http://www.solidsmack.com/solidworks-3d-cad-users-on-twitter/2008-07-31/

Below are some folks from NASWUG that are on Twitter that you can follow:

http://twitter.com/rickyjordan -  Ricky Jordan

http://twitter.com/Richard_Hall -  Rich Hall

http://twitter.com/Skrythe -  Brian McElyea

http://twitter.com/hallga -  Gary Hall

http://twitter.com/wrhatton -  Wendell Hatton

We are excited to announce that we will have TWO excellent speakers in attendance from DS SolidWorks Corporation.

Jim Wilkinson, who is the Director of User Experience for SolidWorks, will be giving a presentation on User Interface Customization. Jim manages the usability/user interface team as well as documentation and localization teams for DS SolidWorks Corporation.

Bruce Holway, who is the Manager of Product Definition for SolidWorks, will be giving a presentation on Using Layout Sketches for Assembly and Mechanism Design. Bruce has 17 years experience working in the CAD industry in various technical positions. The Product Definition team he manages is responsible for developing specifications for new functionality in SolidWorks.

3D Connexion for the fourth year in a row will be sponsoring the event and has generously donated a Harmony Universal Remote Control for one of our Grand Prize giveaways!

More Grand Prize giveaways are in the works, so stay tuned to the NASWUG site for the latest information.

Dinner will be provided along with LOTS of Door Prizes to be given away at the end of the meeting.

RSVP for the meeting today by following the link below to sign up on our new registration form.

http://www.naswug.com/meeting-rsvp/

Don’t miss your opportunity to network with fellow SolidWorks users, gain valuable information, get free food, and pick up some cool prizes!

We should be back at our normal meeting location and the meeting will be sometime in November or at the latest the first week of December.

Brian McElyea tooks some photos at the meeting last week and has posted them for viewing.  Click HERE to view all the photos.  Thanks Brian!

Next, a show of hands for those planning on attending SolidWorks World 2009 International User Conference and Exposition in Orlando, FL at the Swan & Dolphin Hotel Feb 8-11, 2009. Anyone needing help with justification give Ricky a shout. If you have never been to a SolidWorks World it is truly an adventure with more training presentations in a short 4 days on subjects from everything SolidWorks and then some.

Now to try and give a Reader’s digest summary of the rest of the meeting. Ricky first presented on the new Photoview 360 which is included in all flavors of SolidWorks except SolidWorks standard. As with any new release of SolidWorks there is plenty of material for a What’s New presentation. Ricky and Matt did an outstanding job of cramming as much into the remaining two hours ( after the eating) of our meeting. Actually Matt was kind enough to extend the presentation an extra 30 minutes for those that could stick around. With all the new enhancements in SW2009, there have been some significant terminology changes. Once you get past that it is nice to see that emphasis has really been placed on improving performance, speed and stability. Now just to mention the main highlights. User Interface enhancements includes a movable Command Manager, a Property Tab builder, hyperlink capability with BOM and custom properties, dual dimension display, triad functionality to quickly change model orientation and a magnify tool. Sketching enhancements includes new slot tool (oooh, ahhh!!), numeric sketch input, Instant 3D Resize, stretch entities and move/copy/scale in 3D sketch. Sheet Metal enhancements include convert to sheet metal from solid. cross break, and a combined gauge - bend table. Weldment enhancements include groups, weld gaps within groups and between groups, improved end caps and gussets, trim extend tool. Assembly enhancements include large assembly performance improvement, assembly features propagating to the parts, a new BOM in assembly and speed pack, and Drawing enhancements. Speed pack basically allows you to take an assembly/subassembly and identify faces/features for mating and then use the assembly/subassembly in another assembly with huge performance gain.

Matt took over with his take on Visualization enhancements, the new plastic features, surfacing and spline enhancements and free form As expected, Matt presented his likes and dislikes of the new release but the general consensus is that the new SW2009 is a very impressive release and should prove to be much more stable with better performance.

Thanks again to Ricky and Matt for an outstanding What’s New presentation. We should see the VAR rollout presentations of SW2009 sometime in October.

Matt Lombard will be in attendance at the meeting and will be presenting some of the What’s New in SolidWorks 2009 content.  Matt is the author of the SolidWorks 2007 Bible which is the best selling book on SolidWorks.  Towards the end of this year he will be releasing the SolidWorks 2009 Bible which I had a small part in as well.

Due to some scheduling conflicts, there will be a LOCATION CHANGE for this meeting.  The meeting will be held in the Dynetics Systems building which is located next door to the Dynetics CHQ building where we normally have our meetings.  Below is a map of the Dynetics campus showing you how to get to the proper entrance for the meeting.  I will post information on the front doors of the CHQ building in case there is any confusion.

I will be sending out an update via e-mail to everyone tomorrow morning.  See you at the meeting!

I have included a reference list below of a few of the areas of SolidWorks 2009 where there are multiple enhancements. Please feel free to use this list or suggest OTHER areas that might not be on this list!

• User Interface
• Materials & Appearances
• Features
• Parts
• Weldments
• Sheet Metal
• Assemblies
• Drawings & Detailing
• SolidWorks Professional Add-ins
• SolidWorks Premium Add-ins

Below I have included some specific enhancements to areas of the software which might impact users the most.  Again, if there is something specific that is not on this list, please feel free to suggest it.

• Custom Properties
• PhotoView 360 (New Rendering Solution)
• Automatic Dimensioning of Sketches
• Title Block Wizard
• Sketch Slot
• Appearances

Ok…It’s all up to you!  Please leave your comments below and help shape this presentation!

Come join us for a What’s New in SolidWorks 2009 presentation. The presentation will be given by NASWUG president Ricky Jordan. New this year is the chance for group members to help shape the What’s New presentation topics!  Click the HERE and leave a comment on what topics you are most interested in seeing in the SolidWorks 2009 What’s New Presentation!

Dinner will be provided along with LOTS of Door Prizes to be given away at the end of the meeting.

RSVP for the event today visiting our online registration form.

Don’t miss your opportunity to network with fellow SolidWorks users, gain valuable information, get free food, and pick up some cool prizes!

E-mails to anyone with an @naswug address could be limited for the next couple of days as well.

Don’t worry!  Everything including the Forum will be kept in the changeover.  I’ll let you know when everything is fully back online.