SolidWorks 2010 has many improvements and new features that can help engineers and designers create and documents their designs more efficiently.  As is often the case in life, it’s the small things that matter, and small, simple improvements can make a big difference when designing or detailing a design.

SolidWorks seemed to have spent more time this go-around on polishing rough edges and speeding things up.  The themes for this release were user experience, reliability, and performance.

Below I have listed just a few of my favorite improvements in SolidWorks 2010 that I think can help make a big difference in improving users’ workflow:

USER INTERFACE (UI)

Consistency in PropertyManager/Graphics Area Controls

The SolidWorks 2010 PropertyManager has been made more consistent by retaining settings and values in the same commands across SolidWorks sessions and using round numbers for default values.  The control focus in the PropertyManager now transfers automatically to the next input after a selection has been made.

In the graphics area, right-clicking for ok or to advance through multiple PropertyManager controls when required works more consistently.

Mouse Gestures

Along with keyboard shortcuts and the shortcut menu (S-key), mouse gestures is yet another shortcut way to access commonly used commands.  Users can choose to have four or eight shortcuts on the mouse gesture guide, which appears by right-clicking in the graphics area and dragging the mouse to the desired command.  The gestures can be customized independently for any commands in the sketch, part, assembly, and drawing environments.  If desired, the mouse gestures guide can be deactivated by going to Tools|Customize and unchecking the option on the Mouse Gestures tab.

Heads-Up View Toolbar Customization

The heads-up toolbar can now be customized differently based on what environment you are in (modeling or drawing).  You can also choose to simply hide the toolbar.

PARTS

Multibody Part Materials

You can now assign materials to individual bodies in a multibody part.  Now users can model assemblies of say, a library assembly of a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) item, in a multibody part.  The individual body materials are honored in mass properties, drawing section views, and in SolidWorks Simulation.

Display States in Parts

SolidWorks 2010 allows Display States to be used in parts in the same way as assemblies.

Standards in Cosmetic Threads

Now, cosmetic threads can be defined using the standard sizes from the Hole Wizard database (FINALLY!).  There is a new option, Standard, in the Cosmetic Thread PropertyManager that gives users a selection of all available standards to choose from.  I know that this is a small improvement, but it’s one that I know I personally have wished for every time I’ve had to add threads manually.  The information has always been there, there just wasn’t a way to access it.

ASSEMBLIES

Make External Components Virtual

In SolidWorks 2010, external components of an assembly can now be made virtual.  Existing reference to the component is ignored, the component is renamed, and there is no link back to the original external part.  The virtualization can be done at the time of insert or after the component has been inserted into the assembly.  The only use I see for myself for this tool is converting a library assembly into a part.

Assembly Component Instance References

SolidWorks 2010 now allows users to assign different values for each component instance in an assembly.  When component instances have different reference values, they can be shown in a BOM as discrete line items and can be linked to balloon text in drawings.  This enhancement will also help immensely if you use SolidWorks Routing, as previously you needed to uncheck “Update component names when documents are replaced” in the System Options|External References dialogue to avoid issues when components were replaced.

Assembly Visualization

SolidWorks 2010 has a new tool called Assembly Visualization that enables users to display and sort components of an assembly based on custom properties.  In the image to the right, for instance, you can see the mass distribution in the components of the assembly.  This information is critical to have if trying to hit a weight bogey, and this tool helps easily identify the heavier components.  It could also be used to find a cost distribution.  The colored display is reminiscent of the SolidWorks Simulation reports, and can be customized.

Assembly Mirroring

Mirroring components within an assembly has been enhanced in SolidWorks 2010 with the addition of the MirrorComponent feature.  This new feature is added to the FeatureManager to maintain the position of all the mirrored components relative to the seed components.  It is an editable feature, and has the option to just mirror the components about the selected plane or to create opposite-hand versions as derived configurations in the mirrored components.

DRAWINGS/DETAILING

Rapid Dimension Tool

SolidWorks 2010 has a new Rapid Dimension tool that enables users to quickly add evenly-spaced dimensions to drawing views.   A glyph, called the rapid dimension manipulator, appears whenever you have selected an entity to dimension, and allows the user to place the dimension in the correct orientation, even when zoomed in tight on the view.

In addition, if you delete a dimension, SolidWorks 2010 can be set to automatically readjust the remaining dimensions to eliminate any gaps that may be created.  This setting is a document property.

Parametric Quantities on Balloons

You can now add parametric quantities to balloons in the industry-standard way as shown in the image to the right.  No more having to manually add a note, and then group it with the balloon, and having to remember to update the quantity if it changes!  The quantity can be shown to the right, left, top, or bottom of the balloon.

Annotation Attachments

New handles have been added to annotations, such as Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing (GD&T) and surface finish symbols, that make it easier to attach and detach annotations to other annotations and dimension witness lines.

Drawing Center Mark Improvements

SolidWorks 2010 will now add a gap between center marks and dimension witness lines, whether the holes were dimensioned before adding the center mark, or dimensioning a hole with a center mark already placed.  Previously, you would have to add the center mark and then dimension to that instead of the hole to have the witness lines show the gap.  By dimensioning to the hole, the center mark can be deleted without leaving the dimension dangling.

Dimension Palette

SolidWorks 2010 now has a new heads-up dimension palette that appears whenever you insert a new dimension or select an existing dimension.  It lets the user access most of the formatting options available in the Dimension PropertyManager without having to mouse over to the side of the screen.

Notes Improvements

In SolidWorks 2010, borders can now be added to selected portions of notes.  This should make referencing flag notes and the like easier to format.  In addition, you can now drag notes into other notes, and they will be appended to the end of the note.  In the case of numbered drawing notes, the dragged note will take on the next sequential number.

GENERAL/OTHER

Reference Planes

SolidWorks 2010 allows creation of more types of reference planes, such as mid-plane (FINALLY!).  The interface has changed somewhat and may take a little getting used to.  New users should have no trouble picking it up, but old-timers may have a little trouble with it, as you don’t get the various plane options until something is selected.  After a selection is made, it then shows the available plane options and attempts to choose the option best-suited to what has been selected.  At first, I was kind of turned off by the new interface, but after using it for a while, it grew on me and I found it quite intuitive and it generally seemed to select the plane option I was after.

Online Help

Starting with SolidWorks 2010, the Help file system is now hosted online.  Now, the help files can be updated on an as-need basis instead of waiting for a service pack.  It should also help with localization.  And expect more resources to be available in the future.  For systems that cannot be connected to the Internet, the standalone files will still be delivered during installation.

Multibody Sheet Metal Parts

SolidWorks 2010 adds functionality to sheet metal parts by adding multibody support.  Now, you can have sheet metal and weldment parts in one file!

You can also perform sheet metal operations on two separate bodies and combine them by adding an edge flange between them (provided, of course, that both bodies have the same thickness).  In addition, you can now use the Mirror Part command on sheet metal parts.

Find Similar Material

I have posted previously about the new SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress and Sustainability products, and the Find Similar Material tool included with it looks to have real potential.  Even if you aren’t interested in designing green with sustainability in mind, this tool can still come in handy.  Every version of SolidWorks comes with SustainabilityXpress, so check it out!

SUMMARY

Of course, this isn’t a complete list.  It’s just the new features and improvements that impressed me the most and the ones that I think will help me become more proficient in my work.

To see more of what’s new in SolidWorks 2010, you can access the What’s New in SolidWorks Version 2010 document at Ricky Jordan’s What’s New Guides repository.

Some images courtesy of SolidWorks and the What’s New in SolidWorks Version 2010 document.

After hearing of SolidWorks’ new sustainable product tool, code-named “Sage”, at this year’s SolidWorks World conference, I decided to learn a little more about it.  So I contacted Mr. Rich Chin, Director of Product Innovation at SolidWorks.

After a few rounds of email tag over the last few weeks, I am pleased to bring you this dialogue on the day that SolidWorks Labs has released SustainabilityXpress.  I hope you find it informative!

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CADFanatic:  Hi Rick, thanks for agreeing to do this interview. Before we begin, could you please tell us a little bit about your background?

Rick Chin:  I’m a 23 year veteran of the CAD space. I’ve worked for UG, PTC, Pratt & Whitney (as in-house CAD expert), SolidWorks, and Xpress3D (my own startup). Jon Hirschtick hired me in 1995, and I left in 2001 to start Xpress3D. I returned in 2005 when SolidWorks acquired the FeatureXpert technology from me. eDrawings has been one of the most notable achievements I have been involved with. Currently, I am working with the team that is developing our new SolidWorks Sustainability product.

CF:  How did you become involved with SolidWorks?

RC:  Prior to joining SolidWorks, I was a demo jock and product manager for PTC. I left PTC in 1994 with the hope of one day starting a company focused on creating a MS Windows version of Pro/E. I soon learned about a startup that was already developing that product. The company was venture capital funded and had rock stars like Jon Hirschtick and Mike Payne (who I had worked with at PTC). I realized that there was no way to beat them, so I decided to join them. This was one of the best career moves of my life.

CF:  At SolidWorks World 2009 in Orlando earlier this year, Jeff Ray mentioned an upcoming tool called Sage to help SolidWorks users create designs that have lower environmental impacts, or sustainable design. What exactly is “sustainable design”, and how is it implemented?

RC:  From our perspective, all design will soon be “sustainable design”. This is all about minimizing the total environmental of the products designed by our customers. To accomplish this, design professionals must be able to measure those impacts, and then proactively work to reduce them. Ideally, it should be a natural part of the design process.

We have equipped our customers to do this by building Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) right into SolidWorks. LCA is a very comprehensive way of looking at a product’s production, use, and final disposal; and the environmental impacts that result. The environmental impacts we measure are: carbon footprint, total energy consumed, effects on air, and effects on water.

We have taken this very sophisticated analysis and made it “SolidWorks simple”. We accomplish this by limiting the number of inputs, and providing real-time results in an easy to understand dashboard.

By the way, “Sage” was the code name for our project. The official product names are SolidWorks Sustainability and SustainabilityXpress. SustainabilityXpress allows our users to analyze individual parts. The full Sustainability product allows them to analyze assemblies, compare configurations, and works with our new Assembly Visualization tool (very cool!).

CF:  Who is the target audience for Sage?

RC:  Our target audience for SolidWorks Sustainability and SustainabilityXpress is just about anyone who is using SolidWorks to design product. SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress will be available to all SolidWorks users, and is a great way to easily try out sustainable design. SolidWorks Sustainability is for our users who are interested in understanding and improving the environmental impact of the complete products they are designing.

CF:  Jeff Ray mentioned that a version of Sage will be rolled out prior to the release of SolidWorks 2010. Can you give any details of that?

RC:  Yes, we are providing a preview of the SustainabilityXpress product. It is going to be available THIS WEEK on our SolidWorks Labs website. It is an add-in to SolidWorks 2009 and is available to all SolidWorks users who are running that version of the software. That also includes students who are using our educational products. The product isn’t perfect yet, but we are looking forward to getting feedback from our users on it.

CF:  What is the timeframe for the product release?

RC:  SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress will be available this week on Labs and in the 2010 Beta. Full SolidWorks Sustainability will be available in a later Beta build around August. Both levels of the product will be completed and released with SolidWorks 2010 this fall.

CF:  What level of SolidWorks will be required to have access to the full Sage tool?

RC:  Great news … SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress will be built into every seat of SolidWorks 2010 for no additional charge. Every SolidWorks user will be able to make sustainable design a part of their every day process.

SolidWorks Sustainability is an add-in to SolidWorks that will be sold separately for a price that we will announce later this summer. Please note that it is NOT a part of the Professional or Premium bundles. It is a separately packaged product with its own price.

CF:  How will utilizing the Sage tool impact a user’s workflow?

RC:  We are designing the product so that it can be effortlessly included in today’s design flow. Material choice is an important consideration for all design professionals. It is also an important influencer in the environmental impact of products. We built a very cool “Find Similar Material” tool into the Sustainability products. I think everyone will find it useful, whether you are interested in sustainable design or not. As you use the tool to help you find the material for the job, you will see the magnitude of your part’s environmental impact change in real-time. As you evaluate materials for their mechanical properties, you will simultaneously see their impacts. No extra work or time required.

CF:  How dedicated is SolidWorks to continuing to work to develop Sage?

RC:  Like I mentioned above, we feel that all design will soon be sustainable design. Slowly, more and more of our customers are asking for this. And their customers are starting to demand it. We see the SolidWorks Sustainability product as the first of many products we hope to develop in the near future.

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I would like to thank Mr. Chin for taking the time to answer our questions.  If you have any other questions, please leave a comment and I’m sure that Rick will be glad to follow up here.

The free Xpress version of the Sage add-in mentioned at the Wednesday General Session of SolidWorks World 2009 is now available at SolidWorks Labs.

The add-in enables users to perform an environmental impact study of designs by means of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).  The LCA considers all aspects of a products life cycle from drawing board to end-of-life.

The Environmental Dashboard enables tracking of four data points: Carbon Footprint, Total Energy Consumed, Effect on Air, and Effect on Water.  As changes are made to the design, the user can see the potential environment impacts in real-time.

SustainabilityXpress includes a Find Similar Material tool that will enable users to quickly find a similar materials from the built-in SolidWorks material library and see the results.  There is also a publishing feature than enables users to create customized reports to document the LCA.

SolidWorks 2009 is required to run SustainabilityXpress.  I am disappointed that only 32-bit is supported (as of this writing).

I am intrigued by this tool, and am all for lessening the environmental impact of designs.  In my industry, with quick turn-around times sometimes required, the mantra is often, “When in doubt, make it stout!”  I am curious to see if this tool will help.

Do you think that this tool will have a significant impact on your designs?  Will you use it to try to design “greener”?  Let us know in the comments!

UPDATE: SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress allows analysis of parts only.  The full Sustainability add-in will be required to analyze assemblies and compare configurations.  The full product will also work with the new Assembly Visualization tool.  The full SolidWorks Sustainability product will not be included in a SolidWorks bundle; it will be sold separately at a price to be announced later this summer.

Last edited on 06/24/2009 @ 2:28PM CDT.

The proceedings from the SolidWorks World 2009 International User Conference and Exposition in Orlando, Florida, are now live! And things are a little different this year… Based on feedback from previous World’s, SolidWorks has opened up access to a broader audience and captured more media data to share.

CUSTOMER PORTAL USERS REJOICE!

In year’s past, attendees used a unique log-in to access the presentations and files from the conference. This year, SolidWorks is making the proceedings site available to all users with a Customer Portal account. If you do not already have a Customer Portal account, you can create one by visiting the SolidWorks Customer Portal and clicking the link under the “Not a member?” section.

MORE SWW CONTENT & FEATURES!

In addition to the standard presentations and supporting files of previous years, SolidWorks captured video of many of the sessions. These videos are available for streaming from the site. There are also pictures of all the exhibitor booths from the Partner Pavilion. (And remember, all my pictures from the conference, including most of the displays in the Product Design Showcase, are available on my Flickr photostream!)

So, be sure to go to SWW09 proceedings site to access all the SWW goodness. If you have any issues accessing the conference proceedings or have further questions, you can get help by emailing swworldinfo@solidworks.com.

***EDIT***

Some clarification from SolidWorks on the SolidWorks World 2009 proceedings site: 

Login access to content:   Essentially the site is open to anyone who has a customer portal login.    Anyone who went to World will see all of the presentation videos that we recorded.   If you did not attend World we are going to add new video content each week.

We check the e-mail you use to login against a database that we have of e-mails from conference attendees.  (So if your customer portal login uses a different e-mail than the e-mail you used to register for world you won’t get full access (but we’ll fix this case by case)).

Last edited on 03/11/2009 @ 5:10PM CDT.

Fielder Hiss, Director of Product Management at SolidWorks, took the stage once again for Wednesday’s General Session.  SolidWorks had another surprise in store for everyone, as Joe Grand and Dr. Mike North from the Discovery Channel show, “Prototype This” took the stage.  At first, it seemed as if they were a no-show, then they made their way through the audience from the back of the room on an apparatus they had designed for firefighters to use to transport gear and personnel.

They gave an interesting talk about some of the projects they have worked on for the show, including a “poo” scooper, a 30-foot tall waterslide simulator (a five week project!), and a 6X6 ATV that looked more like a bug than a vehicle.   The most interesting part of their presentation to me was when they were talking about themselves and the producers butting heads over what to actually show.  They said that when the show first started, the producers were more concerned about building something, when in reality, there is a lot of background design work, prototyping, and testing that has to occur before you get a finished product.  The guys really wanted to show that process, and that “prototyping is worthwhile, even if it fails”.  So in the beginning of the show, it was focused on building, but towards the end of the season, they had gravitated more to showing the design process.

TOP TEN ENHANCEMENT IDEAS

Next up was Bruce Holway, Manager of Product Definition at SolidWorks, to introduce the top ten enhancement ideas for SolidWorks.  Of course, this year, everyone already had access to this information through Brainstorm (Customer Portal log-in required), SolidWorks’ new customer enhancement request site.  Bruce also gave some recent examples of the top enhancement implementation in SolidWorks 2009:

• Slot tool in sketch
• Clearance-check in assemblies (similar to interference detection)
• Retain dimension in drawing views of mirrored parts
• Propagate assembly features back into parts as part features
• Title block wizard

The actual top ten enhancement ideas were read to the crowd one by one by SolidWorks User Group Network (SWUGN) user group leaders.  They are:

10. Excel behavior in tables
9. Abort any running command by pressing ESC
8. Add Lock Point for model rebuilds
7. Dual Monitor support
6. On-the-fly equation creation and editing
5. Faster rebuilds on complex models
4. Ability to rename configurations while referenced
3. SolidWorks backward compatibility
2. Clear memory when a file is closed

And the number one enhancement idea is:

1. Increase program stability

SWUGN AWARDS

The next speaker was Richard Doyle, who introduced the current SWUGN representatives.  Then the SWUGN Awards were handed out:

• 2008 User Group of the Year – Tom Cote of the Central MA/Northern CT SolidWorks User Group
• 2008 User Group Leader of the Year – Rob Jenson of the Southern Minnesota SolidWorks User Group

Two Lifetime Achievement Awards were given:

• Gerald Davis of the Colorado SolidWorks User Group
• Dan Bertschi of the Northeast Ohio SolidWorks User Group

MODEL MANIA 2009

Mark Schneider, Product Manager at SolidWorks, was next on stage to announce the SolidWorks World 2009 Model Mania contest winners in the Customer and Reseller categories.  (Please click the inline graphic to view the names.)  This was the first year that I competed in the Model Mania contest; I got the part modeled and the simulation set up, but I was unable to get the drafts applied correctly.  This is an area where I need to work on, as the parts I designed are usually machined prismatic parts or sheet metal, and require no drafts.  Mark was also going to demonstrate how to model the part, but unfortunately there was some sort of error and the model shown in his presentation was from last year’s SolidWorks World conference.

WHAT’S NEW IN 2010

Next up was what everyone was waiting for – What’s New in SolidWorks 2010!  SolidWorks usually does an elaborate skit to add some levity into the What’s New presentation, but they changed things up this year.  Ian Hogg, Product Marketing Manager for SolidWorks, joined Mark on stage, and they brought up a couple of customers on stage and showed their designs, and then proceeded to demonstrate some of the new and improved features of SolidWorks 2010 that would help in their design efforts.

The first customers were Samuel Schweighart and Gregor Cadman of Terrafugia, creators of the Transition®, which is a “roadable light sport aircraft” or, a flying car with foldable wings.

To help Terrafugia, they suggested the following new or updated tools:

• New View Mate tool
• Updated Mirror Components tool
• Updated Design Study Optimization tool that will enable users to run an optimization or design scenario and review the result plots of any configurations run by using a slider-bar interface.
• Multi-bodies in the sheet metal environment, with each body able to be flattened independently
• Ability to mix sheet metal and weldment features
• Better DXF output for sheet metal flat patterns

Next, Jeremy Regnerus and and Neil Cooke, Product Marketing Managers for SolidWorks, took the stage and introduced the next customer, Matthew Wilkins of Magenn Power, creators of the Magenn Air Rotor System (MARS).  MARS is a portable lighter-than-air tethered wind turbine that can reach altitudes of 1000 feet.

To help Magenn, they suggested the following new or updated tools:

• New Assembly Visualization tool
• New Property Manager Builder
• New Drawing Annotation tools, such as the ability to attach GD&T frames anywhere to dimensions, drag and drop notes into others to combine them, an option to show quantity next to balloons, and Excel functionality throughout all tables, including BOM’s
• New Drawing Productivity tools, such as a new heads-up display for changing dimensions, ordinate dimensions can span to detail views, and stacked dimensions will move when adding new dimensions to keep the proper alignment
• New Direct Editing tools that allow users to use Instant 3D to drag faces on imported parts and will recognize hole patterns (features are created in the FeatureManager tree using these tools)
• New Enterprise PDM (EPDM) functionality that will allow EPDM to manage and replicate all Toolbox components, and you can manage certain processes (such as file conversion) by spawning them to the EPDM server
• Sage, a new sustainable product tool developed in collaboration with PE International that can help designers and engineers pick alternate materials and do design comparisons to help lessen the environmental impact of their designs.

Jeff Ray took the stage and announced that Sage will be available in an “Xpress” version with every license of SolidWorks.  The add-on will actually be available in the coming months prior to the release of SolidWorks 2010 at SolidWorks Labs.

SOLIDWORKS 2010

Jeff Ray announced the dates and location for SolidWorks World 2010.  The next conference will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA on January 31-February 3, 2010.  I wonder where the offsite event will be? 

Jeff then introduced Dr. Dave Gossard, who was SolidWorks co-founder Jon Hirschtick’s CAD instructor at MIT.  Dr. Gossard was in attendance, and they showed this early video clip of him demonstrating the CAD system they had developed.  (I tried to find a link to the video, but had no luck; I have seen it online before though.)

Next up was a short video showing full machine simulation running inside of SolidWorks with the integration of National Instruments LabView.

SOLIDWORKS ENGINEERING STIMULUS PACKAGE

Jeff then made an announcement that SolidWorks will be offering an “Engineering Stimulus Package” that will provide out-of-work engineers and designers with free SolidWorks software, free training, and a free try at the CSWA exam.  SolidWorks is partnering with it’s reseller channel to offer this generous service.  It will initially be rolled out in North America, and then world-wide.

SOLIDWORKS AND EDUCATION

Next, Jeff talked education, and mentioned that there were 25,000 schools worldwide using SolidWorks.  They have delivered 18,000 seats to 900 schools in Ireland and are working to help “develop master instructors to go out and train others”.  He also mentioned the University of Florida (UF) and how they were using SolidWorks on their SAE Mini-Baja team.

The team had a display in the Partner Pavilion, and I took the opportunity to speak a while with one of the students (sorry, can’t recall your name!) on duty at the booth on Monday.  I was really impressed with the amount of design, analysis, and prototyping that they do and the quality of the completed buggy.  I participated on the Mini-Baja team when I was at UAHuntsville, but I believe that we were really disadvantaged compared to these students!

I was really struck at how the student said that they had started using SolidWorks…they actually went to the school and demanded SolidWorks so that they would be able to get relevant jobs when they graduated.  He also said that local companies were really supportive of their team and involved with mentoring the students, as they were vying for candidates with the skills needed in their industry.

SUMMARY

In Jeff’s words, “Engineering design will be the new global language.”  With that, the SolidWorks World 2009 wrap-up video was shown.  In his closing comments, Jeff reflected back on Monday and the car ride over with Sir Richard Branson from the General Session at the Dolphin to the press conference at the Swan.  He said that as busy of a man as Sir Richard was, the only thing he was concerned with was how he could get his hands on the incubator from Design That Matters that was shown in that day’s (Monday’s) General Session.  He wanted to get that into Africa as quickly as possible.  Also mentioned Monday was that MicroWind Technologies, Inc. was looking for funding for their low-cost windmills; Sir Richard gave them a call on Tuesday!

So there you have it!  SolidWorks World 2009 has come to an end…  Be sure and check out my Flickr photostream for all the pictures I took from the conference.  I have pretty complete coverage of the Product Design Showcase from the Partner Pavilion, with pictures of just about every product that was on display and it’s information card.  I hope that in some little way I helped give those that were not able to make it to Orlando some feeling for the excitement and energy that was SolidWorks World 2009!

(Sorry for the delay in posting my Wednesday General Session wrap-up; I had to rest a little, catch up on several things at home and work, and spend some quality time with my family.)

Last edited on 04/14/2009 @ 3:15PM CDT.