An Update on Dassault’s CATIA

One of the CAD software products with a long and compelling history is Dassault Systems’ CATIA product. As one of the CAD products that have been driven by large scale design programs, typically undertaken by larger organizations, CATIA is a critical tool for corporate CAD professionals. Given its heritage and importance in the market, there have been a few very important and recent announcements around this product that are worth noting. Read full article »

Good News on the SolidWorks Front

One of the most popular CAD tools being used today, SolidWorks has benefited from some positive activities in just the last few months.  Some of this revolves around cool new capabilities and the disclosure of new product direction that will help SolidWorks users make the right choices going forward.

In this blog I’ll review some of the most interesting and beneficial happenings around this outstanding product. Read full article »

New CAD Display Technologies to Look Forward to

Visualization of designs and components is the key part of the CAD experience. And the importance of the display technologies that enable this can’t be understated. However, if we look back over the last 15-20 years, there has been precious little disruptive technological change in the displays used for CAD. Sure, we have low cost 3D, and larger screens with incredible resolution. Yet, if you look at the fundamentals, very little has changed.

There are now some very interesting new technologies on the horizon that may change this dynamic and dramatically improve the CAD Experience. There are two that I believe are worth focusing on. Read full article »

Autodesk Acquires HSMWorks – What it Means to You!

The recent acquisition of HSMWorks by Autodesk creates a very interesting scenario for both AutoCAD and SolidWorks users. On the face of it, one might be lead to think that this is a pre-emptive acquisition bent on market domination. It’s also been speculated on some postings that with the new ownership, there is some likelihood that we’ll see less capable or timely integration of future versions of HSMWorks with SolidWorks, to the benefit of AutoCAD. All nefarious competitive plots! And then there’s the whole problem of resellers getting put in the middle of the tangle. That’s a lot to analyze all at once! So let’s devolve the multiple scenarios and look at them individually. Read full article »

RELATED RESOURCE

An Overview of Common Performance Issues for SolidWorks

Every SolidWorks user wants to do more, faster, with fewer mistakes. Here’s a quick look at the top performance issues SolidWorks users are facing and some advice on what you can do about them.

Lenovo ThinkPad W530 Mobile Workstation Review

I wanted to share a thorough review of the new ThinkPad W530 mobile workstation from our friends at CADplace. I’m happy to hear that they are as pleased with the ThinkPad W530 as I am. I’ve copied an excerpt of their review below:

Lenovo’s new mobile workstation – the ThinkPad W530 – epitomizes the best qualities of the ThinkPad brand & brings you the latest workstation technology

At first glance you know that it is a ThinkPad. The look, the feel, everything about this mobile workstation oozes “ThinkPad”. Lenovo remains consistent with their brand’s design. Perhaps more than any other workstation, the ThinkPad carries with it a particular image. Any reader familiar with the ThinkPad will look at the CADplace photos and will know how this notebook will feel in their hands. Read full article »