SW World opinions

I'm already pissed off. What cretin did the scheduling of the sessions? Why schedule Mark Biasotti's "Advanced Modeling 201" simultaneously with "Curvy Stuff V, Part 1"? Who decided that Mark's "Advanced Modeling 101" should be at the same time as Matt Lombard's "Hybrid Modeling: Combining Surfaces and Solids"? What was the idea of putting Richard Doyle's "Rip, Tear, Bend, and Fold: The Design and Manufacture of Sheet Metal Parts" up against "SolidWorks Sheetmetal: Fundamentals"? Why schedule "Design Tables" and "Using Design Tables Productively" at the same time? I was schizophrenic enough before, what shape will I be in after I get back from Las Vegas?

Jerry Steiger Tripod Data Systems "take the garbage out, dear"

straight! wash your mouth ...engineers...dull,dull,dull

I wonder if it's too late to get the schedule changed. Before you soundly berate me for thinking like an ID person (non-rigid), think about this - each year there are changes all the way up to the end. So at least it's worth pointing out to someone at SW that the schedule appears to have some possibilities for improvement, and would they please consider the changes. The most they can say is NO! Maybe Ed or Matt have enough pull to make it happen! :-)

WT

Pea-shooter with cloves. And I'll wear a disguise. Probably a beard or something.

I found a way today. It is kind of a bummer because us early birds will probably miss it when they do get the site up and miss registration for the good stuff. Not just Sunday, but all week. A word to the wise. As usual they will be asking for a short list of your thoughts that you will share in the session. Be preparing. Solid examples would be very helpful in getting selected.

Hi Top,

I assume you've been to the sunday sessions before? As I mentioned by doing the cswp exam on sunday I miss that whole day. How important are they in the big picture?

Zander

"I found a way today. "

So, Paul- how exactly did you figure out how to sign up for Sunday sessions. I still can't seem to see a way.

Care to share??????

jk

Yea John, I was wondering the same thing. I think TOP will share after he's all signed up;>)

Muggs

I agree that the scheduling conflicts as you described them are really, really unfortunate (note: I have not personally checked the times yet to see the extent of the conflicts). I raised a stink about such scheduling conflcts in the past and somehow got to the point where I was even asked to review the schedule last year before it was set to help identify such conflicts. They had developed the concept of setting up tracks, so (for instance) if you were a moldmaker you could go to a mold-session almost every session. Scheduling is a really tough job, but Allison pulled it off last year and it went well. Unforunatley, as I understand when I last talked SWx World in March or so, the person who set up the schedules the last few years has moved on to a different responsibilities in SWx. It never occurred to me that we might have to start over with this scheduling conflict stuff.

I don't know if I have pull, but I have names and phone numbers and I can be annoying. I'll take a look at the schedule and see if there is anything I can do, because it would be a shame not to try to get those conflicts out of there (if it is even possible- for instance, there might be so many sheetmetal sessions that two have to go head-to-head)

-Ed.

Yea, but I'm next to you, he'll probably catch on....

WT

Good grief as an engineer you should at least understand the idea of stress risers and why straight lines can be the root of all evil

Sounds like a classic tactic of convention organizers. If you have lots of small program rooms, but only a few big room, you put some of the big items at identical times in smaller rooms.

If there were no other big items at the same time, the attendance for the big item would overwhelm the room. Scheduling multiple big items simultaneously spreads out the crowd.

So where are the el-cheapo tents for God's sake?

Yeah this is a metaphorical question as one can't do that reliably in the Las Vegas sun, but it they want us to attend and learn, then we have to get "IN THE SESSIONS".

I think sometimes SolidWorks Corp. looks at conventions as something that is set up to SOLEY BENEFIT THEM AND THEIR RELATIONSHIPS WITH THEIR VARS.

We customers pay every single bill that the support the VARS and SolidWorks.

The customer MUST COME FIRST.

Am I wrong? OK, I must ask, am I crazy, and the customer is NOT #1?

Bo

So they don't want me standing in the hall like last time.

In Orlando some of the rooms were big, but so long you needed binoculars if you sat more than 1/3 of the way back from the front row.

Anybody seen a floor plan of Caesar's Palace convention center.

Maybe they should put a one armed bandit outside the door and give entry tokens based on pure chance.

John and all,

Here is the response I got. So I guess the really early birds and the not so early birds will be on the same footing.

Hi Paul,

We will be emailing all registrants for SolidWorks World 2006 later this week when session preference selection is live.

,,,snip

Thanks, Ed! Good luck.

I was going to make your job harder, by going through what is on offer and coming up with more conflicts, but I decided that the ones I listed were the only ones that I was really concerned about. No doubt you, or some of the others who are going, will find some more. The good news/bad news is that even with three of us going, we can't cover more than half of the presentations that I think would be worth seeing!

One thing I noticed was the large number of sessions on handling large assemblies and drawings and another large group dealing with layout sketches and external references. Those two groups seem to be spread out pretty well.

Another interesting point is that I don't see any repeat sessions. Great from a "lots of content" view, but it makes the conflicts even more agonizing, with no possibility of catching a later session.

Finally, there are no sessions scheduled for Wednesday morning (my one chance to see the Partner Pavilion?) or in the last Wednesday afternoon session (everyone wants to leave early?).

Jerry Steiger Tripod Data Systems "take the garbage out, dear"

Regarding when the session selections will be made:

...the decision will be made no later than November 15th.

OK, so lets summarize.

Pay big bucks to go to get the sessions, but SWCP keeps you from seeing them, and there are so many sessions, you can't hope to get all your picks in and sometimes small rooms w/o enough seats, and then auditoriums where you can't see well unless you have the good seats.

So, with the known limitations, surely SolidWorks gives every paying user to the sessions a DVD of ALL THE SESSIONS, right...? Come on and tell me I am right.

Bo

I assume your being sarcastic about the DVD? I do know if SW did provide a DVD or even transcripts of all the sessions, I could convince my company to fork over that amount easily! Otherwise it just looks like I'm hitting them up for a paid vacation to gamble, see Mickey or the historic sites.

Keith