SolidWorks Launch Video

By Anthony J. Lockwood

Dear Desktop Engineering Reader:

SolidWorks has never been shy about barreling ahead and doing things that conventional thinking says just cannot be done. This contrariness is the key to why SolidWorks has such a loyal user base and why it has become the power in the business it is. SolidWorks, to me, has a simple method of operation: Engineering is fun and life is an engineering problem, so have some fun doing both. SolidWorks 2010 is a really good example of that.

The SolidWorks marketing team got into this “can’t be done”  act with the SolidWorks launch. They created this video highlighting the new stuff in version 2010. Actually, it’s a string of videos. But let me be frank:  I have 30 years in this business. I have seen the best and the worst of marketing. You can’t do some of the stuff in the SolidWorks video. Marketing textbooks and self-proclaimed experts say so. Having fun introducing your new product for serious engineering work is a violation of natural marketing law. Right?

Um, nope. The SolidWorks launch video is often as entertaining as it is informative. The video is divided up in about 13 two-minute segments. You can skip around to segments that most interest you—say, mirror components, drawing tools, design studies, event-based motion optimization, documentation and publishing, data management, and multibody sheet metal parts—by using the arrows flanking the main screen. Whatever you do, do not skip the Intro. It ends with something that’ll make you say “cool.” And do not miss SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress—this is probability the best production.

Finally, there’s “3 Dudes Gone 3D Wild.” I’ll skip grumbling about the almost clueless old guy in it being younger than I. Kind of dorky with a lot of good laugh lines, 3 Dudes is just pure entertainment with a point. This simply cannot be done when you’re marketing a serious engineering tool, except of course that SolidWorks did it.

And that’s SolidWorks in a nutshell. They did it. They’ve always done for engineers and product development what the experts say cannot be done. SolidWorks has evolved from a 3D solid modeler that, 15 years ago,  experts said could never do real work on Windows to an engineering production environment that, not so long ago, conventional wisdom said it could never be. See for yourself what’s new in SolidWorks 2010 from today’s Check It Out link  and have a little fun while you’re at it.

Thanks, Pal — Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood
Editor at Large, Desktop Engineering Magazine