SOLIDWORKS World 2017 Day Three Recap: The Future

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Day three at SOLIDWORKS World focuses on the future. It’s about upcoming features in SOLIDWORKS, but also what’s possible for future of humanity. Before diving into day three, let’s quickly recap day two:

Kishore Boyalakuntla, SOLIDWORKS Senior Director, Product Portfolio Management and Brand User Experience Leader took the stage to discuss updates to the SOLIDWORKS product line.

First up is an update to SOLIDWORKS Make, which enables users to offer personalized products online in millions of variations, anywhere around the world. Here’s how ClearVision uses SOLIDWORKS Make to enable its customers to customize their own eyewear.

Kishore then went on to discuss four ecosystems driving SOLIDWORKS: design to manufacturing, data management, simulation and IoT.

Design to Manufacturing

With releases of MBD, Inspection, Costing, Plastics Injection Simulation, DFM, and Composer, this ecosystem has exploded over the last several years. SOLIDWORKS CAM is the latest addition, ready to bring Smart Manufacturing to your workflow. Let’s see how Ring Brothers, custom car builders, use SOLIDWORKS in their projects.

Data Management

The SOLIDWORKS data management ecosystem products have broad multi-discipline appeal within organizations because of their ease of use and familiar Windows explorer interface, which provide fast access to relevant data not achievable with generic network shares. New for SOLIDWORKS 2018 is SOLIDWORKS Manage, which adds new capabilities including:

  • Project timelines and resources
  • Complex business processes
  • Advanced Item Management
  • Dashboard and reports for critical data

Simulation

Simulation is the next ecosystem; now adding Simulation Engineer, a validation tool for solving complex structural analysis problems, such as large deformations, component contact and complex materials. Simulation Engineer is part of the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform and leverages ABAQUS technology from SIMULIA. The product can be access in one click from SOLIDWORKS. Here’s how SSA Analysis uses the Simulation Ecosystem to validate challenging engineering problems.

Internet of Things

The fourth ecosystem is the Internet of Things (IoT). Here, Kishore called upon Jon Friedman, SOLIDWORKS user and President/Co-Founder of Freight Farms, to discuss how his company is using the SOLIDWORKS IoT ecosystem to plant sustainable farms inside of shipping containers. During his talk, Jon compared Freight Farms to SOLIDWORKS. Essentially Freight Farms wants to be a platform to empower growers as SOLIDWORKS is a platform for designers and engineers.

Freight Farms’ Leafy Green Machine is a 40-ft shipping container that uses a hydroponic system to grow produce. The system is connected to regulate the atmosphere so the food grows the same in Indiana as it would in India. The yield for the Leafy Green Machine is the equivalent of 1,000 heads of lettuce per week with only 20 hours of labor required for optimal growth!

Technology and companies like Freight Farms are especially important to Duane Elgin. He’s a sustainability evangelist and futurist who understands that human ingenuity is needed to address population increases and climate change. Duane joined Jon onstage and discussed how Freight Farms can address these problems by providing sustainable food to the masses and shielding growth against an unpredictable environment. The message from Duane is that humanity needs to cope with what we’ve created. Freight Farms is one way to solve problems in a time of transition.

It’s fitting that Model Mania, the “Big Game” of modeling began just days after one of the best “Big Games” in the last 51 years. Model Mania has taken place for the last 18 years and looks to find the fastest and most accurate modelers in the SOLIDWORKS Community. Congratulations to this year’s winners!

Today the SWW17 crowd had the pleasure of hearing a talk from Anousheh Ansari. In addition to being co-founder and chairwoman of Prodeo Systems, and the Ansari X Prize, Anousheh is the first female private space explorer. Born in Iran, Anousheh always dreamt of the stars. She credits her interest in science and engineering to being highly influenced by science fiction from the works of Jules Verne to Gene Roddenberry.

Anousheh spoke of a personalized, augmented, and engineered future on earth and in space. She expressed the importance of imagination in making this future possible. It’s not a shock to hear her say this when wonder and imagination, from things like day dreaming about joining the Star Fleet, sparked so many ideas that contributed to her spending eight days on the International Space Station. To drive the point home, she quoted Einstein, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Anything is possible if we first have the strength to imagine it and the will to make it pass. She closed the talk with a poem of inspiration from Karen Raven:

Only as high as I reach can I grow

Only as far as I seek can I go

Only as deep as I look can I see

Only as much as I dream can I be!

As is tradition, SOLIDWORKS World ended with a look at what’s being developed for future versions of SOLIDWORKS. The Product Introduction team always produces an amazing and entertaining skit, presenting demos of these features and this year’s talent show spoof “SOLIDWORKS Next Top Modeler” was no exception. The contest pitted four aspiring designers in a competition on who can best showcase features and updates like Generative Design and 3D Interconnect. For a full run down of the proceedings, and to see the technology preview, read this post from Director of Product Introduction Kurt Anliker.

Finally, CEO Gian Paolo Bassi took the stage to thank the 5,000+ users in attendance and even more watching the live webcast for participating in this year’s event. Gian Paolo stressed that his favorite experience at SOLIDWORKS World is sharing personal stories. A “family reunion” is a common term many users state when describing SOLIDWORKS World. It may sound cliché if you’ve never been, but for those users who attend SOLIDWORKS World every year, it’s a statement as true as tomorrow’s sunrise. While the sun may have set on #SWW17, we’re not done with Los Angeles. We’re coming back to LA-LA Land for SOLIDWORKS World 2018, February 4-7, 2018 – and we’re actually hoping to bring more sun with us the next time around! Thanks for all those who attended and worked hard to make SOLIDWORKS World 2017 a great success. See you at the next reunion!

 

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Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. offers complete 3D software tools that let you create, simulate, publish, and manage your data. SolidWorks products are easy to learn and use, and work together to help you design products better, faster, and more cost-effectively. The SolidWorks focus on ease-of-use allows more engineers, designers and other technology professionals than ever before to take advantage of 3D in bringing their designs to life.
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