Road Trip!

Yesterday I made the just under 3 hour trip to the east side of Michigan and attended the EMSWUG meeting in Troy, MI which is just north of Detroit. Dan Bovinich, the group leader and honorable mention for User Group Leader of the Year at SolidWorks World 2008, did a wonderful job setting this event up and keeping it moving on schedule. There was roughly 50 attendees at this meeting which was held at the beautiful Automation Alley building. Attendees were treated to great lunch, a lot of networking opportunities and 2 presentations that were given by an AE at each of the 2 resellers here in the Wolverine state.

Dan led the meeting off by doing a quick 8 picture slide show of some of the things that were featured and seen at SolidWorks World 2008 in San Diego, CA. This was good as it was a quick way to possibly wet the appetite of some users that may be interested in attending the event next year in Orlando, FL. Next, Dan did a brief polling of the attendees as to which version of SolidWorks they were running and what operating system they were running it on. I found it very interesting how many people where still using SolidWorks 2007 as their #1 CAD program and had not upgraded to SolidWorks 2008 yet. Dan then introduced the first presentation and presenter of the afternoon. Jon Benavides from Fisher/Unitech did a presentation titled "90 Tips in 90 Minutes". This was a presentation that he had taken and modified from someone that had presented it at SolidWorks 2007. His presentation offered a lot of information in what seemed to be a short amount of time. There were definitely things that were shown however that peaked a lot of peoples attention because I noticed quite a bit of note taking during his presentation. The tips and tricks style presentations in my eyes are always good because they are easy things to take back the workplace and start using the next day.

After a short 15 minute break Dan introduced the 2nd presenter of the afternoon which was John MacArthur from DASI Solutions. John is also known for his 3rd place finish in the reseller category of Model Mania this past year at SolidWorks World. John did a presentation titled "Die Design Using SolidWorks". John showed how he created a fully functioning progressive die in SolidWorks and he also highlighted the many different aspects of die design during his presentation. After he gave a brief overview of the different areas included in die design he showed a fully animated movie of his progressive die in action. He accomplished this by using many configurations in his assembly that highlighted each step in the forming process. John did a nice job with this presentation and I saw a lot of nodding heads and could see some wheels turning for different people when John began to show how he created the animation of his die. John finished his presentation by showing some of the different animations that he has created over the years, going as far back as 2001.

One thing that I love about the SolidWorks software, user group meetings and SolidWorks World is that you can watch a presentation that is the farthest thing away from the industry that you are in but there is a good chance that if you are really paying attention you will still pull something from that presentation that can be implemented in your area of expertise.

So now I guess I have to wait until May to attend my next user group meeting which will be the WMSWUG meeting on May 13, 2008 in Zeeland, Michigan. Lenny Kikstra and Mike Garvelink are currently on tap to present at this meeting so if you are in the area make sure to mark it on your calendar as a must attend event.

Mar 28 2008

Was He Really?

As of the past week there has been a certain buzz around the CAD community about a top executive of a 3D CAD software being a member of the now famous MIT blackjack team that took millions of dollars from the Las Vegas casinos. The new "21" movie that opens today is about this group of students and seems to have set off the CAD community on a wild goose chase trying to figure out if some of the stories that are floating around are actually true or not. I was first tipped off to this "rumor" last week when I was watching a video that Gabi Jack had posted of Vic Leventhal’s presentation at the Tri-Valley SolidWorks User Group and Vic had mentioned it. I actually had to start the video over from the beginning to make sure that I had heard him right the first time.

Well, by now most of you probably know that I am talking about Jon Hirschtick, the co-founder of SolidWorks. Now as a disclaimer I want to state that I have not heard this directly from Jon’s mouth but an article that I read today at EnterpriseNews.com more or less states this as the truth in an interview that Bob Tremblay did with Jon. Maybe I will get a personal confirmation of this through this post but we will have to see. The article I read titled "Former MIT blackjack team member talks about breaking the bank" was a VERY interesting read and very insightful to all the rumors that have been flying around. In the article it mentions that Jon to this day is not allowed in around a dozen Las Vegas casino’s and that he doesn’t use his real name or bet a lot of money in the others in order to prevent a red flag from being raised. Now I want to know if some of the names used in the video that previewed SolidWorks 2009 at the Wednesday morning general session at SolidWorks World are some of Jon’s alias’s at the casino or could be in the future. Oops, I hope I didn’t just blow that for him.

I had the opportunity this past year at SolidWorks World to sit down and have a one on one interview with Jon and found him to be an extremely intelligent, down to earth and all around great guy. Jon is one of those people that you love to surround yourself with because he has a great personality and is simply fun to be around. You can check out my interview with him here and here.

I will tell you one thing, having this tie to the movie definitely makes me want to see it and see what kind of events probably in a round about way led to the beginning and funding of the SolidWorks software that now know.

Mar 26 2008

Do You Use CircuitWorks? Maybe You Will Now!

If you haven’t already heard, SolidWorks today announced that the have purchased Priware. Priware’s chief product was the popular SolidWorks add on CircuitWorks. Starting with SolidWorks 2008 sp4.0 CircuitWorks will now be included in the Premium package of the SolidWorks software. If you can’t wait until the next release to get this product you can go to the Downloads and Updates page and get CircuitWorks sp3.0 right now.

If you want to view the press release you can view it here: SolidWorks acquires CircuitWorks provider Priware

If you are already a CircuitWorks customer or reseller click here for information about how this will affect you.

Devon Sowell and Ricky Jordan have also already posted about this so be sure to check out their sites also. And Richard Doyle seems extremely excited about this also so check out what he has to say about it.

Mar 16 2008

SolidWorks Keyboard Shortcuts…Alter or Leave Alone?

After doing my presentation this past week on creating a smoother workflow I began to think about a recurring comment that I seem to hear when the keyboard shortcuts topic comes up. Some people tend to try and leave the "out of the box" SolidWorks keyboard shortcuts alone so that when someone uses that workstation they know exactly what some of the shortcuts are. My opinion on this topic is to customize everything so that it benefits the main user for that workstation. Now if you are working as tech support or doing training,then this is a different situation and I would recommend leaving the defaults alone so that it benefits the people you are helping or teaching. I understand where you would want to leave the defaults alone so that anyone can get on that workstation and be semi-efficient but if it is at the cost of the person that is working on that system the majority of the time being slower and less efficient I ask the question…is it really worth it? This is where you really need to weigh your options.

One way that I see as a possible fix to this problem is to set up a system where you are saving your settings on a weekly or daily basis, or at least making sure that you save them every time you make at least one change to your toolbars, shortcuts and so on. You could then give the users a flash drive that they could save their settings to so that whenever they have to move to another workstation all they would have to do is plug in their flash drive, restore their settings using the Copy Settings Wizard and now they have all of their settings on the system they are using. I think this would work flawlessly as long as everyone is saving their customized settings as they should be, but hey I guess if they are not and they loose all of their settings it may prove the point to them that they should be doing this. I think this is what they call tough love.

I am sure there are a lot of differing opinions on this topic and even systems that companies have set in place and I welcome them to be shared here.

Mar 16 2008

WOW! What A Week…

Well, the weekend is finally here (and nearly done already) but after the past week any little break in the action is loved. The past week included 3 family birthdays (one being my own), a user group meeting that I helped plan and presented at, an all day meeting (that was more than worth it) and the other typical activities that find their way into your nightly activities. Oh and all of this is on top of working 10 1/2 hour days.

The WMSWUG held their first meeting since February of 2007 on Tuesday night with a turn out equal to or a touch greater than the last meeting. We had roughly 30-35 in attendance to hear my presentation "Tips for Creating a Smoother Workflow" and Matthew Cummins presentation "Beginner to Expert: Top Ten Assembly Modeling Tips and Tricks". It was an awesome night that included a lot of attendee interaction which is what a user group is all about in my opinion. I think it is a failed user group meeting if none of the people in attendance say anything all night and the only people talking are the ones that are doing the presentations. I had the chance to meet a few people that I had communicated with on the phone and through emails but had never actually met face to face before. This is one of the things I love most about these type of meetings, the ability to finally put faces to names. I already am getting fired up about our next meeting which is planned to be on May 13, this one will feature a couple of more presentations that will be worth every attendees time. I want to thank all of those that attended Tuesday’s meeting for coming out and making this meeting a success and I look forward to hopefully seeing all of you and more at the next one.

Mar 11 2008

Here We Go Again!

Well here we go again! Last night SolidWorks released the next sub service pack to version 3.0. SolidWorks released sp3.1 to the general public but there are no notes yet as to what the changes are for this release. If you are ready to take on the monster of keeping up with the service pack releases you can download the latest one in the Download Center of the SolidWorks Customer Portal. But, if you are not ready to download this release yet watch the Service Pack Maintenance Notes page to see if they post what the changes are and if then you can decide if they are important to you or not.

I am currently in the middle of downloading it right now so if I notice any major changes I will be sure to post them right here.

Mar 10 2008

I Am Glad We Made The Move!

Last week I had to do a project in AutoCAD and I all I have to say is I am glad that the management at my company decided 2 years ago to move into the world of 3D. Now I want to state right now that this by no means is meant to rip on AutoCAD or any of their products. After spending 99% of my design time in a 3D world it felt like I went back to the days of a hammer and chisel when I went back to do my project in 2D. The nightmares of being able to draw a sketch to whatever size I wanted as long the dimensions read correctly flashed before my eyes. I found myself viciously trying to rotate my models to see it at all angles but with no success. It made me realize what the people that are still designing in a 2D world are missing and they don’t even know it.

Back in the fall of 2005 my company purchased its first CNC machine which triggered the process of getting some sort of a CAM software into our company. After looking at multiple CAM programs and what they had to offer we started to think that this was also the time for us to move from AutoCAD 2D to some sort of a 3D package. We looked at Autodesk’s version of 3D software and then also SolidWorks. SolidWorks caught my eye instantly because it offered everything that we were looking for. It offered an awesome 3D design package, a CAM package that could be run right inside the CAD software and a HUGE user community in our area. Thus began our journey towards SolidWorks. We ended up purchasing 2 network licenses of SolidWorks and 1 network license of CamWorks. Since then we have purchased 2 more stand alone licenses to our repertoire.

So back to today (sorry for the time warp), for any company that is still working in a 2D environment you need to know that its time to change. We questioned it many times if we really needed a 3D software package because of the industry we are in and to this day I still hear comments like "There is no way we could do THIS in AutoCAD?" and "How did we ever design things in 2D?". So finally to my point, if you are questioning the benefits of switching from 2D to 3D, contact me and I will give you multiple reasons why my company has moved to the next tier in our industry BECAUSE of SolidWorks. If you don’t think you will benefit from it, you will! If you don’t see a benefit in it, I guarantee you will once you start using it! And if you still doubt it, contact me and I will share in more detail the benefits that we now see that we were completely blind to when we were still drawing in 2D.

Mar 6 2008

West Michigan SolidWorks User Group Meeting

MEETING DETAILS

When – Next Tuesday 03-11-2008

Time: 5:30pm – 8:30pm

Where: Colonial Clock Building

201 West Washington

Zeeland , MI 49464

AGENDA (Presenters)
_____________________________________________________
Tips for Creating a Smoother Work Flow
Jason Raak, RockSolid Perspective
Does your wrist ever feel like Jell-O at the end of the day because you are moving your mouse from the top of your screen to the bottom to left then to the right? This presentation will help you create a smoother work flow using SolidWorks 2008. It will cover how to completely customize the new user interface so that you are more productive and feel better at the end of the day; this presentation will be all about YOU! You will also receive a sneak peak at the new SolidWorks 2009 features that were announced at SolidWorks World 2008.

_____________________________________________________

Beginner to Expert: Top Ten Assembly Modeling Tips and Tricks
Matthew Cummins, Tacton Systems
Assembly modeling in SolidWorks… it’s a love-hate relationship. Love the benefits of having a robust representation of your complete assembly; hate the tedious process of browsing for parts, adding mates, setting up configurations, maintaining relationships when components change, updating file references, etc., etc. This presentation explores ten favorite tips/tricks for reducing the hate and sharing the love. They will range from simple shortcuts you can start using the next day to system wide strategies that can profoundly affect your entire company. There should be something for everyone, regardless of skill level or industry.

_____________________________________________________

Feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions!

Mar 2 2008

And The Winner Is?

So the polls are officially closed and all of the votes have been tallied. A little under a month ago I started a poll here about "Where Do You Go FIRST To Get Your SolidWorks Technical Problems Answered". I had an inkling when I began this poll that the SolidWorks Discussion Forums would win but I was completely amazed at how the rest of the votes shaped up. The SolidWorks Discussion Forums finished #1 with 11 of 29 votes (38%) and in a close second the "Other" Category finished with 9 of 29 votes (31%). This surprised me the most of anything else during this vote. A site that I knew about but visited very infrequently seems to be one of the top SolidWorks forums out there, eng-tips.com was the one that the most people let me know was what their other vote was for. This surprised me a lot. But hey, I think I now have a new resource to look at when I am looking for answers. Following the "Other" category was VAR Tech Support with received 5 of 29 votes (17%) and then it was Solid Mentor which got 4 of 29 votes (14%). Comp.Cad.SolidWorks and Members of Your Local User Group did not receive any votes.

So now that the votes have been revealed lets take a closer look at what all of this voting tells us. As I stated before the SolidWorks Discussion Forums finished #1 which was not a surprise to me at all. Richard Doyle filled me in on some awesome numbers when I first started this vote, he said that SolidWorks Discussion Forums has more then 43,500 registered members and from my experience the turn around time between posting a question and getting an answer is extremely short, which everyone knows time is valuable. The SolidWorks Discussion Forums is where I personally go first and foremost for any questions I come across. The second place vote getter was the "Other" category which I am guessing that eng-tips.com carried this category on its back (if you voted for other and it wasn’t eng-tips.com please let me know). I do not know a whole lot about this resource but I will tell you one thing, I will definitely be checking it out closer now. From what I have seen so far it looks like it could become another valuable site to add to my bookmarks. Coming in third was the good ‘ole VAR Tech Support. I do not know if the 5 votes that they received are a good thing or a discouraging number. I think the 5 in one way is a good number because that means there are still people that are going to their VAR for any and all problems that they have but on the other hand it shows that users are going to a lot of other resources to get their problems and questions answered quickly but are still paying the big price tag each year for their updates but not so much for the tech support that they receive with these subscription services. This may be another discussion for another day. The last site to receive any votes was Ben Eadie’s brain child Solid Mentor which I think is a testament to what this site is going to become. The forum portion of this site is just getting going and I think that it is only going up from where it is right now. I was extremely surprised to see the Comp.Cad.SolidWorks did not receive a single vote, I thought that this site would be in a fight for the #2 resource. Well if nothing else this little vote gave some users an inside track on other places to check out for help (like me with eng-tips.com). Thanks to all of you who took the time to vote.

By the way, this was not meant to discourage the use of any of the sites or resources that were mentioned here. I believe everything mentioned is a viable resource that can be utilized if needed.

RockSolid Perspective – Jason Raak

Monthly Archives: March 2008