There is so much I can say about what they were showing. Just so spot on with vision and understanding of the problem with really slick innovative solutions. The timeframe is unknown right now, although they promise something with Enovia in 2010. I can speculate what that is, but let’s hang tight and see what they come up with.

Pictures don’t really do it justice. The most exciting part of it all is that this is just the beginning. Things will change in the near future. The biggest change that I am anxious to see worked out is the licensing and access. Companies like salesforce.com are blazing the way based on user login. Over lunch,  I heard guys worrying about security. Honestly, this is being worked out in other industries such as CRM and banking, engineering data will follow suit.

BUT, who owns the data? What happens when the cloud goes down? What happens when you are late on a payment? What happens when a storm knocks internet out? All real, relative things that need to be worked out. Glad its these guys taking the lead.

]]> http://www.derrekcooper.com/2010/02/the-forecast-for-solidworks-is-cloudy-with-a-ton-of-awesomeness/feed/ 1 http://www.derrekcooper.com/2010/02/dassault-systemes-has-a-big-presence-at-sww10/ http://www.derrekcooper.com/2010/02/dassault-systemes-has-a-big-presence-at-sww10/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:58:35 +0000 derrek.cooper http://www.derrekcooper.com/?p=514 General Session #1 started off with a bang this morning. Big crowd pushing to get into the theater, rock music blaring and lights blazing all over. Attendance is in excess of 5000, over the 4300 last year. Not bad. The vibe is high energy, as usual with this lot.

Jeff Ray got up and introduced Bernard Charles, CEO of Dassault Systemes. This, apparently, was the first time that Mr. Charles has attended a SWW. He gave a good insightful presentation on who Dassault Systemes are, gave a bit of history and referred to them as an investor in SolidWorks. He spoke about the six “lovemarks” in DS – specifically, SolidWorks, Catia, Simulia, Enovia, Delmia and 3dvia. Lovemarks still makes me giggle, probably sounds better in French At the end of it all, I think it went over fairly well. But, can’t help feeling like big brother was up there about to drop a bomb on something. Here is an image of the “brands”.

He then did a demo of 3dvia on an iphone. I am getting a much better idea of what 3dvia is all about. I met Cliff Medling last night and over a few Fat Tire’s he schooled me on some of the coolness that is 3dvia. Check out 3DVIA TV.

At the end of the day. I think Dassault Systemes has had a very positive effect on the SolidWorks product and organization. They may come across as this large corporation, but its clear in my next post that their input in “cloud” technologies is huge for SolidWorks.

Just dawned on me, that the last #sww I attended was in 2001. It was in Orlando and it was one of the first software shows I attended and I was floored. This was back when Jon Hirschtick was CEO and Jon McEleney was COO. Vic Leventhal did a fair amount of the mc-ing. Might seem like I am name dropping. Just trying to put things in perspective, I certainly don’t know any of these guys personally, but they are all figure heads in the SW community. Hirschtick is on twitter now and posted that he will be hosting another tweetup. How things change. All for the good.

Even in the 9 years since I was hear last, I still recognize many of the faces. I remember sitting on the edge of my seat as Aaron Kelley was on stage demoing What’s New in I guess is must have been SW2001. Those moments were defining for me as a software AE, demo jock.. SW defined what it was like to burst on the market and show the world how it was done.

To put things in perspective, here are a few points between then and now.

• winXP hadn’t been released yet
• Inventor was only a concept at the time
• PDMWorks, CosmosWorks, FloWorks, CircuitWorks and a whole slew of others were Gold Partners
• Hirschtick made a big deal about being on the road to 100k seats (I thought he was out of his mind)
• The name DS SolidWorks was the furthest thing from anyone’s mind

I’m pleasantly surprised to see the young, badass feeling still is alive and well, so far. Let’s see how I feel after a few more days.

We work with all of the major MCAD systems, so it is crucial that we understand the workflow, new features and general coolness of each package. This way, when we add new functionality to CFdesign, it looks familiar and even promotes the functionality in the MCAD system.

Some of the things I am looking forward to the most.

1. Sustainability Hands-on – Definitely a buzzword this year at #au2009 and now at #sww10. Clearly has the momentum. How it will help engineers select materials is awesome, BUT – think of how simulation can fine tune this and take it to the next level. Selecting the proper cooling material for a heat sink, what impact on the world does the fluid you are using have? Suppose you could virtually “swap” materials in a virtual design study?
2. What’s New in SolidWorks 2011- I’ll be blunt, what I really care most about is how will SW/DS truly leverage the web more. All of the other stuff users will care about- making SW slicker is always cool, but come on people take 3D MCAD to the next level in the cloud. First to acknowledge that I don’t know exactly what that means, but I suspect SW does.

Tonight, is one of a few Blogger/Tweetups that I am really looking forward to. Great to meet up with some old friends as well as put a face to a tweet. Much more to come.

We have been working really hard on the 2011 release and I think you will like what you see. If you are interested, shoot me an email and we can catch up.

Even if you aren’t able to attend or meet, I’d love to grab a few minutes to listen.

Thanks!!

Derrek