Ricky Jordan's Blog » SolidWorks News

SolidWorks World 2012 Top Ten List

Ricky Jordan — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 14:43:50 +0000

The SolidWorks World 2012 Top Ten List candidates are posted. You can log in to the SolidWorks Forums (link provided above – click the picture) and vote your favorite ideas up or down. Idea submission is already closed but voting will be open right up until just before SolidWorks World 2012 begins.

For the sixth consecutive year, I’ll be covering SolidWorks World as a member of the press, so stay tuned for more updates. In the coming weeks I’ll share some thoughts prior to the start of the conference in regards to what I think we might see. Stay tuned…more to come!

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SolidWorks 2012: Drawing Enhancements

Ricky Jordan — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 02:48:44 +0000

In many companies, Drawings are still were “the rubber meets the road”. Let’s take a look at what I think will be some of the more popular enhancements to the Drawing and Detailing area of SolidWorks 2012. I’ve tried to keep the descriptions short and sweet because like me, I’m sure many of you don’t have time to read a long drawn out article. So lets get started.

Magnet Lines

If you’ve ever used 3dvia Composer, this one will look really familiar. You can place magnet lines AFTER balloons are created or DURING creation if you use the Auto-Balloon functionality. Magnet Lines are invisible unless you select a Balloon that is attached to one. The most efficient process if you are adding existing Balloons is to drag the cursor over each balloon that you want to include WHILE you are drawing the magnet line. Once it is created, you can set the Magnet Line to show equal spacing between Balloons or non-equal spacing through the “Free-Drag” option. If you like your drawings to be neat and orderly, You’ll like this enhancement.

Here’s a short video showing Magnet Lines in action.

Auto-Insert Center Marks

If you don’t want SolidWorks to automatically create centermarks upon view creation (Option in the System Options), this option allows you to perform this action as you need it. This is a huge time saver for those parts with LOTS of holes. All you need to do is call up the Center Mark command and check one of the options under the Auto Insert group box. There are some options with this…one of which I haven’t been able to get to work. I would expect the “Connection Lines” option to automatically draw the connection lines between Center Marks that are vertically or horizontally aligned, but it has not worked for me as of yet. I’ll update the article once I get some more information on this. Outside of this discovery, this is another nice enhancement that can cut down on mouse clicks.

Highlighting Changed Dimensions

Simply put… Turn THIS ON! This will alert you as to when dimensions change in a saved drawing when you open it by showing the dimension is a different color. At the moment I can’t think of any reason why you wouldn’t want to use this. You have to turn this on thru the Tools->Options->System Options->Colors area. (Screenshot shown below.) The drawing must be opened to take advantage of this functionality. If you hover over one of the changed dimensions, a popup box shows you the previous dimension. If you change the model WHILE the drawing is open, you won’t see the color change. Once you save the drawing, the changes are accepted and the color change and indication of the previous dimension goes away the next time you open the document. (NOTE: I tried to print a PDF of the drawing WHILE the dimension change colors were in effect and the color did NOT show up in the PDF.)

Open Assemblies and Sub-Assemblies from Drawing Views

This one is a nice little enhancement. When you hover over a component you have the option to open the top level assembly, sub-assembly, or component itself. Previously you could only open the component itself.

There are more enhancements…and you can see the complete list online HERE.

That’s all for now…stay tuned….more to come!

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SolidWorks 2012 Announced

Ricky Jordan — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 03:24:19 +0000

I just got back from a 10 day road trip for some family commitments, so I’m sharing the news about SolidWorks 2012 a little later than most.

On September 6th, SolidWorks officially lifted the embargo on sharing details about SolidWorks 2012. You can read the official announcement HERE and you can browse the What’s New Manual online by clicking HERE. You can go to the SolidWorks 2012 Launch site by clicking HERE. (Note – New this year is a requirement to fill out quite a bit of information about yourself before you’re allowed to view the videos – Yikes!)

This first post I’ll mention a few items which as a CAD Admin I think will have the most impact. Of the items I’ve reviewed thus far, these are MY favorites. There are still a few features that I need to test drive a bit more before passing final judgement on their impact.

Equations - This area has been completely overhauled. The most requested feature I’ve heard when it comes to equations is the ability to type an equation directly into the Modify dialog box – and then be able to recall it later from the same interface. The two screenshots below show the initial entry of the equation and then the result of calling up the Modify dialog box again.

Note – The modify dialog now has two entry windows. The upper window allows you to change the dimension name without having to go to the PropertyManager.

There are MANY more Equation enhancements, which I’ll cover in detail in a separate post.

Freeze Feature – This one is a carry over from early SolidWorks 2011 development. The details of the feature were not quite worked out in time for the 2011 release, so it’s here for 2012. This feature allows the user to freeze rebuild operations for a range of features in the drawing tree. This may seem like a bit of a niche feature, but I think it will have a GREAT impact for those who work with models that have a large number of features. The screenshot below shows a model with many features. This particular model has a large number of construction features that remain constant and a small group of features at the end of the tree that are changed for different designs. You can see quite a difference in the rebuild times.

Multiple Monitor Support – With monitor prices plummeting a large majority of CAD users have more than one display active for their CAD Workstations. Span Display will automatically extend the SolidWorks window to your second display without having to manually resize. A brief description is shown HERE in the online help.

Magnet Lines in Drawings – There always seems to be something in Drawings that really gets your attention. Most of the time it is one of those features that may seem little, but can go a long way in helping organize your drawings. This year’s feature is the Magnet Lines for Balloons. You can add them manually or make them automatic as part of the autoballoon feature.

Swept Flange – I haven’t looked at this one in detail yet (and I just don’t do much sheet metal anymore) but I couldn’t pass up the chance to mention it. Here’s a direct LINK to the What’s New Details if you’re curious.

That’s all for now, we’ll start tackling some of these other enhancements in detail in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

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SolidWorks 2012 Beta 1 is Available

Ricky Jordan — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 05:22:09 +0000

Its a little later in the year than usual, but the time has arrived for SolidWorks 2012 Beta Testing. You can download the SolidWorks 2012 Beta 1 software from the Beta Site if you are currently on subscription service with SolidWorks. I highly recommend you visit the Forum and download the What’s New document for review before installing.

The NDA is still in place so I won’t be able to elaborate much until they take the wraps off in a few months. You can check out my SolidWorks 2012 Sneak Peek from earlier this year at SolidWorks World for a look at some of the new features, but it doesn’t cover all of them.

Stay tuned…more to come!

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New SolidWorks Logo

Ricky Jordan — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 01:59:27 +0000

As I was logging into the Knowledge base earlier today I just happened to notice a bit of a change in the SolidWorks logo. As you can see in the image above, it is quite different than the old one. Is it newsworthy? …Well maybe not so much, but I thought that the fact that the SolidWorks logo (minus the DS) has remained much the same since the company was found (until now) was quite significant.

So tonight I finally had some time to research it a bit. The one and only place to get the latest on anything lately has been Twitter, and I wasn’t disappointed. I knew that many of my ultra sharp colleagues in the SolidWorks Community (especially @charlesculp) had to have noticed this as well. Here’s some of the Twitter Traffic on it:

The closer alignment with Dassault Systemes continues. The interesting part will come as we see more of the DS Technology make its way into the SolidWorks Products.

I’m finally getting some of my side projects complete so I’m looking forward to diving in soon for an in-depth review of 3Dvia Composer. I hope to start bring that to you here on the site very soon.

Stay tuned…more to come!

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SolidWorks 2012 Sneak Peek

Ricky Jordan — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 02:15:01 +0000

One of the favorite parts for many attendees at SolidWorks World each year is the Sneak Peek preview of the upcoming SolidWorks release. This year at SolidWorks World 2011, we all got a Sneak Peek of SolidWorks 2012. Like many years in the past, the new features were revealed in the form of a “skit”. This year it was CAD COPS. (Themed after the popular Fox show “COPS”. I’ve got to say this was probably the funniest one yet. Anyhow, let’s get started reviewing the enhancements. I’ve provided as much detail as I could as they were presented VERY FAST.

You can pin your most commonly used files inside the Recent Documents dialog. You can also open the folders those files are in from the dialog as well. (All of this is available from the file menu as well.)

You can now change units with the Units Switcher in the right side of the status bar. (Can change on the fly anytime.)

Sheet metal flanges now have the option to be set to “Parallel to base flange” instead of vertex which allows for better control when flange angles change.

You can now reference the outside tangency to ensure flange lengths stay the same and corners close properly

Easier placement of Form Tools. You can also dynamically flip, rotate and utilize configurations of your forms! (Thumbs up for sure on the configurations!)

You can now select faces to ignore when unfolding sheet metal parts.

New Swept Flange feature for Sheet Metal (Wasn’t able to get a picture of this one.)

Place one diameter dimension and the sketch automatically locks into diameter dimension mode.

Equation Editor is all new. There is a single dialog box and the software not AUTOMATICALLY calculates the solve order. There are several different views incorporated such as Category, Dimension, & Ordered view. You can access ALL dimensions of a part from a list as well. File properties, functions, & global variables are all available from drop down boxes. You can also utilize the Measure tool from within the Equation Editor to create a reference dimension on the fly which can be used as part of the equation.

Exploded views are now available from the Drawing Pallette. They can also be enabled in the PropertyManager or from the Right Mouse Button Menu. (In current versions, the option to show an Exploded view is buried in the view properties dialog box.)

Bill of Materials can now be created without pre-selecting any views.

Balloons have several enhancements. You can Auto-Balloon sequentially. This will allow you to pick the location of your item 1 balloon and then your balloons follow in sequential item number order around the view (the placement shape is still based on standard Auto-Balloon options). The whole setup appears to be very configurable and will allow you to make adjustments to the balloon sequencing on the fly with all associated Balloons and Bills of Materials dynamically updating.

Balloons now have magnet lines. This is a very popular feature of 3dvia Composer. Balloons can be positioned along a magnet line and you have complete control over the spacing along that line.

View labels are now automatically re-used when views are deleted.

Centermarks can now be automatically inserted at any time for an entire view. (Not just during view creation.) You still have a variety of options for the insertion.

3dvia Composer has enhanced realtime rendering tools which result in a higher quality display image. There is also a Compass tool which helps you navigate and change the appearances of your models.

3dvia Composer also now features BOM highlighting. This allows the user to highlight components in a BOM by hovering over the corresponding components in the model view.

Much like the Magnet Lines mentioned earlier, SolidWork has incorporated some other 3dvia Composer functions. One of which is pressing the Tab key to hide components in an assembly.

SolidWorks 2012 includes a brand new Costing Tool. It analyzes the model (including the features) and gives breakdowns of cost by manufacturing process. It even includes areas where machine setup costs can be input so that quantity adjustments can update the individual component cost. All of this is based on templates which can be modified using an included Template Editor.

Simulation now supports motion sensors and Design Studies support motion simulation. Optimization is also now available in motion simulation.

There is a new Large Design Review mode which allows you to open large assemblies in seconds. (it was described as Quickview on steroids). When opened in this mode the assembly can be navigated as if it were a small assembly. Zooming and panning is also smooth. You can create or reuse Walk throughs and have full interactivity with the FeatureManager Designtree. Hide/Show status can be set from the tree or the graphics area. You can also use the Section View tool while in this mode! Components and sub-assemblies can be opened with full editing capabilities. If you modify the component or sub-assembly and Save it, it will update the Large Assembly already open in Large Design Review mode.

During the SolidWorks World Top Ten Enhancement requests, it was mentioned that the “Freeze Feature” that was shown at SolidWorks World 2010 will be included as part of the SolidWorks 2012 release. (It was in early SolidWorks 2011 alpha builds but was not included in the final SolidWorks 2011 release after some user feedback to questions posted in the SolidWorks Forums. It was held back primarily so that more features and options could be added to it (including support for configurations).

Probably my personal favorite is the Large Design Review mode. If all of the features described make it into the final release, it will be BIG for those with MANY components. Having the Units Switcher in the Status bar is my other favorite. (Sometimes it’s the little things that can make a difference.)

That’s all for now….stay tuned….I’ll post a synopsis of the rest of the Wednesday General Session soon.

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SolidWorks World 2011 General Session Tuesday

Ricky Jordan — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:35:55 +0000

The Tuesday General Session is now over and SolidWorks World is nearing it’s halfway point. The focus of today’s session was on The SolidWorks User Groups and SolidWorks Customer Stories.

Fielder Hiss led off the with an award for HP who is a platinum sponsor for SolidWorks World. He then introduced Richard Doyle, User Community Manager for SolidWorks to present this year’s SWUGN awards.

The User Group of the Year was won by the Chicago SolidWorks User Group. The award was accepted by group leader Denny Bahl. The User Group Leader of the Year award was one by Ed Gebo of the Connecticut SolidWorks User Group. I met Ed for the first time this year and I couldn’t think of a better guy to win this award. Congratulations Ed!

The session shifted to a bit of a somber note as we remembered one of the SWUGN founders, Michelle Pillers, who lost her battle with Cancer last year. Phil Sluder and Richard Doyle both talked about the early days of SWUGN (It was called SNUG) and how inspirational and helpful Michelle was in getting SolidWorks User Groups and Forums started. She will be missed.

SWUGN has created a new award and has named it in Michelle’s honor. The first recipient of the Michelle Pillers SWUGN Community Award is Wayne Tiffany! Wayne is a SolidWorks World veteran, longtime User Group Leader & SWUGN Regional Rep, and participant in the SolidWorks Forums. Congratulations Wayne!

Next up was SolidWorks Founder and Group Executive Jon Hirschtick. Over the last couple of years Jon has visited SolidWorks customers and brought their stories to SolidWorks World. This year Jon brought the VERY FIRST SolidWorks customer on stage. His name is Bill Townsend. He is the Founder, President & CEO of Barrett Technology, Inc. Bill’s company manufactures force feedback robot arms that measure interaction with people and react directly to them. There are many applications for these robots. To make them have the smoothest possible torques, Bill’s company developed drives that use cables instead of gears. They also solved many wiring problems by putting the motor and encoder for the drives into a densely packed PCB design about the size of a large coin. This allowed the controls to be mounted onto the drives (because of their size) rather than existing inside a large enclosure. Wiring was reduced from over 100 wires to 4! Very impressive.

The next guest Jon brought out was Rony Abovitz, Founder & Chief Visionary Officer, MAKO Surgical Corp. He is somewhat of a customer of Barrett Technology. He used Bill’s Robots to build his first generation robots that assisted surgery. That was the basis for his current RIO Robotic arm line which is 100% designed and manufactured by MAKO. Robotic Assisted Surgery is a type of surgery that is an alternative to a full Knee Replacement. MRI based 3D images of the patients knee is developed and brought into SolidWorks via point cloud data. Custom supports for the knee were developed and manufactured. Since the robots know the geometry of the knee, they assist the surgeon with the surgery. There have been over 6,000 surgeries to date!

Samuel Brooks, an actual patient who has had this surgery came onto the stage to share his story. He walked only two hours after his surgery and was playing golf 3 days after!

The next customer brought onstage was Local Motors. This company supports the first Open-Source Designed Car, the Rally Fighter. The design of the car is a collaborative, 3D based process in which users submit designs via SolidWorks models. All models developed as part of the project are available for download both during the design process and once the design is complete. They get proven engines, transmissions, and other components from GM, Ford, Chrysler, and other automotive suppliers an develop the car around it. (They have a process in which they are able to acquire NURBS or Mesh based models of the objects to supper the project.) Many of the designs are competitions with prizes (like seats of SolidWorks) given away to the winner.

Darren Henry, Director of Marketing for SolidWorks was up next to introduce Casey Pieretti and Bill Spracher, hosts of the upcoming Discovery Channel show, Bionic Builders. Casey lost is right leg below the knee but is honestly one of the most active people I’ve seen. His career choice might surprise you as is Hollywood stuntman. Bill is a design engineer, and together with Casey, has designed a variety of leg attachments to help Casey accomplish a variety of tasks. Casey’s quote was: “I don’t want to be enabled…I want to be super-enabled.” The show will be about building attachments that not just MATCH normal human performance, but EXCEED it in many ways.

This looks like it is going to be another MUST SEE show for me on Discovery Channel.

Theres only one more General Session left (tomorrow morning) and it is going to be a BIG ONE. This is where they will reveal new products and give us a sneak peek at future products. I’m hopping that most of the General Session tomorrow will be spent on this as this is a VERY BIG DEAL to the users at this event (and following along at home as well).

Stay tuned…more to come!

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SolidWorks and “Space”

Ricky Jordan — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 05:30:53 +0000

A couple of weeks ago there were two “Space” related SolidWorks announcements. I have a personal interest in both of them (one more so than the other). So here goes, let’s take them on one by one.

Apollo 13 Heroes to Headline SolidWorks World 2011

Apollo 13 Commander Capt. James Lovell and Apollo Flight Director Gene Kranz are coming to SolidWorks World 2011 in San Antonio and will be on stage TODAY at Monday’s General Session. Getting to hear first hand accounts of not only the Apollo 13 mission, but the Apollo program itself and the moon race is going to be a once in a lifetime occasion for many in attendance. If you aren’t familiar with what happened to Apollo 13 (there might be a few of you out there), the crew was nearly lost in space when an oxygen tank exploded while the spacecraft (and crew) were on the way to the moon. Just how they were able to make it back home, is one of the most amazing stories ever told. Someone pointed out over on the SolidWorks Blog that this was indeed the 13th SolidWorks World. Very fitting.

To say I was thrilled when I heard this announcement would probably be an understatement. As a kid growing up just north of Atlanta, I was a “Space Nut”. For a good many years, I lived and breathed space travel history. At one point, I could name every mission from Mercury to Apollo. I read every book I could get my hands on about the space program. Getting to see the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville (I now live 8 minutes from it ), Kennedy Space Center, and the Smithsonian National Air and Space museum were three childhood memories I’ll never forget. As the years grew on and life and other hobbies took interest, I always had space exploration in the back of my mind. So why do I mention this? Well this kinda sets the scene for the second SolidWorks “Space” related announcement.

Rocket City Space Pioneers Rely on SolidWorks to “Power” Their Entry in the Google Lunar X PRIZE

This one has a bit MORE of a personal note for me, because I am a member of the Rocket City Space Pioneers team! Dynetics (the company I work for) is leading this team of Huntsville companies on a mission to return to the moon with a lunar lander and rover as part of the Google Lunar X PRIZE. I’m very appreciative that SolidWorks is on board as a mission sponsor to help make that happen. Getting to the moon is no small task, but we are very much looking forward to the challenge. Our team is only a few months old, but we’ve already won successfully won contracts for the NASA ILDD program. There are many other things going on that I can’t talk about yet, but will be able to in the near future.

Thats all for now….stay tuned…more to come from SolidWorks World 2011!

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SolidWorks World Monday General Session

Announcements to look for at SolidWorks World 2011

Ricky Jordan — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 04:00:08 +0000

We are still a few days away from the start of SolidWorks World, but here are a few interesting announcements coming that you’ll want to keep your eye on.

T-SPLINES FOR SOLIDWORKS

I caught this post over at SolidSmack thru Twitter a little earlier tonight (Thanks Josh!). T-Splines for SolidWorks will be introduced at SolidWorks World. T-Splines has had a very interesting product for Rhino that allows users to create extremely organic shapes. This is really the first major Surfacing related development for SolidWorks since a few years back when Boundary Surface was introduced. I’ll try to get by their booth and get some video. You can read more about the T-Splines for Rhino application in this Develop3D review.

SOLIDWORKS ON THE IPAD

This one looks interesting….although there isn’t much detail on it yet. It is from a company called CADFaster. I searched the App Store and didn’t see anything released yet though. My guess is that it is a viewer and from the description it works off of the user loading their models into a cloud based storage location. I’ll get more on this next week.

I’ll keep updating this post as I see more tidbits coming out.

Stay tuned…much more to come!

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Forecasting the Clouds for SolidWorks V6

Ricky Jordan — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 07:29:30 +0000

Ok…with all the Cloud jokes rolling around I couldn’t help but have a little fun with the headline. SolidWorks V6 or “The Cloud version” as dubbed by many has been somewhat quietly talked about off and on for about the last six months which followed up a firestorm of discussion just after SolidWorks World 2010. The past few weeks the discussion has picked up quite a bit in advance of SolidWorks World 2011 so I figured I would weigh in on a few things.

I don’t recall seeing anything quite like this in the CAD industry during the time I’ve been following it. A technology demo is shown in Anaheim which has led to and incredible amount of discussion and speculation for the past year. It’s kinda at its “fun” point right now for those of us CAD geeks for one main reason. There is NO PRODUCT available at this time. While some of the “fun” certainly has serious overtones (after all there is a HUGE amount of SolidWorks data existing in industry today) it is for the most part in the “harmless” discussion phase for users. I haven’t heard of SolidWorks customers fleeing in droves (boy don’t you know that their competitors wish they were) so I think its safe to say that everyone is in a “wait and see” mode. As soon as the first “next generation” product becomes available though, ALL OF THAT WILL CHANGE.

Having such a HUGE userbase, SolidWorks has a tremendous responsibility to their customers not to mess this up. (And they did say this several times at SWW2010) They are going to have to make the transition as painless as possible for their customers in order to be successful. So there is without a doubt quite a bit of pretty serious work going on behind closed doors in Concord (and in France). Meanwhile we are all standing outside the doors waiting to get our first look. While no company is perfect it has been MY experience through the years that OVERALL SolidWorks has provided good support for ME as a customer. (Sure I could nitpick in some areas..but I’m trying to keep this big picture folks) Some of you out there may have a different opinion on that. I’m not looking to start a debate on that by the way. Who really has the time and energy to do that….I’ve got two jobs and two kids people! ) So anyway…back to point. Based on that I am taking the stance of assuming that SolidWorks will provide the proper tools and support for users to move. I mean with this much at stake, how can they not? Will it be perfect…most certainly not….but it cannot be grossly imperfect..that is for sure.

Once you move to the cloud…here is a BIG question for MANY folks. SECURITY. How will this be addressed? It has been stated that “private clouds” could be made available for customers requiring it. Now I’ll admit first hand that I don’t have time to keep up with all the newest cloud technology (We’ve got our friends in the IT profession to keep track of that for us.) but my understanding of a “private cloud” would be a server with “extra” security measures in place vs. hosting on a place like Amazon EC3. We’ve got to get more definition out there in this area for sure. I keep wondering if there will be some sort of “certification process” to test these private clouds before some customers will permit their data to be stored on it.

So I’ve hit some of the “major” concern areas first. But lets be realistic here. For us to even consider changing to the new platform, the new product is going to HAVE to be compelling enough to lure us over to it. This is the fun part of the discussion for me. There were a few things I spotted last year that REALLY got my attention with SolidWorks V6. (Ok…calm down folks…lets just put all those bottled up “concerns about the cloud” aside for just a few minutes.)

PROCESSING POWER!!

If they are starting with a clean sheet of paper, I think we could be looking a some pretty groundbreaking technology when it comes to being able to harness multiple cores and processors. Being able to work comfortably with little to NO speed issues at all in a 20,000 component assembly is a pipe dream with ALL CAD software packages today. If they can really nail this…then there’s the first compelling reason to take a serious look at it. This is the piece I am MOST interested in. If they can drastically cut down load and save times then there will be some chunks of time that will open up for reducing level of effort on projects.

COLLABORATION

Umm….yeah…it would be REALLY COOL to allow MORE THAN ONE person to open an assembly at a time! That is what was mentioned last year. Here’s another one that could be a game changer. I mean this could drastically change the way a design team WORKS.

CLIENT MACHINES AND USER INTERFACES

I think if you are reading this post then you have probably been at the least “involved” at some point in specifying a full up CAD Workstation. Video Cards…RAM…Processor…UGH. It can get ugly. I wouldn’t know how to act if I could just have our IT department “pull” a standard PC/iPad/Mac/Whatever machine out of their stock for our next CAD workstation. (I’m not saying that an iPad would provide enough UI to act as a full time all day everyday machine – its just not there yet….BUT…IF you can add a keyboard (possible) and mouse (not possible yet) to it, it makes for an interesting concept.) You could certainly save some serious $$$ if you can relax the PC requirements a bit for workstations.

So with that all that said here is my list of “MAJOR” questions when it comes to SolidWorks V6

What is the timeline for SolidWorks V6? Can we get a little more specific than what was shared last year?
Can we run SolidWorks V6 on a company server behind a firewall? (This is a biggie for some of the folks in my town.)
Just how secure is a “private cloud”?
What capabilities and functionality would be in the first release SolidWorks V6?
Will SolidWorks models import into SolidWorks V6 with full feature history?
How will existing customers be allowed to migrate and will there be additional “costs” to trying it or moving to it? (Just a tip here…the answer should be “no cost”.)
Will “Offline” sessions be supported? (Come on guys….if Gmail can do it??……. )

So when it all comes down to it. The sky…err…clouds.. are not falling (at least not yet). But with a change this big coming you have to concede that failure is possible. Hopefully for the 1.2 million plus SolidWorks customers out there, it won’t. Having known some of the folks at SolidWorks for many years now, I can guarantee they don’t want to see it happen either. As I mentioned earlier, I’m going to assume that there will be realistic transition paths for a large majority of users….until I am proven otherwise. The reality of it is we are all going to have to continue speculating and giving our opinions until the day comes for that door to open and we see an actual product. That will be a BIG day for sure.

Well…that’s all for now. I kind of rambled a bit here and there…but hey…these are my thoughts…I thought it would be a decent change of pace compared to what you normally read here.

Stay tuned…more to come!

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