming hassles by creating a customized temperature schedule. Nest has
been dubbed the “iPhone of thermostats” by Wired, and the New York Times
describes it as “gorgeous, elegant and very smart.” Fadell said that to create
a game-changing product, function and design must go hand in hand.
While everyone knew ahead of time that Tony Fadell was
going to appear, everyone was surprised by the appearance of Mike Rowe, from
Dirty Jobs, the second big name. Mike discussed the origins of Dirty Jobs and
also talked about his website, www.mikeroweworks.com, which is a site that
helps people with special trade skills find jobs.
The second general session kicked off with Fielder
Hiss showing off some video clips of the CSWP event from the Midway aircraft
carrier. Mike and Geoff Howe from Howe and Howe Technologies were the keynote
speakers during that day. Howe and Howe Technologies have used SolidWorks for
several years, and are heavy users of Simulation and PhotoView 360, as well.
Mike and Geoff got their big break when the U.S. Army contracted them to build
some autonomous Ripsaw vehicles. They have developed many other vehicles and
devices of various types since then.
One of their latest devices is a Robotic Arm that weighs only 300 pounds, but can lift over 2000 pounds. It is built using Hydraulic motors and made from mostly 6000 and 7000 series aluminum. Mike and Geoff hope this arm can be used to lift heavy items in rescue situations or other situations where it isn’t safe (or practical) to send in people or other larger equipment.
Next
speaker was Ben
Kaufmann from Quirky.com, a
collaborative site for inventors to share their product ideas. Every week after
receiving an average of 200-300 product ideas, they pick two to develop. With
30-40 mechanical, industrial design, and electrical engineers on staff, Quirky
does much of the footwork in developing the products. During the development
process, all online collaborators are involved. They are allowed to see the
design as it progresses and provide feedback. If their ideas are used in the
product, collaborators can end up receiving royalties. The inventor who
submitted the idea can end up receiving up to 30% of the final profits.
One of the things attendees of SolidWorks World always
look forward to is the day where attendees get a peek of the next version. The
last general session at SolidWorks World 2012 showed some new features coming
in SolidWorks 2013. SolidWorks
team came up with a sort of "Back to the Future" theme, featuring
SolidWorks founder Jon Hirschtick. Some of the enhancements that got the most
enthusiastic response were previous release interoperability, variable pattern
instances and the ability to insert multiple parts.
Partner pavilion
In
every trade fair, exhibitors are given the chance to display industry solutions
and the opportunity to build upon existing business relationships, establish
new ones and secure their position as leaders on the forefront of CAM machining
innovations. Exhibitors exuded confidence in the manufacturing
sector’s growing strength. An upbeat movement was echoed by virtually every
MCAD/CAM vendor. The conference was a showcase for innovation that drew excited
attendees who physically vied for a close-up view of newly-released software
and hardware to experience these game-changing technological advances.
