Interview with Devon Sowell

Devon is an old SolidWorks friend, who I think was one of the first SW users to be an official blogger in 2006. I interviewed Devon 9 years ago for this blog as well. He hung around with my wife and I during the blogger’s trip to Barcelona in 2008, and did some tourist things together. Devon was also a frequent participant on this blog back 6 years ago or so. Those were the days when there were maybe a dozen or more amateur SW bloggers writing on various topics, or in various social media (we went through the early days of Twitter and the dreaded Fail Whale – remember that?).

We don’t always agree about things, but I think we’ve found a way to make it civil. I count Devon as an old friend, and thought we’d put together a little interview to take measure of the state of things a few years down the road. In particular, he’s a proponent of Autodesk’s Fusion 360, and I’m someone who really should like it, but can’t get past the “Autodesk” part of the name. Anyway, let’s hear from Devon.

It’s been a while since 2013. What have you been up to? It sounds like some teaching. What else?

Yes, this is my 5th year teaching at Palomar Community College, San Marcos, CA. I’m an Adjunct Professor teaching Intro to SOLIDWORKS & Advanced SOLIDWORKS. I teach at night and I really dig this job. Each class has 22-25 students. The typical student is a person trying to better themselves, looking to get a better job, one that pays more money.

Another task I took on had to do with the passing of the so-called Affordable Care Act. My Wife is a Doctor, so I went back to Community College and got a Certificate in Medical Billing in 2013. Then I took her medical practice from hand written documents to PDFs. So now I handle the billing and everything is stored on a 2TB hard drive, allowing for speedy recovery of any document. Also, I spent more time with my family, and that was a worthy endeavor. Finally, just two weeks ago, I took on a new full time job as a Designer/Draftsman for ENAQUA located in Vista, CA. They design and manufacture, on site by the way, Ultra Violet water purifiers for agriculture. The machines are huge, and perform very well.

How do you like teaching?

I find teaching to be very satisfying. It’s the “moment the light bulb comes on” for my students that is very cool. Next, I keep in contact with all my students. When someone goes from earning $15/hour to $30/hour, that’s a life changing moment for me and the student!

I pour it on in the Advanced class, some say I’m a bit brutal, but hey, they learn. I teach top down assy modeling, advanced Mates, Simulation, (you get the full Sim Package for Assembies), Rendering, file management, we go all out! Very fun. I like when students bring in a problem with SOLIDWORKS from their work and we fix it.

How did you get involved with Fusion360

Well when Onshape appeared a few years ago, I wanted to support all the SOLIDWORKS people that are there. I had a few telephone calls with them, and sent them a few practice files I made. However, I didn’t find working in Onshape satisfying. I don’t like the User Interface, especially those pesky Tabs at the bottom of the screen…you run out of Tab space quickly and they are clunky. Also, I had many crashes using Onshape. Every tine I tried to make a Drawing it would crash. I could go “on & on” but I just didn’t like it.

I was praying for a new replacement for SOLIDWORKS. I been using SOLIDWORKS for 20 years, that’s 65 years in Computer years, right? I’ve Consulted to 45 companies using SOLIDWORKS in the last 20 years. I see all the same old problems with SOLIDWORKS everywhere I go, and it’s getting old. For example, major crashing on Networks, massive duplicate files on Networks, very awkward to Edit large Assembly files, blah, blah blah. We all know this. So, when I found Fusion 360, just by searching on the Internet, I tried it and liked it.

What do you find attractive about the product?

In my opinion, Fusion 360 (F360) is the “cat’s meow” LOL. It has everything we all want! 1. Runs in the Cloud, very fast “by the way”. 2. Allows for working “off-line”. 3. Allows to Save to your local computer! 4. Allows for both History Based modeling and Direct Editing, just by Clicking what you want! 5. Only $310/year or $40/month! Wow! 6. “T Splines” Surface modeling that is the best I’ve ever seen. Matt watch some videos on YouTube about this, you will be blow away. 7. Modeling, Sculpting, Rendering, CAM, Simulation, all available in the User Interface, right there!

Does any of the Autodesk subscription fallout worry you?

Worry about $310/year or $40/month!? What’s to worry about? 🙂

Do you have any sense of which is more successful, Onshape or Fusion360?

Here in San Diego county, nobody even knows about Onshape. Reason being  Joe Dunne is the local Onshape rep, and sure enough Joe and I got into a huge argument.  I called Jon H and John McE and told them what happened, they sided with Joe and I said goodbye to Onshape. Patrick Rainsberry is the local Fusion 360 rep, and we all get along great. F360 has traction here.

You’re still doing machine design work, right? 

Yes, I’m still designing and I still love it. Burning the candle at both ends so me and my Wife can fully retire soon and send our Daughter to College with no debt at all.