The SolidWorks Blog

SolidWorks in 2012 – The CEO’s perspective

The first general session of SolidWorks World 2012 just ended a little while ago, and I wanted to take this opportunity to share some thoughts with those of you who could not attend.

The SolidWorks community has grown a lot in the past year. In 2011 we added 15,939 new customers & 250,000+ new users, for a total of 1.7 million. To put that in perspective, if all 1.7 million SolidWorks users formed a new city, it would be the fifth largest in the United States–larger than Philadelphia. And by SolidWorks World 2013, I expect that number will be at (or above) 2 million.

I also learned recently that more than 50,000 of you have been certified through our CSWA, CSWP and CSWE programs. This is an amazing achievement, and it goes to show that SolidWorks skills are valued by employers throughout the world. So if you are using SolidWorks today, you are in good company.

SolidWorks was founded on a very simple idea—to put the power of 3D solid modeling on every engineer’s desktop. From the very first days of SolidWorks, we have focused on you, our customers. And eighteen years later, we’re still as focused on the customer experience as we were then. We have shown the world that we can build a successful business while still treating our employees, customers, resellers, and partners with dignity and respect. But we know that our products are not perfect. They can always be better. We can always be better.

Last September, we announced the 20^th release of SolidWorks with our 2012 update. This release is a little bit unique, because we really focused on improving the core business processes that affect you on a daily basis. For example, SolidWorks 2012 marks the first time you can calculate and compare material costs early in the design process, directly in the software. This new Design Costing feature is already helping companies hit their manufacturing cost targets by providing automatic, real-time manufacturing cost estimates during the initial design phase. Some of you are already reporting that you can now create more accurate quotes as much as 80% faster than you did before.

We also introduced something we call Large Design Review, which lets you review your designs quickly and easily, no matter how big they are. And we added a lot of updates we call delighters, which are little changes that often have big impacts. These include an improved equation editor, as well as an easier way to place balloons in your drawings.

At SolidWorks, we’re committed to providing you with the tools you need to design products that change the world, and help you be more successful while you do it. We also remain committed to our core design principles. We want to help you solve complicated engineering problems easily, without introducing any unnecessary complications. It’s our hallmark – we call it making things “SolidWorks simple.”

As many of you know, the R&D team is hard at work building a new 21^st century CAD platform. It’s my responsibility as CEO to ensure we have a strategy for taking advantage of new trends, technologies and processing power that will benefit you. You’ve probably heard us say that over 90% of the new features in every version of SolidWorks are the direct result of customer requests, and that remains true.

So on behalf of the entire SolidWorks team, I would like to thank all of you for being a part of the SolidWorks community. Our connection to the community is what keeps us excited. It’s what fires the passion we all feel when we come to work every day. And it’s also what keeps us grounded, making sure we’re always asking “are we doing the right things for our users?” Thank you again.

DIY Design at Cedarville University

I first learned about Jay Kinsinger, professor of engineering at Cedarville University, from the school's VAR, 3D Vision. They told me about how in addition to pushing design to its limits using the tools at hand with his students' projects, he also designs steel-frame bikes on his own time.

Taking on the World: University of Michigan Solar Car Takes Third

The University of Michigan Solar Car team recently competed in the World Solar Challenge in Australia. Overall, the team achieved an impressive third-place showing after having some incredible setbacks and challenges including the loss of a wheel cover and a massive brush fired that delayed the entire race. The team developed the car from scratch over the course of two years, using SolidWorks to design several elements of the vehicle Quantum. We sat down with team member Chris Hilger and picked his brain about solar car design and thoughts after the race.

 

1) What big design improvements, if any, were made to Quantum prior to the race? Any last minute adjustments that needed to be made?

We did several weeks of testing before the race. From this, we modified the weight distribution of the car to help it handle better in crosswinds. 

 

2) Any design lessons that you learned after the World Solar Challenge?

We learned that wind gusts can be much stronger than anticipated, and we needed to design our car to handle well against a strong crosswind gust. Also, we noted the importance of cooling the cells with water or proper ventilation, to ensure they can operate at peak efficiency

 

3) What was the coolest thing that you got to experience while in Australia?

The coolest thing was being within minutes of the race leader, which is unheard of given the length of the race.

4) What elements of the experience do you think you’ll take with you into your career?

I will take all of the lessons I learned in regard to business development, fundraising, sales and marketing. My dream is to start my own high tech startup, which will require many of those skills to launch the business.

 

5) What are some of the common misconceptions about working with a solar car?

Many see the car and believe it is more of a science fair project. This could not be further from the truth. Sustainable transportation actually has budgets in the multimillion dollar range, and implements cutting-edge, yet very relevant technologies.

 

6) Any advice for designers who want to focus on sustainability or green energy?

Always keep the goals in mind. It’s easy to get caught up in one aspect of the car/project, and lose focus on all other relevant portions. For example, a winning team/car requires excellent aerodynamics, solar cells, fundraising, team culture, logistics and talent. If any are lacking, it is very hard to build a successful program.

 

7) What surprises did you encounter during the design process?

We set very ambitious goals to reduce the weight of the car by 200 lbs. A lot of people were skeptical about the reduction, but once you take a holistic view of the entire car's weight, the ounces begin to add up. In the end, we were able to make the reductions necessary and create a vehicle that was 30 percent more aerodynamic than the previous model. 

 

The Hope for Human-Powered Transportation

“Human-powered transportation” is an odd turn of phrase—but it’s also how people have been getting around for centuries, and is still evolving today. Human-powered transportation, once the height of innovation, is now seen as both a design challenge and a way to support green living.

Take the bicycle. How many people do you know who have given up car commutes in favor of cycling? Major cities even have pedicabs for tourists concerned about emissions. But human-powered transportation extends far beyond a simple bicycle.

As announced today, the Aerospace Engineering department at the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering is currently building a human-powered helicopter. ElliptiGO, another SolidWorks customer, provides an outdoor, low-impact bike that uses the motion of an elliptical machine. There are even handcycles for folks who prefer to pedal using their arms.

University of Maryland human-powered helicopter Gamera

Skates, muscle-powered hydrofoils and even Trikkes harness human energy to propel us forward. And the Gerhardt Cycleplane, called the world’s first successful human-powered aircraft and first flown in 1923, is the granddaddy of engineless flight. So with all of these options, what else is left to create?

As our world continues to grow, designers continue to innovate and consumers continue to look for new ways to travel and new envelopes to push, we can expect more groundbreaking innovations in human-powered transportation and more ways to test them.

For today, we wish the UMD team good luck in its pursuit of the coveted Sikorsky prize, which pushes the limit of human endurance as well as cutting-edge design. You can check out a test flight video of the record-breaking Gamera helicopter below.

Student Teams Tout Their Punkin' Chunkin' Trebuchets

What’s more competitive than a Halloween costume contest? A punkin' chunkin' contest! As we announced today, Team ETHOS, a SolidWorks hobbyist team, is a contender in The World Championship Punkin Chunkin Association (WCPCA). The team used SolidWorks 3D design software to create its catapult for World Championship Punkin' Chunkin' Contest in Delaware this week.

You can check out the release for more details—but while we’re on the topic of punkin' chunkin', we want to give a shout out to a couple of our student users.

The Mt. Olive High School Robotics Team of Flanders, NJ, won the Grand Champion’s Award for the longest shot in the annual New Jersey Last Fling Pumpkin Sling in 2011, for the second year running. This year, the team won with a distance of 959 feet—an impressive showing—with a catapult designed in SolidWorks. Next up is the World Championship Punkin' Chunkin' Contest, where the Mt. Olive team will face off against other student teams from around the country.

This Wall Street Journal article chronicles the team’s journey and even gives SolidWorks some love in the slide show. Thanks to David Bodmer of Mt. Olive High School for keeping us up to date on the team’s accomplishments, and how SolidWorks helped make them happen. Best of luck to you in November!

You may remember Assabet Valley Technical High School of Marlboro, Mass. from Let’s Go Design Project 2. The students of the precision machining and automated manufacturing department, led by Bryant LaFlamme, are back with a catapult of their own—check out the attached video testing the height and reach of 400 lbs of weight (click through to the article for a video). Pretty impressive work, profiled last weekend in the Milford Daily News, and also we’re rooting for the team at Assabet Valley at the World Championship Punkin' Chunkin' Contest this week!

We’d love to hear about your homemade catapults, trebuchets, slingshots and whatever else you’ve created to fling things—tell us in the comments!

 

P.S - If you want to see how SolidWorks and SolidWorks Simulation could help you design your own punkin' chunkin' machine, check out the new video on our website.

SolidWorks 2012 - The Wow Feeling

As SolidWorks celebrates its 20th release, SolidWorks 2012 fills me with another “wow” feeling.  The “wow” feeling of that this release contains something special.  This SolidWorks 2012 release will change behavior on how you design. 

 

At Long Last--Passing the Certified SolidWorks Professional Test

Back In March I wrote about how I was challenged by Matt Lorono to pass the Certified SolidWorks Professional (CSWP) test. In April I talked about taking (and passing) the first segment of the test, and in June I discussed how it took two attempts to pass the second segment.

After my experience with the second segment, I made sure to spend plenty of time preparing for the third (and final) segment. If you’re not familiar with the CSWP test, the third segment covers assemblies, mates, coordinate systems and mass properties analysis. I paid close attention to everything my teacher, Marie Planchard, gave me for homework, and went through everything twice.

As I began the eighty-minute test, I felt more confident than I did taking the second segment, mostly because the process of creating assemblies is a much more natural part of the design process. When you are designing a product, it is very rare that you only create a single part, and working with a system really helped me to feel like I was accomplishing something, and that I was reaching the end of the process.

I am happy to say that I completed the third segment of the test on my first try, and that I am now officially a Certified SolidWorks Professional. To prove it, here is a copy of my certificate.

Those of you who are already CSWPs might notice something a little different about mine. Normally, the certificate includes the CEOs signature. But I didn’t think it would be right for me to sign my own certificate, so I got Marie Planchard and Jeremy Luchini to sign it instead. If you are not familiar with them, Marie is in charge of our education programs, and Jeremy manages our certification team. My certificate is now hanging on the wall of my office, where I can be reminded of the dedication our users put into their designs every day.

Going through the process of studying for (and passing) the CSWP test led to a few things I wasn’t expecting. It had been a while since I was so hands-on with SolidWorks, and the more I worked with the software, the more time I wanted to spend with it. I now feel confident that I could design almost anything I wanted to, and I really want to stay in touch with the product going into the future. I also have a greater sense of connection to all of the SolidWorks users I talk to around the world, and even though I’m not a professional designer, I feel that I’m better able to understand their daily experiences.

For anyone considering taking the CSWP, or even the CSWA, I will repeat my advice from earlier this year. Develop a plan for yourself and set goals, then stick to them. It is easy to get sidetracked, but you always have to keep the end goal in mind. Give yourself time to study, and establish milestones. That will help you avoid skipping something important, and you won’t find yourself feeling rushed like I did at times.

And finally, I would like to thank Marie Planchard for all of her help and advice as I worked my way through this process. She helped to make what could have been a difficult process much more organized and logical, and was always there with words of encouragement. And I’d also like to thank all of you who have offered words of advice and encouragement on our blog. It really did help me through the process knowing I had the support of the SolidWorks community.

And to those of you who might ask when I plan to pass the CSWE, I will have to get back to you!

SolidWorks customers chime in on SolidWorks 2012 at the annual media day

On September 6, we'll officially unveil SolidWorks 2012—but today, here at SolidWorks HQ, we gave a few of our friends in the press a sneak peek of the 20^th release of our product.

The day started off with a look back at how far SolidWorks has come, from coding in Jon Hirschtick's Winchester, MA condo in the beginning to building a community of 1.6 million users today. The past 19 releases have broken new ground in CAD year after year, and we’re excited to roll out this latest version to all of our loyal fans.

One of the best things about media day is that we have lots of customers who come in and talk about the ways they're using SolidWorks to design and build amazing products. Some of the companies represented today include Baker Drivetrain, Jeremy Singley Designs, Burton Snowboards, BPG Werks, Catapult Design, Edge Factor TV, Digital Design & Detail and Lilliputian Systems. Pictures of some of their products are included below.

We also had Barbara Hughey from the MIT Women’s Technology Program in to talk about girls in education. In coordination with our own Marie Planchard, Barbara led the members of the press through a robot-building exercise. They may have only been toy robots, but that doesn't mean they were easy to put together.

As we were talking to people who are here today, they had some nice things to say about how they use SolidWorks, what functions work best for them in their roles and why they like the current version. Some of the things they told us involved:

• Intuitive, easy to learn and use
• Robust feature set
• Enables quick time to market
• Key communication tool for the design chain

 There were also a few notable quotes from the customers attending:

• “The design world is going through a revolution, and SolidWorks provides more visualization from idea to design.”
• “SolidWorks as we know it gets better and better at things.”
• “I couldn’t communicate at all without SolidWorks.”
• "SolidWorks is a business in a box for a small shop like ours."

Here are a few of the customers who attended today talking about SolidWorks 2012, as well as the photos we mentioned earlier. We’re anxious to show the community what SolidWorks 2012 has to offer—90% of the updates in this version were developed based on user feedback, and we hope you’re as excited to use it as we were to create it for you.

 

 

 

Baker Drivetrain Motorcycle Transmission

Burton Snowboard Binding

Model of FutureTruck by Jeremy Singley

 
BPG Shredder

 

Hot Rod Baby Buggy Episode #4 is available now!!!

The Let's Go Design team has been taking some well-deserved vacation over the summer, but they got back into the swing of things recently to put together the next episode in the Hot Rod Baby Buggy project. Swing on over to the Let's Go Design website to see how the frame is taking shape and cast your vote on the baby cockpit. And while you're there, be sure to leave a comment for Jeremy and the team with your thoughts and opinions.

Green Design Contest Deconstructed

I didn't know what to expect when we launched our Green Design Contest on Earth Day (April 22), which ran until June 30th. We've spent the last month judging the contest, and now that the results are in and the winners chosen, I can reflect on what you've learned about sustainable design. Here are a few reflections.

There is no such thing as the "most sustainable" shape, material, or manufacturing setting. Winning designs were proposed in many different materials and shapes (and some really interesting ones... like this great design from reused tires by John Hodges), and there was no "killer" setting in Sustainability that you had to have to be considered a top design. Intuitively, I know this is true from my experience as a sustainability professional, but it was really nice to see it verified in the diverse nature of the winning designs. I was a little worried that your entries might fall into one or two "local min/max" design paradigms, but most of you reached a "global max" in your search to optimize beauty, functionality, and environmental impact.

That said, it's hard to beat the woods for environmental sustainability, like this wood offering by Kah Fai Chin. More than half of the winning designs were made in some sort of wood; many of you specified bamboo, which you modeled using a similar wood. The reason that wood looks so good from an environmental perspective is that it's a renewable resource. Wood absorbs carbon as it grows -- so-called "biogenic carbon" -- and so its carbon footprint in SolidWorks 2010 and 2011 is actually negative. (Spoiler alert: it will still be very low in 2012, but we're making some minor adjustments in the carbon model, so it won't be negative.)

And some of you even specified balsa wood -- you know, the really light stuff that you used to make your Pinewood Derby cars when you were a kid. Nature, when it builds ideal designs to solve its engineering challenges, favors novel shape before novel material, and novel material before expending energy; but we tend to solve problems in the opposite order. Your balsa wood designs were a nod to the way nature designs, by using this softer material in a structurally intelligent way so that would hold a 250-lb person, like this entry from Xiang Ma. And trust me, I double-checked each Simulation report for those balsa wood designs!

 

Perhaps most importantly, you showed us that you could think outside the (software) box -- that is, you thought about sustainable design beyond the mechanical manipulations of the software. You created designs that were:

   

...inspired by landing gear legs and an airfoil seat profile (Gerard Libby);

 

  

 

  ...shaped like a DNA strand, representing and reminding us of our connection to nature (Karan Ambwani);

 

 

  ...specified as made from the ground, extruded bits of confiscated personal items at airport checkpoints (Dallas Winspear);  

 

 

...designed as a pumped chamber to house the actual algae bioreactor for the algae biodiesel production (Ronald Majewski);

 

 

  



 ...and even collapsible for easy transport, perhaps tagging along in the cargo hold of one of our very own algae-powered aircraft (Rui Alexandre).

 

 

 

All in all, these designs were a real pleasure to judge, and made us a little more hopeful for the future world our kids will inherit!