First up, Nick Benner, engineering design administrator for RKI, has been attending SolidWorks World for 11 years and does so year after year to stay current on new offerings. Nick had some great advice for new attendees:

“Don’t spend time goofing off; it’s important to take full advantage of the event. Go to sessions, meet and greets, and get to know people. Don’t quit at the end of show day—there is so much to learn in the casual conversations after hours!”

We also spoke to Jim Webb, vice president and senior partner at Barry-Wehmiller International Resources, who explained why he keeps going back to SolidWorks World and gave us some insight into his favorite event over the years:

“I keep attending to learn about the new development and product enhancements that Solidworks brings each year. SolidWorks continues to provide cutting-edge solutions to the engineering community that solve real problems in design and manufacturing. It is always great to see the friends I have made over the years within SolidWorks and Dassault, as well as VARS and end-users.

“I believe there are many events that truly stand out, from the year that Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell spoke, to the year that co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak, spoke about the beginning days in 1971 working on the first Apple computers. The events have been awe inspiring.”

Last, but not least, we connected with Denny Bahl, engineering manager at Innovative Plastech, who has only missed two SolidWorks Worlds in the course of the event’s history. Denny filled us in on what he’s most looking forward to this year:

“I’m looking forward to attending some of the more advanced training sessions. I’m also excited to network and reconnect with friends that I’ve made over the years. SolidWorks World is a great venue to network with everyone in our profession, and you typically only get to see these people once a year.”

Denny also wants to remind new attendees to wear comfortable shoes.

Nick, Jim and Denny, thank you for taking the time to talk, and for your continued commitment to SolidWorks. We look forward to seeing you at SolidWorks World 2012!

The quickest and easiest way is to launch our new SolidWorks World 2012 dashboard on Netvibes. This gives you access to a search for the #SWW12 Twitter hashtag, blog entries, photos from Facebook and Flickr, and a lot more. It's a sort of one-stop-shopping destination for everything you want to know. Just click on the link or image below to open it in your browser.

I also hear that Lou Gallo from SolidWorks Heard is planning to live blog the general sessions. That Lou stays busy. You can check it out here.

If you're headed to San Diego, I hope to see you there. If not, we'll do our best to bring all the news back to you.

1.     Tell us about BOXX.

BOXX is the leading innovator of high-performance workstations and rendering systems for product design, engineering, visual effects, animation, architectural visualization, and more. For over 15 years, we’ve combined record-setting performance, speed, and reliability with unparalleled industry knowledge to become the trusted choice for creative professionals worldwide.

2.     What kinds of computers do you sell?

U.S. built, professional grade BOXX solutions include 3DBOXX, the world’s fastest workstations, renderBOXX and renderPRO dedicated rendering systems, and Go BOXX, a line of mobile workstations that look like laptops, but perform like desktop workstations.

3.       How can BOXX computers help make a SolidWorks user’s life easier?

Because SolidWorks-certified BOXX workstations are the fastest (and most reliable) SolidWorks solutions in the world, they save you both time and money, increasing your productivity and profit.  And when it comes to your SolidWorks workflow, our expert sales consultants, engineers, and legendary technical support not only know everything about BOXX hardware, they also have intimate knowledge of SolidWorks (and a host of other professional software applications).

3.    Why should SolidWorks World attendees visit your booth?

This year, the BOXX booth at SolidWorks World 2012 will be, in a word—XTREME.  Stop by and experience true SolidWorks performance on the fastest workstations in the world which have dazzled reviewers and independent testers from Desktop Engineering magazine to MCADCafe.

4.       How can customers connect with you before, during and after the show?

SolidWorks World 2012 booth number   506

Website      www.boxxtech.com

Email sales@boxxtech.com

Telephone number    512.835.0400 or toll free at 877.877.2699

Facebook    http://www.facebook.com/BOXXTechnologies

Twitter handle   @boxxtech

YouTube channel    http://www.youtube.com/boxxtech

If you have a one-off design the importance and impact of design analysis and verification becomes even greater.  The cost of redesign is huge at the time of installation, but the delay in putting your product into service can also have a dramatic impact on cost.  So thinking back to my baggage sorting machine at the airport, how would I design and test this inside SolidWorks?  Well as I said the sorting machine is a mechatronic design where the mechanical, control and electrical aspects of design are closely coupled.  If one aspect of the mechatronic design doesn’t work then the machine fails, you need to test each aspect of the design before you build. 

Let’s consider the small conveyor system below.  A product, in this case a pallet with two engine cylinder blocks, moves down one conveyor and then is lifted onto the second shorter conveyor (the image showing the end of the simulation).  We can build this simple behavior with Event Based Motion (the lower part of the image).  In event based motion analysis, sensors trigger action in the same way that a light beam or micro switch sensor would in the real world, allowing the designer to try different sensor locations. Once the sensor locations are set routing can then be used to layout the cable runs thoughout the conveyor.

But what about the controls design?  Well, as a result of the event based approach, one of the outputs is a Gant chart of the event interactions (bottom right of the image).  This is the first part of the controls design, but you can go so much further by using either Motion Analyzer from Rockwell Automation or LabView from National Instruments.  These partner products allow you to control your machine using virtual controls software so you can create a true virtual prototype of your machine.

Just as important as the motion verification is the stress analysis--you want to make sure that your machine can withstand the operational loads.  So with the event based motion analysis calculated, you can transfer the motion loads to structural simulation and evaluate stresses and displacements to ensure that there is an adequate factor of safety. If the factor of safety is too high, then parts can be redesigned, the motion analysis re-run and the stresses re-calculated.  SolidWorks Simulation can then go one step further and calculate the expected service life of the components, helping the design team set the correct maintenance schedule.

With SolidWorks and its partners a true mechatronic design approach is possible.  The three aspects of modern machine design, mechanical, electrical and controls, are brought together inside of SolidWorks allowing a holistic approach to machine design.  When you cannot prototype, developing a true lifelike virtual design is central to minimizing the risk of design.  Simulation gives the designer information to make better design decisions, and ultimately better products.

The apps have great interactive maps, speaker and session info, San Diego area maps, and even a built-in QR code scanner for building your contact list on-site. You can also pull up your agenda using your registration login and password. And there's also quick access to our Facebook, YouTube and Flickr accounts, as well as a preset search for the #SWW12 Twitter hashtag. Go get it.

You can find the iPhone and iPad apps here in the iTunes app store

You can find the Android here in the Android Market

If you're attending SolidWorks World for the first time this year, I highly recommend you check it out. Muggs spent a good amount of time putting it together, and it even includes a forward by our own Richard Doyle.

You can find the SolidWorks World Survival Guide here. It's a PDF, so you can even save it to your computer or phone to read later.

Thanks again to Muggs.