Postmortem on SolidWorks World 2010

By Kenneth Wong

Between his onstage interview and his press conference,  director James Cameron had about 15-20 min of reprieve. So how did he spend it?  He sneaked into the partner pavilion (which was closed to the public at the time) to practice virtual surgery on a robotic arm at Infinite Z’s booth, an exercise that, no doubt, brought back memories of The Terminator.

Infinite Z’s hybrid (hardware-software) visualization system, dubbed zSpace, lets you interact with digital objects using natural movements. It belongs in the crop of technologies often described as augmented reality.

Playing in zSpace
Whereas virtual reality is digital representation of physical reality, augmented reality is a mixed environment where your physical movements (in this case, your hand gestures and eye movements) affect objects in the digital environment (a SolidWorks assembly of a robotic arm). Infinite Z’s display unit consists of a stylus, glasses equipped with camera-tracked targets, and a stereoscopic projector.

“One of the biggest challenges in the stereoscopic industry is eliminating the ghosting (cross-talk) typically encountered with stereoscopic displays,” observes Infinite Z. “Through Infinite Z’s patent pending innovation in display technology, software, and content generation,  Infinite Z essentially eliminated the presence of ghosting. Additionally, the company has identified and resolved many other little-known factors imperative to the accurate perception of stereoscopic imagery.”

Fig 1. Ben Eadie, who runs the SolidWorks resource site SolidJott,  tries out Infinite Z’s zSpace display.

A few feet away from Infinite Z, Cannon showcased its own version of augmented reality, which attracted, among others, SolidWorks cofounder Jon Hirschtick as an admirer. Cannon’s system, which was supplied by Canon’s MR (mixed reality) Development Department, Lens Production Group,  consists of a hand-held goggle, which lets you visualize a digital plant as though it were right in front of you.

Greater Involvement from Dassault
The sight of SolidWorks CEO Jeff Ray and Dassault Systemes CEO Bernard Charles driving up to the stage in a freshly delivered electric car was perhaps one of the most memorable moments in this year’s SolidWorks World.

In the last couple of years, SolidWorks’ parent company Dassault began showing an interest to unite its own products and technologies with those from SolidWorks. For example, Dassault’s 3DVIA Composer, a program for creating interactive documents and presentations from 3D CAD models, is now available through SolidWorks sales channels. This is a departure from the past, where Dassault left SolidWorks to operate on its own as if it were an autonomous company.

This year, during the sneak peak of SolidWorks Product Data Sharing, audience got a glimpse of 3dswymer, a site described as a “social innovation” platform. (The portal is currently in private beta, so only approved testers have access to it.) Populated with user profiles, real-time news feed, interest matching, and user-contributed media, the portal looks like a mesh-up of some of the most popular features from SolidWorks’ 3D ContentCentral and Dassault’s 3DVIA.com.

In communications with those who do not have SolidWorks installed in their machines, SolidWorks Product Data Sharing uses 3DLive, Dassault’s lightweight format for 3D viewing and collaboration.

In the near future, we may also expect SolidWorks CAD software to connect to Dassault’s ENOVIA V6 PLM (product lifecycle management)  platform via the web. SolidWorks PLM, according to the presenters, is not a “heavy solution for large enterprises.”

Fig 2. SolidWorks PLM may looks more like a social networking site than an enterprise system.

“At its foundation, it’s a network of communities,” noted Darren Henry, SolidWorks’ director of product marketing, “This allows you to share rich content with each other. You can share CAD models with the public,  or you can do it within a private community … It’s cloud-based, so you can get this information as easily and as quickly as you would on Facebook.”

Solid Engineering and Social Engineering
While Dassault is known for its high-end CATIA and ENOVIA software, the company also operates a series of beta sites, including TVnima, for creating 3D TV shows using virtual replicas of yourself, and Minimoys,  for creating 3D cartoon figures using photos. Some SolidWorks fans and devotees expressed uneasiness at the thought of combining Dassault’s sometimes playful,  experimental style with their own nuts-and-bolt workflow. What might become of their classic engineering CAD program when it commingles with social media-centric, consumer-accessible 3DVIA product line, they wonder.

At the conference, SolidWorks committed itself to an ambitious agenda: to pursue browser-based implementation, to accommodate Mac users, and to incorporate more direct modeling functions. Those undertakings are enough to transform the software dramatically; incorporating Dassault’s cultural and technological influence is also expected to reshape SolidWorks. In the next few years, SolidWorks may acquire a new identity.

For more SolidWorks coverage, see the SolidWorks World 2010 in Pictures slideshow.