SolidWorks World 2014 is rapidly approaching (January 26th), so here is a quick recap of what happened at last year’s event.
The Big Announcements
The big news of 2014 was the announcement of SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual which we are sure to see more of at this year’s SolidWorks World.
To read more about SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual, take a look at this preview on the SolidWorks Blog.
http://blogs.solidworks.com/solidworksblog/2013/01/introducing-solid.html
The other big news for SolidWorks users was the introduction of a central portal for all things SolidWorks, My.SolidWorks. My.SolidWorks makes it easier to find SolidWorks resources, allowing registered members to search for what they want. The portal also has a section for finding new CAD models and with a tailored experience for each user, giving you only relevant news.
To access My.SolidWorks simply visit http://my.solidworks.com
During SolidWorks 2013 we also saw an update to the eDrawings app, in the form of an augmented reality feature. This allows users to view a “real life” image of their model projected on to any surface, with your tablet. Very cool indeed.
To download the eDrawings: http://www.solidworks.com/sw/products/free-cad-software-downloads.htm
Keynote Speakers
Day 1 saw Art Thompson, Technical Project Director for Red Bull Stratos, take to the stage and deliver a thoroughly fascinating speech about his involvement in the Felix Baumgartner space jump.
To see Art’s presentation on how SolidWorks formed an integral part of their project check out the video below.
Day 2’s presentations soothed the slightly hung-over crowd with some exciting geek chic. The first of which was a presentation by the musically inclined Vijay Kumar. The University of Pennsylvania Engineering professor wowed the crowd with his presentation on quadrotors. The flying robots are capable of navigating new environments without assistance. Along with his students Vijay had managed to make his flying tiny machines sense each other, and the environment around them, allowing them to navigate rooms ever so gracefully in formation.
Perhaps more impressive was the Festo SmartBird, created by the Bionic Projects team at Festo. The Smartbird is exactly what you would imagine. An electronic bird capable of flight using the same principles as birds. Otherwise known as bionics, the SmartBird is the first step in an exciting field which sees engineers take the biological principles witnessed in nature and apply them to the design of new systems. It is hoped that Bionics will help to bring about more energy efficient systems by taking clues from the adaptations found in nature.
Icarus, eat your heart out.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=aHWNxvuW1oQ%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26nbsp%3B
On Day 3 the theme of flight continued upwards, this time we left the claustrophobic confines of earth to hear Tom Atchison of the Mavericks Civilian Space Foundation. He is helping us normal folk’s access space through helping us to build vehicles capable of space travel. Using SolidWorks of course. We also heard a lot from NVidia, SolidWorks hardware partners on their new graphics cards and the graphical and speed enhancements they can bring to SolidWorks.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=1Yibexeyj9M%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26nbsp%3B
This years event is sure to be just as exciting as last years, so come and visit us at booth #524.