So here we are at the SolidWorks Media Day, smack dab in the middle of the headquarters building off Baker Avenue on Concord MA. (Across the parking lot sits the building housing SpaceClaim.)
We're getting an overview of the company's finances to start off the day, interesting stuff for me. Some of the stats being thrown our way:
- New license growth is up 24% over last year. although that is on top of 10% drop last year.
- During the economic downturn, there were no layoffs, and increased spending on R&D, on top of cutting costs by by $30 million.
- Lost no reselle "due to the downturn," who see 85% revcenue from SolidWorks products and services.
- It was the installed base that provide SolidWorks with the recurring revenue stream that kept the company going during downturn; renewal rates tool a hit during downturnm, but back to normal now. Attach rates (buy subscription with software) is 90%l.
- Non-cad sales (analysis, etc) growing at 1.5x the CAD rate.
- Some 2/3 of new license sales come from 2D; 1/3 from other 3D, mainly Pro/E but also more Inventor seats converting now.
- 1,400,000 seats now, commercial+educational.
DraftSight
Autodesk is shipping AutoCAD for Macintosh by the end of October (my guess: Oct 19), but SolidWorks will ship DraftSight for Macintosh on September 15.
The next beta is due out in October and will include the Linux version (I've been beta testing the Linux version of ARES, upon which DraftSight is based).
45,000 downloads of DraftSight beta so far, "with little marketing, except this shirt," said Fielder Hiss, pointing to his shirt with a green DraftSight.com logo.
Future Platforms
"In the future, platforms will become irrelevent," says Mr Hiss, but he doesn't give us any more details than what we heard back at SolidWorks World a half-year ago. Their future direction was vague back then, and still is today. In the intervening months, Autodesk has let us run AutoCAD on Web browsers (two different systems), AutoCAD on the Mac, and announced AutoCAD on iPhone -- but DS SolidWorks still is on Windows only. "We are going to look to the future to solve customers problems." Translation: keep waiting.
Answering the storm of blogger comments following SolidWorks World, Mr Hiss asks, "Are we moving every product online and online-only?" and then he answers himself, "No."
Just as "AutoCAD" cannot run on the iPad, any future SolidWorks release will not run on iPad; rather, both CAD companies will have software that lets you access drawings, and perform a few limited functions, like measure and zoom.
Whatever the future SolidWorks might look like, it will be based on an Enovia V6 backbone. The idea is to have a single data source:
- Data sharing through SolidWorks Connect
- Data management through PDF Online and SolidWorks EPDM
- Lifecycle management through PLM Online and PLM On Premise
SolidWorks Connect
"Work is progressing very well on SolidWorks Connect. For us, Connect is the answer." The goal is to share information easily wtih anyone.This is the company's first effort in this kind of "social" software:
- Integrated into SolidWorks
- Understands SolidWorks file relationships between 2D and 3D designs, with versioning happening in the background
- Locking and version control
Beta in Q4, with the software shipping early next year -- between SolidWorks 2011 and 2012.
Future of CAD
Mr Hiss sees the future of CAD encompassing...
- ...modeling the way the engineer wants
- ...life-like experience
- ...high-performance, predictive computing
- ...massively scalable to handle millions of parts
- ...transparent data management
- ...rich content, like information built into a motor part that tells about about it (HP, voltage, etc)
- ...seamless data flow between Catia, SolidWorks, and other Dassault software. "We make it too hard today."
Q&A
Q: What about pricing for Connect?
A: Administrator level payer-per-month based on usage.
Q: How is this reconciled with 3 users, no IT department.
A: It reconciles very well.
Q: It is a light administrator?
A: That's right. No configuration, out of the box, like Go To Meeting.
Q: So "administrator" is not the best term.
My Q: When will see some of the future platforms that you have been showing for the last several years?
A: We have DraftSight on the Mac coming out,Connect in beta soon.
Q: Can you talk about interoperability with Catia?
A: It's coming in the future eventually.
Q: Is "modeling the way the engineer wants" mean direct modeling?
A: No one has done a job of balancing modeling and design intent. We want to provide flexible modeling, we will continue with parametrics.
Q: There is a shift from mechatronics (mechanical and electrical design together) to embedded systems. New products need to be programmable.
A: We are partnering with software companies that know about that, such as National Instrument.
SolidWorks 2011
Now it's time to see what's new in SolidWorks 2011, due to ship in October. We had seen some of this at SolidWorks World, and now there are 200 new features to see. Today, 1 September, is the day the gag order comes off bloggers and others who are working with the beta. Check out sites like Matt Lombard's < http://www.dezignstuff.com/blog/?p=3872 > to get a better understanding of what's new -- better than I could ever do.
One cool animation is that of a machine loading paper towel rolls into cardboard boxes, and then the cardboard box being shut. Motion simmulation now includes friction.
Here is a chart of SolidWorks 2011's lower memory consumption. The chart showns an assembly being loaded and unloaded over time, and less memory is leaking:
To view models, SW 2011 now has a WalkThrough component that lets you stroll through 3D models. The problem with this in the past has been that this is is too easy to get lost in the 3D model, even going upside down.
SW WalkThrough has a simple interface that we could not see, because the bottom of the computer screen was cut off, unfortunately. But it does appear to be fast; you can stand in one spot, or follow a pre-determined path. Walk along the path just by scrolling the mouse wheel.
Works for walkthroughs of industrial sites, as well as meandering through assemblies.
The demo jock has become more animated (aka enthusiastic) as he starts to talk about 3D Via composer. "There's really nothing anything like." He is showing realtime explode; balloons can be lined up and realigned effortlessly.
The result is exported as a technical document in a large variety of formats, including interactive documents by integrated the free 3D Via viewer. Seems to work a lot better than 3D PDF.
And those are some of the 200 new features.
SolidWorks is providing wireless for us to communicate with the outside world. The first time I tried connectingm, I got this discouraging message:
1,084,272 seconds works out to 12.5 days. The connection did not take that long, fortunately.
Teaching Engineering Innovation
We're hearing from asst. prof. Solomon Diamon of Dartmouth College, he being much younger looking than his name would suggest. He brought along three of his students, who are also sitting in on this media day event.
He immerses students in the problem, provides the tools, and then figures out how to inspire them. In first year, they have to figure out the load at any point along a beam. First they work out the problem by hand, and then check it on SolidWorks simmulation.
He finds this helps them better understand by "seeing" the stresses and deflection. Naturally, they also go into the lab to see the deflection of real beams measured by instruments. If there is a breakdown in the student's understanding, it gets revealed through this three-step process (hand, computer, real-life).
In another project, they have to design a truss to hold 1000 pounds, but using the least amount of material in the truss. Again, students solve it by hand, by SolidWorks, and built a physical model. No glue, no gussets; use dowels and other older building techniques. And get feedback from a fabrication shop to see if the truss design can be made.
[Disclosure: SolidWorks provided airfare, ground transportation, hotel, and meals.]
Sooooo, what part of the country is this 24% growth in new licenses coming from?
Here in the Midwest my reseller tells me that they are struggling to keep companies on subscription let alone buy new seats.
Posted by: Mike | Sep 08, 2010 at 03:07 PM