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It’s my understanding that DriveWorks World -which usually takes place right after SolidWorks World – is an event that has been traditionally reserved for resellers. This year, however, some journalists (bloggers among them) were invited to attend. Lucky for me, I was one of those bloggers that got an invitation! Thank you, Maria; I had a blast!

For this year’s DriveWorks World, they came up with something completely new and original: a movie. Yes, I know what you’re thinking. You think they showed us a movie. Well, not exactly. You see, we were actually there while they were filming the movie, which made the experience  highly unusual, but also lots of fun.

The story was that of a company that needed to deliver 3D models and quotes for a client in a very short amount of time. This client was one of their most important ones and they couldn’t afford losing his business. A skilled engineer that knew his way around SolidWorks comes to the rescue and works all weekend to have the models ready on time.  However, just to complicate matters more, and as is usually the case, the customer kept changing his mind about the design and asking for changes to be made to the original, also in record time, or else he would take his business to some other company. This is where DriveWorks, in its entry-level form as DriveWorks Xpress, provided a way out for the engineer, who used it to automate the design, thus being able to generate a whole new set of models that met the client’s new specifications in a matter of minutes, rather than days. This is possible through the use of simple, yet powerful rules and equations, pretty much like those everyone uses in an Excel spreadsheet. As a matter of fact, DriveWorks Xpress  is based on Excel, which, as they say has its pros and cons.

The use of DriveWorks Xpress certainly made life easier for the engineer, but the salesman still needed to produce a new quote for the client for everynew set of specifications. This is where DriveWorks Solo comes in, providing the company with a way to not only automate the 3D models, but also generate detailed 2D drawings for manufacture, plus quotes and cover letters for the client. Notice that DriveWorks Solo is kind of like a step in between DriveWorks Xpress and DriveWorks Pro, making it affordable and easy for the users to upgrade to more functionality as needed. Also, any automation project created in DriveWorks Xpress can be taken to DriveWorks solo. Nothing is lost when you upgrade!  DriveWorks Solo works similarly to Xpress, by using rules and equations, but it’s no longer based on Excel.  Instead, it uses DriveWorks own engine, one that took them nearly three years to develop, but that has made DriveWorks Solo a lot faster and versatile than DriveWorks Xpress.

OK, so at this point everyone in the movie is pretty much satisfied, but the manager of this company still  wants to find out what else they can do with DriveWorks. Can it become a tool that will allow their customer to specify products online? Obtain instant quotes? How about ordering online? Can they use it internally for QA?  The answer, of course, is “yes”, but for all that they need to take it to the next level with DriveWorks Pro. Plus, when they use DriveWorks Pro they can configure their products inside SolidWorks, interactively, locally or via the web, making it extremely useful as a marketing and sales tool that even non-technical individuals can benefit from.  Just as before, nothing is lost when you upgrade; all projects created in DriveWorks Xpress and/or Solo can be reused in DriveWorks Pro.

The event was informative, undoubtedly, but also extremely entertaining, specially whenever things didn’t exactly go as expected. What can I say? I love the sense of humor from the UK!  I give this movie two thumbs up. You won’t see it nominated for an academy award anytime soon, but I do hope we’ll get to see the final production at their site in the near future. Once again, I want to thank Maria Sarkar for inviting me to the event. Thank you! It was great!

Oh, something else, before I forget: Did you know that other products, such as SolidCAM and SolidWorks Enterprise PDM have partnered with DriveWorks to provide the customers with even more automation power? Yep, that’s right! Isn’t that cool?  If you want more information about DriveWorks or their partners, visit any of their product specific websites:

http://www.driveworksxpress.com

http://www.driveworkssolo.com

http://www.driveworks.co.uk

Notice that only DriveWorks Xpress is included in every seat of SolidWorks, but you can download and try DriveWorks Solo for 30 days completely free. Visit their site for more details.

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