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.
admin CAD, SolidWorks, Twitter SolidWorks, SolidWorks World, Twitter
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
