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| Jon layout from 94, later to become SolidWorks Feature Tree |
We love innovations, especially when an intriguing story is behind
the development. Apple sells a story like this once year, and the Facebook story
became a successful movie. However, in the technological world of CAD software
we are lacking new drama, while Cinderella's story in the field of computer vector
design occurs rarely. At the last thirty years we saw only three such stories
that grew to become huge success and are still with us. The first was Autodesk
that retired out drawing board in favour the PC; the other is PTC, who taught
the world that a three-dimensional CAD is realistic and efficient. The third
and last was SolidWorks who delivered rebuts 3D CAD for every one.
Two weeks ago we learned from some blogs that Jon Hirschtick, founder of
SolidWorks, along with some of the senior staff who accompanied him for many
years at SW, formed a new company and announced he is recruiting talented
programmers. What they are developing or the direction is kept under strict
media blackout.
The people behind the new organization, all with an impressive proven
record at the CAD industry, produced a high level of expectation and curiosity
to find out what is being cooked at the garage. The limited information given,
suggests that they have not decided yet what they are developing. But, Jon Hirschtick
always disliked the release of information to the public before having a
product ready in hand. When he was SolidWorks CEO, the company gave zero information
regarding new version or product before they are ready to release to the
market. Not quite the policy today when the
CEO shows V6 snapshots 2.5 years ago and no product yet.
Perhaps the people and their history can possibly teach a little
bit about what is expected of the new company, named Belmont Technology, Inc.
Jon Hirschtick, a man with vision and charisma, recognized
worldwide as the creator of SolidWorks served as the first CEO. Jon use to say that his mission is to design a
CAD software that is easy to use and as fast as the simple light switch in the
room. I met Jon recently at Orlando in 2010, shortly after Jeff Ray made his unnecessary
and very early announcement of the next generation of SolidWorks. Jon sounded reluctant about the early exposure
and told me that it was contrary to his opinion. We talked about his interest
in new projects combining innovative hardware with CAD software. Few steps from
there, I met Scott Harris,
who also is a member of the new company from Belmont. Scott's stand at the InfiniteZ booth, demoing a device for a virtual
CAD models 3D manipulating. Scott is one of SolidWorks founders and dealt in a number
of unique technological projects at DS/SW. The 3D
Teamworks, was released in 2002, and was a project that allowed for remote
teams with different CAD systems to share information. Later, Scott was responsible for the Cosmic Blobs, free-hand 3D modeler software
for kids.
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| Cosmic Blobs |
Other members at Belmont Technology are Tommy Li, who in 2002 met
with SolidWorks users in Israel and lectured on the direction of the software
and Dave Corcoran that
along with Tommy Li, left SolidWorks in 2007 to establish a CAD technology company,
later sold to Autodesk. Dave led the development momentum at SolidWorks best
years memorable mainly because of customer complaints that the software
progresses too quickly...
Scott Harris may
argue that they still didn't wrote a single line of code, but with John McEleney as a CEO, I
believe that the direction is already known and the product is on the way. McEleney, the second CEO at SolidWorks,
is one of the nicest people you can meet in CAD industry. As CEO, John led SolidWorks
from a small start – up company to a serious player in the MCAD market. His openness
and honesty made him extremely popular among the vendors and the users. I can't
forget that during the difficult period we had with suicide bombing in Tel Aviv,
when foreign executives refused to fly to Tel Aviv, John showed commitment and solidarity,
and came to Israel without hesitations.
So what they are developing there? Is this another cloud software
technology with direct editing? Or, perhaps it is a new way to revolutionary design
that combines a new hardware with unique software that will enables us to
design in 3D quickly and easily as ... switch on/off electric bulb.
Good luck!
Gal Raz
