Hard to believe but SolidWorks World 2012 is just 4 days away.  I can’t believe it’s already been a year!  I also can’t believe this will be my 9th consecutive SolidWorks World!  Wow, seems like I was just in Boston in 2004 attending my first conference. Where does time go?  Like past events this will be a busy one for me.  I’ll be presenting, I’ll be working, I’ll be meeting friends new and old and also be having some fun.  While I’m there I also hope to find out the answers to some questions I and every other SolidWorks user has had for the last two years.  You know what I’m talking about ;).  Here’s the quick run down of what I’ll be doing and expecting at this years conference.

What I’ll be doing:

On Monday in the 10:30-12:00 time slot I’m giving a presentation titled, “Lights, Camera, Action”.  This session is going to cover creating rendered animations using Motion and PhotoView 360.  To do this I’m going to step through the process I used to create an animation for an Axis CAD Solutions client.  The animation covers a lot of the different things you can do with Motion and it’s short enough that I can explain it in 90 minutes so it should be an interesting example.

On Tuesday in the 1:30-2:30 time slot I’m giving a presentation titled, “PhotoView 360: Instant Images”.  This is a session I’ve given for the last couple of years at SolidWorks World.  In the past this has been a hands on session but this year it will be a straight breakout session which means I do all the work and you just have to listen and ask questions.  I’ve given this session at a handful of user group meetings as well and people always give it a good review.  If you’d like to learn the basics of visualization in both SolidWorks and PhotoView 360 this is a good session to attend.

Throughout the conference I’ll also be working at the Boxx Technologies booth.  Boxx makes some of the fastest computer workstations on the planet.  I’ll be in their booth a couple hours a day talking rendering, animation, SolidWorks, modo and how Boxx can make those things faster.

I’ll also be meeting up with a bunch of people I haven’t see in a year.  One of the great things about SolidWorks World is the people you meet and keep meeting.  I’ve made some really good friends at past World’s and it will be good to see them.

What I’m expecting:

It’s a given the conference will be great.  It always is.  Good speakers, lots of technology, fun events, SolidWorks definitely puts on a good show.  There are some things in particular I’ll be looking for this year.

SolidWorks Next Gen, SolidWorks V6, Catia Lite call it whatever you want.  I want to actually be given some information about the future of this product.  Since parts of it were shown at SolidWorks World a couple of years ago SolidWorks has been tight lipped about it’s status.  I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing but either way I think users deserve some sort of updated information in this area.

SolidWorks Live Buildings was shown at SolidWorks World last year and again the status of this product has been under wraps.  I do a fair amount of architectural work using SolidWorks and AutoCAD together.  I’d love a chance to move these projects into a full 3D architectural solution without investing money in AutoDesk products.  Live Buildings had me excited but the information, or lack of coming out of DS about the product doesn’t give me a lot of confidence in it’s future.

SolidWorks 2013 will be shown on Wednesday.  I’m hoping to see more in the 2013 release than the 2012.  Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with SolidWorks 2012. It’s very stable, the quality is great, it saw lots of little refinements and some of it is nice but there is nothing in there that makes me want to upgrade from 2011.

Luxology will have a booth in the partner pavilion and I have the feeling they may be showing some new technology.  Modo 601 should be out soon, maybe we can catch a sneak peak?  For those of you who don’t know,  the SolidWorks kit has been updated to support SolidWorks 2012 files so I’m sure that will be on display.

Overall I’m sure this years event will be great.  If you’re attending have a great time and don’t be afraid to say hi if we run into each other.  Also, download the SWW 2012 app.  It’s pretty nice.  If you’re not attending watch the web for all the info being reported on.