CAD Insider

Beloved SolidWorks Is Intact - So Far

ORLANDO, FL, Jan 20, 2013 - If you had been freaking out about what Dassault might be doing to your beloved SolidWorks, you would probably be reassured here at SolidWorks World 2013.

SolidWorks CEO Bertrand Sicot opens the annual user conference (entire 90 minute keynote on You Tube)

At last year's event, SolidWorks newly appointed VP or R&D, Gian Paulo Bassi stated that SolidWorks future lay in two versions, each relying on different kernels (see SolidWorks: The Kernel Change). One would be the tried and true Parasolid, which SolidWorks has used since its inception. The other would be CATIA's CGM kernel.

Though meant to be reassuring at the time and an answer to FUD* campaigns from competitors, all indications pointed to the upstart CGM being the kernel of choice for the future. After all, CGM was owned by the Dassault "family," whereas Parasolid was owned by a competitor. But with the new engine would come data incompatibility...and who knows what else? Can you rip out the engine from a Mustang and put in one from a Camaro? This led to uncertainty among users and may have even shaken their faith.

Though the show has only wrapped up its first day, there has been little mention of SolidWorks V6, as the CGM version of SolidWorks was known. In fact, there has been little mention of anything by Gian Paulo. After being very much the highly visible champion of SolidWorks V6, he has not even taken the stage, not the main stage or gone up front with the other executives during the media Q&A. Could it be that plans for SolidWorks V6 have been shelved?

At the risk of reading too much into the tea leaves, consider that V6 technology has been rolled out only into Mechanical Conceptual** shown this morning on the main stage. Though underwhelming in its ability (a front-end to SolidWorks rather than a robust modeler) that is far from finished (not released til Fall), it seems to be -- at least so far -- SolidWorks' big announcement.

But sometimes, what is not said is just as important as what is not said. No shakeup. None of the "it's good for you, now open wide." A gentle rollout. Mechanical Conceptual is a tool. Use it alongside your beloved SolidWorks, not instead of it.

Maybe what we are seeing now, is a kinder, gentler Dassault. Or maybe one that just listens.

__________

**Fear, uncertainty and doubt

**Hopefully just a working name. What's wrong with SolidConcepts?

Scenes from SolidWorks World 2013, Pt 1

SolidWorks World 2013 in Orlando, FL is based in the Swan and Dolphin Hotel inside Disney World. Nearby is a man-made lake with a boardwalk around it. Florida's natural lakes are not as pretty.

Matt West, SolidWorks social media guru, lists some of the metrics of online success. Did you know YouTube is the 2nd most popular search function, 2nd to Google? SolidWorks corporate blogs got 1.1 million page views in 2012.

I don't like to brag, but..." SolidWorks goes over 2 million users, announces CEO Bertrand Sicot. Of this number, about 800,000 are industry users, the rest have educational seats.

Dassault CEO Bernard Charles again tries to explain the 3DEXPERINCE. Halo around his head is purely unintentional.

Bernard gives an overview of Dassault, of which SolidWorks is a part.

Bernard proud of Dassault being among Forbes top "innovative companies." Zoom in and you can see they are ahead of PTC, Autodesk and SAP.

Bernard determined to raise the global awareness of Dassault. Here he shows a few of Dassault's ads. If you have gone through a major airport recently, you have probably done a double take. Trade press is conspiciously absent.

Feel worn out after a flight? Try breaking sound barrier - without an airplane. Hearing about Felix Baumgartner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Baumgartner) Keynote speakers detail how they sent Felix to a height of 128,000 feet and had him jump, going over Mach 1 on the way down -- and surviving! As the video showed him stepped off the gondola, all 4,500 people in the audience seemed to hold their breath.

Mcor prints anything --including an all too lifelike head--using ordinary copy paper and some glue, and claims the lowest cost per model. Color models being done with their new Iris machine. http://www.mcortechnologies.com/

The press room lists over 125 media members invited to SolidWorks World 2013

SolidWorks CEO Bertrand Sicot makes the rounds on the exhibit floor, stopping at the My.SolidWorks.com booth. My.SolidWorks.com, a customer information portal, was announced at the show. In the foreground (in black) is Greg Jankowski, author, and contributor for the portal.

SolidWorks Announces My.SolidWorks.com Customer Portal

SolidWorks World 2013 ORLANDO, FL, Jan 20, 2013 - SolidWorks will announce its customer portal, my.SolidWorks.com, tomorrow when it kicks off its annual user meeting.

Currently in beta, and open to all (go to my.solidworks.com), it is mostly an aggregation of content previously found on SolidWorks websites, or published by select SolidWorks VARs, like FISHER/UNITECH, which is often supplies good tutorials for SolidWorks users. In addition, it has case histories, even a tweet or two. Some items are several months old so you may have seem them already. I see the most prolific SolidWorks employees (Marie Planchard, Greg Jankowski, Matt West) are well represented.

According to SolidWorks, content is just a start, as the plan is to provide a common interface to a host of offerings: articles, customer service, support... and probably targeted sales messages.

Clearly, a site like this would be most useful if could be customized per the interest of the individual user, such as what Amazon does by rearranging its "storefront" each time I enter, suggesting things I might like to buy. Knowing a user is in the automotive industry should place automotive content front and center, and not bother the user with case histories from electronic companies, or medical products, for example. 

My.SolidWorks is also meant to be be customized, as are most "My" sites, though I'll have to take their word for it. I tried to login, but could not, as it recognized me as previous user. An account long forgotten, I'm sure, but trying to regenerate a new password was also unsuccessful. Oh, that's beta sites for you! I'll try again, soon.

Anyway, could you not find all this content already on the www.solidworks.com site, I ask? SolidWorks says the search is much better. My.SolidWorks.com is built on Exalead, the French search engine purchased years ago by Dassault. Virtually unknown in the US, the acquisition had most CAD insiders scratching their heads as to what the CAD company was up to. Apparently, it has found some use among at least one of its divisions. My.SolidWorks.com also used the NetVibes technology, another head scratcher.

Hurricane Monica Sweeping Through Dassault

Dassault's 3DEXPERIENCE, recently concluded in Orlando, found itself sandwiched between Super Storm Sandy and a winter storm that followed quickly on its heels. But it is an internal storm -- one that CEO Bernard Charles has unleashed -- that is affecting the giant CAD company the most. It is in the form of Monica Menghini. Hurricane Monica may do more to change the landscape of CAD -- or at least that of Dassault -- than any force of nature.

Monica Menghini, EVP of marcom at Dassault, aims to change the way the world sees Dassault Systemes

Bernard introduces her onstage at the user conference -- and gets out of the way, but not before he warns us to “be careful.”  She is a force to be reckoned with. Even the Mafia has no chance. Monica has prosecuted organized crime figures in her native Italy. She was also a professional volleyball player.

We are captivated. It's too much for CAD insiders. We are not used to women. Not thin, good looking women in black dresses and heels. With accents. Not at our user meetings. We stare slack jawed. Geeky brain desperately shifting gears, trying to adjust. It takes a while before we can make out what she is saying. But a force majeure doesn't wait for men.

Monika comes to us from Saatchi and Saatchi, the British ad agency. More recently, she was “brand equity builder” at Procter & Gamble

Ad agency savvy has led to ads like this from Dassault (from http://www.whichplm.com/)

We are treated to advertising campaigns, glossy, even sexy. Luscious lips about to swallow a capsule filled with little balls and something about “swallowing robots." Then there are the icebergs being towed across the ocean.

“That ad was achieved a 27% retention score,” says Monica proudly of the lips ad at the press luncheon. “People identified the message with Dassault.”

It is apparent that Bernard has given Monica free reign. He is depending on her to make an Dassault a company of international and very public renown.

Dassault is not alone in trying to increase its perception and association to more than just CAD. Several  have tried branding themselves as PLM companies -- with mixed success. But none have sought to throw their name so far and wide. This was not a job Bernard could give to someone on the inside. He had to find someone outside, someone unencumbered with CAD and the inherent pragmatism of its practitioners. This job had to go to someone not afraid to strike out, be different, able to run over obstacles. Someone who can stare down a a barrel.

Smaller minds in the room are left wondering what Monica's messages have to so with them and their little corners of the world, with CATIA, ENOVIA, SolidWorks, or other current Dassault products. But they miss the point. It is not what Dassault offers now, but what Dassault will offer in the future. If recent history serves and as indication, there will be a wealth of offerings that will vary greatly in their breadth and application. Their connection to the whole may be hard to grasp, but in some time theere will be a smiling, friendly French man who will be happy to explain it all to us.

Until then, in Bernard we trust.

Dassault Conference, Pt 3 - Dassault Mines for Credibility

Nov 11, 2012, ORLANDO, FL (3DEXPERIENCE FORUM North America) – CEO Bernard Charles gave a hint of how he hopes Dassault will achieve credibility as he targets new industries with the recent Gemcom acquisition (see press release )

CATIA and SolidWorks were probably in use for the design of earth mining machinery. But what of the geologic analysis, the planning and management of the mines, etc.? Dassault was only scratching the surface (ha ha, get it?).

Dassault solved this problem by going out and buying the mining software market leader, Gemcom (its product will be renamed GEOVIA by the time you read this). Gemcom was such a force to be reckoned with that mining terms are named after the founder of the company, according to Bernard. Everyone in mining knows Gemcom, like everyone in airplanes knows CATIA. With this acquisition, Dassault bought itself instant credibility.

Can Dassault keep buying market leading software? The company reports $1.6 billion of cash and cash equivalents. It could buy 4 more companies the size of Gemcom outright.

Still miners don’t know the Dassault name. But that is slated to change. Dassault is targeting corporate name recognition from the high vantage of national advertising campaigns (remember the iceberg commercial) along with a marketing maverick – more on that later.

If Gemcom serves as an example, look for Dassault to try to achieve market penetration and leadership by buying industry leading software while at the same time increasing its name recognition to the world at large, Impressing the public, which includes stockholders, other approvers, as well as targeted industries. Why not establish the ideas that that Dassault is a huge company with a world vision, one that acts with the whole world in mind? This 2 pronged approach, which relies on establishing name familiarity, would be vital in prevent skeptics from asking “Who the heck is Dassault. Don’t they make software that designs airplanes?” Instead, they would remember a company that is good, green, benign, friendly, smiling… a personification of Bernard Charles himself, intent on saving the world – and, incidentaly, a comany you can count on to do your job. 

Dassault Conference, Pt 2 - Dassault Plans World Domination

Nov 11, 2012, ORLANDO, FL (3DEXPERIENCE FORUM North America) – Dassault Systemes has identified so many industries it means to conquer that it seems like a plan for world domination. Here are some of the industries mentioned at the conference:

1. Architecture and construction
2. Energy
3. Apparel and fashion
4. Medical
5. Mining
6. Banking

There were more but my head was starting to spin. To say it is an ambitious plan is an understatement. Each industry will already have its entrenched leaders, with known and respected industry expertise. What would the maker of CATIA know about fashion, for example? Sure it can show me the next Boeing jet on a runway, but can it simulate the spring collection on models as they sashay down Paris runways?

Dassault CEO Bernard Charles ford not seem to be bothered by such considerations. Dassault Systemes has its roots in Dassault, the aircraft company, from which it was a small step to the design facilities of Boeing, Airbus…just about every major aerospace company, commercial or military. If you allow yourself to think of cars as airplanes without wings, you can see how success in aerospace would have translated into the automotive market. As engineers hold airplanes and cars as the finest examples of their craft, Dassault products got a warm welcome from many manufacturing companies.

But what of AEC, where the Dassault brand has little cachet?

How can Dassault establish credibility in so many diverse industries, in which its aerospace and automotive pedigree matters not, where nobody knows about CATIA, or may never have heard about Dassault fighter planes?

Next: Pt. 3, Dassault Mines for Credibiity

Dassault Conference, Pt 1 - Bernard Comes Down From the Mountain

Nov 7, 2012, ORLANDO, FL (3DEXPERIENCE FORUM North America) - This morning, we had heard Bernard Charles, CEO, of Dassault Systemes, reveal that he took a 2-3 month break from his duties as CEO. This may have allowed him to contemplate the world as well as Dassault’s place in it. He seems to have emerged with nothing less than a coalescing vision of mankind and technology, parts of which has already been spread throughout Dassault divisions. One cannot enter Dassault’s North American headquarters without seeing  “IF WE..ask the right questions, we can change the world” emblazoned on the doors. He is trying to share his wisdom with us from the stage, but is kind enough to break it down into digestible chunks. We hear about “harmonizing nature, products and life.” There have been high-minded messages going out the public in national ad campaigns, including the iceberg commercial, where a town is created from desert by towing an iceberg to it.

Dassault Systemes CEO Bernard Charles preaches a harmony of nature, life...and CAD

If you are wondering what all this has to do with CAD, CAM and CAE, you are not alone. CAD, CAM and CAE are still in the picture. See the Dassault “compass” below. CAD, CAM and CAE is one part, all under “3D.”

Then there’s been  the acquisitions of companies whose products seem to be as central to Dassault’s core competencies as Pluto is to the sun. Exalead, a French search engine. NetVibes, a online brand monitoring tool… CAD insiders could make no sense of it. It was just too out-of-the-box.

But I think we were just too small minded. Clearly, Dassault is aiming for much more than the CAD, CAM and CAE industry. Just how much more became clearer at this conference. 

Next: Dassault Attempts World Domination

PTC Loses $84 Million. Who Cares?

PTC announced their quarterly results last wee week. No matter how financial news is framed in a press release sent to us, our news service is trained to distill 3 key items to formulate a headline: revenue, change in revenue and profit. I'm not a financial analyst but I hold profit as the most important parameter of a business. The bottom line. Checking over the PTC press release, I see the revenue dipped a bit, from $339M to $325M, down 5%....but where is the profit, AKA net inclome? There is no mention of it in the headline, not in the body. I look all the way down to the tables....and Whoa, baby! PTC lost a whopping $84 million. I can hardly believe it. How can this escape being mentioned?

PTC loses $84M for quarter. At least GraphicSpeak noticed. 

I rush to see the transcripts of the call (Seeking Apha transcript), fully expecting the analysts to have flayed PTC management for such a performance Granted, the executives would not lead the discussion of the loss. Who would want to? But there is no question of it. In fact, nowhere in the whole transcript does the $84M figure come up. Rather,  the analyst seem to be a bit upbeat about the company. I'm thinking PTC has somehow transfixed the audience... maybe served them some Kool Aid. Then, to further my confusion the next day, PTC stock rises.

All my knowledge of finance, or just the basic principles, limited as they are to revenue and profit (which have served me since I had a paper route) all must have been turned on their head. If the analysts (financial whizzes, unlike me) don't have a problem with losing $84M, I have to be doing something wrong. I must find out why there is no hue and cry over the enormous loss. Is it because the company still paid a dividend to its investors? There is a a tax item of $120M that seems to me to have singlehandedly given PTC this huge loss. Was a one time occurrence and it is ok to ignore it. Inquiring (non-financial) minds need to know. Or does it have to do with the $230M PTC paid to acquire Servigistics. I hope its not because PTC still has almost $500M in the bank, because they could lose money at this rate for several years before people get worried.

Dassault Debuts Compass Magazine

Nov 5, 2012, ORLANDO, FL (3DEXPERIENCE FORUM North America) - Dassault chose the opening press reception of its annual US conference and user meeting (formerly Dassault Systemes Customer Conference, or DSSC), to announce Compass, it's new in-house print magazine.

Chief editor Michael Marshall introduces us to Compass, Dassault's beautiful new magazine.

Compass is printed in France, available in several languages (including English), and features subjects as far reaching as CEO Bernard Charles' vision, which extends far beyond the mere design of planes, trains and automobiles. It's debut issue is hardly the nuts-and-bolts user interest stories of Contact magazine (Dassault's old in-house magazine) but meant to appeal to a "higher" level of reader: those further up the corporate food chain. In its debut issue are departments such as Society, Education, Art...it even  has book club recommendations.

If anything, Compass wants to put a focus on the "3DEXPERIENCE," the concept which Dassault has been mentioning in just about every corporate communiqué for a several months now.

It's a beautiful magazine. Glossy. Big. It will look great in corporate office lobbies, which I am sure is its intention. It looks like money. Trade press publishers, most trying just to keep the lights on, will be jealous. Vanity press, they'll say. Does anyone read that stuff?

COMPASS debut issues opens to Bernard Charles smiling face. Turn the page and Monica Menghini, EVP of Marcom, greets us from her own page. Almost lost in the ensuing fine print is chief editor Michael Marshall.

Michael, who handled customer stories for Dassault, tells me that anyone and everyone who wants it can subscribe, you don't have to be a Dassault customer. Michael tells me of stories he is going to be working on. New technologies. Interesting people. Now I'm jealous.

The magazine features advertising, though in the debut issue, the ads were gratis for Dassult partners, including NVIDIA, Lenovo, Wacom, others.

Is it any wonder that big companies put out its own magazine? Google does it. So does Bentley, ANSYS. MSC. They are bright, colorful magazines, on thick paper. It leaves companies free to create their own marketing vehicles, promote the customers they are proud of, brag of new products and initiatives. They can break free of page limits imposed by trade press and not be subjected to the editors who change the stories -- if they run them at all.

Find out more, and subscribe, at www.3ds.com/compassmag

SolidWorks Founders Reunite to Ponder Their Second Act

Scott Harris, one of the founders of SolidWorks -- as well as friend and fellow bike rider -- called to confirm news that had already spread like morning wildfire on tweets and blogs¹. He and the original founders and leaders of SolidWorks had formed a new company.

The company is called Belmont Technology, Inc. It was incorporated yesterday². The name serves as a place holder -- maybe until the group can figure out what they will produce. Belmont is a town in Massachusetts, a few miles from Winchester, which served as a placeholder name until Winchester Designs, before it changed its name to SolidWorks.

The group includes John Hirschtick, John McEleney, Scott Harris, Dave Corcoran, Mike Lauer and Tommy Li. They plan on putting their minds together to develop tools and technologies for designers and engineers, so will be brainstorming ideas. "Not a line of code has been written yet," says Scott.

Scott and I had discussed the need of a truly intuitive design tool a few times over the hundreds of miles we rode together. CAD programs fall short on being really intuitive for design, says Scott. He still sees lots of opportuniy to improve product design tools. Of course, he expects his ideas to be weighed with ideas from others in the group as the fledgling company moves forward.

The group will soon be seeking external funding, however, rather than try to bootstrap it.

Any reaction from Dassault? I ask. Nothing official, though Dassault has been informed. We have been above board with them, says Scott. One may assume that non-compete clauses have expired.

Scott will be reducing his multiple activities to devote himself full time to this new venture, he says. Less time with technology companies who he advises. Cutting back on his teaching at Olin College. Less time with search and rescue. Less time biking, running? I hope not.

--

Notes:

1. Ray Kurland first to report on his blog, which was then #1 story on TenLinks Daily. 

2. Belmont Technology incorporated in state of Delaware on Nov 1, 2012, according to the official state website.