What do you think will be announced at SolidWorks World 2012?
We’ve only got a month and a half to wait, but I thought this might be fun anyway. There are two levels of guessing here: What you WANT to happen, and what you EXPECT might happen. They always introduce a number of things over the course of the 3 day conference. Some of it is minor, sometimes major. Most of the time they try to make much more of it that it really is.
Some people expect SolidWorks to announce the V6 version on Valentines day. What do you want or expect to be announced this year?
WANT:
- Bernard Charles has finally recovered from a tumble down the stairs in which he hit his head 4 years ago, and realized that he has a CAD company with a lot of existing CAD customers who at least used to like the product, and that they should start working on CAD software again to make the most of the uncanny alignment of employee skills and customer desires. The lights turn on, and we hear Bernard say “This IT infrastructure crap really isn’t my bag, baby…”
- Dassault remembers that customers are the ones that pay the bills
- Dassault figures out that the thing missing from their new software plans is geometry creation and editing tools.
- Dassault returns to the “by engineers for engineers” motto that customers really bought in to.
EXPECT:
- Dassault is delivering a virtual reality camera, so you can put a rubber ducky in a picture of yourself in a bathtub. We are a customer driven company.
- Dassault is developing a brainwave sensing cell phone that reads your thoughts and makes any design you can think of. It is available only on a carrier created by SolidWorks resellers. Phones are available now, but the network will not exist for another 3-5 years. Customers LOVE this!
- SolidWorks V6 is announced on Valentines Day, and the name is – of course – Love Mark. Theme music is Elvis’ Love Me Tender.
- Dassault is investing heavily in 3D Twilight movies, because they appeal to twenty-somethings.
- The SolidWorks name does not appear on the new SolidWorks headquarters building in Waltham.
- Dassault is selling their “mid-range” CAD division to Autodesk.
- We gave up on “CAD in the Cloud” and are replacing the idea with a sandbox and a stick. For really hard problems, we can rent you an abacus, but you have to give us back the abacus when you’re done with it, and any ideas you develop with it belong to Dassault.
In the end, I really don’t want that much. I mainly just want a product where the focus is on CAD. I’ve even stopped complaining about bugs. I mean you can’t fix little issues if the issue that’s out of whack is the overall vision. I guess we’ll see if Dassault is going to allow SolidWorks to be a CAD company or just a flighty tech trend follower. Notice also that none of the complaints here are with SolidWorks. They are all with Dassault.
What do you think will be announced?
Matt,
I have to say that I don’t really care what they announce. First, because I won’t be going, hoping to spend my limited travel money on NPE. Second, because SWW is much more about the sessions and the other users than it is the main stage show. Third, because I’m losing enthusiasm for all things SolidWorks, as many of us seem to be.
Jerry Steiger
@Kevin Quigley
I don’t think it’s his feet he expects you to kiss…
I want to have Flow Command inside SolidWorks.
Refs :
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=4363.124
http://moi3d.com/wiki/V3Beta
Conic (rho controlled) sketches is only one part of the package – we require conic surfacing as well. The ACIS kernel can handle this fine. Ashlar has had these for 10+ years.
I’m not making any predictions about what we will or won’t see. I’m still too depressed about tSplines. That was what i was looking forward to using in 2012 – natively within Solidworks. If we actually ever do get that I will fly to Autodesk and kiss the feet of Carl Bass……but I think my airfare and lips are safe.
Most likely they were going to announce a more capable Tsplines module for SW
It would have helped sustain upgrades until the cloud arrived and the development wouldn’t have cost them much or diverted many of their own coders
Don’t think it will happen somehow…can’t see Autodesk being that generous.
I anticipate Tsplines and TsElements won’t even be mentioned…
Probably a mad scramble is going on now behind the scenes to put together something of interest to show or spin from the leftovers. Don’t see them showing the cloud even so. Pretty sure they want to get it to the stage where it is fairly complete and then unload it on the user base with a special marketing campaign and with a fairly short transition period.
Can’t imagine conics will ever make it at this stage of the game despite being caught short atm.
Think it will pretty bland or otherwise unremarkable affair with the focus on the sessions, presentations, guest speaker, the social aspects and other diversions/entertainments.
@asdf
They always announce something. Usually announce stuff before it’s ready. And they haven’t announced anything of significance since n!Fuze fizzled.
was there supposed to be an announcement at all or is it common to wait with such things until swworld?
also i expect something with the word PLM (or similar) in it.
What I expect:
-About the time 2012 was released, I saw an announcement that the sketcher module SW uses finally added support for conics with rho control. I expect to see that announced for 2013.
-More features pushing SW toward architects.
-Something to do with whether SW and T-Splines will get along in the future.
-More PLM
-Maybe another demo of V6, maybe more pseudo-direct editing.
-Another [buzzword]Xpress tool, or further development of the sustainability thing.
What I want:
-Elimination of unnecessary historical limitations and real history in the FM.
-Parametric history-free bodies.
-Useful documentation.
-Dissolve the distinction between parts and assemblies (yeah right).
-Significant announcements from the wish lists.
@ Neil,
I can only see one thing wrong with that picture, that pig should be flying…
As for SWW 2012, I expect more of the same BS that’s been handed out so far, and the same old bugs we’ve been fighting for years. Ho-hum…..
random silliness…the GLA (Geometry Liberation Army) provide the honour guard for ‘our dear leader’ in a ceremony marking the Great Cloud Revolution of 2013.
[img]http://www.dezignstuff.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/ourdearleader.jpg[/img]
I detect some sarcasm in your post. Its probably ‘for obvious reasons’.
WANT: Rapid collapse of the euro and pound exposing DS derivatives positions and forcing DS to sell off SW to cover their bets and at least save Catia for the good of France. SW is bought up cheap by its user base and Jon H. is reinstated to run it.
Bernard retires to a house with stairs everywhere and continues to enjoy himself.
EXPECT: DS will continue to drive SW into the ground though sheer stupidity and neglect. Autodesk will delight in sawing the legs off the hospital bed under the dying patient just because they can. They already took the mattress. DS will hang off announcing the cloud until later in the year to coincide with the global collapse and ensuing chaos for maximum effect. Distraught and penniless users will be grateful to be able to hire SWv6 on an hourly basis regardless of the terms. SW will be killed over night probably when the dollar is devalued 50% in a bank holiday in 2013.
Actually 😉 I expect long periods of no one on the SWW stage and the audience yelling and screaming about nothing anyway like an Apple event, or perhaps doing straight line, parabolic or circular Mexican waves, just to kill time. Alternatively Bernard might end up doing a stand up routine to an empty room (no hecklers) save for a huddle of Matthews all furiously producing spreadsheets and reporting via Twitter, Google+, Facebook. If they are quick about it, they might be able to book the same acting troop currently appearing in North Korea, as a rent a crowd…yes it could be that bad….