CAD In Disneyland

In light of the dwindling number of large business conventions in a
recession-plagued US, the very fact that the annual Solidworks World event took
place (in Orlando, Florida) was a surprise. What was even more heartening was
the presence of 4,300 delegates, way above the 3,000 expected previously. This
was voiced by the CEO of Solidworks, Jeff Ray, during his inaugural keynote
address at the swanky Swan and Dolphin resorts in Disneyworld where everyday
users, channel partners and journalists from across the world congregated for
the five-day jamboree that was incidentally the largest annual 3D CAD event in
the world.

This years event presented another prime opportunity for designers and
engineers to network, learn, and find inspiration with colleagues from around
the globe. While what would have been taken for granted on any other year
assumed a far greater significance during these times when the industry has a
common cause to unite together.

Jeff Ray tried dispelling some of the slowdown-related gloom by hailing the
role of innovation during an economic downturn, noting that nylon, the car
radio, and SPAM were invented during the Great Depression of the 30s. Out of
adversity comes great opportunity for innovation, he reiterated. Even more
inspiring was Rays tete-a-tete with Sir Richard Branson, the maverick founder
of the Virgin Group, regarded by many in the business circles as a great
innovator. Everybodys got a dream and its good to dream the impossible. With
the worlds best engineers working on your dream, you just might transform the
impossible into the possible, was Bransons optimistic note for those assembled
there.

Out of adversity comes great opportunity for innovation, was the encouraging tip from Jeff Ray, CEO, SolidWorks to the assembled delegates. Note that nylon, car radio and SPAM were invented during the Great Depression of the 30s	Displayed in the exhibition at SolidWorks World, this bike claimed to be the worlds fastest, is designed courtesy SolidWorks CAD software. The developers claim they are developing an even faster bike, thanks again to SolidWorks

Living the Dream

Solidworks, a subsidiary of Dassault Systems, has been primarily targeting the
smaller engineering firms and auto ancillaries (even starting from those with
about ten seats) and has thereby created a niche for itself in the face of
competitors like PTC, Siemens and the likes. But that doesnt mean we dont
have large customers with a huge number of seats, reminds Bertrand Sicot,
executive VP, sales.

In fact, there was a lot of action from industry experts, product innovators
and manufacturers. New Balance and Sony Ericsson representatives took the stage
with SolidWorks co-founder and group executive Jon Hirschtick, to describe their
challenges and successes in designing products that are household names now.
While Sony Ericsson representatives specially flew in from Sweden to explain the
importance of the role CAD plays as phone design and style evolves with time and
changing fashion tastes, Boston-based footwear manufacturer New Balance
demonstrated the intricacies of CAD in designing sports shoes.

Jeff Rays tete-a-tete with Sir Richard Branson, chairman, Virgin Group was the highlight of SolidWorks World 2009 in Orlando	A battery driven golf cart that can crank up in speed whenever necessary, designed courtesy SolidWorks CAD software	Everybodys got a dream and its good to dream the impossible, was Sir Richard Bransons clarion callno wonder the Virgin Golactic spaceship seen in the background is likely to carry travelers into space by year-end

Hirschtick too did his bit of crystal ball gazing when he said, Most of our
work is still in front of us. He predicted that touchscreen interfaces,
Internet-based applications, video game graphics, and 3D printing will have a
major impact on 3D CAD in the coming days. Austin O Malley, CTO, Solidworks
agreed that touch devices would soon have a major role to play in the world of
CAD.

We service five HMT plans in the country with SolidWorks solutions; its arguably the largest CAD deal in the country Vivekabhilash Sharma, CEO, Ideas Business Solutions	The initial growth of SolidWorks in India came from PTC losing its market share, followed by migration to 3D of some of Indias large constituency of 2D users Ved Narayan, VP, Asia Pacific Operations, SolidWorks

There were other conspicuous highlights too: a Sumo wrestler in a Will it
Break? segment marching onto the main stage and roughing up a tiny pink
scooter. The scooter stood up to the abuse, illustrating the efficiency of
SolidWorks Simulation software. Surprise guests Joe Grand and Mike North,
co-hosts of the Discovery Channel TV show Protype This!, demonstrated their Stairbot,
that carries heavy firefighting gear upstairs (and rescue victims down), and
their Gecko Paddles, that lets humans scale walls like the animal after which
the devices are named.

With green being the fad of the day, how can SolidWorks World remain behind?
Do you really know how the products you design will affect the environment? To
help provide the answer, SolidWorks introduced a software that details, in real
time, the environmental impact of the parts, assemblies, and the design
decisions. The software, code-named Sage, will be available in two product
forms with this falls release of SolidWorks 2010: an Xpress version included
with every license of SolidWorks, and a Professional version. Both the Xpress
and Professional products will display a dashboard at the bottom of the
SolidWorks user interface that provides information about a designs prospective
carbon footprint, air impact, water impact, and energy consumed in
manufacturing. The professional version will roll up the impact of an entire
designed product across its environmental life cycle, and also includes
information on energy consumption throughout a products usage phase.

Solidworks in India

Off late, SolidWorks has been consolidating its presence in India too.
According to Ved Narayan, VP, Asia Pacific Operations, in India the initial
growth of SolidWorks came from PTC losing its market share. Subsequently, the
second phase of growth came from the significant base of 2D users in India. As
manufacturing became more global, design too was becoming more global, he
added. In fact, even today in India, 2D users outnumber 3D by a ratio of 70:30 .

Today, Solidworks in India boasts of marquee customers like Integral Coach
Factory, LG, Hindustan Glass, engineering services majors like HCL Tech, Infosys
and Technocaraft apart from the huge base of small setups. While this huge
segment of SMBs tried migrating from Autodesk 2D to 3D, traditional vendors like
PTC and Siemens sort of ignored them facilitating the entry of SolidWorks, and
its further consolidation in the Indian market.

Today, SolidWorks has more than 1,500 customers in India, inclusive of
customers from machine design, tooling and engineering services. These are
serviced by more than thirty resellers including Ideas Business Automation, EGS,
Vcon and Adonics. In fact, our customer base in India ranges from manufacturers
of surgical needles to players in alternate energy and medical electronics,
said Narayan. Slowdown has had its impact in the engineering sector. Demand in
the engineering sector has gone down in the last quarter, said Manoj Mehta,
country manager, SolidWorks India.

A mobile incubator designed and developed, thanks to CAD software from the SolidWorks stable, was exhibited by Jeff Ray. In fact, Branson was quick to ask for the incubator for his humanitarian aid mission among impoverished children in Africa	Not an ordinary butterfly; with flappable wings this is used in the design departments of most consumer electronics products today

However, the pride of India at SolidWorks was Delhi-based reseller Ideas
Business Solutions winning the global channel award at Orlando. Primarily
operating out of North India, Ideas has more than 350 customers with their net
worth ranging from Rs 3 crore to Rs 2,500 crore. Vivekabhilash Sharma, CEO,
Ideas is justifiably proud of being selected in the SolidWorks Presidents Club
for having the best infrastructure in India among resellers.

While it did a Rs 12 crore business last year, the two feathers in its cap
were bagging the deal with Hindustan Natural Glass Bottle (who holds 80% market
share in bottles in India) as well as the five plants of HMT. Incidentally, the
latter is the largest CAD deal ever in this country. Informs Sharma, While we
have been servicing Hindustan Glass in Bahadurgarh for four years now with our
entire spectrum of products, in HMT we have got orders from eighty premium CAD
licenses.

He too stresses that slowdown is beginning to have an impact, though the
major strategic shift to counter it till now has been to expand business into
newer sectors. There is a further need to look at processes and to optimize
them, adds Sharma.

Rajneesh De

The author was hosted by Solidworks in Orlando, Florida

rajneeshd@cybermedia.co.in