SolidWorks:HEARD!

May Tech News:

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

SolidWorks Blog:

- Hats off to the most innovate SW users

- More interesting Simulation applications

- Tons of guest posts from SW AEs from around the world (awesome!)

- Indent tool tips (Josh Altergott, Support Manager CATI)

- New SW Freeze tips (Jerald Staley, Elite AE, CSWE at DASI Solutions)

- LABEL IT in EPDM (Jeff Sweeney, Data Geek, 3DVision Technologies)

- Gems in Templates (Brian VanderPloeg, AE at Fisher/Unitech)

- Cool Medical Simulation (Gordon Stewart, Elite AD , CSWE at TMS CAD Centre)

- Direct Edit/Move Face (Jeff Setzer, Training Coordinator at Graphics Systems)

- eDrawing for iPad ships

Tech Alerts:

- Enterprise PDM 2012 SP3 is available for Download

- Windows XP reminder that 2012 is the last supported version

- New Part Reviewer sample parts available

Support Monthly FAQ:

- XP Retirement & license entitlement server woes

- EPDM tips for title blocks and Toolbox

- SolidWorks Plastics Pro vs. Premium

- New Knowledge base articles 

Industry News:

- Google Drive launches

- 3D Search engine launched by Fujitsu ( I have seen this before with ShapeSpace ) - (source by SolidSmack)

- 3 Great articles on Cloud CAD ( 3D CAD Tips | Graphic Speak | to3Dnow )

The past month has been a great month for tech news in the CAD industry.  SolidWorks is bringing the content to their blog that users want by reaching out to the application engineer network across their reseller network.  These are the people in the trenches with users and use the software daily and have endless tips, trick and other great view on these tools.

With the launch of eDrawings for iPad, SolidWorks is going to get an influx of user response, both positive and negative about how they want to use their 3D CAD data via mobile.  The application has been patched since it's release but still is lacking the big features and device support that a vast majority of user that have responded are asking for.  Good start but long road ahead to awesome!

This month's SWSMFAQ is awesome, packed full of goodies for users across a number of products and aspects.  SolidWorks KB has improved so much over the past 4 or so years and is still a place I start when trying to solve issues.  Sometimes it has great examples, downloads and sample code snippets to help is almost every aspect of the SolidWorks product line.  This is a packed show, buckle up! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD! 

SWH Episode 387

eDrawings for iPad:

This podcast cover the much awaited mobile move for DS SolidWorks to finally ship a native SolidWorks viewer on mobile devices.  Their decision was to move on eDrawings on one platform, the iPad.  Topics covered:

- A brief overview and first impressions

- What eDiPad does for iPad users

- What can be "seen" from a SolidWorks published eDrawing

- What can be "seen" from an a modified eDrawing from eDrawings Pro.

- What needs to be in version 2

- Future wish list

- Overall thoughts for this V1 app from DS SolidWorks

For years users have waited for SolidWorks to make a move on mobile and finally the start of this movement took place this past week.  Although shipping an iPad only app would have been fine 1.5 years ago, in today's mobile market where Android, a 50% market leader in mobile operating systems, was not addressed in their mobile strategy.  The decision to also not ship the new mobile app on phone platforms on either iOS or Android has also ruffled a few feathers as well.

eDrawings for iPad is a much need app to offer native viewing solutions for SolidWorks, DXF/DWG, DraftSight and Pro/Engineer files.  Support for the "Open In.." functionality, iPad users can open these data sets from Mail, Dropbox, SkyDrive, Box.Net and other application throughout the device.

Other then the overall out cry for support for Android, the real miss was not providing the productivity tool sets eDrawings users want like markup and measure.  I hope this application can be more operating system egoistic and provide the tools that allow "users on the go" to get productive work done.  I have done extensive testing and have posted my compatibility chart here.  ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD! 

SWH Episode 386

SolidWorks CRUD:

This podcast covers tips and tricks on options for CRUD: Create, Read, Update and Delete (dropped D and substituted P for Pack and Go) methods in SolidWorks. Topics covered:

CREATE:

- New SolidWorks docs

- Customize Template Tabs

READ:

- Open SolidWorks docs

- Open dialog options (

- Open from recent list (and folder link)

- Drag and Drop (even Zip files)

UPDATE:

- Save and Save modified

- Save As (watch out, when it doubt, save as copy)

- Close and Close all

- Close from open documents menu

DELETE: PACK AND GO:

- Pack and Go vs. Save-As references

- Pack and Go from Windows Explorer

- Other SolidWorks WinEx options (Rename, Replace.... and now Move!)

CRUD is a methodology in programming that I believe applies to much that we do on the computer and so this show is a back to basics to refresh how you think about doing these interactions with SolidWorks.  For a few years now, SoildWorks has added some nice additions to the way we interact while doing these fundamental activities, as we do with most computer applications.

With new releases of software, many of us don't have the time to modify how we use SolidWorks.  We all just want to use SolidWorks to get things done and we fall into our "ruts" of how we interact.  Create, Read & Update actions are all we are doing so getting a refresh of alternative methods can give an an "ah ha!" moment.  This show talks about some of these new methods and other tips to make these frequent interactions more efficient.

Sometime getting back to basics allows us to re-evaluate new functions and methods to ultimately alter our (especially mine) set ways of using SolidWorks.  If you have some interesting modification suggestions, please leave a comment.  ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD! 

SWH Episode 385

Belt & Mechanism Tools Revisited:

This podcast covers some tools in SolidWorks to conceptualize mechanisms and other mechanical interfaces. Topics covered:

- Creating belts in sketches

- Inserting belts into assemblies

- Interface options

- Traction relation

- Make path options

- Applications

It has been a couple of busy weeks and I have not been able to sit down and dig into a few shows that I have been planning, but the show must go on.  In lieu of that, I have reached back into the archives, about 5 years ago, and pulled up one of my favorite tool sets in core SolidWorks.

For those of you who have to do R&D or any sort of "idea storming", the layout tools are great to help verify before any real heavy modeling has to take place.  I typically have used these tools for verifying things like range of motion and sketching seems to be the best way to tweak the design in the early stages.

Once in 3D many of these relationships can be utilized for easy of not only fit, form and function testing but also for animations and other visual content creation.  If it has been a while since you have tried them out, lookup "Layout Sketches" or "Belts and Pulleys" in the SolidWorks help. ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD! 

SWH Episode 384

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:

- Multiple posts on Simulation products

- Announcing the launch of SolidWorks Plastics

- More posts from the new Demo Library

- More technical content posted via VARS!

Tech Alerts:

- Suggest more learning content to SW

- SolidWorks 2012 SP3 ships

- Activation server issue after SP3 launch (resolved)

- SolidWorks 2012 SP3 Release notes overview

- EPDM/Toolbox issue with Copy Part on

Industry Tech News:

- iPad/tablet market update

- Chromebook changes (web as a platform)

- Windows 8 Metro and CAD

Tax Day!... Ugg.  Here is the US the dreaded April 15th rolls around and for those of us who had to pay...a moment of silence.  Anyway, tech news can be a little thin during this time of year right before the hot beta season kicks off but still a ton going on.

SolidWorks has made some great strides to get more technical content into the SolidWorks blog by inviting some guest bloggers from their reseller (VAR) channel.  This has already brought some great posts into the fold and I hope to see more of it continue over the coming months.

With the release of SolidWorks Plastics, 2012 SP3 and more technical content, tech news is easier to come by these days.  I should get some time on SWPL over the coming weeks and recap the thoughts so far.  We did get it installed yesterday and the interface is really nice and workflow is simple with a lot of configuration options so stayed tuned! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD! 

SWH Episode 383