Ricky Jordan's Blog » SolidWorks World 2009

SolidWorks World 2009 Presentation: Custom PCB Design with SolidWorks

Ricky Jordan — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 03:06:41 +0000

This year at SolidWorks World I gave a presentation on Custom PCB Design with SolidWorks. It covers not only useful features in SolidWorks that can help make the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design process faster, but also recommendations on the process itself. The presentation along with all the model files is available for download HERE.

With some help from Ben Eadie and the folks at SolidWorks we are working on providing a video of the presentation from SolidWorks World 2009. As soon as it is available, I will post it here.

Stay tuned….more to come!

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SolidWorks 2010 – The Quick List

Ricky Jordan — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 04:05:39 +0000

Ok…I still need to type up my COMPLETE post of Wednesday’s General Session. LOTS of cool things were shown…but for the folks wondering about SolidWorks 2010, here is a quick list of what was shown:

New Display Box for View Mates with Separater Bar. Lots of new functionality with this new display box!
Mirror Components – You can choose from different options for component positions. All the mirrored components appear under a Mirror Components feature. Components are fully defined…no additional Mates necessary!
Simulation – Solution Optimization options that will allow you to resize the model based on properties defined. Example would be setting a specific volume…then let SolidWorks find the optimal model parameters! It looked like you could set several parameters for optimizations.
Multi-Bodies allowed in Sheet Metal parts! You can also mix Sheet Metal and Weldment features with no issues! Also better DXF output options for sheet metal flat patterns.
New Reference Plane options! The interface for Plane creation looks similar to the 3D Sketch Plane creation process. New options include Midplanes and Tangency to two faces and Tangent to face plus parallal (or angled) to another Plane. The Plane creation options appear as you select entities.
Assembly Visualization – Sort assembly components by custom properties and other parameters. Many options with this and you can use it to control the model visibility. Model color displays can be used in this and can be based on ranges. You can output the component lists to Excel! You can modify custom properties in this interface as well. (This might be my favorite feature shown!)
Configuration Builder – You can build a form with something that looks like the Property Tab Builder and then use this form to easily create configurations. You can set it up any way you want with Yes/No answers and custom fields. VERY COOL! Allows you to configure on the fly too!
Drawing Annotations – GTol, Surface Finish, and Datums can be attached ANYWHERE to dimension extension lines. You can combine notes with a simple drag and drop! This looked REALLY nice! Perhaps this will allow you to store custom notes individually in the Design Library then add them one by one?
Drawing Balloons – User input Balloon size (using a number). Youc an also automatically show the Quantity beside the Balloon just by clicking turning on the option!
Drawing Dimensions – New heads up display that allows you to modify the dimension, tolerance, and other day all in one window without having to step through the PropertyManager. Also – When you add dimensions to a drawing, other dimensions will now automatically shift outward or inward keeping the proper spacing!
Drawing Center Marks – You can add Center Marks AFTER dimensions are created and the dimension extension lines will automatically trim to the Center Mark!
Drawing Tables – Excel table functionality through all SolidWorks tables!
Heres a BIG ONE – Direct Editing – Enhanced Move Face tools that allow you to move imported features on the fly all from the Graphics area. There was also a new direct editing tool that allowed you to modify patterns of holes in an imported part all at once! The UI looks to be using the Instant3D rulers. The direct editing tools did create features in the tree which will allow users to easily revert back to the original imported state.
Enterprise PDM – Replicate Toolbox data across mulitple vaults! – Converting Data and Print Jobs can now be managed on a server.
Full Machine Simulation that is integrated with National Instruments LabView!

Well…that is the quick list. I’ll go back through this and see if I can elaborate more on some of the features when I write the General Session Post.

SolidWorks World 2010 will be held in the Anahiem Convention Center in California. The dates are January 31st thru February 3rd, 2010.

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

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SolidWorks World 2009 Tuesday General Session

Ricky Jordan — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:00:52 +0000

OK folks….it’s a long post…but quite a bit happened in the General Session today. Lots of GOOD STUFF!

Tuesday’s General Session at SolidWorks World 2009 started off with Fielder Hiss, who is the Director of Product Marketing for SolidWorks taking the stage in advance of a long cast of participants. Fielder introduced Tom Salomone of Hewlett Packard (HP) and recognized them as a sponsor of SolidWorks World 2009.

Not long after that Fielder introduced Jeremy Luchini, who is the Certification Manager for SolidWorks. Jeremy and his team does a GREAT job every year planning the CSWP Event and last night’s event was no different. Jeremy showed off some video taken from last night’s events which featured all the CSWP’s putting together Mega Brands iCoasters! Mega Brands stepped up BIG this year and sponsored the CSWP event with LOTS of prizes. After the video was shown Jeremy brought up Yanick Tremblay, the Design Manager for Mega Brands, to discuss how they use SolidWorks to design the very complex parts that make up the Mega Brands product line. They showed many screen shots of SolidWorks models from the development process of their NEO Shifters line of products. They also showed an AMAZING animation of the NEO Shifters that was absolutely stunning to watch!

Jeremy also announced a few new details that will be forthcoming soon with the CSWP program. Candidates will soon be able to take their test in 1 hour increments. This capability will be supported with a new version of the Virtual Tester software that will be available soon that allows managers to view their employees progress as well as many new options for the certified professionals in the program.

Next up was SolidWorks Founder and Group Executive Jon Hirschtick. I met Jon for the first time a little over 2 years ago at SolidWorks World 2007 in New Orleans. I was fortunate enough to sit by him at the press dinner and it was without a doubt one of the most fascinating two hours of my life. I’ve been able to stay in touch with Jon through Twitter and was even able to see him present late last year at a Knoxville SolidWorks User Group Event. Jon as they say, “Is the real deal”. He is as genuine as anyone I have ever met and is incredibly humble in his accomplishments in this industry.

Jon gave his thoughts on where he thinks the future of the 3D CAD industry is going. Right off the bat Jon made the declaration that “Today is still the beginning.” He sees many more changes in the industry down the road and here are a few in particular that he mentioned.

Jon’s first Future Trend was Touch/Motion User Interface. He cited some examples of devices that specialize and innovate in this area which include the iPhone and Wacom tablets. What he showed next was a video that was produced by Kirk Haller who works in SolidWorks R&D. The video shows of a prototype program called Surface Sketching that allows the user to create sketch entities with nothing but their hands on a Microsoft Surface table. What was amazing about this was that users were using MULTIPLE hands from MULTIPLE people. Imagine being able to drag TWO points on a spline at ONCE! That was one of the capabilities demonstrated. Perhaps the coolest part of it was when the users balled up the hands and erased the geometry in much the same way you would erase a chalk board with your hand. REALLY COOL technology. The prototype is on display in the Partner Pavilion. I’ll try to make my way there tomorrow for a closer look! With this and other technologies on the horizon, Jon believes that specialized CAD specific hardware will make its way back into the CAD industry down the road.

Jon’s second future trend was Online Applications. Drawings Now, which is available at SolidWorks Labs was the example that he used of existing technology already out there today. Jon believes that we will see more of this soon but also said that he feels we are still a little far away from online 3D applications.

Jon’s third future trend was the use of Video Game Technology. He believes that more and more of the advanced real time rendering that is being developed heavily for the Gaming Industry will make its way into CAD. Jon mentioned that the Ambient Inclusion option that was added in SolidWorks 2008 has its roots in the video game industry. He expects that more of that technology will make its way into 3D CAD. He also mentioned that he felt that Internet Bandwidth and Gaming Hardware will have key roles in the future as well.

The fourth of Jon’s future trends is 3D printing. He mentioned the importance of early testing with physical prototypes and overviewed how the technology is becoming more and more advanced. Faster build times and complete multicolor prototypes are driving the industry forward.

Next, Jon shared some video of two customer visits he made recently to New Balance in Boston and Sony Ericsson in Sweden. First up was the New Balance video. In the video Jon was toured around the New Balance facility by Matt Dunbar who is the Senior CAD Designer. Matt is a CSWP and former Reseller AE and after this presentation was over, it was obvious to everyone that Matt is doing some incredible work at New Balance. Matt revealed that New Balance produced over 100 3D print models a month spread across two 3D Printers. He shared some detail on how he gets concepts from industrial designers and then produces approximate prototypes for basic scale and styling checks. After the design is refined quite a bit, Matt and his team model the ENTIRE SOLE OF THE SHOE IN SOLIDWORKS!!!! Absolutely amazing! New Balance also used their 3D printers to build molds which are used to create treads that can be glued onto prototype shoes for actual testing! After the video was shown, Jon introduced Matt, who came up on the stage in person to continue the presentation. New Balance and Matt were nice enough to share some details about their SolidWorks models with some AMAZING screenshots showing the FeatureManager of a multi-body part file containing over 1300 features!!! WOW! Matt says that they have models that contain as many as 1800 features! I’ll bet they are using 64 bit Operating Systems and some highly powerful Workstations for those designs! This was one of the most impressive customer presentations I have ever seen at SolidWorks World!

Next Jon shared another customer visit with the attendees by showing a video of him visiting Sony Ericsson in Sweden. Jon visited two departments at Sony Ericsson. He visited both their Industrial Design departments and their Design Engineering departments. At Sony Ericsson, the Industrial Designers often get involved with 3D modeling EARLY in the project. This data is then passed along to the Design Engineering department where the models are made to manufacturing specs and the multiple components are split out for production. Sony Ericsson also has an in house 3D printer and from the sounds of it prints around 100 models a month. They showed off some basic shapes where they had a form factor model of a phone that had two different keypad configurations. (One on one end and one on the other.) After the video was finished, Jon invited Tom Waldner, Senior Design Manager for Sony Ericsson, up on stage. Tom shared many of his 30 years of experience in the cell phone industry with the crowd. One of the things he stressed that reminded me of Richard Branson’s speech from yesterday was that they spend a lot of time examining the want/needs of their customers and also do quite a bit of work understanding the styling & fashion trends of the markets today. The common theme here is GET TO KNOW YOUR USERS!

That concluded Jon’s portion of the General Session. It was a welcome sight to see Jon back on stage. I hope the folks at SolidWorks are listening when I say this: Jon needs to be on stage EVERY year! Now all we need to do is figure out how we can get Vic Leventhal back on stage.

It appeared as if the General Session was wrapping up but there was one more surprise left. Dr. Steven Endersby who I believe is heading up the SolidWorks Simulation product line now came on stage and before he could get started really a voice announced a contest called “Will it Break?” First introduced was the first contestant, a 265 pound Sumo Wrestler whose name I can’t remember. The opponent was a 65 pound pink scooter. The funny part of it was when SolidWorks CEO Jeff Ray rode out on the pink scooter wearing a pink helmet. The Sumo wrestler climbed on the scooter and rode all around the stage with no problems at all! Round two of the match involved the Sumo wrestler picking the scooter up above his head and dropping it to the ground! Simulation Studies of both the heavy stress (from the Sumo Wrestler) and the drop onto the stage were shown as well.

Well, that’s all for the Tuesday General Session. Tomorrow is the big day…Wednesday’s General Session will reveal the location of SolidWorks World 2010, SolidWorks 2010 will be previewed, and there are rumors flyin around of more surprises! I just so happened to catch a hint tonight of one of the surprises tonight….but my lips are sealed…you’ll all have to wait till tomorrow!

Tomorrow is my wonderful wife’s birthday. I have the coolest wife in the world without a doubt! I think I’m still going to have some making up to do for being away at SWW today! Happy Birthday honey! Love Ya!

Stay tuned….MUCH MUCH more to come….Live from SolidWorks World 2009!

UPDATED 2-11-09 – 4:33pm EST

Well, if you are looking at this post and seeing the 115+ comments….that’s not a bunch of SolidWorks users! It seems as if my wife has been having some fun with me today..which I probably deserve for being gone to a conference on her birthday! My phone was going off this morning this morning like nobody’s business. So much I had to charge it mid way through the day. Some folks might get upset with this but my friends and I here at the conference have been laughing like crazy! So again…Happy Birthday Dear….I’ll be home tomorrow to provide you some well deserved relief! – Ricky

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SolidWorks World 2009 Monday: A Special Honor for a Special Guy

Ricky Jordan — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 05:27:57 +0000

At the end of the day Monday the 2009 SWUGN International User Summit was held. It is the annual User Group Meeting held at SolidWorks World that is open to SolidWorks User Group Leaders, Members, and any other conference attendee who wants to attend. This year’s Summit had a special ending this year. About six months ago I got an e-mail from Devon Sowell who had the idea of honoring SolidWorks User Community Manager Richard Doyle with a special award. We all immediately jumped on board with the idea and thanks to a few folks at SolidWorks Corp. we got a plan set in motion to present Richard with the award at the end of the meeting. We were even able to give SolidWorks CEO Jeff Ray in on it! During the meeting SWUGN rep Phil Sluder surprised Richard with a crown for him to wear during the presentation. All of the SWUGN Committee members then donned Jester hats! Richard knew something was going on prior to the meeting and I have a feeling that he thought that was it….but no…it was only the beginning. Here’s a picture of Richard giving the presentation donning his crown and you can see a few of the Jester hats as well.

After Richard finished up his presentation SolidWorks CEO Jeff Ray came in and surprised Richard again with his speech honoring Richard’s MANY accomplishments as the SolidWorks User Community Manager. After Jeff was done, Devon took the microphone and told the crowd a little bit about the award we were to present to him. Devon then asked me to say a few words about Richard before presenting him with the award. Richard is the man that made sure I knew what I needed to do when I revived the North Alabama SolidWorks Users Group 4 years ago. My story was merely an echo of the things Richard has done to help every other User Group worldwide getting started. Richard also had a hand in convincing me to start this site! About 2.5 years ago gave me a call and asked me what I thought about Blogging. I’ll fully admit that at that point…I wasn’t all that familiar with Blogs at all. After he explained the basics to me I told him to count me in as I would love to “give it a shot”. At that point I had no idea that it would take me where I am today with this site. So yes…you all have Richard to thank if you are reading this post. (Sometimes I wonder if Richard thinks he might have created a monster!) Before I wrapped it up I honored Richard with his own special Tweet on Twitter that was sent as we were presenting him the award.

Below is the copy of the award presented to Richard along with a gift certificate. SolidWorks User Groups would be NO WHERE NEAR as successfull as they are today without Richard’s hard work, dedication, and undying enthusiasm.

Stay tuned….much more to come….Live from SolidWorks World 2009!

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SolidWorks World 2009 Monday: Custom PCB Design in SolidWorks

Ricky Jordan — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:56:38 +0000

For the third year in a row, I got to participate in a Breakout Session Presentation at SolidWorks World. Today was not only the start of the conference, but also the day of my presentation on Custom PCB Design in SolidWorks. I had an absolute BLAST giving the presentation. The questions from the audience were just flat out GREAT, and the feedback I received from several folks after the presentation just about left me speechless. I’ve been really going through the presentation for weeks now trying to make sure it had all the material in it that it needed and I’m really happy with the end result today.

Coming soon to the site will be first, a link to download the Power Point presentation ALONG WITH the files used in the presentation. A little later after that we will have a full length video of the presentation that will be publicly available to anyone who wants to see it!

A big thanks goes out to my employer, Dynetics, for letting me use an internal product as an example for this presentation and to ECAD Layout Engineer Terry Prestwood of Dynetics who looked over the slides that deal with ECAD software and gave me some very helpful pointers!

Stay tuned….much more to come from SolidWorks World 2009!!

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SolidWorks World 2009 Monday General Session

Ricky Jordan — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 20:22:19 +0000

SolidWorks World 2009 “Officially” got off to an AWESOME start this morning with the first of three General Sessions. Today’s General Session featured the normal welcoming ceremonies plus an on stage interview with Sir Richard Branson. If are following me on Twitter, you may have already seen some of this, but at this point I have the time (and characters) to elaborate much more on the topics. There are some additional photos I posted via Twitter…so make sure you check it out as well.

The session started out with a REALLY cool animation featuring a metal ball rolling down what looked to be the MegaBrands style coaster tracks in what was one of the absolute COOLEST animations I have ever seen! SolidWorks CEO Jeff Ray was introduced and revealed some interesting stats about SolidWorks World this year. There are 4,313 people in attendance. (An incredible number for an economy that isn’t in the greatest shape.) The Customer Portal got 1.2 million hits this past year. The Core focus areas for the next release of SolidWorks are: 1. Installations, 2. Upgrades, & 3. Managing Design Data. (All three of these look good to me!!)

Interestingly enough, SolidWorks showed a Report Card in which they gave themselves ratings in three categories. Customer Service got a B-, Performance a C+, & User Experience a B. I think the point behind this was that they are happy with their progress in these areas, but are striving to do much much more on each topic in the future.

Jeff also mentioned some interesting stories about some of the folks and how they have made their way down to SolidWorks World this year. One of them was about Rodney Hall, a fellow SolidWorks User Group Leader, Twitterer, and friend, who was laid off only two weeks ago. Rodney never let this deter him and he made his way down here to SolidWorks World, despite his current job status! Way to go Rodney! (I know you will find work VERY soon buddy!)

Jeff Ray also mentioned some other interesting stories. Regenerative Technologies (RTI) is studying was of maximizing the percentage of organs and tissues used from organ donations. Through their efforts, one person’s donated organs have saved as many as 108 people! Astounding! They have figured out a way to cleanse the organ tissue without breaking down the cells. Truly amazing technology!

Trojan UV is using SolidWorks to design machines that produce safe drinking water through the use of the bombardment of the water by Ultraviolet Lights! 56 units are being installed outside of New York City which will provide 2.2 billion gallons of safe drinking water!

Design that Matters (DTM) is using salvaged car parts to build Baby incubators for third world countries. 4 million babies a year as a result of improper care as an infant. (The headlights are used to heat the incubator…really innovative!) Roughly ½ of that total could be saved with proper baby incubation equipment.

Before Sir Richard Branson was introduced, a short video was played that displays many of the different industries that Virgin is a part of. I was absolutely stunned at some of the industries they are in that you don’t hear much about over here in the states. There are way too many to list…so check out their website at some point for more information on their 37 year history.

Sir Richard Branson was introduced immediately after the video and was “interviewed” so to speak by SolidWorks CEO Jeff Ray. One of the questions dealt with design and Sir Richard’s response was SOOO on point. Sir Richard stressed the importance of talking to the consumer AT LENGTH BEFORE starting the design process. You have to understand the consumer’s needs fully before doing the design.

He spoke of his world record attempts in boats and hot air balloons as well as his early days starting the Student Magazine. He had a really funny story about how he got into the airline industry. He called Boeing up and told him who he was and asked them how he could get a second hand 747 to use as a test bed for some of his ideas. Once Boeing figured out who he was he was able to secure a plane pretty quickly. All of Sir Richard and his team’s ideas of what would make the ultimate airplane flight was put into place and the rest as they say…is history.

Sir Richard also told a story about how one of their new luxury airline seat designs were tipped off to one of their competitions. Once they saw their competitor’s seat design, they immediately scrapped their entire line. (Hundreds of millions of dollars) and redesigned the seat to be the BEST product out there…period. He also discussed many of his efforts to make the earth a more “Green” place. He once flew one of his Virgin Airline jets successfully on biofuel!

The Virgin Galactic name was registered back in the 1990′s. Sir Richard was ALREADY thinking about space flight then and began meeting with scientists and engineers in hopes of pioneering the effort. Of course that led him to Burt Rutan which resulted in the X prize award winning Spaceship One. Sir Richard says that Spaceship Two should have it’s first test flight before the end of the year. The first flights will be suborbital which is much like what was done with Spaceship One, but orbital flights are in the future as well!

Sir Richard is a bit of a “jokester”. He once put out a fake announcement of a partnership service with Google and Virgin called Virgile. The joke was that they were looking for volunteers for a one way trip to Mars. They actually had takers on it before the cat was let out of the bag that it as an April fools joke.

An absolutely fabulous interview and session! Rumor has it that the video is going to be posted soon. I’ll put it up here when it is!

Stay tuned…much more to come….LIVE From SolidWorks World 2009!!!

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SolidWorks World 2009 Sunday

Ricky Jordan — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:21:53 +0000

Its approaching late afternoon here in Orlando at SolidWorks World 2009. It has been a very interesting day thus far. Today I attended Round Table sessions on SolidWorks Toolbox and Surfacing. I also have been able to catch up with some folks that I haven’t seen in quite sometime. This is of course a typical theme EVERY year at SolidWorks World. I don’t have any attendance numbers yet but the crowd already looks very comparable to San Diego last year. It will be interesting once we hear some numbers on the attendees. The weather here is PERFECT. Much of the day today was inside for me but the two walks across to the Swan hotel from the Dolphin were quite nice. Here is a picture I took earlier of the Dolphin while walking back from the Swan.

I know these pictures are not the best quality…but they aren’t bad considering they were taken with an iPhone. The Partner Pavilion is going to open up for the Attendees in about 10 minutes (5:30pm). Considering the Press room is about to close, I’d better wrap this post up.

Stay tuned….more to come!

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SolidWorks World 2009 Saturday & The TweetUp!

Ricky Jordan — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 14:10:41 +0000

Well, due to an early morning start on Saturday with not much sleep from the previous night, my Saturday report on SolidWorks World is coming on Sunday! All my Flights yesterday pretty much were about as perfect as you can ask. I ended up arriving at the Orlando airport just after 11:30AM after a first leg flight from Huntsville to Atlanta. Thanks to some conversations on Twitter, I ended up catching a ride to the hotel with fellow User Group Leader Randall Bock. Thanks Randall! Randall and I had never met in person only through Twitter. This is one of the really cool things about social media. There are several folks here that I have never met in person, but thanks to applications like Twitter, Facebook, & LinkedIn, when you do meet that person(s) you pickup in many cases like you’ve know them for years.

After a short ride to Disney’s Swan & Dolphin hotel, I had about an hour to check in, unpack, & grab some lunch before heading off to see some “super secret” stuff that unfortunately I cannot talk about here. (This would explain my dry spell on Twitter yesterday from 2:00pm – 7:00pm.

After my covert meeting were concluded we all assembled in the hotel bar area for the TweetUp. This was just a get together for Bloggers, Twitterers, or any other social media types. It wasn’t closed to just those folks…but that’s how the whole thing started anyway. I had an absolute blast! My wonderfully talented wife made some breakfast cookies and fudge since she has gotten to know many of my SolidWorks buddies through Twitter. EVERYONE loved the treats and I think Southern Plate might just have some more viewers after last night.

It was great to meet some new folks light night as well as catch up with some old friends. If I tried to list them all here, I’m going to leave someone out. I’m really looking forward to a GREAT conference.

Stay tuned….more to come!

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SolidWorks World 2009 Coverage Begins Tomorrow!

Ricky Jordan — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 03:53:43 +0000

Its almost that time again! My flight leaves EARLY in the morning for SolidWorks World 2009 in sunny Orlando, Florida! I’ve added a couple of new features to the site that will be posted for about the next week. In the right sidebar you’ll find a Twitter Widget that lists all the Tweets about SolidWorks World 2009. The listing in the Widget updates about every 20 minutes but if you click on the Twitter logo above the list you’ll open up a LIVE Twitter page with up to the second tweet updates. As in years past, I will be posting regularly throughout the conference and will be sending out tweets via my Twitter account as well. All the latest posts will be on the front page in the normal fashion but I have also added a SolidWorks World 2009 category as a direct sorting option. The posts are going to be fast and furious so let me apologize ahead of time if my grammar or spelling is a little off here and there.

Stay tuned….much more to come!

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SolidWorks World Roll Call

Ricky Jordan — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 05:40:55 +0000

Through the magic of Social Networking (Twitter, Facebook, & Blog Comments) I have a mental list of folks who frequent this site that will be attending SolidWorks World next week. But I know that doesn’t include everyone who is a reader of this site. The purpose of this post is to try to reach out to ALL the folks in the SolidWorks Community who will be attending the conference next week with a simple roll call. One of the great things about SolidWorks World is meeting new people so whether you already know me or have never corresponded with me before, leave a comment to this post if you are going and I’ll hope to see you there!

My breakout session is Monday at 10:30am. You can read more about my presentation HERE. If you see me around the conference, PLEASE stop me and introduce yourself! As with every year at the conference, I look forward to seeing old friends and making new ones!

Stay tuned….much more to come!

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