Podcast

SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 444 - June Tech News

June Tech News:

This podcast covers the SolidWorks and CAD-related tech news that broke since mid-May covering the SolidWorks Blog, various tech alerts and other industry tech news. Topics covered:

SolidWorks Blog: 
Tips:
- Vibration tips for Simulation
- SW Sim Tips: Parameters and Design Studies
- SW Intersect Tool: Using Intersection Surfaces to make Solid Bodies
- Could Top-down Assembly Modeling Save You Time?
- Composer Tip: Improving Tech Pubs by Integrating Color
- Using Bend Notes for Sheet Metal Design in SW 2013
- Indexing EPDM Vault for Content Search

News:
-  My Perfect Electric Bicycle is a Motorcycle!
- New SW Certification Logos and Certificates
- Can spatial aptitude tests help predict your success as an engineer?
- Knowing When to Contact Your Reseller for Support
- Introducing the New SW Composer YouTube Channel!

Tech Alerts:
- SolidWorks 2013 SP4 Early Visibility is available for download
- Featured content from June
- One Minute Tech Tip Videos

Support Monthly FAQ:
-  SW 2014 Beta coming...
- Spotlight on features
- Noteworthy Solutions from the SWKB

Industry News:
- Matt Lombard's Dezign Stuff blog closes shop...
- Autodesk Buys TinkerCAD (Expanding 123D...)
- Intel Launches Next-Gen Haswell Chipsets
- Apple Announces New iOS and OSX platforms at WWDC
- Google Redesigns GMail and launches Project Loon
- GrabCAD Workbench comes out of Beta!
- TeamPlatform launches a refresh with new UI and enhancements
- Sunglass partners with CADENAS (1M+ Models)

It's officially Summer and that means product launches and beta season is around the corner.  It has been an exciting year in technology thus far but SolidWorks has been pretty closed lipped about beta up to this point.  I am curious to know what other products we might be able to test out, especially cloud-based apps like SW Mechanical Conceptual.  

As we discussed last week, the sightings of the SolidWorks 2014 Beta page is in the works but not all there yet.  In this month's Support FAQ there was mention that beta would start in the second half of June... WHICH IS NOW.  I expect that the flood gates will open on Monday and it will be time to get to testing. 

June was also the month of Apple's WWDC (Developers Conference) where previews of new hardware and software are going to enter the fold in the coming months.  After seeing both Apple and Google talk to their developers, there is going to be some exciting stuff entering the market in the second half of this year. ~Lou

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SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 443 - Beta Test Checklist

Beta Test Checklist:

This podcast covers the how to get the most out of SolidWorks' beta program.  Every year they launch SolidWorks Beta in the summer so we are getting close.  Have you every beta tested before?  Learn how to get the most without messing up your production setup.  Topics covered: 

- Introduction to SolidWorks' Beta Testing

- The Dos and Don'ts of BT

- Rules of thumb for install  

- Beta FAQ and Tips

- How to roadmap what matters

Every year SolidWorks launches the next release around the middle of June, opening the doors for those who dare to see what the next major release has in store.  It is well known that the first rule of Beta: "Don't talk about Beta!" however reporting issues and joining the community in the beta forum can add an interesting angle to your experience.

Over the past 5 or so releases, SolidWorks has done a good job to keep the installation of Beta separate in the installer but there are still some "gotchas" that you need to be aware of, especially if there is mission critical systems and data sets in the mix.  Ensuring that shared technologies or aspects of your other products that my use shared resources like eDrawings are in the clear before letting the beta install fly.

Usage patterns can be very hard to break and making a testing plan by looking through the What's New when beta is announced is key to getting the most out of the beta program.  With a roadmap of what to test and a separated install, the risk is lowered and uncovering the new technology can begin!  ~Lou

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SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 442 - Hosted vs. Cloud

Hosted vs. Cloud: 

This podcast covers the questions that rise when looking for and understanding the benefits and/or risks to moving to on premises solutions delivered via the Internet.  Topics covered:

- Some trends in the CAD industry

- Software as a service (SaaS)

- Platform as a service (PaaS)

- Benefits / Risks with off premises solutions

- My life in ChromeOS (4th generation device - Pixel)

Ever since the 2010 SolidWorks World Conference, the engineering world has been talking about the topic "CAD on the Cloud" and moving many on-premises products and services to servers hosted by another company.  Hosted services and cloud-based offerings are a normal staple in our everyday lives but how will these trends really apply to industries that rely on high-end, local hardware?

With services like GrabCAD Workbench, Sunglass.io and Team Platform offering tools that are core to engineering and collaboration, it is only a matter of time till many of the tools we all use locally are offloaded to the cloud.  This is not without challenges however as Internet speeds increase and service

Autodesk recently announced a number of services in their 360 Cloud Services offering, one of which, Fusion 360, which reminds me of the pre-announced SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual.  Products like SImulation, PLM and other services seem to have targets to move to these platforms in the near future everywhere. ~Lou

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SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 441 - May Tech News

May Tech News:

This podcast covers the SolidWorks and CAD-related tech news that broke since mid-March covering the SolidWorks Blog, various tech alerts and other industry tech news. Topics covered:

SolidWorks Blog:
Tips:
  - Breaking a sheet metal loft so it shows bend lines.
  - Using SolidWorks Sub-Weldments
  - Revision Clouds in SolidWorks 2013
  - Driving SolidWorks Assemblies with Curve-driven Patterns
  - Simplify Your Models Using the Intersect Tool
  - Note-Building Machine: SolidWorks vs Infinite Monkeys
  - Creating Section Views in SolidWorks 2013
  - 5 SolidWorks Tips You May Have Never Seen Before

News:
  - Free SolidWorks Certification for Subscriptions Service Customers
  - Q&A: Keeping up with the U.S. DoD Requirements
  - Romotive turns your iPhone into a programmable robot with the help of SolidWorks
  - Learn More About SolidWorks Using the Built-in Tutorials

Tech Alerts:
  - May Featured Content
  - 2 Questions Survey

Support Monthly FAQ:
  - New format from SW Support
  - Service Pack News
  - Noteworthy Solutions from the SW KB

Industry News:
  - Google Now comes to iOS
  - GrabCAD Workbench Launches
  - Windows "Blue" officially now Windows 8.1 (will be free!)
  - Google I/O 2013 Announcements

I know this is a little late but I opted to give myself a little break, catch up on some work and wait till the Google I/O conference was over so I could add some interesting information to the Industry news area of the show.

SolidWorks news seems to be a little slim.  I would imagine there will be a high volume of stuff hitting the web once the beta for 2014 comes out.  I am hoping to hear more news in the coming weeks about SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual, which was announced at SolidWorks World in January.  As many of the announcements of years past, it has been silent, however I am anxious to see if we get a beta opportunity in conjunction with the desktop version of SolidWorks 2014.

As you might imagine, I was focused on the big Google Developer conference that launched this week so I decided to push the show out till I could add some of the announcements from Google I/O since they have such a powerful impact on the future of the web.  Every year Google gives a good outlook on the future of the web and all it could potientially offer us.  Whether you love or hate them, the employ more PHDs than any other company so "pushing the envelope" is woven into their DNA.  ~Lou

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SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 440 - Enterprise PDM Tips and Tricks

Enterprise PDM Tips and Tricks:

This podcast covers the various approaches, common implementation settings and other tidbits I have used over the past 10+ years of consulting on SolidWorks Enterprise PDM.  Topics covered:

- Best practices for implementations

- Common Data Routing Approaches

- Linking ECOs with CAD data (different workflows)

- Getting the most out of Tasks

- Optional interfaces

- Various add-ins and custom apps

Amazing to look back to 2001 when I first got my hands on Conisio, the former name of SolidWorks Enterprise PDM.  Back in those days the product was a 3rd party, had the same Windows Explorer interface but the SW interface was nothing like the fully integrated experience of today. SolidWorks' acquisition of of Conisio in 2006 has brought the product to the next level however successful use of the product is still very tied to proper setup in the early stages.

The name "Enterprise" can come with some negative connotations in terms of implementation time and leaves many with the question, "How many months is this going to take to get working?".  This is typically far from the case but like any tool that is highly configurable, the phased approach allows it to address the Engineering-centric issues and then be grown to bring more neighboring departments into the automation fold.

Another challenging part of implementing EPDM can be determining the scope of control since it overlaps in functionality with many other management systems (ERP/MRP/PLM) within a company.  Today we will touch on some topics and details for common setup and configuration options in EPDM. ~Lou

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SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 439 - Sunglass Revision Management

Sunglass Revision Management:

This podcast is a first look at the new revision management feature set that was added to the popular 3D browser-based collaboration service Sunglass.io.  Revision tracking is a key feature to using today's CAD platforms however they are typically format specific or can be challenging to get outside parties (vendors/contractors) into the collaboration environment.  Topics covered:

- An overview of the updated UI of Sunglass.io

- Understanding the SoilidWorks plugin and workflow

- Web viewer experience for collaborators

- Projects and Spaces in the Sunglass Dashboard

- Viewing / Comparing / Restoring Revisions

- User experience and workflow

- Overall impressions

Sunglass.io, a San Francisco 3D web-based collaboration start-up, has been very busy iterating over the past year and much of what was in the V1 service during the initial release has been refined.  This past week Sunglass announced a revision management layer to their 3D web viewer, co-viewing and other collaboration tools to help keep track of the various changes that occur during the design process.

PDM, product data management, tools are typically expensive, require hardware/infrastructure and implementation.  Although the end result can be very powerful however for small. remote groups this can be too expensive and overkill. Sunglass is attempting to address this common need by taking the hosting and setup out of the equation by introducing simple "push/pull" plugins for SolidWorks, Inventor, SketchUp and Rhino.  Pushing a revision up to Sunglass is easy, prompting for comments and syncing the changes up to the collaboration service with the push of a button.

This "Github for CAD" is starting to focus on some of the big challenges when it comes to 3D design.  I have been testing Sunglass since their launch and although many services support version tracking (uploading a file of the same name), their approach is more streamlined to how CAD users work.  ~Lou

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SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 438 - GrabCAD Workbench

GrabCAD Workbench:

This podcast discusses the newly launched collaboration addition to GrabCAD's already popular 3D Model Community.  GrabCAD has now entered the browser-based collaboration arena to join players like TeamPlatform and Sunglass.io.  Topics covered:

- What is Workbench?

- Collaboration portfolio 

- The workflow of uploading, sharing and collaborating with others

- Toolsets for collaboration

- My wish list (for let's say V2)

- Initial thoughts

This past week GrabCAD, a 3D model community, introduced a new collaboration are to their service called Workbench.  Workbench is an attempt to give it's community more depth to this popular sharing platform by enabling it's users design collaboration tools. Prior to Workbench's launch, GrabCAD offered sharing but more inline with an open source mentality where the community could see, comment and download models from you.  

Workbench is a collaboration area of your GrabCAD account where projects are uploaded, collaborators are invited and 3D collaboration and communication happens on your terms.  Although in the V1 launch is asynchronous, I hope more real-time features make the coming builds and knowing GrabCAD and how quickly they iterate, it is probably not too far out.  

It is far from the perfect collaboration tool as it sits today but it is addressing a grown need for remote teams and smaller groups to easily get their project content hosted and give them tools to make informed 3D decisions without a lot of prerequisites and software.  This is yet another example of how the web is connecting us to be more efficient in design, communication and yes collaboration. ~Lou

Check out the SolidWorks:Heard! Blog and follow us on Google+, Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 437 - April Tech News

April Tech News:

This podcast covers the SolidWorks and CAD-related tech news that broke since mid-March covering the SolidWorks Blog, various tech alerts and other industry tech news.  Topics covered:

SolidWorks Blog:
Tips:
   - Allowing SolidWorks to Perfiorm
   - Editing Legacy Electrical Data with SolidWorks Electrical
   - Forget the Cavity search--user the Intersect command for filled volume (SW2013)
   - SolidWorks Simulation Time Saver: Sub-Modeling
   - Stripping a Coated/Plated Part in SolidWorks
   - New in SW2013: Change Your Life with Search Options (on of my fav)
   - The Magic 8-ball in SolidWorks

News:
   - Design That Matters uses SolidWorks to help save newborns with jaundice (Born to Design)
   - SolidWorks 22 min Webinar Series reminder...
   - How to Learn SolidWorks (tutorials)
   - Setting the record straight on the future of SolidWorks Mechanical CAD
   - Introducing My.SolidWorks
   - Replicating History: Teversham Engineering's Project to Rebuild the First Computer using SolidWorks.

Tech Alerts:
- SolidWorks 2013 SP3 is available for download (release notes)

Support Monthly FAQ:
- Top Questions and Issues
- New Knowledge Base Articles

Industry News:
- Google Pixel first thoughts (besides expensive)
- Google announces a Realtime API for Drive (more collaborative tools to come!)
- Microsoft's next revision to Windows 8 (codename: Blue) leaks
- Blake Couter, Founder, Leaves SpaceClaim for GrabCAD
- Fielder Hiss leaves his post at SolidWorks (VP of Product Marketing and Management)

The tech news this month was hard to choose what exactly to cover since there was more than usual.  On the SolidWorks front, the news has a few eye openers and some reflection and even worry when it comes to the future of the SolidWorks product direction.

This past week Fielder Hiss, a long time friend of mine and the VP of Product Marketing and Management stepped down to after 14 years with the DS SolidWorks.  It took many by surprise but raised concerns on exactly what was behind the decision.  Fielder had reportedly said his decision was NOT due to any broad organizational changes but more around a need for change after spending 1/3 his life with the same company.  He is taking a similar role with in a non-CAD industry (EnerNOC).

The other news was from a "Getting the facts straight" post on the SolidWorks Blog by CEO, Bertrand Sicot about the future of SolidWorks Mechanical CAD.  SolidWorks is finding itself in these situations due to unclear statements in public arenas like SolidWorks World or the shear lack of updated information to the general public after such announcements. (i.e. closed beta on SW Mechanical Conceptual).  Users and analysts like updates and the lack of updates causes wild speculation which then requires actions like this. ~Lou

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SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 436 - Kenesto Community

Kenesto Community:

This podcast covers the free Kenesto Community, a cloud service that brings business process workflow and social interactivity into one hosted community.  Kenesto came on the radar a couple years ago at SWW 2012 but was still under beta at the time.  Topics covered:

- What does Kenesto Community do?

- What are the costs of the business plans and what do they offer?

- The feature list and how it blends workflow with social.

- Use cases and highlights

- Overall impressions

I had heard about Kenesto in the early months before SolidWorks World 2012 in San Diego, CA and that Mike Payne, long time CAD pioneer, was taking the PLM and business process automation (BPA) to the cloud.  The early promises were to take the infrastructure load off of customers and centralize this automation in the cloud. 

I first saw the product at their booth in the SolidWorks World Partner Pavillion where I got a demo and a more concise description of their goals and product roadmap.  Since then the product fell off my radar since the launch was not quick and it appeared that the beta was going to take some time.  However, earlier this year there was a shift when Kenesto brought on Steve Bodnar from Autodesk to head up products and marketing.

This year (2013) they are now expanding upon their hosted workflow and integrating a social layer and "Freemium" model to get users familiar with the service.  Kenesto offers collaboration and discussion around tasks, documents, workflows, links, forms and a number of other aspects important to project/process management.

Check out the SolidWorks:Heard! Blog and follow us on Google+, Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 435 - Engineering Via The Web

Engineering Via The Web:

This podcast covers various tools that I have used or am paying attention to as the next frontier to engineering product management.  Online storage, web-based collaboration tools, project management, notes and tasks are just a few categories of tools I use daily.  Topics covered:

Online 3D Collaboration:
- Teamplatform
- Sunglass 

Notes and Tasks:
- Evernote / SimpleNote / OneNote
- Trello (lists, simple project management)
- Google Tasks (iOS, Android, Web)
   - gTasks (My pic on iOS)
   - Tasks (My pic on Android)
- Google Keep (new, simple)

Productivity Suites:
- Google Apps (Docs, Sheets, Presentations...more)
- Microsoft Office 365

Project Management:
- Podio (By Citrix, the GoToMeeting folks)
- Basecamp (By 37 signals)
- Teamplatform (new Gantt chart functions)
- Gantter (for Google Drive)

Storage and Sharing:
- Dropbox
- Google Drive
- Microsoft SkyDrive
- Box.net

About once a quarter I like to do a web tools discovery show to shed some light on updates and new players on the market of 3D online collaboration and project management.  Since web-based tools are hosted and live, the tend to evolve on a much shorter update schedule and constantly rolling out new features and functionality.  Ship and iterate it the motto so if you don't pay attention, you'll miss the updates! 

As an avid Google Chromebook user for the past 4 years, I am moving much of my tool sets to the web for centralization and backup of my must-have apps.  Web-based has become my number 1 criteria for almost anything since I use so many devices and am never in the same place so the confinement to a single, desktop installed app is restrictive.

The goal of this show is to rattle out a number of online solutions, some of which I use daily, and bring some awareness of this collaborative movement with tools that are deployed in the browser.  As someone who does video, audio and code development in addition to run all the SolidWorks suite of tools, a traditional PC and OS are probably going to be in my workflow for some time to come but the rest I do on the Web!  ~Lou

Check out the SolidWorks:Heard! Blog and follow us on Google+, Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!