Rich Hall’s BLOG

In this installment of the EDUCATORS CORNER,  I will be talking with a former SWUG leader who now spends his extra time teaching at the post secondary level in Oregon.  Let’s see what he has to say about using SolidWorks in Education!

Richard Hall (RH): Hi Adam. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m Adam Scheible (AS).  As a child, I had a fascination with engineering. More specifically, I liked process engineering and eventually took a drafting class in middle school. I continued this pursuit by attending Benson Polytechnic High School in Portland, Oregon, then started classes for mechanical engineering. In 1996 I started working full time for a local Medical/Dental manufacturer. I became active in the Portland Area SolidWorks User Group, and was elected as their leader for three years. Over the past three years I have taught at both Portland Community and Clackamas Community Colleges. Currently I teach one or two SolidWorks classes weekly at Portland Community College. You can follow me on Twitter at @adamiser. 

Adam Scheible

RH: Do you have any industry experience? If so what and/or who with?

AS: I work full time for Beaverstate Dental, a Medical/Dental manufacturer in Newberg, Oregon. I have been there since 1996, and manage Sustaining Engineering and Quality Control. I also do various contracting/consulting jobs with local companies. This full time involvement in industry enables me to stay on the edge of the daily workings of the SolidWorks program, community, and processes.

RH: What led you to become a teacher?

AS: I have always enjoyed teaching and mentoring. When I made the case to purchase SolidWorks at Beaverstate Dental in 2002, I joined the local SolidWorks user group. I was an active participant and presenter, and became the user group leader in 2005. I held that position until December 2008 when I needed to give more time to my family and teaching.  (Richard Doyle’s comments on Adam)   

RH: Why do you teach CAD with SolidWorks?

AS: Why SolidWorks? That’s easy, it’s my professional tool of choice. I can have more done at the end of the day with SolidWorks.

RH: How long have you been teaching?

AS: I have taught at the college level for three years. I have been an active member of PASWUG for seven years, and continue to be supportive of the growing SolidWorks community through work, schools, and social media.

RH: Why do you teach CAD with SolidWorks?

AS: I teach SolidWorks because of the culture of both the SolidWorks/Dassault company and SolidWorks community. It’s what I use in industry and what I believe in. Basically it’s the best tool for my daily livelihood.

RH: What SolidWorks certifications if any do you currently hold?

AS: I don’t have any certifications, but am trying to get the nerve up to take my Certified SolidWorks Professional (CSWP) test before the summer break.

RH: What are your classes (age range and/or skill level)

AS: My student’s range from young adults to older, transitioning adults. Their skill level is across the board too. Most are working toward their BSME, but some are just trying to add to their skill set. Needless to say the classes are in high demand by everyone and we had to add another session this term. The popularity of SolidWorks is showing its relevance in all aspects of industry. This diversity is shown in each of my classes.

RH: What is a typical classroom day like for you?

AS: I work full time, and teach two nights per week. So, after a day at the office, I open the lab at 5:00pm to let my student’s work/learn/ask. I start teaching at 6:00pm and usually lecture for two hours. The next two hours are work time where I canvas the room helping students individually. I conclude my day at 10:00pm and then drive home to have dinner and kiss my sleeping kids goodnight. I repeat as necessary.

RH: What is your preferred teaching method? What method of teaching SolidWorks have you found to be successful?

AS: I have tried various textbooks and found strengths and weaknesses with all of them. Like Marc Nelson I used the SolidWorks Mountain Board project for a few terms. However, since I use SolidWorks professionally on a daily basis, I could not endorse some of the methods it presented. So, I wrote my own book and augment this with annotated video tutorials. Most importantly, I teach the “big picture” instead of button pushing. I’ve created my own version of the essentials course. I try to set up each lecture in three stages. 1) Key ideas outlined in a bulleted list. 2) Scripted example as a step by step lecture showing each button press. 3) Workflow example showing methodologies and thought process. 1, 2, 3 that’s it. Oh, I’m also a PowerPoint hater, and never use it.

RH: What curriculum and industry standards do you teach?

AS: Academically, I don’t have any curriculum standards. Likewise, I don’t have to teach to any industrial standard because I don’t just cater to drafting students. I’ve had students from mechanical engineering, industrial design, and manufacturing; so I try to focus on SolidWorks functionality instead of a specific industry or standard. That’s not to say they won’t learn drafting standards, but there is more to SolidWorks than drafting.

RH: How do you use the SolidWorks Educator resources and curriculum in teaching your class?

AS: For a long time the SolidWorks Educator resources were on the installation DVDs. However, the school IT department does the install before classes start. So, I never saw the materials offered. Then, there was a time that those resources were made available on the website and I was able to grab the mountain board project. However, this fall the SolidWorks website went through a major overhaul and the educator resources were not available. So, I don’t use the educator resources. Did I mention I tried the Mountain Board project two terms a while back? I could tell you more about it off the record. I just like to do things my own way. However, I see that content has been added to the SolidWorks Educators Blog, so I’ll have to check it out.

RH: Do you have any work from the students you are able to and would like to share? (pictures or models)

AS: I feel I should ask students permission before I share any of their intellectual property or projects, but I can tell you about our core classroom project. I build my class around a simple Lego set. Each piece we model illustrates various SolidWorks tools and functionality. We assemble the blocks to build various vehicles, and output drawings, renderings, and bills of materials like any company would expect.

RH: What industry do you teach for or what is the prevalent industry in your area that would eventually hire a SolidWorks trained person?

AS: Oregon still has a large high tech sector. We have the Intel headquarters, Nike, and a lot of bio-tech upstarts. Everyone is using SolidWorks at one level or another.

RH: What universities or community colleges are nearby that your students would attend and pursue a course of study with SolidWorks application?

AS: Just about all technical colleges and schools in the area use SolidWorks. Most post secondary schools are transitioning away from ProE and moving to SolidWorks. A partial list includes: Portland Community, Clackamas Community, Oregon State University (Beavers), University of Oregon (Ducks), University of Washington (Huskies), Clark College.

RH: Have you attended SolidWorks World? If so, what was beneficial from a teaching standpoint?

AS: I attended SolidWorks World 2006. Everything I attended and everyone I met was beneficial. However, I did not see an educator presence there at all. I plan on attending next year and hope to do a presentation as an educator. (PS: Don’t steal my ideas.)

RH: Will your school board or current school be willing to fund a trip for you to SolidWorks World?

AS: I will probably be funding the trip to SolidWorks World 2010 on my own. Oregon seems to “spend” money very well, just not on anything anyone wants. I could go through the channels, but remember, I like to do things my own way.

RH: Knowing that most school systems are in desperate financial situations, do you feel that there will be continued support for teaching SolidWorks and CAD drafting skills? If so, is it short term or long term support?

AS: This is a very hot topic for me because I both work in industry and am a member of the school faculty.

<edit: remove inflammatory, political monologue. (AS)>

A restructuring is badly needed. I try to live my life with this simple idea. I can’t discredit something if I haven’t made a real attempt to fix it. Therefore, I joined the curriculum advisory board at Clackamas Community College. One of the options on the table is restructuring the program from a two-year associates degree to a one-year certificate; something Portland Community College did some years ago. However, this is erosion of the highly-prized education model and may eventually lead to erosion of other degree programs. So I don’t have an answer right now, but I am at least taking an active part in the evaluation/solution process.

RH: How important do you feel that teaching SolidWorks/CAD/drafting skills is for the future of engineering and industry in general?

AS: CAD is an integral part of engineering today. At an increasing level engineers are doing their own detailing work. As companies further combine MRP/PDM data and personnel resources, the data shared needs to be current and complete. SolidWorks data is a huge benefit in this collaboration.

RH: What are the biggest challenges you face in teaching SolidWorks/drafting?

AS: My largest hurdle while teaching SolidWorks is un-teaching AutoCAD. When will the world stop teaching this as a current tool??!! To be fair, legacy data exists, but only needs to be maintained for the short term. Getting the students out of the 2D dungeon is the hardest part. Getting them to the wow-factor of SolidWorks is always a great day in the classroom.

RH: What are some goals for your future and do you always plan on teaching?

AS: This country needs engineers. I think our schools have produced too many liberal arts majors in the last 10 years. My goal is to reach younger, middle school age students. I recently talked with Saturday Academy, a local group dedicated to mentoring and offering classes to school kids.  I would like to start teaching SolidWorks classes at this level, but the hurdle now is hardware. We need to get new enough computers to run the next releases of SolidWorks.

Rich,

Thanks for taking the time to interview me and other SolidWorks educators out there. Your outreach through the blog, just like our teaching, helps the engineering community as a whole. Your time and contribution is appreciated by all. Was that the tardy bell? Well, I guess it’s time to get to class.

You are very welcome Adam.  I am very interested in your curriculum compared to other post secondary teachers.  If you are teaching SolidWorks at any level, give me a shout and let’s talk.  See you next time,

admin CAD, Educators Corner featuring SolidWorks, SWUGN, SolidWorks 3-D, CAD, SolidWorks, solidworks education, solidworks user group, Twitter

I am going to begin the Educators Corner by talking with a high school teacher from Michigan. Every time I hear something from this guy it usually is about teaching. I met him on Twitter and I feel he shares the same passions for SolidWorks and for education that the SolidWorks bloggers and most active SolidWorks users do. So without further adieu:

Richard Hall (RH): Hi Marc. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Marc Nelson (MN): My name is Marc Nelson. I currently teach at Greenville High School, Greenville, Michigan. I received my BS in Technology Education, in 2000 from Andrews University and my MA in Industrial Education in 2009 from Central Michigan University. I am currently a member of the West Michigan SolidWorks User Group. My Twitter handle is @marcnelson and my school website is http://www.jackettech.com

RH: Do you have any industry experience?  If so what and/or who with?

MN: I began teaching right out of college so I have very limited industry experience.  I did do an internship for my Master’s degree at Apiaries and Orchard Forklift in Edmore Michigan.  I worked mainly on what would become their parts manual for their main product, the Hummerbee Forklift.  Unfortunately I had to use AutoCAD for most of it and then they went to SolidWorks after I was finished (per my recommend).

RH: What led you to become a teacher?

MN: My desire to become a teacher came from several different influences. I have always enjoyed working with young people and watching them create, design and learn new concepts. I chose the area of industrial education because I enjoyed working with my hands. I thought it would be exciting to work with young people teaching them to apply their creativity to woodworking and metals. After taking drafting in high school, I developed a love for design and drafting and later learned CAD.

RH: How long have you been teaching?

MN: I have been teaching for 9 years, 4 at the middle school level and 5 years at the high school level, all for Greenville Public Schools.

RH: Why do you teach CAD with SolidWorks?

MN: When I started teaching CAD five years ago, the lab was equipped with AutoCAD 2000 LT. Knowing the program was old and that it had issues running on our network, I began looking for something that was based around parametric design concepts as well as a leading contender in the field of CAD software to replace it. Man, I was such a rookie back then. A colleague recommended I try SolidWorks and a vendor supplied me with a trial disk. After a brief love/hate relationship, I began to catch on. SolidWorks seemed to fit in naturally for the students I had try it out. I was able to find a vendor who would support us with our current network configuration (Novell). After having taught with the program for three years now, I have found that students easily catch on to the program due to the fact that today have a basic understanding of 3D space from video games and online experiences.

RH: What SolidWorks certifications if any do you currently hold?

MN: None currently.

RH: What are your classes (age range and/or skill level)

MN: I teach grades 9-12 and all of my classes have a mix of the four grades. Right now my student enrollment is about 140 or so with 28 per class max.

RH: What is a typical classroom day like for you?

MN: My day starts at 6:30 with my Engineering Graphics and Architectural Graphics classes. These are my upper level students. I currently have two CAD 1 classes, which are my introductory CAD classes. There is one CAD 2 class and a CAD 3 class as well. CAD 2 focuses on detail drawings, assemblies, section views, fasteners and some basic CNC through G-code. CAD 3 focuses on surfacing and packaging problems. I also teach a consumer tech class that is focused on basic automotive and home maintenance. It makes for a very busy day that wraps up with students at about 2:30. I then spend the next few hours planning and grading, hoping to not take work home. I am also our building’s technology representative to the district so that is one more duty during the day when issues arise.

RH: What is your preferred teaching method? What method of teaching SolidWorks have you found to be successful?

MN: What ever is successful. I have tried many different approaches and continue to try different things out. Introductory classes always start out with sketching. From there, I have varied my approach. Since I am sort of a traditionalist in the area of drafting, I prefer to teach orthographic projection early in the curriculum. Because I incorporate this early, I often do not jump in and use the SolidWorks educational curriculum right off the bat. In the introductory levels I will often teach the traditional drafting concepts and tie SolidWorks in as the method for obtaining these concepts. In my advanced classes, we spend more time focusing on design and learning.

RH: What curriculum and industry standards do you teach?

MN: My current curriculum is derived from a traditional drafting curriculum. Currently, Michigan does not have a specified drafting or vocational curriculum. The industry in our area varies and so I teach general approach to industry standards. My philosophy has been that since not every student I teach will stay in Greenville, I should prepare them with a good foundation for their post high school education no matter what area of design or engineering they go into.

RH: How do you use the SolidWorks Educator resources and curriculum in teaching your class?

MN: I have used these in various different ways. My engineering graphics class usually does the mountain board project every year. I often assign the tutorial and introductory activities to students who excel and allow them to work at their own pace. I am continually reviewing these materials and seeing how I can incorporate them into my classes. The power points are often a huge benefit as they allow students to refresh or review concepts I have taught about SolidWorks. These are great resources and I don’t fee like I use them enough.

RH: What industry do you teach for or what is the prevalent industry in your area that would eventually hire a SolidWorks trained person?

MN: Locally we have a heavy tooling and tool and die industry influence. But I teach my classes with an open-ended approach when it comes to industry. Since I would love to think that every student that leaves my classroom will continue on into an engineering career with SolidWorks as their chosen application. But as we all know, many times the workplace decides the CAD application and young engineers must learn the new software. Therefore, I want my students to learn two main concepts: 1) How to visually communicate parts through drafting/CAD and 2) How to learn a CAD program. If they have a basic understanding of these to concepts, I feel they will be successful in their post high school educational endeavors.

RH: What universities or community colleges are nearby that your students would attend and pursue a course of study with SolidWorks application?

MN: Our local community college is in the midst of transitioning to SolidWorks. Ferris State University and Central Michigan University also offer SolidWorks training in their engineering programs.

RH: Have you attended SolidWorks World? If so, what was beneficial from a teaching standpoint?

MN: Unfortunately no. But how many days till SWW10? The bloggers and Twitter users did a great job at giving the highlights, but I look forward to being there in person next year and meeting everyone. I feel like I have so much to learn and I could benefit so much from seeing when is being done with SolidWorks.

RH: Will your school board or current school be willing to fund a trip for you to SolidWorks World?

MN: This I am not totally sure of. I put in for it this year, but it happened to be about the same time that we found our funding was going to be lower than projected. I am sure the school administration would be happy to send me if there were outside funding options such as grants or donations.

RH: Knowing that most school systems are in desperate financial situations, do you feel that there will be continued support for teaching SolidWorks and CAD drafting skills? If so, is it short term or long term support?

MN: Continued support at the district level is very high as long as we can financially support it. Support from the state is questionable. Not doubt, with Michigan’s revised high school curriculum and budget cuts, electives are being cut in many districts. My short-term projection is we will be here. Long term projection is, well, I am not sure enough on that one to say. I would love to say we would be here for a while but with some wacky decisions being made, I can’t say for sure.

RH: How important do you feel that teaching SolidWorks/CAD/drafting is for the future of engineering and industry in general?

MN: Teaching the skills incorporated in SolidWorks are very important for our future. We as teachers are training tomorrow’s engineers, the ones to face greater challenges in design and conquer the challenges we cannot overcome today. The SolidWorks CAD package allows me to teach students to think critically and make changes based on data presented to them through the COSMOS applications. It allows them to see how entire assemblies work together to formulate a working solution to a problem. And teamwork can be incorporated into the learning process much like in an engineering design center.

RH: What are the biggest challenges you face in teaching SolidWorks/drafting?

MN: Two big challenges: time, the network and internal tech support. I really wish I had more time to sit down and become better with SolidWorks, learn it from one side to the other so I feel more proficient with it when I teach it. Second, our district is cross platform (Mac and PC) and we are running the district network on a Novell network. I am not going to go into the details, it adds complications along with how work orders are problem solved and resolved.

RH: What are some goals for your future and do you always plan on teaching?

MN: My plans for the future have always been to continue teaching. I love kids and teaching them to think and learn on their own while designing being creative. That is not to say I wouldn’t change my plans if the right job came along. I have considered working towards a college level position and even considered going back to school for an engineering degree.

Marc, Thanks for taking some time to share with me and everyone else about your life and passion for teaching and for SolidWorks.

admin CAD, Educators Corner featuring SolidWorks, SolidWorks 3-D, CAD, SolidWorks, solidworks education, Twitter

I am going to start what I hope is a regular feature article here on my blog.  The Educators Corner Featuring SolidWorks will spotlight different educators who use SolidWorks to teach CAD/drafting in their classrooms.  Educators from primary to post secondary schools will be featured.  The intent is to showcase the educators and to share information that will be beneficial to the teachers but ultimately to the students.  I believe that we as SolidWorks professionals should get involved with and support the teachers and students in our area as much as possible to help bring more awareness of SolidWorks into the industry pipelines.  SolidWorks User Groups can help but it will take individuals to get the unity and awareness that I feel is possible to support the educators that feed students into our industries.  I have a few educators that I will be sending a survey/questionnaire out to and then post the responses in an interview format (at least that’s the plan).  I need your help to suggest other SolidWorks educators to cover here.  Please comment on the post or you can email me directly at rich_hall@richardwhall.com.  Web links and contact information would be very helpful!  Thanks for your support in this endeavor.

Helpful education links:

SolidWorks User Group Network (Get involved and join a local user group today.  Information can be found here!)

SolidWorks Educators Blog  This site is dedicated to assisting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) instructors in incorporating SolidWorks into their course curriculum.

SolidWorks Corporation  Helpful links for Educators and Students

admin CAD, Educators Corner featuring SolidWorks, SolidWorks CAD, education, SolidWorks, solidworks education, solidworks user group, SWUGN

I wanted to walk through the breakout sessions that I attended and give a brief summary of each and my impressions.  All of the sessions were informative and had relevant content based on what I needed during my attendance.  Since my company is contemplating moving to a new PDM system, my concentration was on anything PDM related.  I enjoyed all the sessions although 2 were “death by powerpoint” and almost put me in a coma.  To everyone’s sessions I mention here, keep up the good work and for the death by powerpoint guys, try and have some varied content next year. 

Monday: Sheet Metal – Why do I do it like this or that? by Wayne Tiffany

Boy I like the energy Wayne always has during his sessions!  As always he brought more of the thinking aspect and problem solving for the parts along with using the software.   The challenge in manufacturing is not necessarily building the part in SolidWorks but building the part for manufacturability in the real world while keeping an eye on cost.  Thanks for bringing this point to your presentation Wayne.

Monday: Experience SolidWorks Enterprise PDM by Kurt Lundstedt PDM Technical Sales Mgr. DS SolidWorks Corp. (Hands On)

Getting my feet wet for the first time in EPDM was a hoot.  After using another PDM system currently that seems to have more than its share of problems, it was nice to sit down and just work through a set of proceedures for check-in/check-out that just worked.  I know, I know, you say but it was a canned demo.  I played around in it a little more than I should and didn’t quite follow the instructions.  What was I supposed to do?  You give a guy a computer and access to a new program and expect them to follow instructions!  I really like the interface and was able to ask some tough questions that were answered immediately and thoroughly.  I was also able to see some custom uses in the BOM tables that were very useful.  This was a great session that helped get me acclimated to the real uses of PDM.

Monday: Experience SolidWorks Workgroup PDM by William Briggs, Senior Techinal Support Engineer DS SolidWorks Corp. (Hands On)

Another hands on PDM.  This time it was Workgroup.  After having the EPDM earlier in the day, I wasn’t sure what I would get out of this session.  I have been using Workgroup on my local for about 2 months.  To my suprise, I was challenged by what was shown in the session.  I also got to meet Joy Garon (PDM Geek by her own admission) from SolidWorks.  Joy was nice enough to walk me through a couple of scenarios for why one PDM wouldn’t work in our company structure.  I appreciate it immensely Joy Thanks!

Tuesday: Bending and Shaping – Using SolidWorks Sheetmetal Tools by Casey Gorman (Hands On)

Since my company has not moved to SW 2009 yet, I decided to take a few of the sheet metal sessions offered this year.  Casey’s session, although labeled beginner, was probably intermediate in content due to some of the features he covered and modifications to features that were talked about.  I appreciated that he showed full use of various aspects of the sheet metal tools in SW.  The other thing that Casey drove home was the use of SYMMETRY in the model.  This is one thing that can’t be spoken about enough when designing/building a part in 3D.  Great job Casey and I hope to see you presenting again next year.

Tuesday: How Students Tap Creative Powers – Learning SolidWorks by Bill Casnovsky

I attended this session to try and get an idea of how educators were working with students to teach CAD using SolidWorks and how I might relate the experience to my companies in-house training.  Bill had a vast age range he teaches and varying degrees of experience in his students.  I thought the incorporation of Rapid Prototyping in the class structure was excellent as this give the students a physical goal to attain.  

Tuesday: Data Migration Strategies for SolidWorks Enterprise PDM by Marc Young

This session like so many of my other choices was work related.  I wanted to see what was recommended by others when doing migration.  Although incredibly informative with a bounty of good content for what I attended for, this was not a session for the beginner or the too much lunch crowd.  Marc covered some difficult topics encountered during migration and gave good examples of what to expect and pitfalls to avoid.  But alas this presentation was “death by Powerpoint” and not for the faint of heart.  I was only able to concentrate and stay awake by shear will.  Some others in the back were not so lucky as I heard snoring from both directions over my shoulders.  I actually got to meet Marc Wednesday during a roundtable discussion and found him to be a nice guy. 

Tuesday: Working with SolidWorks Templates, Formats, and Options by Tom Cote (Hands On)

This was a good beginner session.  I have been using the principles outlined in this session for several years.  It was suprising to me to see how many users did not know how to use the details outlined in this session.  I hope they understood and are able to implement these strategies in their companies.  Thanks for a very thourough walkthrough session Tom.  This is one that I would recommend to any beginner attending SWW for the first time.

Wednesday: SolidWorks Network Implementation – Where do I put this and why? by Nicholas Benner

I attended this same session at SWW2007 in New Orleans and wanted to see what had been or could be updated as this topic is something that I have personally been trying to do within my company for the engineers.  What I found out was that Nicholals has updated the presentation and information to be relevant to SW 2009 and even included 64 bit OS tips.  Cudos for this update and staying current.  I enjoyed the session and hope to implement more of the details that were shared.  Nicholas, I’m still trying to get that library you promised.  Maybe next time.

Wednesday: Migrating Successfully to SolidWorks Enterprise PDM by Jason Lattimer

Another work driven session to try and get a handle on what would be involved in a migration for my company.  Good topic a content with lots of good suggestions, time lines and input from  the VAR that supported their implementation.  Since I was interrested this was a good session but be ware this session was “death by powerpoint”.  At least Jason made it interresting and changed the subject often without skipping around.  Good session for advanced users/cad admins looking to migrate.

Well, this does it for the break out sessions I attended.  Overall I had a very interresting and company productive SolidWorks World 2009.  Depending on what you want to see, I would recommend any fo the sessions I attended.  I hope to see you all at SWW2010!

admin CAD, SWUGN, SolidWorks breakout session, SolidWorks, SolidWorks World

 

Fielder Hiss opened Wednesday’s general session with a welcome and an introduction of Sponsor Don Richardson from Microsoft. 

Mike North and Joe Grant, two of the guys from “prototype this” were the special guests for Wednesday.  The came into the assembly on a rescue cart they designed on one of the shows.  It was very hard to get a clear shot of Mike and Joe because during their presentation they both were in constant motion like kids with ADD and a sugar buzz.  I finally got the next picture near the end.

 On the show, both the mechanical and electrical systems are designed for what ever the challenge is. During the presentation they were trying to show the design process. One of the quotes and eventual theme they follow was “You don’t have to succeed to learn something”.  “Sometimes failure is ok” which is alright in engineering because engineering is a path of discovery. Have fun with it.

After the ”prototype this” guys left the stage, the top ten list announcement was started by Bruce Holway the manager of product definition for SW.  Bruce stated that SolidWorks has implemented over 70% of top ten from recent years.  Brainstorm, which was an online community style web based forum, was used to create the top ten list.  User group leaders from around the country were recognized and actually got to announce the top ten as voted on by the users.  My new friend Randall Block (5th from the left) from the Happy Valley SolidWorks User Group got to name #5 (on-the-fly equation creation and editing). The next item on the agenda was the What’s new 2010.  I won’t go into much detail but the list included such neat items as new view mates in assembly which works kinda like the isolate command but shows all the mated items based on what part you select and hides all others.  Other things of interest were new mirror components optimization for components, multi-body sheetmetal, structural features like welds, updated dxf output and reference planes creation.  I am looking forward to seeing the implementation of most of these items.

It’s hard to believe that the 3rd general session of SolidWorks World 2009 is over.  I guess this leaves only one thing….looking forward to SolidWorks World 2010!

admin CAD, SolidWorks general session, SolidWorks, SolidWorks World

Well, today was day 2 of SolidWorks World 2009.  I had to ask myself, after yesterday could things get any better?  With all the technical content going on in the sessions, SW wouldn’t dare have technical content in the general session….or would they?  The session opened with the same really cool video as on Monday an then Fielder Hiss came out and opened up the show.  He spoke about how great is was to have Richard Branson on Monday an then he introduced Jeremy Luchini and a video of everyone at the CSWP event from Monday night.  Jeremy then introduced Yanack Trembly of Mega brands an they talked about the design intent of the NEO Shifters and how SW played a major part in the quick turn around of the design and getting the product to market.  Several annimations of the different characters were shown.  Man are those things neat.  Fielder then introduced the keynote speaker who happened to be none other than Jon Hirschtick, former CEO and founder of SolidWorks.  Jon started out by giving kudos to current SolidWorks management team by saying that they are the best in history of company.  John then went on to discuss what he thinks are the future trends in technology.

Touch/motion like Iphone and other touch phones is one trend, the next is online applications such as online banking.  He asked the question how about online CAD with hosted server space and applications.  Neat futuristic idea.  Next trend was video gaming technology such as real time rendering which one type is being used in SW 2009.  The last technology trend Jon sees as important is 3D printing.  He believes that this trend will continue to grow until engineers are using 3D prints like paper now.  After this Jon showed a video excerpt from the new Iron Man movie where Tony Stark is designing Iron Mans suit in virtual 3D space.  That would be really nice. 

Jon then went into two customer video and live interviews.  The first was with NewBalance shoes where their design process for the soles was discussed.  Matt Dunbar was introduced and as he spoke with Jon he mentioned that he was wearing prototype shoes made in their engineering department.  Really neat surfacing they are doing and especially since the SW tree typically has 1300-1800 features.  The next video/interview was with Sony/Ericsson.  Vision and market research including trends start 2 years in advance of product release.  After they started using SW their design cycle time went down 75% and they product over 4000 rapid prototypes a year.  Incredible stories and content.  Thanks Jon for giving us what we need to hear. 

When Jon left the stage Stephen Endersby was introduced and he started speaking about SW Simulation but was interrupted with game show music and this banner and a Sumo Wrestler:

Jeff Ray then rode out on a pink scooter:

The Sumo Wrestler then rode the scooter and then picked it up and smashed it on the stage:

After the last part of the SW Simulation demo, Fielder spoke about the special event and closed the session.  I had several great sessions during the day including one on sheetmetal, an educational session, a PDM strategy session and a working with templates, formats and options session.  I picked up several good tips and tricks during the sessions.  Tomorrow is day 3 of the main event here at SolidWorks World 2009 and the opening should be good since SW lets the cat out of the bag about SW 2010.  As I leave this post I’ll just give you the classic story book conclusion,

The END!

admin CAD, SolidWorks general session, SolidWorks, SolidWorks World

All I can say is WOW! what a day.  Monday started out with a bang here at SolidWorks World 2009.  The facilities are great and so are the people.  The general sessions are always fun when everyone crowds the door about 10 minutes before time to open them.  Then it’s as if someone shot a bucket filled with water full of holes with birdshot when all the Solidworks dweebs, Sorry, ENGINEERS, filter into the room!  It looks something like this:

Jeff Ray opened the session by giving a warm welcome and then proceeded to go through the Solidworks report card of itself based internal criteria.  Several customer success stories were shared including one where a design team build a baby incubator out of spare automobile and motorcycle parts for use in developing countries.  Then it was on to the feature presentation with guest speaker Sir Richard Branson of Virgin brand companies.  The sit down interview was excellent as Jeff asked questions pertaining to current and past personal and corporate exploits.  Richard exuded charm and confidence but was also very funny.  From the stories he told I think he is also quite the practical joker.  His latest concerns are with the environment and trying to convert the Virgin branded companies from “dirty” fuels to more “clean” fuels.  He was recently on a test flight of one of his 747’s running on blended clean bio fuels.  Unlike many men in his position, he has achieved some extraordinary goals and has managed to retain a reachable feel to his person.  It was great to have him as a guest.

The rest of the day was also a hoot as I attended Wayne Tiffany’s sheetmetal presentation, a hands on session for Enterprise PDM, Matt Lombards workflow for 2009 and another hands on Workgroup PDM session.  Boy what a full day.  And if that wasn’t enough, the Certified SolidWorks Professional (CSWP) event was held from 7-10pm near the hotel.  We were treated to great food including roasted turkey and pork and mashed taters (sorry for the southern).  On each table were 2 sets of ICoaster parts from one of the sponsors Mega brands.  We were supposed to have a contest by teams to build but as engineers, geeks, dweebs and what ever else you want to call us, got to looking at the parts, we ended up building them ourselves.  And having a great time doing it!  Special thanks to the certification team that put on such a great event.  Thus ends day 1.  I’ll be back again tomorrow for another update.  {{Preview}} former Solidworks CEO Jon Hirschtick will be headlining the general session.

admin CAD, SolidWorks general session, SolidWorks, SolidWorks World

A new update to 3D Content Central (3DCC) has been released just in time for SolidWorks World 2009.  What is 3DCC you might ask, well it’s a companion website to the SolidWorks software that has lots of downloadable content.  I use the word content because along with the expected 3D models, there are also categories for features, blocks and macros.  The content contained in 3DCC is from various suppliers catalogs along with user supplied items.  The models range from usable blobs of common hardware to fully configured mil-spec connectors and everything in between.  I have been an active user since 2004 and you will find guys like Ricky Jordan and Brian McElyea have made contributions to the user content located in the user library.  You will also find components from suppliers like Fischer Connectors, Misumi USA and Moog along with hardware from ANSI/ASME.  There are several way to get to 3DCC.  The first way is simply to go to your web browser and type www.3dcontentcentral.com.  This will take you to the home screen where you will need to register for an account.  Once you have an account you will be able manage all the content including downloading, uploading and rating the content.  The second but not so obvious way is on the “design library” tab of your SolidWorks desktop.  If you click the tab, 3DCC is in the tree menu.  Once you have an account, a click on one of the items will open the 3DCC website inside SolidWorks.  You can size the windows and use them as you would on the web.  One quick note here is that you must have IE or other browser running for SW to connect to the website.  The third way to get to 3DCC is to log into the customer portal from the SolidWorks website.  Once logged into the customer portal, you will find 3DCC listed under “Download” below the Self-Service heading.  Once again this will take you to the 3DCC website.  Another note here is that if you check the remember me box at log in, when you take any of these methods to open 3DCC, you will be automatically logged into your account.   

Some of the updated features in 3DCC are the ability to control your own content by using the “My 3D ContentCentral” (My 3DCC) feature.  In this release your profile is set up similar to other “social networking” sites where you can list personal information and create contacts and monitor their 3DCC activities.  Other great features of My 3DCC are My Portfolio, which contains all the content that you have uploaded, My Comments, which shows all the comments you have added to the content and My Downloads/Views which contains all the content you have downloaded and/or viewed on 3DCC.  The drill down filters have been visually revamped and are easier to use when doing a search.  Several filters are available during the search including supplier, content type and category.  The thumbnail of the content has been enlarged in the preview window so it’s easier to see the details (yea!).  Inside the content window there are options for downloading, rating the content and tagging it so that it’s easier to find.  This last one is important because different industries use different nomenclature to describe different items.  Other items of note in the content window, are the ability to send the link to someone by email, add to your favorites, post an alternative version and even embed it into a blog like this:  Download 

With this latest release, I think SolidWorks and the 3DCC team are almost there.  This is a great resource for getting content from know suppliers, hard to find parts that you need a model for, a hot new macro to solve your problems or a forming tool that you don’t have to create.  I’m looking forward to seeing some new content.  Get on 3D Content Central and show us what you’ve got.  Who knows it might be just what I’m looking for.

admin CAD, SolidWorks 3d content central, SolidWorks, SolidWorks World

Wow! What a great day this was.  I headed out from Huntsville, AL early and ended up in Orlando, FL at SolidWorks World 2009.  The first ever SolidWorks (SW) Tweetup was held in the lobby of the Disney Dolphin hotel where we are staying.  I was reacquainted with some SW folks and met a lot of great new ones thanks in part to Twitter and also to Matthew West of The SolidWorks BLOG who hosted the get together.  As is the case with the whole event, the Tweetup was an excellent place to network and find out more in-depth information about SW people, their companies and how to best utilize the relationships that are being created.  It was amazing to me to sit and listen to all the people talk passionately about one of the things I’m so passionate about.  It is also nice to talk to someone who understands the issues faced daily in using, implementation, networking, training….. and all the other things you must do for a CAD package in an office.  If tonight is any indication of how the days will go, then this is going to be a blast!  Hang on to your seats SolidWorks folks who are reading this.  In the next few days your RSS feeds and twitter apps will be inundated with posts and tweets from SolidWorks World 2009 and #SWW09.  Check out my blog links and read what gets posted.  Also check me out on Twitter: @richard_hall , look at my follow list and you will get more information than you can shake a stick at.

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DEVELOP 3D is a relatively new CAD technology Magazine published in the U.K.  I was first introduced to it late last year when I joined Twitter.  One of the guys that all the CAD bloggers seemed to be following was a guy named Al Dean.  Al happens to be the editor of the magazine.  I immediately signed up for the online subscription and found out that Josh Mings*, aka solidsmack.com, was a regular contributor.  The .PDF version that is distributed is very nice and from this version I noticed how well the mag. is laid out.  Each article and editorial are well written and, if more than one page, are continued on  the next consecutive page and not somewhere else in the mag.  I enjoyed reading the digital version but recently Al offered to send a few of us in the U.S. some of the paper copies as published in the U.K.  All I could say after opening the package was WOW!  If you appreciate a great full color publication you will really enjoy this magazine.  I find nothing as nice as a well put together periodical.  And to have one with full color and with my favorite engineering/CAD content, well, what can I say.  SolidWorks as well as other major CAD packages and other manufacturing software are covered and advertised inside.  Currently subscriptions of the published paper magazine are free in the U.K. with the digital version free worldwide.  If enough interrest is generated in the U.S. I think we could approach DEVELOP 3D about distribution here.  I would pay to have this magazine as I currently pay for lesser publications.  Take a look at DEVELOP 3D by following the links and drop me a line with your thoughts and comments.

*Josh Mings maintains a SolidWorks Twitter list at his website solidsmack.com

admin CAD, SolidWorks, Twitter develop3d, SolidWorks, Twitter