Rich Hall’s BLOG

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

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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.

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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

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SolidWorks World 2009 is upon us and NASWUG will be there!  NASWUG is the North Alabama SolidWorks User Group and we are located in Huntsville, AL.  Our members come from all types of industry included high-tech, military and commercial manufacturing to name a few.  We averaged 40 in attendance for 2008 and had a myriad of speakers including Jim Wilkinson and Bruce Holway at our year end meeting in December.  Our group includes some names you will be familiar with who will also be present at SolidWorks World 2009.  Ricky Jordan, of rickyjordan.com, is our president and he will be presenting Monday morning at 10:30.  Check out the intro on Ricky’s Blog.  Brian McElyea, the CADFanatic, is a member of the NASWUG advisory board.  Gary Hall is the president of the NASWUG-RSA, our offshoot organization located on Red Stone Arsenal, that services the SolidWorks users who work for the various military and NASA companies around Huntsville.  Richard Hall, yours truly and NASWUG V.P., will also be there with bells on attending several sessions on PDM as we are about to migrate to SolidWorks Workgroup PDM or SolidWorks Enterprise PDM from another PDM package.  A couple more of our members will also be attending, one for the first time.  One of the first places you will be able to find us is at the SolidWorks Twitter users TweetUp Saturday.  Please look for us around the Swan and Dolphin, in sessions,  in-between sessions, at meals, at the CSWP event and where ever something SOLIDWORKS will be happening.  We from NASWUG look forward to meeting you, so come introduce yourselves.  See ya there.

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In recent weeks a common topic has been brought up on various SolidWorks blogs and on Twitter amongst users, bloggers and 3-D CAD industry folks.  This topic is why are ______ (insert your favorite 3-D CAD software here) users so blind to the “obvious” flaws in the software they use and why are they so rabidly devoted to the software.  Well, those are pretty good questions.  Let me give you my take on this phenomenon. 

I started out my career using AutoCAD and CADAM and then moved to 3-D using SolidWorks, SolidEdge and Catia.  The most time was spent on SolidWorks because that’s what the company I was working for bought and maintained for its design/drafting software.  I worked for that company for almost 10 years.  So lets take a look at look at this.  I used the same software for 10 years.  I want to change jobs, so what is on my resume? 10 years experience with the same software package.  What package does the company looking at my resume use? Hmm, the same software I have 10 years experience with.  What software do I expect to use at the new company?  Now back to the question, If I have several years experience with anything then I am going to be a valuable resource for that thing.  The same applies to software.  Do I know every function and feature and trick? probably not!  But I know a heck of a lot, so why not share it.  Does the software do everything I want it to do and/or does it do it easily? Probably not!  Are their bugs in the software? Probably so!  Can the software be used for what I need to do? Probably so.  Is the company going to spend money to buy new software just because I can’t make one feature work?  Probably not!  We use what we have at the companies we work for.

Are most users rabid?  I don’t think the average users are any more excited about their 3-D CAD software than an assembly line worker is about the wrench he is using to put a product together.  It’s a tool.  Are some users active?  You BET!  Because they know things about the software and how it works or how to do a work around for a design or which button to push; their is a responsibility to share that.  How do they share what they know?  Some folks do in house company training of  their employees.  Some participate in a local user group and might even present.  Some present at larger venues and some blog about the knowledge they have.  I have found that most that do the latter are not in it for glory or noteriety but are in it to help the average user i.e. EDUCATION.   If you look at most CAD sites, they are set up for educational purposes and most of the blogs have visitor input available so that questions and comments can be added to what is already available.  The sum of all this is education for the users of the software. 

In conclusion, what should be the response to those questions?  Well everyone knows that software has flaws and every CAD software has flaws.  Can it still get the job done? Yes it can.  Are their going to be devotees to a particular software? Yes there are.  But you need to ask why are they devoted before passing judgment.

admin SolidWorks 3-D, CAD, education, SolidWorks, Twitter