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Archive for October 9th, 2008

People in Latin America love SolidWorks!  Even before starting the new blog in Spanish, I used to get lots of emails from students and people all over Central and South America, fascinated with the software, wanting to know more about SolidWorks. What I hadn’t realized until now is that for many of these countries there is no local authorized distributor where to buy SolidWorks from.  I guess it’s for that same reason that they don’t teach SolidWorks at their schools, and most of these students are self-learners that are borrowing an old copy of the software from a friend (I never dare ask how the friend got that copy), or that are simply curious after reading about it in blogs and websites.  Either way, one thing is true: they want SolidWorks! They love SolidWorks!  What can I say? My people really appreciate good things! And I rejoice every time I learn about more and more Latin American students gaining access to it or learning about it. Why? Well, you may or not agree with me, but I see in software such as SolidWorks (and the technology that revolves around it) a key to open a door for progress and technological development, as well as a way to bring about positive changes to a whole society. No, it’s not a panacea, but gaining access to this kind of technology is definitely a huge step in the right direction, one that I hope very soon more and more countries in my dear Latin America will be able to take.

And I know it’s going to take some time. Companies, after all, are here to make profit, and SolidWorks is no exception to that. I know it will take time for them to evaluate if there is really a good market in Latin America or not. I know it will take perhaps even more time for the software to become part of the curriculum of universities and schools in many of those countries. But, just like it is for the shepherd when he finds his sheep, it’s a cause for celebration for me when SolidWorks reaches out to them, even if it’s one student at a time. For me, it speaks really loud about their commitment to education and also about the strength of the SolidWorks community, always watching out for the needs of its members, even the invisible ones.

Just a couple of days ago, a college student from Ecuador sent me an email asking how to buy the student version of the software. Ecuador doesn’t have a VAR or any other kind of authorized distributor. I searched a few places, and also sent an email to Richard Doyle, simply asking if he knew of a place that would sell it to the student and ship it to Ecuador (hopefully without adding 40 dollars just for shipping and handling). Richard, in turn, passed the question over to Marie Planchard, who reminded me that SolidWorks sponsors teams of students that participate in design contests all over the world, such as formula SAE or robot competitions.  My student, however, wasn’t part of any team yet, but he got excited when I shared the news with him and quickly began investigating all that was required in order to form a team and get their school to back them up, so that they could participate in formula SAE.  This would probably take some time, because it depends on so many people and other factors completely out of his control, so my plan B was to buy the software myself and ship it to him, only Mrs. Planchard was one step ahead of me and decided to contact the student and send him a copy of SolidWorks student edition free of charge. How about that for awesome! The student was extremely happy and grateful with the news, and so am I. I know for some it may not seem like a big deal, I mean, one student, in one country in South America, but it means touching one life at a time, and planting a seed to touch many, many others in the future. Thank you Marie and thank you SolidWorks!