Metal News Asia

I would like to share with you highlights from this year's SolidWorks World. Sorry for the very late post. Better late than never; however never late is even better. 

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.

 Next year's SolidWorks World will be in Orlando, Florida from January 20 – 23, 2013.