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.

If you are reading this from the site, you can tell that there have been some major changes around here!  Like several of the other SolidWorks bloggers, I have made the jump and moved my TypePad blog to a WordPress-hosted site.

I want to thank SolidWorks for graciously providing the platform to freely air my missives over the past two years or so and Richard Doyle for getting me involved.  I would also like to thank Patrick Cook and Matthew West for their help and expertise in setting things up and tweaking things here and there.  And thanks to Ricky, Josh, and Matt for their help and suggestions in getting switched over.

Based upon my testing, the RSS feed should remain the same, and all URI’s out there pointing to the old TypePad permalinks should now be redirected to the new WordPress permalinks.  There are still a few issues to work out, such as some images in old posts not showing up all the time, but I will slowly get those links updated.  Also, I have a few issues with the Disqus comments on all previous posts, but hopefully those will be corrected in the coming days.

This is a work in progress, so you will be seeing a few changes from time to time.  I am working on a logo/header, and will probably tweak the CSS colors and whatnot some, if not change to an entirely new theme altogether.

If you notice anything out of whack other than the issues I mentioned above, or have any suggestions, please let me know.

Also, please note that due to the upcoming holidays and getting the new site up and running, CADFanatic’s Tips & Tricks Tuesdays will return after the first of the year, on Tuesday, January 6, 2009.

I’m looking forward to the new site and the new year!  And thanks for reading!

It is drawing ever closer…the day when thousands of SolidWorks employees, users, and vendors converge on the Happiest Place on Earth.  SolidWorks World 2009 will be here before you know it and for a few days, the ratio of engineers to rodents in the House of Mouse will skyrocket!

Jason over at RockSolid Perspective has pulled together some great testimonials on attending the upcoming SolidWorks World 2009 conference in his post, Orlando or Bust…What Others Are Saying.  He posed the question, "As a user who has been to a previous SolidWorks WORLD, why do you feel it is beneficial to attend this event?" to our fellow bloggers.

If you’ve never been to SolidWorks World before, or are having problems justifying the trip, then check out Jason’s article for some worthwhile arguments for attending the conference from folks who have been there.  I hope to see you there!

The dates for the 10 SolidWorks Technical Summits in 2008 have been posted!  Be sure to check for the city nearest you.  There is even going to be one in India this year!

Of course, the one I will be attending is again in Nashville, TN this year on April 8th.  We broke the record for attendance last year, and we are going to try to set a new one this year.  So if you are within driving distance of Nashville, please plan on attending!

The cost is only $40, and you get several training sessions to chose from throughout the day, plus a continental breakfast and lunch is provided.  It’s like one day at SolidWorks World, with the opportunity for learning new tips and tricks as well as networking with some of your local peers.

Be sure to check this page for more details and to sign up!

Rob Rodriguez is the Eastern Region SolidWorks User Group Network (SWUGN) representative and has informed me that there will be a very special meeting of the Central Massachusetts/Northeast Connecticut SolidWorks User Group (CMNC-SWUG) on Wednesday, September 12, 2007, in Worcester, MA.

It is a special meeting, because there will be several SolidWorks developers and members of the SolidWorks product definition team on hand to field user questions!

If you are in that area, or going to be in the area in September, I think it will definitely be worth attending.  I only wish that I could make it!  It is open to the public, but due to space limitations, there are limited seats available.  So make sure you RSVP quickly!  Please read the memo shown below for more information.

Both Rob and Matt have both mentioned this on their blogs.  I agree with Matt, I hope that they record it so that other users can benefit!

———-

Hello to all,

CMNC-SWUG, SolidWorks Developers, and the SolidWorks Product Definition team have joined forces to bring you an evening that will be the first of its kind for a user group. How many times have you asked yourself “why does it do that” or “how come I cannot do it this way” when using SolidWorks. Now is your chance for they will be present at our user group meeting to answer those types of questions. The intent of this meeting is to give positive and constructive feedback to the definition team and developers, which will help make SolidWorks a better CAD tool for us users.

SolidWorks and the CMNC-SWUG executive team have chosen three topics:

• Toolbox 
• Configurations & Display States
• Drawings 

Please take a few minutes to complete an online survey at CMNC-SWUG Survey. SolidWorks will view and address your questions, comments, and thoughts from this survey at our meeting. This survey will also help us define and create dialogue for each topic. You may participate in the online survey regardless if you plan to attend the meeting.

The meeting itself will have our usual thumbprint. We will start with a meet and greet, have an opening presentation introducing the executives of CMNC-SWUG; discuss decorum, breaks, etc. We will also introduce the developers and product definition team from SolidWorks, announce the winner of our logo contest and time permitting; have a contest (game) at the end.

We need to announce a caveat about this meeting. We have limited space and since our desire is to make the meeting as comfortable as possible, we must set a limit of RSVP’s. RSVP’s will be first come, first serve. If you are on the RSVP list and determine you cannot attend, please e-mail or call to inform us.

The meeting is Wednesday, September 12^th @ Morgan Construction, 40 Crescent Street, Worcester, MA. Our ‘meet and greet’ starts at 5:30pm and the meeting itself will commence at 6pm. A formal agenda will be available soon. Check our website for current details at http://webpages.charter.net/cmnc-swug/welcome.htm

You may now RSVP us with your intentions and as usual, feel free to ask us any questions you may have.

Best regards on behalf of the CMNC-SWUG Executive Committee; Tom Cote, Randy Lennox and Glen Lepage.

Respectfully,

Edson Gebo
Mechanical Designer/Detailer

Linemaster Switch Corporation
Co-Chair of the CMNC-SWUG