I seriously do not know where to start after my eyeballs have been water-boarded with sweet, nerd-core tech that was the SolidWorks World Day 1, General Session. With it being the single best session I can remember out of all I’ve been to, there’s plenty to talk about. However, the big news is this… SolidWorks on the Mac. And not only on the Mac… SolidWorks on Linux, Windows, Chrome OS or even Firefox…. but it doesn’t stop there.
You remember what I said in the previous post? Do ya?
I (want to) have the feeling that SolidWorks World 2010 sets the answers to those technological challenges in motion, if not completely pounding them into a attendee silencing jaw-drop at the final general session (and new product announcement) Wednesday morning.
Well, they didn’t wait till Wednesday morning. In the midst of the general session, Jeff Ray, CEO of Dassault SolidWorks, showed the audience a video of what the future of SolidWorks could be like. Big deal, right? Anyone can make a snazzy video. So, they shot buzz-covered speculation in the face and demonstrated it.
Joe Dunn, Mark Biosotti, and Mark Schneider came out on stage, and as Joe introduced their 3-year development project which was about to be shown, Schneider pulled the black sheet from a 24″ Apple Cinema Display on a MacBook Pro and Biosotti man a Wacom Cintiq touch device. Here are a few images of what everyone saw.
Dunn, Biosotti and Schneider on stage demoing SolidWorks on a Mac and Touch device.
Dunn explaining the idea of a platform independent system
Preparing to show the working concept for the SolidWorks UI on the Mac.
More of the UI showing how models are 'accessed'
Complicated sketches are going by the way-side. Simplified 'object-based' sketching is coming.
Direct editing/modeling is shown, on the assembly, not just a part. Everything updating together.
The mating process is simplifying. Say goodbye to long lists of mates.
Working in an assembly. Springs, Joints, 'glue' replace mates.
Mark demonstrating the (multi?) touch capabilities on the platform independent UI with a stylus
More of the assembly interface
More of the assembly interface
An extremely large assembly being shown in the interface. No lag on rotate or zoom.
Flying through the large assembly
Through the demo, there was one key phrase that summed up a lot of the driving idea behind how all of the new UI and the new features are being shaped and more than anything, simplified.
“Any device. Anywhere.”
All of this was (seemingly) done via the cloud, an offsite server, completely independent from any mandate for a certain operating system… or a certain amount of bandwidth, for that matter. We’ve yet to see how that last bit plays out, but the promise is cloud-based apps ‘shipping’ (most likely meaning available for download or use) later this year.
Jaw-dropping indeed. And after being to several other industry events this year, it’s looking like SolidWorks has finally stepped up their game and put the paddles on the chest of the CAD industry, while at the same time soothing many a 3D-fiend’s terror in their quest of using SolidWorks natively on the Mac or any other platform. Your wait will soon be over – a complete platform independent, cloud-based 3D modeling system. SolidWorks.
Don’t forget. we’ll be covering the next two general sessions and other events on Twitter @SolidSmack.
Update: Here’s a video SolidWorks has posted that has Fielder Hiss and Austin O’Malley of SolidWorks explaining a little more about what they’re planning. there’s talk of mobile acess, the ‘cloud’ of course and also OTOY virtualization. (See more about OTOY here.)
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That is very very sweet news! This sort of blows things wide open doesn't it?
I am so salivating over Solidworks in the cloud. Being able to run it on netbook is awesome. Looking forward to more cool stuff in Tuesday's general session. Will be hard to top today's.
I think I'm more interested in the interface changes than the fact that it's in the cloud, but hey, I guess that's bonus, especially if they can make it work right. I think that will be a tough feat, though.
does indeed Mark. I think we'll be seeing some interesting things happening wednesday in the announcements for 2011.
Check out the update above. There's reference to OTOY, which if you seen the post on TechCrunch (via the link) you get a better idea about what they're using and who may be a part of making all this happen.
I think OTOY was the focus of the presentation by AMD's Rick Bergman at Siggraph. OTOY uses the GPU for server-side rendering for real-time visualization, and they showed some pretty complex stuff running through the browser on an iPhone. Very cool if this is the future direction for SW
Hmmm, maybe the issue I have on what platform even gets more complicated….I love the MAC path and would never buy another high end windows machine again. Dont know squat about the cloud stuff though. Maybe a explanation of this and MAC requirments would help basic users like myself. I would also hope Solidworks would not charge the $500 backup fee for maintenace renewall as we wait to see what the heck we are supposed to buy to run 2010 and beyond. I for one am glad I put it on hold at 2009 SP4 until this transition is complete.
Also, future editions of SolidWorks will emit a faint, yet pleasant scent only to be described as “satisfaction”.
Sweet stuff. Check out my blog from the show here:
http://solidworks2010.wordpress.com/
Not so sure about the cloud aspect – although it is inevitable eventually.
But I am sure about support for the Macintosh. Sweet mother of all that is merciful!!!
And it couldn't happen a month too soon – as Apple is planning to release a high-end Mac Pro with Intel's latest 6 core i7-980x codename “Gulftown” chip. This will be a dual CPU unit so there will be 12 physical cores and a frequency of 3.33 Ghz. It's going to be a screamer.
I know the real meat here is the Solidworks news, but what's the deal with that Cintiq display? Is it an old Cintiq 21UX wrapped in a skin, or some new device? There's a strange bezel around the screen in the shot that shows him using the pen.
I've been waiting for Wacom to perfect capacitive +pen input for a while now… Did he show any multitouch gestures during the presentation, or did he stick to single-point stylus input?
Hey there Bob. The cloud is just a fancy term for a server. (a file/app server hosted 'offsite.') The idea of this will change. I think Dropbox is the best example of how it all will sorta work.
It may be a while till solidWorks is completely out and accessible anywhere, but they also talked about not switching over completely, still supporting the client-based programs and the users on them.
good eyes, it is, in fact a Cintiq prototype. If there's ever a video available, you'll notice he is using multi-touch gestures. yep, a cintiq with stylus and multi-touch. sweet.
Jim, as I mentioned above, check out Dropbox. your on that 'cloud' thing, but you'll see it doesn't seek like it, it doesn't feel like it and after you've successfully edited a file from multiple locations, it doesn't even matter. awesome.
I'm looking forward to getting BACK on a Mac myself. That Mac Pro will indeed be sweet.
http://www.revaplastics.com would be first in line to use SW on a Mac.
I think it would be more a 'storming the gate,' but yeah, get on up there.
I think it would be more a 'storming the gate,' but yeah, get on up there.
Hi,
Saltmarch Media is organizing its third season of Business Technology Summit 2010 which is going to take place on 11 and 12 Nov'10 in Bangalore. The summit will feature topics like Soa, Cloud Computing, Cloud Development and more. For details log on to http://www.btsummit.com
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