Organize, Organize, Organize
When designing certain products your feature manager tree can often times become extremely long. This is evident in part models with features and in assemblies with components. There are times when you create an assembly that you use the same part multiple times. An excellent rule of thumb to have when using SolidWorks is to keep your tree organized and neat so that the next person that may have to modify your file can easily find things. One way that I have found especially helpful in doing this is to organize things in folders. By doing this it is very easy to hide/show the components in these folders all at one time. I have just recently started doing this more and more and I am loving it more and more every time. It is nice also that you can rename these folders whatever you like so that you can easily identify what is in the folder.
How to do it? Right click on any feature or component in the tree and select “Add to New Folder”. After your folder has been created it is a matter of dragging and dropping your other features or parts into the folder.
Our Thoughts Are With You VA Tech.
After reading Matt Lombard’s blog earlier today (Virginia Tech) concerning the events that happened yesterday at Virginia Tech I felt the need to also send my condolances to all have been affected by this mass tragedy that occured. Please accept my sincere sympathy in regards to this situation.
Underdefined Sketches = Slower Rebuilds
Devon Sowell recently posted a blog that was really interesting to me concerning how underdefined sketches seem to slow down your rebuild times. Please go here to read more:
SolidWorks 2008 Beta Testing is Here!!!
Hello again everyone. It is that time of year again to sign up for the annual beta testing that SolidWorks offers. SolidWorks released the following statement concerning this:
SolidWorks 2008 Beta program registration now open
Sign up today to participate in the SolidWorks 2008 Beta program. We have added over 200 enhancements to SolidWorks 2008 to help designers better Focus on Design, and not CAD, reuse their existing Designs to save time and design with confidence. This year, for the first time ever, the grand prize winner will receive a full commercial copy of SolidWorks 2008 Office Premium and a one year subscription service.
If anyone is interested in participating in this please follow this link to register yourself: SolidWorks Beta Registration. Just as a reminder, if you decide to become a beta tester be sure not to open any of your current files with the beta software, it may cause you to loose that file should you want to work on it with your current version again. Be sure to install the beta software in a separate file for testing. Talk to everyone later.
User Group = User Friendly
As I had mentioned in my 1st post one of the things that I love the most about the SolidWorks software is the community of users that are available at your every need. SolidWorks User Groups are a great example of this community. If you are a SolidWorks user and are not part of a user group, I would highly recommend finding one and attending it. You can find the nearest one by you by going to the following site: http://www.swugn.org. I joined the West Michigan SolidWorks User Group last summer and we have meetings on a quarterly basis. These meetings usually consist of 2 or more presentations by either someone at the local SolidWorks reseller or just a user that has something to share. These presentations can become rather useful because it usually deals with something that you use on a daily basis and you get to see how someone else uses it. The one part that I thoroughly enjoy is the time when it is a open floor for all in attendance to bring up things that they are struggling with and discuss it with all of the other users. So I would just like to encourage you if you are not already part of a user group, find one. They are one of the biggest benefits that I enjoy with the software and I look forward to the next one from the moment I walk out of one.
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