What is Joe's CAD Co?
Joe's CAD Co is a SolidWorks consulting company run by Joe Rowsey. Since 1997, Joe has worked with Pro/Engineer, thinkdesign, and SolidWorks. Joe's CAD Co started in Chicago in 2005 and moved to New Orleans in 2007. Joe can provide SolidWorks modeling, documentation, and training services throughout the US.
Please check out the audience comments from my SolidWorks World 2010 presentation to get an idea of the quality of my work.
SolidWorks World 2010
SolidWorks World 2010 was held Jan 31 through Feb 3 in Anaheim, Ca. The presentations are available to anybody. If the presentation was recorded, the video can be viewed on-line. If the powerpoint slides, and any accompanying files, were supplied by the presenter, they can be downloaded as well.
Direct Editing and Working with Dumb Solids
My presentation about 'Direct Editing and working with Dumb Solids' was given on Wednesday morning. Almost everybody stayed through the end, even though my time probably pushed a little bit into lunch. They even put up with my pitch for New Orleans and the Saints.
More importantly, it was a great audience that asked a number of good questions which is helpful because it makes it much more of a discussion than a lecture. I also learned some things from the audience which is a good sign as well.
Please check out the audience comments from the presentation to get an idea of what they thought of it.
Presentation Updates
Looking back at my presentation, there were at least three items that fell short or should have included some extra information. While time travel is not an option to correct my mistakes, updates including the extra informatoin can be posted here. The three issues that merit some extra information are:
Forum - Move Face dimension limit
Rolling Back - Create Sketch, Delete Face, Extrude Sketch
Co-Directional Cylindrical/Conical - Different Sizes
These three follow-ups would be a little much to fit on my home page, so I have created a new page to hold the details.
Robotics and Nerds
James McLurkin gave an excellent presentation centered around his multi-robot systems research. He included entertaining robot demonstrations and he clearly enjoys his work. He also encouraged the nerds in attendance to take pride in our nerdiness and to encourage kids to get excited about science and math. He wisely pointed out that it'll take nerds to solve the technological problems that we face.
James Cameron and Engineering
James Cameron had a conversation with SolidWorks founder Jon Hirschtick. He discussed a few technical challenges that he and his team have solved that even engineers with the best diplomas could not, or would, not tackle.
Cameron also pointed out three interesting guidelines:
- - Hope is not a strategy
- - Luck is not a factor
- - Fear is not an option
More from Cameron can be found in this excerpt from an address to a 2004 NASA symposium on risk and exploration.
The Big "Cloud" News
The big news was the "cloud"-based CAD system that SolidWorks/Dassault has in the works for down the road. SolidWorks does not usually show software that is not almost ready to be released. This year was an exception.
We were shown a quick demonstration of a new CAD system that utilizes "the cloud". This demonstration created a lot of talk at the convention and afterwards. If you like reading the SolidWorks blogs, Solidsmack had this and this to say. Rocksolid posted this. Matt Lombard has a number of "cloud" posts.
While the "cloud" did generate a lot of discussion about installation/upgrades/maintenance, operating systems, stability, hardware, and data storage, that's about all we got, discussion.
It also seems that all of the "cloud" talk has superceded what jumped out most to me about this demonstration. It was not SolidWorks.
Notes about this demonstration are also too much for my home page, so I have created another page to hold the details.
New Orleans
If any of you would like to help the great city of New Orleans rebuild, come on down for a visit. If you cannot travel right now, my nola page has other ways to help out.