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I was looking into SolidWorks search trends and discovered that cloth diapers had a higher search volume than SolidWorks, so all the post from now on will be about cloth diapers and the best ways to clean cloth diapers. I kid, although I hear baking soda or oxy-clean works wonders, especially if you’re looking for a bleach-free method for the organic cotton diapers… the more I write the more I believe I’m embarrassing myself.
Besides the apparent competition SolidWorks has with Cloth Diapers for search engine ranking, there’s another one that is more relevant. AutoCAD. They do have higher search volume as well, quite a bit higher.
Cloth Diaper Search Volume
SolidWorks Search Volume
AutoCAD Search Volume
Why am I sharing this?
I thought it was interesting. I also think search trends in this industry have a pattern:
- People want to know how to do something
- People want better information than what they are provided
- There’s a problem to be fixed
- People want something for free
- People want the best deal
Based on that, I’m not surprised Autocad has higher search volume. That and 50%-65% of design and documentation is still being done with 2D CAD.
So, getting back to Cloth Diapers…
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SolidWorks released news today of Hypen Design using SolidWorks for their product development. This look like a really cool company. They hail form the London, UK and do some really slick product design for some pretty big clients like Virgin Mobile, Speedo and Mattel. They’re work is impressive - take a look at it here.
The site also features a resource section for designers, inventors and students. They even have freelance opportunities for those who may be looking.
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Allright, so the last person that opened up your 1,000 part assembly hid a bunch of stuff and now it’s looking like a barren wasteland of nuts and washers. Before you spend hours traversing through sub-assemblies and revealing your wrath to that person, take a look at this.
Step 1
With a quick flick of the finger, right click on the active assembly at the top of the FeatureManager Design Tree and select Show
BAM!
Margera is proud of you for exhibiting restraint and not beating your freind. What’s extra cool about this is that you can set it up as a keyboard shortcut. Then with some subtle slight of hand you can show off your new trick to your friends.
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Oh yeah! I’m feelin’ it today. you feelin’ it? yeahhh, you’re feelin’ it!!!
Sputtr Search - a clean, simple way to search things that matter
Flick-a-day - watch yourself grow older each day.
250 GB Portable Hard-drive - all your stuff in one tiny place.
Display your invention to the public - let everyone know how inventive you are.
Cool Flash Circular Navigation - possibly option for the future of navigation?
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Matt Lombard will love you. Order from here. I just got mine and it ’s the best SolidWorks book out there.
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When you’re sitting at home alone gazing into the light fixture and wondering if you caught all the changes in a drawing that was just released, here’s an absolutely simple way to wake up early, go in before anyone else finds out and do a drawing file comparison.
- Make a .PDF of the first drawing (or new drawing)
- Make a .PDF of the second drawing (or old drawing)
- Open both PDF’s
- Use Ctrl-Tab on each page to see the difference
Whoa, missed the wing-nut on that thingy-ma-jig. You just saved your neck. This is extremely useful when checking revisions of drawings. You can also do this to quickly to compare changes between other documents as well.
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Interface design is getting a lot more interesting lately. It probably has a lot to do that fancy Microsoft Vista coming out and the multi-touch interface craziness going around. Spacetime has jumped in headfirst with a new search/browse interface.
What does it do?
3D Search and browsing with plans to implement email, music and RSS. At first I thought it looked a little annoying particularly with all the windows stacking up. It was harder to go through the search results as opposed to a regular “flat-view” Google search, but it “feels” really cool switching to different pages and searches.
Any potential?
This is actually pretty cool and I could see how the typical “window” or “browser” could develop into something like their eBay search, where only the product or content is shown. This is really just a kind of fancy way of looking at stuff. If it’s efficient as well, it may actually have a lot of uses. In my opinion though, this interface is relying too much on the point and click/double-click method of navigation when things are going toward a grab-and-drag, touch-and-zoom approach.
From a SolidWorks perspective
SolidWorks is already neck-deep in this stuff. Some of this visualization is going to be available in 2008 in SolidWorks Explorer, but I can also see this being used in the work space. I could imagine a timeline of modeling history or part revisions, working simultaneously between designs, filtering features or even dimensions - all on screen. To make it actually functional though there would have to be some more intuitive contextual commands built in and from what I’ve seen in 2008 it’s heading that way. If this is combined with some of the other gesture-based stuff coming out the design and engineering process will be much more environmental and interactive. First things first though, it has to be functional.
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Throwing up before you speak may come naturally to some, but there’s some other items that may help relieve the pressure of speaking in public.
Not only can these help you when speaking publicly, they can also help when training someone, relating to and working with others and finding out how you can help people.
- Be yourself
Don’t try to be funny or entertaining, the content is the most important.
- Tell a story
To draw interest and help break apart segments.
- Use metaphor
To relate things that may be obscure to some. As the models get larger the days get longer.
- Ask questions
To promote interaction. what do you…? Isn’t it…? Don’t you think…?
So, concentrate on the content, work stories into it, make points with metaphors and interact with questions.
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A while back SolidNotes had a post that talked about the Select through transparency option. I thought it was interesting and didn’t have this blog up at the time, so I’d thought I’d write on it now. This tip will allow you to get some better performance and allow you to do some things you would otherwise not be able to do.
What to do…
If you’re use to selecting through things when they are transparent, I’m going to ask you to do something you may think is slightly insane. On the System Options Tab under Display/Selection there’s a tricky little checkbox guy called Enable selection through transparency. Yeah, turn that sucka OFF.
“But how will I select my edges and my vertices and my edges…and…and…!! Nooooo!!!”
Calm down.
The System Resources that option is using up might be getting to your head and that’s exactly what we’re trying to prevent. Ya see, that option is chewin’ on your computer resources like a teething Mastiff puppy. Look here.
“But… how will I select my edges and my vertices and my edges…and…and…!!!”
ok, my goodness. When you are working in SolidWorks and your making things transparent and need to select through it, all you need to do is…
- extend your hand toward the computer screen
- curl all but your index finger under your palm
- add some wrist twisting action for effect
- push down the SHIFT KEY
Yes, you’re not seeing things, the crowd is in awe as you have magically selected through whatever you’re over by simply holding down the Shift key.
So, Why is this good?
- Consumes less resources
- You can select transparent stuff
- You can drop library features on transparent stuff
- Editing top down is less cumbersome
- You can listen to music and have your email open while working
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I was on a trip recently and pulled off into a gas station when I saw this incredible beast of a truck pull up next to me. It had sponsorship decals all over it and down on the passenger side door I saw the good ‘ol SolidWorks logo. I was wondering what the relationship was and started looking into it.
Millenworks does design, engineering, simulation, analysis, prototyping and production for advanced mobility systems in defense, automotive, SUV and motorsport industries. In other word, they create some really innovative stuff, and SolidWorks is one of the tools they use.
The Millenworks Toyota FJ I saw raced in the Baja 1000 last November coming in 2nd just 34 seconds behind the leader. This truck is impressive, the team and talent is impressive and it’s really cool to see SolidWorks sponsoring innovative companies like this. Check out these pics.
Related Links
Toyota FJ
ATV Off Road Fury 4
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