Our Top 3 Takeaways from SolidWorks World 2018

We were able to attend SolidWorks World earlier this month. There were so many product announcements, customer use cases and new technology demonstrations that we wanted to highlight our favorite takeaways. Here are our team’s top 3 from the event…

1.  Virtual and augmented reality is HOT!!!

As we walked around the show floor, it seemed like everyone in the partner pavilion had some form of a VR headset or an AR demo.  Meron Gricetz, the CEO of Meta, even demoed his headset in the General Session.

A VR/AR visual configurator places the prospect inside a computer-generated 3D scene, where he can look in any direction, move about and interact with the product. VR/AR is particularly effective when designing interior spaces such as a custom kitchen or an office layout. KBMax showcased our AR solution at DreamForce last year since we see the power of this technology in the B2B sales process especially for manufacturers.

2.  Cloud is the future.

One of the biggest announcements at the show was SolidWorks’ new CAD cloud solution called xDesign. SolidWorks user Ed Gebo, who is well respected in the SolidWorks community, was on stage to recount his time using the software and give it his stamp of approval.  We were also able to try it out in the Partner Pavilion and can’t wait for the beta version to become widely available for us to start using.

At KBMax, we are also sold on the fact that the cloud is the future.  Allowing you access to everything you need from anywhere you are without the typical hardware constraints.  Our product is completely built in the cloud for this reason and the partners we work with, like Salesforce, are also cloud based.

3.  SolidWorks customers are extremely diverse.

Each day a part of the General Session highlighted how SolidWorks customers are using their technology in many different ways. Solidworks helped design the pods in The Passenger movie. It’s used to create power surfboards and design motorcycles. And the platform is used for social good. It is now being used to create devices to help people walk again after 25 years of being in a wheelchair.

We loved seeing these different use cases since our customers use our CPQ solution in diverse ways as well. Our product is used for configuring and manufacturing sheds, lighting displays and healthcare solutions.

We’re excited to hear about the latest use cases and advancements next year in Dallas!