CAD Atomic Blog

I just want to draw attention to some activity that has been occurring over the past few months with regards to Siemens PLM's Solid Edge. A few months ago a new site was launched by Siemens PLM and was touted as a Community site.  As part of this, there is a subarea that is the Solid Edge Community site.  The site has a Q&A section, Discussion section, Knowledge Base, BLOG, and recently a whole subarea for developers who write custom code using the Solid Edge API. Of special note is the Solid Edge BLOG .  There has been a flurry of "how to" articles written by Matt Lombard.  You may recognize the name as he was an avid Solid Works user as well as the author of the popular SolidWorks Bible series.  Matt has now taken a position with Siemens PLM working for the Solid Edge group and has been authoring material on specific facets of Solid Edge that come with the unique perspective of a new user who previously used SolidWorks.  Ofte...

Solid Edge ST7 is not due for release until July 2014, but it appears it is actively being worked on by SE Development as witnessed by a recent post from Dan Staples on the GTAC Solid Edge discussion group where he revealed a new enhancement by accident.  Whoops!  No worries, it was a simply a setting switch so he really didn't let much of the cat out of the bag (tip of a whisker?). The good news is that we have several more months till launch so he has plenty of time to reveal more about ST7, and knowing Dan, he might let a few teasers out just to keep things interesting. BETA should commence in early spring, and the official launch will occur at Solid Edge University 2014 in May.  No doubt Synchronous Technology based modeling will continue to be a focus, but it's anyone guess as to what the other areas of focus are...

The date and location for Solid Edge University 2014 has been announced recently and it will be in Atlanta, Georgia on May 12-14, 2014.  The following site link doesn't have any additional information about the up coming event, but it does contain information on last years event as well as has links to all the presentations.  It is definitely worth a look, and if you like what you see, then I would encourage you to attend the 2014 event because there is no doubt that it will be more of the same if not just "more".  Include with that the Solid Edge ST7 launch and it is definitely a must attend event! http://solidedgeu.com/

The Early Bird Discount #2 expires tomorrow 6/7.  It allows you to save $50 on one admission and $100 on three admissions (buy 2 get the 3rd FREE!!!). http://www.solidedgeu.com/ Now if you are dragging your feet or your boss is dragging his and and the decision has not yet been made, don’t worry… As far as conference fees and content go, Solid Edge University is still a bargain at the regular price of $550 considering there are 2 days of content spread over 9 tracks with 3 of those tracks being HANDS ON EXPERIENCES!  Let me repeat:  3 TRACKS OF HANDS ON EXPERIENCES!  If you have ever priced getting training from a VAR, it is many times the admission price of Solid Edge University and does not cover the breadth of topics and/or the niche areas of Solid Edge that will be covered by the Solid Edge University’s Hands on Experiences.  Add to that the additional 6 tracks of content covered by experts including Solid Edge product planners, application engineers, ...

Within the last few weeks, Siemens PLM opened a new ‘Community” site for several products including Solid Edge. Unlike their previous discussion groups which for the most part where closed to everyone except customers who were current on their annual maintenance, the Community site is open to all.  Anyone can read the site, and by registering, you can also post to the site. Check out the Solid Edge Community here: http://community.plm.automation.siemens.com/t5/Solid-Edge/ct-p/solid-edge

As you may know, Solid Edge University 2013 is coming up in about 3 weeks ( http://www.solidedgeu.com/ ) and that the official announcement about Solid Edge ST6 will come on day 1 of that event (June 25th).  Dan Staples, director Solid Edge Development will provide the Solid Edge ST6 keynote. Well, I have a couple of early treats for you about ST6 that I can share!  Please keep in mind that these are no more than a tiny teaser of ST6, and as a BETA tester I can assure you there is so much more… There has been this rumor going around that ST6 would put some focus on surfacing.  Well, here are two new tools that should convince you it’s more than just a rumor… Reflective Plane  - The typical use case of symmetric molded parts is to model one half and mirror the body of the second half when complete… But how do you know what the whole part looks like prior to being finished with the part?  The answer is the Reflective Plane. It allows display of the second half...

You have 2 more weeks to get the early bird discount #2 of $500 for 1 admission or $1000 for 3 admissions for Solid Edge University 2013... After that the regular price of $550 and $1100 respectively kicks in.  Either way you will get your moneys worth.and then some with 9 tracks of sessions.  Details can be found here:  http://www.solidedgeu.com Design Better.  Solid Edge University.

The Solid Edge University 2013 early bird #1 discount price has expired, but there is still plenty of time to get in on the second tier early bird discount (till June 7th) that still saves you $50 off of the regular individual price of $550.  Sign up 3 people together and you can save $650 of the regular single price with the 3 for 2 deal. Check it out here: http://solidedgeu.com/registration-fees-and-travel Hope to see you at Solid Edge University 2013 so we can all Design Better!

Solid Edge University 2013’s ( http://www.solidedgeu.com/ ) first Early Bird Discount is about to expire on 3/29/2013.  If you are planning on going, this is your chance to save $100.  Details:  http://www.solidedgeu.com/registration-fees-and-travel If you are having trouble convincing someone that the benefits of attending SEU far outweigh the costs, check out the following page: http://www.solidedgeu.com/benefits-of-attending The main event that covers Solid Edge is complemented by a pre-event that covers customization using Solid Edge’s programming API and two post-events covering FEMAP and the SharePoint based data management solutions: http://www.solidedgeu.com/event-details A partial list of events have been posted that give a taste of some of the sessions that will be available, but this isn’t all so please check back for more later: http://www.solidedgeu.com/courses If you would have something to share and would like FREE admission to the conference, think abo...

Solid Edge ST6 is not publicly available yet, but will be in the next few months.  No doubt the big announcement will be made at Solid Edge University 2013 at the end of June ( http://www.solidedgeu.com/ ). While it is still under the cover of secrecy, I thought we might have some fun and see how creative you are with trying to guess what might be in ST6 when it releases.  Submit a comment as to your best guess, but be respectful or your comment won’t see the light of day. I’m sure that when ST6 releases, whatever is in it will help us all Design Better!

Solid Edge ST5 has a couple of offers that allow you to use it for free. If you are a commercial user, there is a 45 day trial ( http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/velocity/solidedge/free-solid-edge.shtml ) that gives you full featured access in a time limited fashion and it’s intended purpose is for evaluation towards a purchase.  If this is something you are interested in, don’t hesitate to talk to a reseller and if you are a current SolidWorks user, there are some trade-in deals at this time that seem pretty good ( https://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/campaigns/solid-edge-promo/index.cfm? ) If you are a student, there is a student version ( https://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/about_us/goplm/arc/se-academic/solid-edge-student.cfm? ) that gives you full featured access with one exception… All files saved in this version are marked as being authored in a student version and cannot be opened in a commercial version and the drawings have a water m...

I’m sure you have all heard the phrase “Jack of all trades, master of none”.  I think of this phrase when some entity tries to serve too many purposes that it really doesn’t focus too well on any of them. This happened a few years ago with UGS in regards to the Solid Edge annual international user group meeting.  Due to what I imagine was a concern with costs and economy of scale, someone decided that the independent Solid Edge Summit should be wrapped into the annual PLM World event with all the other UGS products.  What happened is we lost that Solid Edge only focus and it became watered down and generalized. Needless to say, it was giant flop, and in just a few years Solid Edge had lost most of it’s annual conference attendees. Under the new management of Karsten Newbury, he and his team decided in 2011 to hold a Solid Edge only international event and it was a big success! Because it was such a hit, it was repeated in 2012… And it was an even bigger success!  S...