SOLIDWORKS World 2018 General Session Recap: Day Two

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Before diving into an amazing day two, let’s briefly revisit day one’s proceedings, specifically its focus on the user community. SOLIDWORKS CEO Gian Paolo Bassi stated that users are constantly top of mind. This focus permeates throughout the company. It’s your work, the great products you create, and the lives you change that drives SOLIDWORKS. This mantra took center stage on day two starting with SOLIDWORKS Vice President, Strategy and Community, Suchit Jain. Note, you can read the day one recap here.

Suchit stated, “What I love about SOLIDWORKS is very simple: you, our massive and growing of user community.” This statement clearly set the tone for the morning’s general session and was evident in the customers, technology, and teaching discussed at SWW18. Five million engineers and designers use SOLIDWORKS to innovate every day. Today was a day their stories were shared with the community.

Emerging startups are very important to SOLIDWORKS. For the last two years, the SOLIDWORKS Entrepreneur program has provided an opportunity for us to invest in new companies through free software and mentorship. Boom Supersonic, an aerospace company working toward commercially viable supersonic aircraft, is one entrepreneur program success story.

Mike Jagemann, Head of XB-1 Production, Boom Supersonic, first learned SOLIDWORKS in college as part of a competitive aerospace team. This fact is important as education is critical for growing the next generation of engineers. Mike explained that Boom uses SOLIDWORKS to design its entire aircraft – not just pieces of fuselage or the interior but for the whole thing including CAD, PDM, Simulation and AR/VR.

Boom is growing almost as fast as its flight speed capabilities. Mike mentioned an ulterior motive for coming to SWW18: the opportunity to connect with the best designers in the business who can help Boom take flight. So if you’re not at SOLIDWORKS World, there’s a good lesson: it’s a great place to grow your career.

If you’ve been following the Fab Lab efforts at SOLIDWORKS, you may know that the company has recently helped launch Fab Lab locations in Bhutan and Rwanda. This stems from a close relationship with MIT Professor Dr. Neil Gershenfeld, who runs the school’s Center for Bits and Atoms. Fab Labs are community maker spaces where people can take advantage of design and manufacturing tools to make anything. Thanks to the efforts of Neil and his team, there are now 1,200 Fab Lab locations worldwide. This maker mentality is at the heart of the Industrial Renaissance.

The drive to become an engineer starts at an early age. Education plays a HUGE role in the SOLIDWORKS community, and the person driving that passion is Director of Education, Marie Planchard. Marie explained the important role that educators make in teaching students both in and out of the classroom. Inside the classroom, educators inspire their students and provide them with the best job skills to ultimately work for you – our customers. SOLIDWORKS also assists educators to connect with students outside of the classroom. By supporting 3,000+ competitive teams, and sponsoring hundreds of organizations, such as SAE, AUVSI, and FIRST Robotics, students get the opportunity to enrich their classroom work with real-life engineering projects.

Marie explained that SOLIDWORKS researchers inspire the community both in and out of the classroom by making the impossible, possible. Kyoungchul Kong (known as KC), CEO, SG Robotics and Professor at Sogang University, is one such inspiration. Some cynics might see the thought of engineering changing people’s lives has hyperbolic. If you encounter a person with this belief, please explain KC’s work. SG robotics is in the business of building powered exoskeletons to help people with disabilities or limited mobility walk again.

After hearing amazing user stories from Boom and SG Robotics, conversation shifted to new tools that will give the SOLIDWORKS community the capabilities to continue innovating today and in the future.

With over 1 million users, MySolidWorks is the largest SOLIDWORKS online community in the world. Every day, tens of thousands of members use MySolidWorks to stay plugged in, to acquire new skills through online training, or to test drive SOLIDWORKS with the online product trial. MySolidWorks is known as a great place for training. Today, SOLIDWORKS announced the redesigned CAD Model service, a new way for you to share and showcase your skills.

Next up, Suchit provided more information about Marketplace Make and Marketplace Part Supply. Marketplace Make is the seamless way to get your parts made and collaborate with leading digital manufacturers worldwide across all manufacturing processes: 3D Printing, CNC Machining, Injection Molding, Sheet Metal and more. Marketplace Part Supply is a comprehensive and intelligent online 3D components catalog service.

Learn more about Marketplace by clicking here.

Solution partners are making massive contributions to the SOLIDWORKS community. Today, Suchit explored three emerging areas that are shaping the future of engineering: VR/AR, 3D Printing, and IoT.

Meta is shortcutting the process of taking a CAD model into an AR/VR model. With new capabilities set to launch this year, you can take a CAD model straight into AR/VR environments. Meta CEO and Founder Meron Gribetz provided a live demo that felt like it was ripped straight out of Tony Stark’s workshop. Meron called up a motorcycle model, conducted a design review and displayed a full-scale bike onstage. Meron explained the demo best by saying, “it’s just freakin’ awesome.” You can read more about the partnership and the beta program in this blog post.

3D Printing was the next area of focus with three partnership announcements with 3D Systems, Desktop Metal, and Nano Dimension.

Suchit announced that, starting today, all SOLIDWORKS subscription users will have access to a new application “3DExpert for SOLIDWORKS” developed by 3D Systems. This partnership will make it easy for you to design and optimize 3D‐printable models and provide you the ability to easily prepare your designs for 3D Printing.

Next, SOLIDWORKS is now integrated with Live Parts from Desktop Metal. This new integration enables you to conduct Shape Discovery for metal 3D Printed parts and engineer to mimic nature.

With partnerships involving plastics and metal covered, the third announcement involved printing electronics. SOLIDWORKS is now integrated with Nano Dimension’s 3D Printer, giving you the capability to directly design and 3D print electronics.

Connected products and IoT are changing the way products are designed. As the demand for “smart” products becomes more prevalent, SOLIDWORKS is investing in partnerships to ensure users have the tools to meet the demand for IoT. Enter Lior Akavia, Co-Founder and CEO of IoT platform provider Seebo. IoT is providing new business opportunities; however, it also brings a new set of challenges. Seebo’s goal is make the complex simple by giving you the tools to transform 3D models into IoT models in no time.

These partnerships are a direct result of a key strategy to add value for SOLIDWORKS subscription users. In 2017, these users had access to SOLIDWORKS Visualize. In 2018, subscription users were able to take advantage of integrated CAM. Now, you’ll have access to cutting edge AR/VR, 3D Printing and IoT features thanks to innovative partnerships.

The day closed with a spirited presentation from Brent Bushnell, CEO of engineering and entertainment company Two Bit Circus. Brent’s discussion was a perfect example of the best that the SOLIDWORKS community has to offer. His passion for engaging with people, his work, and fellow engineers had the crowd captivated. It wasn’t a surprise seeing that Brent designs experiences like tequila clouds, flame tanks, and robot bartenders. Beyond the jaw-dropping projects, the point behind Brent’s talk was simple: engagement is the key to creative design. There’s no experience more immersive than real life, and everyone in the SOLIDWORKS community has the tools and skills to create something innovative, engaging, and memorable. Now got out there and make it happen. We’ll see you on day three. If you’re not in LA, you can watch live at live.solidworks.com.

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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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