Austin Omalley Leaving SolidWorks
Austin Omalley is the VP of R&D of SolidWorks, and is also reportedly leaving. I first saw this from a tweet from Roopinder Tara. Tara cited no references in his tweet.
Mr. O’Malley is being replaced by Gian Paolo Bassi, who is founder of RIWEBB http://www.riwebb.com/. Conspicuous on the home page of RIWEBB is:
Jon and Vic are really some impressive and charismatic people. Their success in founding SolidWorks, establishing the brand and creating the special SolidWorks spirit is unique. Unique means: one can not find this kind of story very often in CAD industry. But unique also means: this kind of story can not be written on and on, and can not be written again and again using the same actors. So it was clear for several years, that this era will end some day. Nobody can really wonder about that.
Beside Jon and Vic, there were some few other outstanding guys in leading positions at SolidWorks. Mike Payne for example. But it is not necessary to feel down and drifting just because any long term employee is leaving the building.
I know that some people are frustrated, because other vendors successfully generate a lot of hype regarding direct modeling, while DS is poking in their quirky cloud thing. But up to now, synctech and fusion is just hype. In my experience, there is only very small business impact due to this issues.
I think, lots of users and community members are frustrated because today it seems that SWX isn´t the leader of the pack any more. And right in this period of time, the old venerables of SWX are leaving the ship. But it´s clear, that the unique Winchester moment of the 90´s can not be conserved for decades.
DS has successfully tried to conserve this SWX spirit – which was born in the old Winchester team – as long as possible. But in the next years we need something new. Bernard, Bertrand and now Gian Paolo are not the worst people to navigate SWX into the next stage. For sure, it is new to the US centric community, that these people have european roots … no more John, Jim and Jeff 🙂
Maybe the appointment of Gian Paolo Bassi is an indication that DS has recognized the need of not only focussing to cloud issues, but also to implement new aspects of direct modeling, functional modeling or global shape modeling as well. I think, all of these issues are the key for the product development in the next years. We should give them a chance …
For what it’s worth, I’ve gotten to play with Catia Functional Molded Part, and I’m left pretty cold about it in terms of excitement.
@Kevin Quigley
Kevin-
Thanks for the information.
Devon
@Devon Sowell
The fact is Devon that Think3 and Impactxoft were innovative products. ImpactXoft had functional modelling that in many ways introduced “direct modelling” in a useful way. Dassault bought ImpactXoft and it now forms the basis of the functional modelling tools in Catia. Another innovation was their collaboration system allowing feature level sharing in realtime over 56k modem speeds. It did work. I tried it. Imagine what you can do with broadband speeds?
Think3 was back in 2000 probably the most innovative/advanced 3d modeller in the market in some ways. I used it for 3 years and I have still not seem anything that has the power and control of the Global Shape Modelling. Again we are talking direct face modelling WAY before it became hyped.
The point is if this new guy was part of the time leading the development on those products then I am optimistic of some advances in the core geometry in SolidWorks. The state of their website means little. I very much doubt their customers choose them based on the design of their site.
Well I am sorry but I am not going to be that ‘politically correct’ for you.
Its probably best if you just skip over my posts from now on since you will probably find righteous offense in every one of them somehow. Its a bit of a quirk that I am here sticking it to evil corporations with a donkey and yet I am pulled up for an instance of ‘blasphemy’ when appealing to Jesus for support. Can’t win….
Anyway, I know Matt doesn’t need still more controversy breaking out here.
Have a nice day Ray. Lets stick to SW topics 🙂 I will try to do better…I promise.
Neil,
The point is not that I’m offended. The point is that your statement is disingenuous. You made an offensive comment, then stated that you meant no offense. If you mean no offense, then don’t make offensive comments. Actions speak louder than words.
If you’re really interested in why using the name Jesus as an exclamation is considered to be offensive, the answer is that when you do that, you are committing blasphemy; a violation of one of the Ten Commandments and an offense to God. If you’re an atheist, then it really doesn’t matter to you and is just a question of being considerate to those around you.
@Ray feel free to substitute your own acceptable word or phrase in there if it bothers you. I am curious as to why the exclaimation of the name Jesus is necessarily a bad thing..perhaps you are Muslim? however if you are still upset send your predator drone to lat41,long173 and may God (tick which ever ones apply) bless America…difficult times we live in…
@matt
Maybe it is the influence of working at SolidWorks, coincidence in SolidWorks is common, it’s always cracked me up two points touching is a “coincidence” :p
@Neil
no offense intended
Come on, Neil; saying that no offense was intended, does not make an offensive comment into one that is benign.
@matt
Think3 LOL!
@Kevin De Smet
Austin was reportedly there for 16 years, so that makes him an early employee.
Was Austin part of those few folks who were there from the start or not?
I presume Austin was made the scapegoat for R&D not quite ‘getting it’ with the cloud to date and Bassi is viewed as a fix it man. Maybe things arent going that well with SWv6 and they are behind schedule?
Perhaps he was saddled with the blame for the poor user reaction to SW2012 as well…
Once again DS conveniently dispose of a senior SW person (RIP Jeff) when they should be looking at themselves and the mission. As Wayne says its likely this has been lined up for a while – well about a month if you associate it with the 2012 launch.
Anyway you look at this though its ugly and does nothing for customer or employee relations or wider confidence in DS and the cloud. I wonder who else left the building…some of the blog posts by SW veterans for the launch seem to have disappeared..
@Wayne
Wayne, I agree, it looks like Jon left on his own, and Austin was escorted out.
Yes, Bassi was responsible for several CAD products such as Think3, and ImpactXoft. And look at the resounding successes those products are today. Where’s my purple?
I made a personal stand – after the second nervous breakdown due to the sheer difficulty in getting my job done using Solidworks – I resigned and in no uncertain terms did I let my employers know where most of the blame lay – Solidworks as a company and their poor technical support. It was so bad (tech support) I once had to ‘teach’ a support person because they admitted they knew nothing about rendering.
Bassi — wasn’t he the THINK3 guy in San Jose ?
Heres a comment I left on Rick Chin’s Steve Jobs post at the SW blog. I didn’t think they would allow it but..
I thought to copy it here in case they change their mind.
That’s nice. You know I think it would be appropriate for Bernard Charles to personally write up a piece for this blog honouring Jon Hirschtick for his contribution to SW and DS since he has moved on altogether recently. Jon is a cornerstone of what SW has become today. Everyone owes this man a thank you. I am sure Bernard has a fitting tribute to share. It would be indecent not to observe his ‘passing’ with some kind and reflective words befitting the occasion as you have for Steve Jobs. I am not sure why SW own important event seems to have been overlooked but I am sure it will be put right. Some sort of presentation along the lines of a gold watch ought to be done. I am sure Bernard would be the first to agree.
There is an exodus from what I hear of of talent from SW right now and a from what I am told some are the brighter and more innovative minds that launched SW to be what it once was. These two are pretty high profile but they are not the only ones and they are going to places where creativity is wellcome. The shake out I am sure is cloud advocates and Bernard loves you, and those who don’t leave and learn to conform to Mr Everything on an IPad.
There is a steady flow of information from DS/SW officers confirming this inevitable move to the cloud in spite of the damage control promises to the contrary some of them make and few believe. It’s crunch time guys and you will all be faced with some unavoidable hard choices. So, do you take action now and have an orderly exodus to a new program or wait until they have you boxed in, your data on their servers and their pseudopods in your bank accounts. We all know with the current state of the infrastructure what DS proposes can’t work. Numerous tech sites demonstrate this every day with tales of real cloud woe from breaches of security to “server not available”. Coming up before DS/SW even has a chance to get out of the door with this insanity is the huge new bandwidth drain with 3G and 4G networks and before it is all done there will be nothing left for reliable thoughput cad users will demand.
These guys are leaving for good reasons and if I were a user I would be to. I know its no fun and not cheap as I went through this with VX/ZW3D three years ago and considering what I have seen happen there since then I know it was the right choice. The hand writing was truly on the wall.
@Neil
To me it looks like Jon walked out. We will never know the real story on why. Jon is to classy a guy to spill the beans. He is nothing like Carol Bartz, former CEO of Autodesk and more recently former CEO of Yahoo. When fired, via email, at Yahoo, called the board of directors a bunch of idiots and other things I cannot say on a public forum.
I am guessing that Austin was thrown out. You do not have a replacement for a VP on the same day they quit when the replacement is outside the company!
Mr Bassi does have a nice list of patents, but the real question is if he is just going to be a “Yes” man to DS.
Well these guys are either walking out or they are being thrown out.
Why am I the only one out of 1.6m to say something?
There are a whole lot of people who should be ashamed of themselves today…[sorry, I had to edit this one. no need to make things worse than they are – matt]
@Neil
Austin wasn’t one of my favorites from SW. I think he was rather detached from end user processes. Which I’m sure was part of his job. Other people who are tasked with watching out for users.
The fact that he’s being replaced by someone with Mr. Bassi qualifications I think speaks for itself.
But Matt West says that it’s 100% coincidence that Jon and Austin quit on succeeding days. The chances of that happening in a 16 year career for two people is about 1 in 17 million.
I’m done worrying about it. It’s time to make some career adjustments. It’s clear enough what’s happening, and you can’t tell what’s going to come out the other side until something much more successful than n!Fuze or Post3D is shown in public.
@Devon, what? Who has been whispering in your ear? SW is not stagnating because Austin needs to go. Do you regard Jon as a liability as well now after saying you hold him in regard and would follow him out the door?
What is very disappointing is that 99.9% of users sit by and let SW go down the toilet with scarcely a whimper.
Could I get people to do something about it? No. They would just sit there and say things like it needed to happen for some time or say nothing at all for fear of soiling their ‘professional’ nest. Maybe they would tweet about it for 30 seconds – having funeral now, black.
You can see why they took people off to the gas chambers or the USA is destined to be a slum can’t you….
What a pathetic age we live in in regard of character.
I am disgusted to see that there is no article on the SW corporate blog about Jon leaving.
For some reason Steve Jobs, who by many accounts was a prick to work for, gets a write up but not Jon, a founder of the company, one that provides a job to hundreds if not thousands, a tool for millions, and is an all round good guy.
No Jon is supposed to walk out into the snow and die …
Jon? Jon who? No we don’t know anyone by that name.
Some very small minded and spineless people in top management obviously.
After I got over the shock, I realized this is a change that needed to happen for quite a while. Many users have been disappointed at the stagnation, at least in the public eye, in R & D at DS/SolidWorks; specifically in the area of CAD, and the creation of CAD geometry such as Surfaces and Organic shapes.
I researched Gian Paulo Bassi and I was impressed with his work.
Devon
offtopic:
i understand that swx can’t open newer models, but at least it should be able to open them in a neutral state (like the proe opens them), without the history tree.
Riwebb.com = poor website (failed w3c validation, poor everything actually) and this guy is going to take SWX onto the cloud. Perfect person for the job.
Follow this link to learn more about Gian Paolo Bassi, the new head of R&D at SolidWorks
http://www.caddigest.com/subjects/autocad/select/cadcamnet_ImpactXoft.htm
Devon Sowell
You know given this development I think it would be a good time for users to launch a ‘Customers petition of no confidence in the DS board’. Why? because users have a lot invested in SW and we are actually the ones who lose most. Watching very good and genuine people resign because they lack support is not in our interests or those of all the other people involved in the wider SW ‘community’ like VARs, educators, and authors, either.
Everyone who believes in SW, CAD and Jons values rather than the DS cloud, companion selling/entertainment etc and Bernards grand utopian vision should speak out now.
Personally I think the board should be cleaned out and the cloud project cancelled.
Even though quite a lot of work has been done on it it is the wrong thing to do.
Its worth us taking a stand with Jon and his loyal fellows to try to reclaim some commercial sanity. Jon and Austin should just hang fire in the carpark until a crowd of protesters can get there and organise.
The first attempt may have failed but we can still try to turn this around by people (customer) power. 1.6 million of us say so.
How about joining the fight and telling the DS board where to go and what to do with their cloud.
The wrong people are leaving…
Give them their jobs back and give us back our SW!
Unfortunately with the departure or Jon and Austin and the move to Waltham, SolidWorks is essentially dead and has been fully absorbed by Dassault Systemes. The SolidWorks staff become a pool of talent for advancing the Dassault Systemes’ vision of CATIA and ENOVIA for all. It’s such a shame, as SolidWorks was doing everything right and – as a previous poster said – a few people in Paris have killed SolidWorks.
Thanks Matt for the update. Now this could lead directly to innovation. I wish the best for Jon and Austin. You can’t eliminate key people like this and not expect to get some serious backlash.
Wow!
Jesus! (no offense intended but that’s what I said when I saw it)
OK so doesn’t look like we will get a press statement out of DS until later in the week when they can list everyone who left and their replacements in a brief reassuring investors….
I guess its better not to pass comment ATM but at least you can stand outside the door and applaud as they leave the building.
Of course it opens up the possibility of a great new clean start venture but this is tragic for SW users considering there is nothing wrong with SW itself. All because a lone idiot at DS who wants to terminate SW and position Catia lite on the cloud as the iTunes of CAD has the ear of the majority of the board and can’t be turned or removed…