Stuff to do at SEU: Synchronous eBook and User Groups

I suppose I can’t do a whole series of what to do at SEU without mentioning my own stuff. I’ve got two sessions at SEU this year.

Wednesday 3 pm I will talk about the new eBook written about Synchronous. The name seems to keep changing, and I think it’s the last person who does editing on the final copy who will wind up naming it. It has been variously called The Zen of Synchronous, Synchronous for History Based Users, Steering New Directions in Design with Solid Edge and Synchronous Technology, and Solid Edge with synchronous technology: Steering a new course in 3D design.

Anyway, I will simply refer to it as “the book”. I’ve had a lot of questions about when it will be fully available, and I really don’t have a good answer, nor do I have much to do with all of that at this point. I would guess that its gonna be done by SEU, but I thought that last year too. We are presumably going to be providing a link at SEU for the complete book. It’s about 150 pages, and will include videos and sample files.

The book is really meant to help people who are so caught up in the history based method of 3D modeling that they have trouble accepting that other methods might be as good or better in some situations. I try to dispell some myths about Synchronous, such as that Sync is not parametric, that it’s goal is to eliminate history based modeling, that you can’t control design intent with Sync, that it is really just direct edit, or that popular history based CAD programs can actually do direct edit.

Plus, there are a lot of things we as long-time history based users just tend to forget or forgive when it comes to history, and the feature tree, and parent/child relations. Don’t forget all the pain that daisy-chained relations have caused you while defending all those dependencies.

I can’t give away my whole shpiel before the show, just to say that this will be a session worth attending if you’re on the edge, or a Synchronous Skeptic at all.

Thurs 11:15 is my session on How to Start Your Own User Group. A lot of people seem to assume that starting a group is difficult, or that someone like you can’t do it, but none of that is actually the case. Anyone can start a group. I’ve got a set of steps to show you how to get started, and I even outline where you’re going to run into difficulty, and how to get around that. User groups can be a lot of fun, and very educational. They can even help you out in your work or business. If you’re curious about user groups even a little bit, this will be 45 minutes of your time in Indianapolis that is well spent. Plus, you can get one of my business cards, which might give you a chuckle.

In either case, I hope to see some of you at these sessions at SEU. Come up and introduce yourself after the presentation.