Last night I attended my very first SolidWorks local user group meeting.  Thanks Randy for the invite and very warm welcome.  The team, well part of it, as the team is growing week by week, went out to Holden, that is well West of 495… to attend the CM-SWUG (http://www.cmnc-swug.com/).  Since it is my first I am going out on a limb, but I would say it has to be one of the best attended.  I did not count but there was at least 50 people there.  Next week we will head to the Boston meeting and New Hampshire meeting.  I hear these can even be bigger.  Well Done!!! 

Certainly I knew I would learn something seeing as my SolidWorks skills aren’t rusty, worst they just don’t exist.  Guess I am far from taking the CSWP examine…  Well the first thing I learned was a bit of a surprise.  Did you know the SolidWorks can give you STDs, well maybe not give them to you, but SolidWorks certainly does have STD.  Honestly there was no discussion, Vuuch or any other, of if you can actaully get them from SolidWorks.  The only talk was that for sure SolidWorks does have STDs. 

So if you have a SolidWorks STD the best thing to do is Vuuch and Vuuch as much and as often as you can.  Get your STD, Vuuch.Me shirt as they are in short supply and you would not want to miss out on the limited quantity.  So order fast at http://www.cafepress.com/vuuch.  I got mine, make sure you get yours…

Another new release is hot off the press and has the user eyes popping.  There are a handful of new features and yes a few bug fixes… 

There are two items that should jump off the page:

1. Now when you add images during a reply the images are in line with the reply versus being placed at the top of the discussion.
2. Now when your team uses reply by email they can add attachments.  If you add an image file it will appear in the discussion like any other image and if you add a file, say a Word document or Excel file it will be added to the discussion as an attachment. Speaking of Excel check out the survey Josh has running about the value, use and frustration associated with Excel (http://www.solidsmack.com/spreadsheet-usage-poll-tracking-time-bill-of-materials/2009-07-15/). 

Some what off the beaten path is an update on the the WordPress add-in.  Now (once I upload the new one) the add-in will not only sync blog comments back to Vuuch but it will sync Vuuch comments back to the blog… WOW!  If you check out some of the posts on www.projott.com and www.vuuch.net (our WordPress add-in test site) you will see comments on one blog made by people on the other blog. 

Over the next few weeks key your eye peeled for the new WEB portal UI.  I think you will find it interesting.  And rumour has it that an iPhone application is coming… what I hear is it will work with public discussions first, but I am sure the developer has more in mind.

Keep the feedback coming!

One of the best things about working in the product development market is the cool products you come across, oh and those plant tours aren’t bad as well.  Today I got to speak with the lead designer at a VERY COOL company.  Even if you cannot ride you got to checkout the product and certainly the WEB site.  I discovered them because they had a bug with the new Vuuch add-in.  Bug solved and they are now our newest Vuuch beta users.  I gave up skateboarding a few years back.  No I really mean a few.  Actually about 4 years ago now.  I was an old school vert rider and my last three years I spent a week each summer at Woodward in PA with my oldest son who was an in-liner, now turned hockey and lacrosse playing teenager…  The guys over at GI turned me onto another cool product called the E-Glide.  I might be in the market for an E-Glide…  I already have a gas powered version from a company in Germany but it has not stood the test of time and over the winter I started a project to replace the engine with a chainsaw engine.  Haven’t made much progress as finding a way to connect to the output shaft has been a challenge.

Any way as the title says, “Cool Product” are a great side benefit of being in the product development business.