SolidWorks World 2009: Day 2

A competitor of SolidWorks emailed me to make sure I reported on insider secrets from this show. Okay, here is a spy shot of the master plan for the future of SolidWorks development:

Ha, fooled 'ya. The picture showed the original hand sketch of the feature manager from 1994. Original ceo Jon Hirschtick put it up as part of his talk today during the general session.

He listed four things he'd like to see in future releases of SolidWorks:

1. Touch and motion user interface

2. Online CAD, like Google Docs.

3. Use of video game technology (realtime, physics-enabled graphics).

4. 3D printing as today's 2D printing: "Print it out, mark it up, throw it away."

Details in next week's upFront.eZine newsletter. (Subscribe today so that you won't be disappointed tomorrow.) Until then, here is a spy shot of the next release of SolidWorks:

Ha, fooled ya'! This is some simple CAD stuff happening on a surface computer, using multi-touch to draw and edit lines, arcs, circles, and splines.

Last Night

The dinner for the press, all 150 of them, took place in the Disney-fied "Chinatown" -- dessert, for example, was "terramazu," normally an Italian delight, but Disney-fied into a chololate cup with some terramazu-like ingredients.

Following the SolidWorks-sponsored dinner, we gethered around the lake to watch the day's closing fireworks and laser show -- sponsored by Siemens! Following the fireworks, half a busload of journalist got separated from the main group, and getting lost in the scary park that was quickly darkening -- as loudspeakers blared perky song lyrics, "The most important thing is YOU!" 

Did I mention security guards at the "happiest place on earth" searching purses and backpacks of the tawdy-looking press corps? "And ma'am, open that zipper, too."

I'm not saying Disneyland is evil, but take a look at what adorns the plant motif on the balconies of our Disneyland Dolphin hotel. A thousand words cannot express what this picture says:

And Matt: I'm taking these photos with my daughter's five-year-old, somewhat banged up, Casio point-and-shot camera whose lens cover no longer completely closes. 

Comments

[Norm C]

Isn't it spelled "tiramisu"?

[Matt Lombard]

There really is no hope for me in photojournalism. I love photography, just other people's photography. I can't make the concept work myself.

Sorry I didn't run into you at World this year. Maybe my pariah status will expire at some point.

[Steve Wells]

"I'm not saying Disneyland is evil"
"Disneyland Dolphin hotel"
"happiest place on earth"
Are you sure you're at the right conference?

SolidWorks World 2009 is nowhere near Disneyland, The Happiest Place on Earth (Anaheim, California, USA). The Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel is most of a continent away at Walt Disney World (Orlando, Florida, USA). Perhaps that Disney Land/World thing is even more confusing to Canadians than it is to many Americans.

You could say that I'm being a picky American, but suppose I kept describing the beautifully lit Parliament at dusk at the Inner Harbor near the Empress Hotel (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) while actually visiting Parliament across the Rideau Canal from the Chateau Laurier (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada).

At least we'd never confuse the locale of either Tokyo Disney Resort or Disneyland Resort Paris.

From a Disney fanatic, ACADer, and visitor to many great places in both the USA and Canada.