Whew!  What a trip!  I haven’t had much sleep in the last 36 hours, so after this, I’m off to bed!

The social dinner event was tonight at the Xalet de Montjuic; great views, great food, and great conversation.  I was joined at my table by Kerri Dunne and Fielder Hiss of SolidWorks, Mike Puckett, Ray Kurland, Darby Johnson, Kathleen Maher, and Ken Versprille.

The bulk of the conversation involved picking Fielder’s mind with where they are headed, how they determine what additions/changes get implemented, and I asked his opinion on the current OpenGL/DirectX debate.  Fielder stressed how they use data from many sources to determine what features got implemented, from customer enhancement requests, customer visits, and surveys.  He also confirmed that SolidWorks 2009 SP0.0 has went live today.

Fielder mentioned that he was unaware of the recent hoopla over OpenGL vs. DirectX, but said that SolidWorks was constantly evaluating both technologies.  He said that he currently thought that OpenGL was the better technology for the task.  SolidWorks has communication channels open with the various video chip vendors and works with each to resolve any issues that may arise.  When the issue of another company having to do their OpenGL testing in software mode to have a homogeneous OpenGL platform, he mentioned that that was a disservice to customers, as it was not similar to how they used it in work.

We also got some information out of Kerri as to what the offsite event for SolidWorks World 2009 in Orlando, Florida, was going to be.  It looks as if we will be taking a trip to Disney’s Animal Kingdom!

Well, that’s enough for tonight, I gotta get some sleep!