This podcast is a roundtable discussion with a few of the "Chumps" from this years breakout session called "Stump the Chumps".  Today we talk with Jeff Mirisola, Phil Sluder and Charles Culp.  Topics covered:

- What the "Stump the Chumps" session is all about

- Members of the panel

- Method behind getting questions

- Layout of the session and live question handling

- Other miscellaneous SWW10 discussions

After a one year hiatius, the Stump the Chumps session is back at SolidWorks World 2010 and this year it is a much bigger panel.  The panel is filled with users, bloggers and even some of SolidWorks' own to take on the tough questions that the masses have asked.

This will be a fun, and I am sure amusing, session but more importantly there will be answers given and problems solved.  Hope to see you all there!

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

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SolidWorks Corporate:

- SolidWorks World Website Community News

- SolidWorks Blog

- SolidWorks World 2010 Flickr Group

- SolidWorks on Twitter @solidworks and @solidworksworld

- SolidWorks World Twitter - #sww10

SolidWorks:HEARD:

- Live Coverage Page

- Live Blogs for General Sessions (embedded on Live Coverage page)

- SolidWorks:HEARD Tv (embedded on Live Coverage page)

- THE HEaRD Live Stream

- Twitter (@gol10dr or @solidworksheard)

- SolidWorks World Tip Stream - #swwtips

- Facebook Page

SolidWorks Blogs: (list of most active blogs)

- SolidSmack.com (@solidsmack) - Josh Mings

- RickyJordan.com (@rickyordan) - Ricky Jordan

- CADFanatic.com (@skrythe) - Brian McElyea

- RockSolidPerspective.com (@jraak) - Jason Raak

- GabiJack.com (@avephoenix) - Gabi Jack

- Dezignstuff.com/blog (@Matt_Lombard) - Matt Lombard

- SolidWorks Legion (@fcsuper) - Matt Lorono

SolidWorks World 2010 is only a week away and I know many of you will not be attending due to a number of reasons.  The good news is there are many of us that will be there broadcasting everything possible including blogs, podcasts, photos, video, updates and anything else you would want out of the conference remotely.

For those that will be at SolidWorks World, I hope to see you there and for those that can't, hopefully this podcast can give you some intel on where to go to get the most out of the conference from where you are. Feedback is key so please check out the User Agenda and let me know what sessions are of interest and we will try to bring you coverage of those breakouts.  Anaheim or Bust!  ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

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- Laptops and computers

- Input devices

- Displays

- USB 3.0

CES is a monster show and I find that there are so many people covering it that the best stuff typically floats to the tops of the media string through blogs, podcasts, videos and of course, Twitter.  Since not everyone cares about CAD or we engineers, the goal of this show was to talk about some of the technologies that caught my eye as a CAD user and overall techie.  With the introduction of so many touch enabled devices over the past few years, CES made it known to the world that 2010 will be the year of the touch screen.  PC manufacturers were coming out left and right with touch screen, netbook-like hardware that would run Windows 7 and well as Linux.

Personally, I am not so sure about the gesture-based interaction with CAD like that of Project Natal by Microsoft (due out Holiday Season 2010), but the thought of having a CAD system similar to the one shown in Iron Man keeps my interest near. ~Lou

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- First impressions

- Promises for Product Development

- What are the main Pros/Cons

- Google Wave wish list?

- Browser extensions

- FireFox - Google Wave Add-on

- Chrome - Google Wave Notifier

- Desktop applications

- Windows/Linux (via WINE) - Google Wave Notifier

- Mac - Unofficial Google Wave Notifier

Since Google Wave has been available, many flocked to it and the overall user base is somewhat underwhelmed since it is yet another place you have to check.  Since Google Wave doesn't automatically come "out of the box" with a notification mechanism or the ability to use it with everyone like email, the adoption and use of this tool is limited for those who are in the Wave ecosystem.

Personally, I am noticing that many of my own Wave contacts are not active anymore since responses will sometimes take days or weeks to get, thus making the communication ineffective.  This hinders my ability to push further into what use cases Google Wave is good for.  Gina Trapani said it best on This Week in Google that applications are typically created to solve a problem and Google Wave is a solution searching for a problem to solve!

It is a preview and passing judgement of Google Wave's success or failure would be a mistake.  Google seems to be committed to making Wave the next big communication vector so I am continuing to test and try out ways to simplify my own communication with it.  How do you use it?  What is missing or needed for it to be a useful tool for product development or any other task? Please share your experience in the comments.

I have been trying, unsuccessfully, to get a Google Wave round table discussion together since it's launch, till today.  Due to some issues with iPhone batteries and Skype, (don't ask), Josh Mings from SolidSmack was only on the call for the first 5 minutes but Ben Eadie from SolidJott and Mechanical Mashup TV was able to fill in for the remainder of the cast.  We will make sure Josh is in the followup podcast once Google Wave gets more developed.

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- Available certifications

- Certification details and and topics

- CSW pricing and availability

- CSWP directory

- How to take the exams online

- Virtual Tester online account offerings

- Special offerings for subscription customers till July 31, 2010!

Welcome to 2010!  This is the first show of the year and the first show for the 5th year of the show.  This time of year is typically slow for news but it is not going to slow down in the next few weeks before SolidWorks World.  For many, SolidWorks World is a time to learn and get certified so I thought with the introduction of yet another CSWP exam last week that we could dive into the SolidWorks Certification Program.

The SolidWorks certification program has been reinvented over the past few years and in the process has made the barrior of entry accessable to everyone by automating it and reducing prices.  The CSWP test is a fraction of the cost and with the introduction of so many more industry-specific certificates, the program has become more attractive to users.

Want to take the CSWP? If you or your company is current on subscription you can get the chance to take the test for free so it will cost you nothing and if you are coming to SolidWorks World you can also come to the special event!  Want to know what it is?  Check this out! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

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- Introduction and background of Enterprise PDM

- Difference between a "Plugin" and and "Add-In"

- Overview of the EPDM CAD support matrix

- Overview of the Pro/E Connector FAQ

So for the last topic of the year I thought I would talk about a topic that comes up a lot for people that are interested in getting Enterprise PDM for document management.  As you know, EPDM is the enterprise level PDM offering from SolidWorks and is growing in popularity as the importance of PDM in product development becomes more prevalent.  I have recorded episodes about EPDM on the show before and always do a higher level perspective since the product is so customizable.  I have thought about doing some specific breakouts on areas of the software and some of the capabilities that many are starting to implement but thought it might be too "inside baseball" for the general audience.

Today I thought what we could cover are the options for how Enterprise PDM integrates into, not only SolidWorks, but also other CAD tools out there and the level of support these tools have.  Many companies may have multiple CAD tools but want to have one PDM package to manage the data and since there is some new support in the SP1 release of 2010, I thought it would be an interesting topic. ~Lou

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Tech Stories:

- November 24: People@ SolidWorks World 2010 - Jim Wilkenson

- December 2: SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2009 SP5 available for download

- December 3: SW World 2010 Presenter Spotlight - Gerald Davis

- December 4: People@ SolidWorks World 2010 - Jeremy Luchini & Hollywood Nostalgia Contest

- December 7: SolidWorks 2010 SP1 available for download

- December 8: People@ SolidWorks World 2010 - Marlon Banta & Updates to 3DContent Central

- December 9: SW World 2010 Presenter Spotlight - Phil Sluder

- December 11: People@ SolidWorks World 2010 - Tom Spine

- December 14: SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2010 SP1 available for download

- December 15: People@SolidWorks World 2010 - Rakesh Keswani & Save the Date for SW World 2010 Tweetup

- December 16: SW World 2010 Presenter Spotlight - Wayne Tiffany

- December 17: People@ SolidWorks World 2010 - Keri Prasky & Presentation Studio Fix for SW 2010.

- December 18: Guess the keynote speaker for SW World 2010 & the Hollywood Nostalgia Contest winner.

Top Solutions:

- December 10: SW 2010 SP1 Admin Image patch issue

- December 15: SW 2009 SP5 & SW 2010 SP1 file reference double click browse issue, workaround & hotfilx.

SolidWorks World 2010:

- Stump the Chumps info and question submission site

- SolidWorks World planning site

This was one of the biggest news shows of the year.  With SolidWorks World 2010 just around the corner there is a lots of content, prep videos and other news that is breaking.  This year SolidWorks is doing a lot to get people excited and thinking about SWW10 early as well as giving them resources to know the people behind the scenes at SolidWorks as well as some of the prominent presenters.

This is the last tech news show of the year and for those that celebrate, I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas. I should have one final show for 2009 and I will do my best to pull together s panel with a few of us to chat about something exciting to round out the year!  ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

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This podcast covers the full fledged lifecycle assessment offering from SolidWorks called SolidWorks Sustainability.  This is a modest upgrade of the free Xpress tool that is part of SolidWorks 2010.  Topics covered:

- Description of features (beyond Xpress)

- "Online Info" sustainability calculator tool

- SolidWorks Sustainability website

- Frequently asked questions (FAQ highlights)

Starting back at SolidWorks World last year, SolidWorks talked about their sustainability product that was going to hit the SolidWorks LABS site in summer and would eventually be in the SolidWorks 2010 product.  In June, SolidWorks launched this utility for download on SolidWorks labs and much of the feedback was that the tool was not full featured and the only really useful tool was the "Find Similar Material" tool.

The free version in SolidWorks named SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress, was for parts only and there was always a hint of a full Sustainability product to be available for customers who wanted more granular tools and the ability to work with entire assemblies.  This full tool went into a Beta when SW 2010 launched and is still in beta now in SP1.

Sustainability awareness has to begin with education and having tools available inside of SolidWorks to lend, yet another, evaluation tool to help make critical decisions in product design is a great start. We have to start somewhere and it reminds me of how recycling started 20 years ago.  Today we are more educated and adoption of this practice is almost everywhere we look. ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

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- Bubbl.us - Mind mapping and flow charting

- Campfire - Group-based chat rooms

- Backpack - Project organization

- Google Wave - Bringing 3D into Wave with 3dvia

Over the past month I have been busy migrating our company over to Google Apps from using Microsoft Exchange and other locally managed server products.  In this transition I have been thinking a lot about using the cloud more and realized how many applications I use on a regular basis that have helped in keeping my teams synced.  Out of all the services I have signed up for, there are usually a handful that end up becoming a part of my daily routine so I though I would share.

All of the web-based apps I talk about are used by me everyday (or had up untill my switch to Google Apps where I consolidated a bit) mainly because they offer a cloud-based place to collaborate with collegues and customers.  In an effort to keep the show from going an hour, I picked 4 that I really enjoy for their functionality and, better yet, their "free" pricetag.  Two of the apps do have pay versions (Backpack has only paid options now, but didn't when I started) but all are free or can be tried for free.

My Google Wave pick was mainly added for the growing curiosity of how it can be used by 3D CAD and I was able to use 3dvia's embed options to embed their content into an HTML gadget in Wave and viewed using the 3dvia Player browser plug-in.  This allows 3D models to be uploaded directly from SolidWorks to 3dvia.com and easily embedded into Google Wave for collaboration.  This process gets a viewer into the Google Wave interface but will be much more useful when the model can be marked up and measured by multiple collaborators.  I hope to see CAD companies create viewer gadgets that will work with Wave to kick-start a true 3D collaborative environment in Google Wave.  ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

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- A quick "thank you" for your support through 250 episodes!

- The explicit killbit in the SolidWorks 2009 SP5's SWIM and Windows 7

- Anna Wood's SolidMuse manual workaround

- Jason Raak's Rock Solid Perspective compatability workaround

- Enterprise PDM 2009 issue with Windows 7 & workaround

- Forecast of roundtable discussions or December on the podcast.

I just wanted to thank you all for listening, giving feedback and continuing to support the show over the past 250 episodes. I am a month away from the 4 year anniversary and hitting show 250 is a big deal as far as podcasts go so thank you again for listening!

Well now that SolidWorks 2010 SP1 is probably going to be official here in the next week or so and full support for Windows 7 is part of that update, I wanted to take an opportunity to talk about a development that popped up over the long holiday weekend from a few bloggers and friends of mine Anna Wood at SolidMuse and Jason Raak at Rock Solid Perspective.

Even though SolidWorks explicitly shows Windows 7 on any other version of SolidWorks besides 2010 is not supported, this is the first time they have placed a killbit in the SolidWorks Installation Manager to prevent it from installing.  Companies and users might be migrating to Windows 7 before upgrading to SolidWorks 2010 and could possibly get bit by this intentional restriction.

To date there really hasn't been any major issues that have been reported from running SolidWorks 2009 on Windows 7 except for the one I discovered with Enterprise PDM. (Windows Explorer lockup with eDrawings preview). Luckily there are those of us out there who are not satisfied with the word NO and push the limits to make these things work! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

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