Wanna Feel Like a Virgin Again? For Free??
Old stodgy CAD conferences got you down? Can’t remember the difference between this year’s conference and last year’s? Moving around make you feel like part of a cattle stampede? Curious about how the rest of the world lives?
Maybe it’s time to try out a Solid Edge conference. You know how some CAD people go around bragging about how many conferences they’ve been to, or that “I was at Palm Springs”? Maybe your CAD vendor was really exciting when they were an underdog and more focused on current customers than future customers. A Solid Edge conference gives you that feeling that you’re getting in on the ground floor of something that’s growing. Plus, there’s an incentive for ‘Works users to attend :
Why go to Solid Edge University?
- It’s way less expensive (maybe even free if you qualify)
- They aren’t afraid to talk about the future
- You can learn about how to use history and direct editing together
- They promise not to try to sell you Catia
- Really – Disney – AGAIN? Covington Kentucky is WAY more fun than Disney.
- What better place to be a virgin, than in a place called “KY”?
- We promise, the special event will NOT include a reunion of Sonny & Cher.
- Karsten Newbury (general manager of Solid Edge) will speak French if you ask him to, or German, or Italian, or Spanish, or Portuguese, but he also speaks English in a way that Americans can understand. And he doesn’t use corporate doublespeak, or insane metaphors about cloud experience.
- Dan Staples, the guy in charge of the direction of the software, is an approachable and personable guy. He’s got reasons for doing things that he can and will explain to you. In English. More than that, he’s got a sense of humor, and he’s smart. Plus, in case you start feeling starved for a conspiracy theory, his initials are DS.
So here’s the deal for Solid Edge virgins: Solid Edge will waive the conference fee for the first five qualified individuals to sign up to participate in a one hour usability session. Qualifications: A minimum of two years using SolidWorks in a production environment; no more than two hours prior hands-on experience with Solid Edge.
To get in on this deal, send me an email, or if you’ve got a lot of guts and don’t care what your friends think of you, just post a comment right here. Click here to sign up for Solid Edge University 2013. Plus, if you want to go but don’t qualify for the “virgin” deal, the early bird pricing is only available for one more week (register before March 29).
Having used a few cad programs via many workplaces they all suffer from the “Self-Intersecting Sweep” problem, this has been going on for many releases of many cad systems, So you wont see me at any conference until it’s sorted.
@Bruce Buck
What’s “large” and what’s “complex”?
The biggest complaint from our 30+ engineering team, and myself, regarding SolidWorks is performance. Performance, performance, performance. Anybody have some data/examples of how much better SE handles large assemblies and complex drawings?
@Jeff Mowry
I agree with what you are saying Jeff. However if a user is prepared to talk about productivity and have those statements used for marketing it must be with the understanding how h/er/is conclusions were measured. Much like any scientific claim is tested by piers. After all its the users reputation which is also on the line along with the company he maybe working for; if data is to be keeped confidential then it also seems logical the productivity improvements which surround its creation and use, maybe, should also be treated as confidential.
All that said, no reason why most improvements could not be substituted with an alternative which demo’d the point and could also the be validated. That is what I invariably need to do for the very reasons you raise.
Jeff,
If that is the case is it to much to ask that a file similar to those that give you grief be created and sent? OK maybe it is not technically the exact file but I know you can recreate the exact problems therefore it is real world from an SW user. How about parts imported from online where there are no NDA things to worry about but yet SW can’t handle the translations right and working on the dumb solid is a pain. I am scratching my head here and wondering just why not one SW user as of yet is willing send a file. I know I have lots of files not covered by NDA’s and I assume so do many of you.
Whoops accidentally posted a reply and it disappeared… oh well.. the point is don’t screw up the opportunity to market SE to SW users by taking the wrong tack at this time. 😉
I’m hopeful SE has more going for it than dealing with ‘problem’ files from other programs. No doubt SE with synchronous tech now has has some useful attributes that would assist in those cases but I really want to know what I can create with SE in itself. At the moment I am aware SE isn’t hot for surfacing however according to those in the know I can expect some good progress in that area come ST6. Well I certainly hope so because I won’t buy into SE without it. Feed me real info about the capability SE has to do the work I am engaged in, or I can make use of if it isn’t familiar to me coming from something else.
Apparently SE is very good for large assemblies and drawings so post a seat of the pants video with a real world data set showing me that. Show me a complex surfaces part. Remember people are already pissed off by Dassault so anyone looking at SE isn’t interested in listening to sales BS, kicking the tyres and slamming the doors or even driving it around the block.. A change from SW to SE will be a significant undertaking for many businesses. While DS wants to sell you pet weddings more worldly SW users are concerned about their future son in law’s character and earning potential. So far Siemens has come across reasonably well by sticking to their engineering knitting. The product could be promoted better and be more enabling for its user base but its
@Dave Ault
@Neil
Guys, consider what you’re asking. If I send my files out for this sort of demo-type marketing, those files would be under NDA—meaning, they’re not to be openly published. Other files wouldn’t be “real-world” stuff, but mock-ups simulating the real-world stuff. Just something to consider, unless you’re willing to send out unprotected client files to CAD companies for these purposes without an NDA.
Send me your problem SW files Neil 🙂
@Dave,
True. Just this evening I was surfing the net for something unrelated to SE and I came across quite a long YouTube video which was of the nature of ‘what’s happening to solidworks’ or some such. Honestly I am not impressed by resellers taking an oblique hack at the demise of SW in this fashion. I want to know what’s out there that I can use and that might even be better. Same with the recent comments that landed here from a reseller. This approach degrades SE. It counteracts my interest by demonstrating that SE has some jerk resellers whose only motivation is to capture customers and their dollars by any means. Why take this low massaging angle when it isn’t productive. Quite the opposite actually. Show me what’s good about what you have without degrading the competition and yourselves.
Paul,
I agree with your statement. I have nothing but skepticism for things like “we had 20% year over year sales increases” coming from every CAD company while the world is in recession. Someone is lying. Now about the productivity increases with SE. I believe in it because I use it and see it. But as you say show me don’t tell me. People who don’t use SE only have their own experience with their own software to go on. Without proof on real parts to demonstrate just why SE is so powerful why should they believe a PR department with motivation to increase sales as their reason for existence. Just what precisely does 40% increase mean? Just empty words without proof. I have had various conversations with SE and Siemens people about utilizing actual customer parts as examples. Knock off the totally slick canned demo stuff and start doing things based upon real world parts. SE will sell itself if the PR department guys would stop with the Local Motors stuff and the unsubstantiated productivity claims and just use real world examples. I am even trying to do this on my own with problem files from SW users I would import into SE and then show how I would tackle the problem in SE. Oddly enough I have had no takers and I am extending an invitation once again to any SW user to send me their problem file. I believe enough in the efficiency of SE to put it to the test. And I believe in the power of real world examples. After all this is precisely what sold me on SE ST1. I brought my part in and handed it to the sales demo dude and told him what I wanted done. After I brought my jaw back off the table I determined that this was what I had been looking for without knowing it. BUT, as you say don’t tell me about it but show me about it. This is my major complaint about the rather meaningless efforts towards publicity for SE these last few years. It will sell itself if these guys who are trying to be too whatever would just get out of the way and show just precisely what SE will do.
Talking to a guy recently who went to an SW shop. Now I suppose it is pretty standard fare for sales demo guys to never do a part cold because something might go wrong and you would look foolish as a company policy. I on the other hand feel that if a company sends someone out who can’t demo cold on my part it is an indication of a lack of confidence in either their sales force, the product or both. This guy however decided to work on the turbine because he had training and was confident in SE. So he fiddled with it a bit and then asked the SW user if this is what he wanted. The SW user was a bit quiet and then he said “do you realize this would have taken me four days to fix in SW?” I believe this story is true but why in the world won’t SE use this kind of stuff? I can’t fathom it.
@Dan Staples
Hi Dan,
It is very interesting watching your interaction; something we Autodesk product long term users no longer expect. But I do have an (arrogant maybe) request to make aimed at the use of customers’ glowing product endorsements.
You said, “One of their guys did a pan handle in SE ST6 and said it was 40% faster than doing it in (his former system — a well known competitor”. And that may true but?
In my opinion the endorsement will only have credibility if ALL the details relating to the comparison are published in a manner others can repeat achieving exactly the same results or better. If not experienced users will just look at the 40% and either ignore it or consider it BS.
As an example; some month ago an Autodesk employee sited an ‘independent’ report claiming the Ribbon interface improved 3D productivity. When we looked closely at the task we found it was rubbish. Indeed we were able to use their own evidence to prove, beyond doubt, AutoCAD’s original menu dating back to the first AutoCAD was the fastest interface for the task. A fact which brought the discussion with Autodesk to a close as there was no way Autodesk was going to admit, publicly, all the interface changes which have been made and, inflicted on their customers, have yielded NO real productivity improvements when analyzed objectively.
Many claims made in the marketing of CAD fall into the same trap. It would be good to see you guys break this mould as well and represent your product in the manner it deserves using only productivity facts which are appropriate and can be validated.
OK, maybe I should put a bit more priority on this. Here’s my contact info if you’d like to discuss this one-on-one:
http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com/contact.html
@Jeff Mowry
Well, I am strictly prohibited from spilling all the beans (in public) at this time, but I can give you some general insights…
1. ST6 is a “geometry heavy” release with a large percentage of the team working on improved geometry stuff in surfacing and sheet metal and some great collaboration with the Parasolid team.
2. It is still a “traditional” surfacing system, inasmuch as its based on Nurbs, not Sub-D or the like.
3. I don’t believe there will be anything you use in SolidWorks that you will be missing in Solid Edge.
4. Beta has gone very well. SEB (who makes Tefal, Krups, Moulinex, All Clad, etc) had some glowing things to say (official quotes forthcoming from marketing no doubt). One of their guys did a pan handle in SE ST6 and said it was 40% faster than doing it in (his former system — a well known competitor).
You should figure out how to come in June. It’s sure to be great!
Interesting. Dan, what sort of surface capabilities might be in store for those of us who are industrial designers and do tons of user-interface design? Last time I investigated, this looked a bit too lacking for what I do, but perhaps it’s getting closer by now? Apparently I qualify for SEU, and of course, everyone’s entitled to my opinion regarding software design 😉 . Just not sure I can swing the time in late June quite yet.
I realize in retrospect that I should probably clarify what this usability test is about. This is NOT some marketing thing where we want to prove to you that Solid Edge is better or something. The goal of the test is to take folks who have been pre-conditioned by using SolidWorks for a long time and set them loose in front of Solid Edge. We will then be watching all the stumbles and !fails! that are inevitable for a newbie with zero guidance and use this in our planning for our ST7 release (so that as more and more SolidWorks users come to Edge, there will be fewer pitfalls).
This usability test will be overseen by my Product Planning team and in particular Tamra Kite who is a cognitive psychologist and usability professional and well qualified to run such sessions.
@Darian Ahler
Darian, you still “in”? Send me an email at dan.staples@siemens.com with your particulars if you want me to get you signed up for the usability test and waive your conference fee…
@ Dan
Sent you an email.
Tim
@Evan Yares
I get the invitation to the COFES every year, and I think it would be interesting, although very different from a conference for end-users. I would like to make it to COFES some year. Thanks for the comment.
I used to be frustrated by stodgy old CAD conferences. Then, with my friends Joel Orr and Brad Holtz, I invented the conference I wanted: COFES – The Congress on the Future of Engineering Software. It’s in its 14th year. (www.cofes.com) Still, I think Solid Edge University should be really interesting. It seems that Solid Edge is finally coming into its own — so I suspect the energy will be really good.
Darian, Matthew, Tim, et al,
Very excited about the prospect of you joining me for SEU and helping us improve the transition for SolidWorks users. Please drop me a line directly at dan.staples@siemens.com with your particulars as below and we will start working logisticis:
1. Name
2. Company
3. email/phone/address
4. # of years on SolidWorks
5. exposure to Solid Edge (if any)
Even if folks have more than my requested “less than 2 hours” on Solid Edge, if you are interested in coming to SEU, send me your details anyhow and I’ll see if we can fit you in.
@Tim Cochrane
Aw, Tim, TIM! That’s just not good enough. I can’t just sign you up like that. In fact, I can’t sign you up at all. Dan Staples has to sign you up. And even he can’t sign you up without some sort of a reason. Don’t you have a sob story?
Matt,
Please sign me up:
Thanks
Tim
The edison car is really cute. I hope that they produce it. I may be too oriented toward high speed aerodynamics where laminar flow is necessary. The low Re flows are different, as shapes often produce separation and recover pressure off the surface. The front wheel fairings would have lower drag with more of the wheel covered.
My neighbor gets 95 mpg at 140mph. He designs using a spline, steel rule, micro filler and sanding block.
I can probably use a computer for my project as I only aspire for 30 mpg at 115mph. My project is amphibous and can fly from water or land. It would be almost impossible to get adequate surfaces using Solidworks without GW3D add in.
Matt,
Your purple speak… way too funny… but also interlaced with very good truthful and informative information.
O my, never put 2 and 2 together on Dan and the DS thing… too funny… Karsten better keep an eye on him….. 🙂 🙂
@Rick McWilliams
Rick,
I’m pretty sure its aerodyanmically correct as it is the Edison 2 — second generation of the Edison 1 that was completely designed in Solid Edge and won the $5 million X-Prize for automotive 100 mpg+ competition. It is ALL about the aerodynamics and the weight. We had Edison 1 at Solid Edge University and you could actually push it with 1 finger! The Edison 2 is actually working towards full commercialization. See here http://www.edison2.com/
Fun post. The solid edge aerodynamic mini car is not very well surfaced with some airfoil shapes that do not appear c2 in the stream direction. I get very good use from realview environemntal refections to see the surfaced shape. I am mostly using GW3D surfaces instead of SW surfaces.
Best post ever…
I’m game to see what Solid Edge has to offer. I have been using Solidworks for a bit over 5 years and, though I love the program, always interested to see how other programs work. Solid Edge Conference for free? Count me in.
I would love to attend to see what all the buzz is about. I have used Solidworks for 5 years. I will be glad to do what ever I need to if I can attend for free. Plus it would give a great chance to really explore what the have to offer as we look at a switch to new software as the uncertin future of solidworks looms.
Extremely tempting considering I’m contemplating switching to something else from SolidWorks (maybe). Too bad my wife will like 38-39 weeks pregnant by that point. I don’t think she’d be happy if I was gone for a few days at that point!
Well I’d love to go but I would have to row across the Pacific and then hitch across the US…
Any chance I can get a large resolution pic of the car? and from other angles too? Much nicer body on it now. 😉
Matt-
I love the humor in your bullet points and I truly apperciate the fact that Executive Management team will take the time to talk to Joe User and understand how they use or want to use the SE tools.
Ryan