SolidWorks World USA demonstrates bright CAD future

Those are the stories coming out of this year’s SolidWorks World 3D CAD event in New Orleans, USA. Meanwhile, in the near term the emphasis remains on improved graphics for MCAD, ease of use and speeding up the design process for mechanical design. All CAD companies, SolidWorks included, are open to suggestions: most things seem possible if somebody is willing to invest the time and effort. Certainly at the SolidWorks World event kites were being flown to inspire ideas, and the company was saying it’s up to users to say what they want and need – and if enough say the same, it will produce it. Jon Hirschtick, founder of SolidWorks and on the advisory board for MIT, says the fastest growing sectors are medical and biotechnology. He cites an “artificial liver that is being used as a test bed for medical treatment strategies [at MIT]. And this is in the mechanical engineering department.” And he adds: “If you ask a room full of engineers if there is anyone working the same way as ten years ago, nobody puts there hand up.” Meanwhile, SolidWlorks CEO John McEleney says advances with COSMOS (SolidWorks’ FEA package) and PDMWorks (its PDM environment), reflect this kind of development. But he adds: “We are now putting our focus back on the core. If you look at SolidWorks 2008, the graphics are amazing. We put Playstations round our R&D department: we wanted our people to see these graphics front centre. “We have taken tab browsing from Mozilla Firefox and put it into SolidWorks. We have introduced DFM Express so you can use the computer to see if something is manufacturable. “We are also doing something about the ‘Oops’ problem. You send an email, ‘Please use version B’. Wouldn’t it be great if you could ensure that A disappears? “We have worked with Liquid Machines who have a technology that secures documents and works with PDM Enterprise so you can put rights with a document that stay with it. And we have instant 3D built on Swift Technology so you spend less time mucking about with the system to do things.”