The Wednesday General Session is usually bittersweet for me, because while it is the day we get a sneak peek at the upcoming version of SolidWorks, it is also the last day of the conference.  This year is no different; things start winding down and we say goodbye to friends and colleagues, many of whom we won’t see until next World.

DUDE, WE’RE SPONSORED BY DELL!

Fielder Hiss opened the General Session and introduced Kirsten Billhardt from Dell.

MODEL MANIA

SolidWorks Product Marketing Specialist Mark Schneider took the stage to announce the winners of the 2013 Model Mania contest.  This year, the customers beat the resellers!

EDUCATION

Hiss introduced Marie Planchard, Director of Education Community for SolidWorks.  Marie brought up Tom Atchinson, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Mavericks Civilian Space Foundation.  They expose kids to the principles of STEM through space exploration.  They showed a video of some high school kids who were brought in and designed a flight vehicle based on a reference design to fly a mission.  It was pretty inspiring!

They are looking for mentors, sponsors, benefactors, and other help.  Check out their website for more information.

ANOTHER WORD FROM OUR SPONSORS

Hiss introduced Andrew Cresci from NVIDIA.  He talked about GPU processing and then teased us by showing eDrawings running on Android:

TOP TEN ENHANCEMENT REQUESTS

Next up was Bruce Holway, Product Director R&D, to announce the top 10 enhancement requests.  They were as follows:

10. Create auxiliary line for dimensioning angles
9. Draw a line segment starting at the midpoint
8. External thread wizard for all thread types
7. Default the Concentric Mate for Axis to Cylindrical Surface
6. Option for equal spacing on linear patterns
5. Provide a version of eDrawings mobile app for Android devices
4. Cylindrical mates need an option to lock rotation
3. Slot Mate
2. Ability to save SolidWorks files in previous versions – Backwards Compatibility (give it a rest already!)
1. Make rebuild time faster

WHAT’S NEW IN 2014

Next up is my favorite part, where they give us a sneak peek at the upcoming version.  This year’s skit was “Jeremy’s Designer Gift Show”, based on an infomercial.  It was pretty funny!

Here is a run-down of what they announced:

DRAWINGS

• Replace View Model
• Existing View Icons
• Display Style Context Menu
• High Quality Shaded Views
• Angular Running Dimensions
• Split Table By Row Count

MODEL DISPLAY

• Order Independent Transparency
• Sunlight & Sunlight Animations
• Network Rendering Animations

CIRCUITWORKS

• CircuitWorks Thermal Properties
• Link To SolidWorks Flow Simulation

SKETCHES

• Slots In Hole Wizard
• Path Length Dimension
• Fixed Length Spline
• Style Spline
• Replace Sketch Entities

ELECTRICAL ROUTING

• SolidWorks Electrical Harness
• Reuse Existing Harness
• Clips In Flattened Representation
• Colored Connector Pins

SIMULATION

• Bolt Mapping
• Results Symmetry
• Residual Stress From SolidWorks Plastics

UI ENHANCEMENTS

• Environment Themes
• History Folder
• Flexible Assemblies Context Menu
• Streamlined Save As Copy

eDRAWINGS

• eDrawings With Augmented Reality

SHEET METAL

• Sheet Metal Corner Gussets
• Lofted Bend Transitions

ASSEMBLIES

• Smart Mate Delay
• Feature Driven Component Pattern
• Rotate Exploded Views
• Quick Mate Context Menu

I will go into a little more detail on some of these features at a later date.

SOLIDWORKS WORLD 2014

Bertrand Sicot then took the stage to say goodbyes and announce next year’s SolidWorks World venue.  They are headed back to San Diego on January 26-29, 2014.

Image credit for eDrawings on Android courtesy Ricky Jordan.

DISCLOSURE: DS SolidWorks Corp paid for my conference fee, lodging, and some meals.