46,000 visitors PLUS, that is the number of people that visite the Show! That is ALOT of people and with all the halls at the massive Anaheim Convention Centre full to bursting it meant there were ALOT of exhibitors too... and that included DriveWorks!
Time to invest in cushion-soled 'show' shoes I think!
Thanks go to DriveWorks resellers Hawk Ridge and Go Engineer for their support over the 3 days at the Show.
So with the booth all set up on the Saturday I always look forward to the Sunday evening reception.
It's great to catch up with friends and colleagues in the 'Reseller Exclusive' Preview and of course to speculate on what announcements we might hear during the general sessions.
As you can see from the photo the booth was divided into 3 sections to show the fully scalable path all the way from DriveWorksXpress included in SolidWorks, to DriveWorks Solo, inside SolidWorks, to DriveWorks Pro.
DriveWorks Pro takes our product configurator out to the web as a sales configurator whilst maintaining full fidelity Design Automation for the generation of sales and manufacturing data and documentation.
Saving Time and Money through Design Automation was the subject of the presentation at SolidWorks World 2009 by Trevor Waldeland and Eric Summerfield of Exlar
The customer has the option to put any motor on this product line.
Because of this, there is a list of things that can vary with the motor plate. (shown in Orange)
There are 2 steps to using Design Automation with DriveWorksXpress.
So once you have decided what things can change, you identify and capture those things from your SolidWorks Model, make sure you have a drawing, create a form and build your rules.
Once that is done you simply fill out your form with the specification for your new variation.
Your new part will now have all the new dimensions we entered.
You can now create any new parts in the future in about 1 minute using the project you have set up in DriveWorksXpress
1. How long did it take to create variations before DriveWorksXpress?
30 minutes to 1 hour
2. How long did it take to set this project up in DriveWorksXpress?
2 hours
3. How long does it take now to create a new variation using DriveWorksXpress?
5 minutes
4. How many possible variations could there be?
Unlimited
5. How would you describe your experience of using DriveWorksXpress?
Really easy to setup and use. We are in the process right now of installing
the full version of DriveWorks because of the easy of use and time savings.
6. Have you shared your work with your colleagues?
Yes, all of our SolidWorks users has access to these files.
7. Will you be adding more products and rules?
Absolutely!!
As DriveWorksXpress has been incorporated by SolidWorks Corporation into every seat of SolidWorks you can access a DriveWorksXpress Tutorial from inside SolidWorks too.
On the DriveWorksXpress site we have an area where people can tell us how they have got on using DriveWorksXpress. They can upload picures of their products, screen grabs of their DriveWorksXpress form and a Rules Summary. They can also tell us how long things used to take them before they had DriveWorksXpress and how long it takes them now. The feedback has been stunning.
One such company to told us what they have been doing is Mondragon Assembly. They design and manufacture systems and equipment for process automation. They are a global company, manufacturing in Europe and North America, and offer highly custom solutions for assembly process automation requirements.
Oscar José Hernández is thrilled with his achievements in DriveWorksXpress...
Time spent setting up – 6 weeks
"It took around six weeks, this includes learning how to use DriveWorksXpress, and whenever I discovered something new, I stepped back to make everything smoother and easier."
Time spent before SolidWorks and DriveWorksXpress – 2 days"It took approximately 2 days."
Time taken with SolidWorks and DriveWorksXpress – 10 minutes"It now takes around ten minutes… or less."
How would you describe your experience with using DriveWorksXpress?"This tool is awesome, at first I thought we couldn’t make a good use of it, but it has made our life much easier."
Do you make use of the resources available at www.driveworksxpress.com?"Of course, when I have a question I go to the DriveWorksXpress forum for some “enlightenment” and also when I was learning DriveWorksXpress I downloaded the exercises and videos."
Have you shared your work with colleagues?"Yes, the entire design department uses this."
I'm going to keep reporting these results here on the blog because I think it's worth sharing with everyone. with results like these it becomes easy to justify purchasing the full version of DriveWorks.
Here is yet another completed DriveWorksXpress example for you to have a go with.
Fill out a DriveWorksXpress Form to specify a new under run bar for a trailer and generate all the models and manufacturing data associated with it
Specify and automatically create parts, assemblies and drawings for new variations of the Guard Rail over and over again. Just enter your required Length and Height and select your material preference. 
You can also go in to Add/Edit Model and step through the example to see how it has been created and how the rules have been built - it is the ideal way to get to know the ins and outs of DriveWorksXpress
And remember all you need to know is Microsoft Excel to build rules in DriveWorksXpress - it really is the Easy-to-Use answer to Design Automation for SolidWorks Engineers.
Thank you to Lou Gallo of DDI for conducting this interview and broadcasting it on SolidWorks Heard. Click here to listen. It was fun to do :)
http://cdn3.libsyn.com/gol10dr/SWH-EP162.mp3?nvb=20080722202043&nva=20080723202043&t=0055fc2a6c249f80ebc46
It's worth Book Marking Lou's site - he has some great features for SolidWorks and Engineering Communities.
