SolidWorks:HEARD!

Today DS SolidWorks launched eDrawings for iPad, its first mobile app to date under the SolidWorks name, well except for the n!Fuze app…*crickets*…moving on. Up until now, there have been limited resources on mobile to view native SolidWorks files. Some of the viewers currently on the market are extremely overpriced and very limited. We got a taste of how 3D could feel on a touch device when Dassault shipped the 3dvia mobile app 2 years ago, which connected with their 3dvia.com service. Although SolidWorks users could File, Save-As to 3dvia.com, there were security issues with making your content public just to view it on your iPad. The 3dvia app also lacked the important interrogation tools like markup and measure that many of us would like to have for reviewing SolidWorks data.

eDrawings for iPad:

Feature set: ($1.99 USD)

- Open SolidWorks® parts, assemblies and drawings

- Open eDrawings files

- Open AutoCAD® DWG and DXF files

- Supports "Open In" from Mail, DropBox, GoodReader…etc

- Zoom/Pan/Rotate

- Navigate SW assembly tree, drawings sheets and switch configurations

- Play animations

- Show exploded states (assemblies)

As you can see from the list above, this outlines the typical requirements for a viewer, much like we get from the free version of eDrawings on the PC. The interface is clean, supports full screen mode and reminds me of the Mac version of eDrawings with the file properties drawer. My favorite feature is the app supports the "Open In.." function of iOS which makes opening files from Mail or even Dropbox simple. Here are a few shots of the UI:

Although this $1.99 USD app is a no-brainer for a SolidWorks user with an iPad, it is not yet available on Android and is not a universal app, allowing it to run on the iPhone either. Don't get me wrong, having a native viewer is a great start, however practical design review tools are needed to move eDrawings for iPad into the collaboration/design review arena.

Personally I would like to see more focus on the features that made eDrawings my de-facto tool for communication by adding markup and measure capabilities. There are a number of things that are missing from the iPad version like:

- Markup

- Measure

- Section

- Hide/Show/Transparent/Open in Assemblies

- View inserted BOM/tables in parts/assemblies

I do agree that a mobile app does not necessarily have to duplicate functionality of its desktop counterpart but should minimally offer tools that are device appropriate. Many of these missing features, I believe, would be device appropriate since being able to markup and grab measurements off of models are key for design reviews.

I understand this is the first version to hit the public but I have to believe that this has been floating around the catacombs of SolidWorks for quite awhile and there had to be discussions around bringing more design review functions to the app. The price of $1.99 USD is fine and for what it delivers, arguably a fair price. The success of an app in today's mobile market is more than just the local features the app can deliver, but the services they are connected to.

What Version 2 Will Need:

- ANDROID SUPPORT (don't ignore the major share of the mobile market)

- Phone support across iOS and Android

- Markup/Measure/Hide/Show/Transparent tools

Wish List:

- Collaboration with others via Cloud service (shared view/markup/chat)

- Open directly from Cloud services or network shares (Dropbox, Google Drive, Box.Net, UNC path, etc.)

I wrote a while back how to Preview SolidWorks CAD data on Dropbox by using SolidWorks Task Scheduler but now being able to simply use "Open In.." makes Dropbox, or any other cloud storage service, work great for viewing your data on the device. With a few tweaks, eDrawings for iPad/Android could become a great resource for users in the field and on the go. ~Lou

SolidWorks World 2012 has passed and the masses have dispersed back to their homes, families and jobs.  Although SWW12 was 5650 registered attendees strong, that is only a fraction of the millions of users across the globe.

Every year I have a goal to try and get as much of the content out of this show for the rest of those out there who are not able to get to the one major event for SolidWorks a year. So here are a few resources for those of you that fall into this percentage of users outside the walls of the San Diego Convention Center.

Live Blogs:

- General Session Day 1

- General Session Day 2

- General Session Day 3 

Photos:

- SolidWorks Flickr Page

- Google Plus (search for SWW12)

Video:

- SolidWorks Youtube Channel

- SolidWorks:HEARD Ustream Channel

- Solidbox - very well produced

Social Networks:

- Twitter (search for SWW12)

- Google Plus (search for SWW12)

- SolidWorks Facebook Page

Blogs: 

- SolidWorks

- SolidSmack

- Rickyjordan

- MichaelLord

- CADFanatic

- Boxer's Blog

- CADCAMstuff

It was a busy week and there is a lot of content out there from SolidWorks World 2012.  I will post some notes and tips that I picked up from this year's sessions.  Many of the responses I got from you is SolidWorks tips so I attended about 4 tip specific sessions and got a few nuggets to share as well.  Next year is going to be in Orlando at the Swan and Dolphin resort at Disney on January 20-23, 2013. ~Lou

SolidWorks World general session day 3 is typically the reveal of the next major release of SolidWorks products.  For the past 5 years or so, SolidWorks has presented this in a skit where the guys in product definition will show segments of the new features with some humor.

This year's skit was a parody of "Back to the Future" called "
Back to the Feature" where Marty, Doc, Bif and even a camio of Jon Hirschtick, the founder of SolidWorks.  They should have a video up soon and I will post more pics once that is out.

Here is a quick list of what was revealed in SolidWorks 2013: (listed in order of reveal)

Segment 1:

- Show Hidden Bodies in Parts (parts)

- Assembly Performance Offenders with assembly visualization (assemblies)

- eDrawings markup imports into Drawings (drawings)

- Quick section views (parts/assemblies)

- Revision cloud - a markup tool in Drawings (drawings)

 Segment 2:

- Snap shots in (like in LDR) in any file (parts/assemblies)

- Sub models for Simulation - chop out a focus area to reduce mesh model and is associative to full model (Simulation)

- Bounding box cut-lis creation (parts)

- Multiple camera (3DVIA Composer)

- Multiple camera location on the timeline (3DVIA Composer)

 Segment 3:

- Quick filter in File Open (parts/assemblies/drawings) 

- Envelopes can be any part or assembly and then toggle (parts/assemblies)

- Envelope parts can have phantom lines in drawings (drawings)

- Envelope parts are hidden in upper levels (assemblies)

- Insert multi components at once - Window or CTRL selection in open dialog then drops one, place, drops the next, place etc. (assemblies)

- Multiple explodes in each configuration (parts?/assemblies)

- New favorites folder - acts like Windows favorites (all)

- New mounting boss options and stored in favorites (parts)

- Toggle cosmetic threads or have the graphic threads (parts/assemblies in Options)

- Find common thread types - In interference detection (assemblies)

- Hole wizard has dowel holes 

- Insert dowel annotations in drawings

Segment 4:

- Surface intersect to remove and add - can do both operations cut and up to face (parts)

- Thin extrude supports multiple contours (parts)

- Equation entry everywhere - Even in the PropertyManager (all)

- Vary pattern instance dimensions - can adjust the dimension values per instance (parts)

Segment 5: 

- Collaborate with others  - hover over username tp chat, email call (EPDM)

- DraftSignt integration (EPDM)

- Copy/Paste from DraftSight to SolidWorks - copies into a sketch (parts/assemblies)

- 2012 SP 5 will support backwards compatibility - will open SW2013 but frozen (all)

- Backward compatibility with Configurations - SW2012 could "see" the body and configurations from the future version (all)

- Backwards compatibility supports updates - if changes are made in 2013, the referenced files in SW2012 SP5 will update any visible attributes to impact the geometry and visual effects. (all)

Although SolidWorks has uploaded a lot of videos, I am still waiting for the videos to come out. I will post an update of pics if they publish the video.  

Things we did not see:

Well mobile and SoildWorks V6 platform did not make their presence at any of the SWW12 general sessions and I hope they have plans to share that information soon so we can all get an idea of what that will be like.  Fielder Hiss, VP of Product Management came out and made sure to clear a bad rumor up:

"SolidWorks kernel isNOT changing," says Fielder Hiss at #sww12 press Q&A. Take that, FUD slinging competitors!

— Roopinder Tara (@rtara) February 15, 2012

SolidWorks 2013 looks good and some interesting cool features are coming that are additions to part and assembly modeling which I like to see.  I do believe that viewers and collaboration tools on mobile or the web are needed in the SolidWorks portfolio.  Time will tell. ~Lou

Will SolidWorks World 2012 be the year for mobile?  I hope so!  Last year SolidWorks released an iPhone app that was especially built for SWW 2011 giving users the ability to browse sessions and get valuable info about speakers, partners, maps etc of the event.  After 10 years of thumbing through the little conference booklet and trying to determine where I was going next, this app made navigating the conference simple.  Having a lot of detail, especially of the partner pavillion, allowed me to get more out of SWW than previous years.

The issue that many had voiced about the app was the fact it was oniy on iOS (iPhone) at the time. Considering Android is taking the market by storm, it only makes sense that if SolidWorks is to offer such a great tool that it be available on the lion's share of devices. This year they launched a 2012 version of the app but this time it is available on both iOS and Android and the iOS version is a universal app, giving iPad users full use of the screen real estate.

After navigating around in the app I find that browsing sessions is so easy, especially researching and signing up right from within the app. You can log in with your registration account and see what is is coming up next in your agenda and figure out how to get there.

Seeing the CAD market get more focused on mobile, I hope this year SolidWorks follows suit and offers more mobile options for access and viewing our SolidWorks data.  Expanding this simple conference app made me do some searching on the stores for other SolidWorks apps and I came across another one that was promised a year ago for n!Fuze.  I re-registerd my n!Fuze membership and applied to get another trial because I have not used it since the official/non-official launchin late summer.  The app is simple and crashes a lot, probalby due to some overhauling that I would imagine they have been performing over the past few months.  

If you do any extensive searches on the Android market or the iOS App Store you will find a number of 3rd parties for SolidWorks data viewing, many of which are free to download but come with a in-app purchase of $$$ to get the translators you would want to view SolidWorks data.  Another one was charging a monthly fee to be able to view Solidworks data.  The best idea to date was to use the new Inforbix app but that needs to be crawled by their bots to be usable with your data.  

So what do I want to see?  I want eDrawings on my devices, giving me native viewing of SolidWorks data on the go.  If I get an email with a SolidWorks/eDrawing attachment, I want to view that data on my device.  I would also like to have a way to view this data in a collaborative mannor with other parties, similar to what you can do with AutoCAD data on their AutoCAD WS platform.

Bottom line, users want access to that data from any device they have with them.  Currently I have talked for years about how to bend what tools we have available today but this is a bit limited.  SolidWorks will need to get some headway with apps starting in 2012 or the market will respond and users/3rd parties will begin filling the void with solutions.  SolidWorks World is a perfect platform to launch products and I hope this will be one of the offers.  Only time will tell!  Hope to see you at World! ~Lou