Podcast

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 434 - March Tech News

March Tech News:

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

SolidWorks Blog:
- Tips
   - Revisitng You SolidWorks Copy Settings
   - SolidWorks Dismissed Warnings and Error Messages
   - New "Bounding Box" in SolidWorks 2013 (it's not just for weldments!)
   - Using the Intersect tool in SolidWorks 2013
   - Snapshots of PhotoView 360: Viewpoint (Part 5 of series)
   - It's Easy to Convert that old Legacy Data to SolidWorks
   - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Your Sketches
   - Remote vs. Distributes Mass in SolidWorks Simulation
- News
   - Donn McKinney's U.S.S. Missouri (in eDrawings)
   - SolidWorks World 2013 Technical Presentations are now available for download
   - Designing a Standing Desk in SolidWorks
   - How Design Has Changed The Way We Drink (St. Patty's Day)

Tech Alterts:
- March Featured Content

Support Monthly FAQ:
- No SMFAQ this month...

Industry News:
- Google Released the Pixel Chromebook ($1300 bones..)
- CADFaster lauches MyCadBox beta (cloud based collaboration on Azure)
- Dropbox launches version 2.0 Desktop sync tool
- Google to Kill Reader July 1

This has been a busy month in tech but pretty slow month with respect to SolidWorks.  The SolidWorks blog was stocked full of great tips from the AE community but there were no tech alerts or support monthly FAQ.

There was, however, a number of technology updates across the web, devices and other services in and around many of the technologies I personally use.  Google launched a high end, Macbook Pro quality, Chromebook but came with quite a price tag of over $1300 USD (plus tax). 

Google Reader, a tool that I use daily, reading over 270K articles across the web since 2006, was announced last week that it was going to be shutting down July 1.  Google has been doing a lot of "Spring cleaning" since Larry Page took the helm.  ~Lou

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

SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 433 - MyCadbox

MyCadBox:

This podcast covers a new product from the folks over at CadFaster called MyCadbox.  This is a new online CAD collaboration service that is works across the desktop and the iPad.  Topics covered:

- What is MyCadbox really?

- Details on the "Freemium" model

- Collaboration tool on the desktop and iPad

- Co-Viewing Experience

- Overall impressions

- Enhancement ideas

Two years ago I ttalked to Tuomas Holma, the VP of Marketing at CadFaster and we discussed a product that had come our right before SolidWorks World that year called CadFaster Collaborate for SolidWorks.  Since then the company has focused more on BIM (Building Information Modeling) and was not as focused on the MCAD industry.

A few weeks ago, MyCadbox launched a a pseudo the Dropbox for CAD, which I first read on Deelip's blog, and since I have spend a fair amount of time in the Dropbox API and a long time user of the service, I was intrigued.  I have spend a few hours of testing with the service and now believe is it nothing like Dropbox (Deelip's words) but that there is more focus on sharing the experience than the files themselves.

With services like GoToMeeting, Join.Me, Google Hangouts and Skype, collaboration services coming into this space need to focus on the vertical markets like CAD and have to add tool-sets that break the collaboration habits we currently rely on in our design lives.  I am unsure at this point if MyCadbox will dislodge my collaboration habits yet. ~Lou

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

SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 432 - Augmenting Reality with eDrawings

Augmenting Reality with eDrawings:

This podcast covers the new feature added to eDrawings for iOS that came out a few weeks ago.  Now that I have had time to play with it,  I wanted to give me thoughts on it.  Topics covered:

- Understanding AR
- Getting to know the AR tools
- Best practices for AR marker (great SolidSmack writeup)
- Applications for AR 
- Other AR Apps (Augment 3D)
- Thoughts and enhancement ideas

A few weeks ago, eDrawings for iOS was updated to include a new augmented reality feature that was debuted at SolidWorks World 2013 in January.  Although the first launch of this came with an unfortunate bug that rendered AR broken, SolidWorks caught the issue and was able to get it fixed in a week.

I talked briefly about this new feature in the last tech news show but I wanted to dive in a bit more and talk about how I have used it, trials I have gone through and a few interesting finds along the way.  It is a fun little tool that can be used to get a "feel" of how something might work in the physical world, however I am still trying to find the ideal use for this new feature.

There are a few examples of AR in the Apple App Store and I have looked at these and a few others just to get an ideal of various implementations.  The 3DVIA Mobile app tried to do a pseudo AR feature but again the practicality of it was a stretch.  More interesting was watching the rest of our techs trying to augment models in all types of scenarios around the office once this tool shipped! ~Lou

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