Archive for July, 2007

Friday Smackdown

Published
by
Josh
on July 20, 2007
in Smackdown
.

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Bioshock sliverSeriously, that squirrel was just standing there puffing away on a cigarette. Tell me, have you ever seen anything as crazy as that? I think not.

Google streetview invades America - coming to a window near you.
Bioshock Trailer - Xbox 360 game out in August 07 with incredible graphics and non-linear responsive environment. dang rad.
FiftyEight3D - Very impressive site for a 3D animation outfit in Germany.
Monoface - 759,375 face combinations, some are not so pretty.
How to Create a Personal Productivity Scaffold - Steve shows you how to get down to business, now that you’ve wasted time on the above links :)

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Increase your Productivity with Clear Screen Fonts

Published
by
Josh
on July 20, 2007
in Resources and Working Smarter
.

ClearType Example

Here’s a quick tip that will help keep your eyes from spurting blood when you’re working those long hours.

ClearType Tuner

This tool will help the fonts on your screen show up better which can make a night and day difference in how productive you can be. You may need to download the Powertoy Version if the automated method doesn’t work.

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The Documentation Monster that Saved the Company

Published
by
Josh
on July 19, 2007
in Rockin' Cool
.

I’m not sure if this will be a regular type of post, but I thought, after being slightly over-exposed to the sun and having an icy beverage, I’d tell you a short story about a little company and a big company and what happens when 3D is used with 2D processes. A little drama, a little action, but a happy ending. Enjoy.

The Documentation Monster that Saved the Company

the documentation moster

Once there was a small little company…

that enjoyed creating brilliant 3D models and nicely organized data packages.

A big company said, “Make stuff for us and use our 2D processes!”

The small company said, “It hurts!”

The big company was very disorganized and had no revision control.

The small company sent a message to the documentation monster.

“Save us from the ails that plague our efficiency, Mr. Monster!” they said.

“You will have what you ask, for a disorganized mess makes me angry!”

The documentation monster visited the big company.

He ate everyone that wrote unnecessary engineering requests….

He slimmed everyone that used their desktop as a data management tool….

He digested every piece of documentation created, and expelled it out into nicely organized piles of revision controlled bliss.

The small company increased its revenue, upgraded their hardware and went home on the weekends to their families.

The end.

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Contemporary Furniture Design in SolidWorks

Published
by
Josh
on July 19, 2007
in Product Design
. 1 Comment

strand-hvass furnitureI particularly like furniture design and I recently came across this company in a SolidWorks Case Study.

Strand-Hvass is a furniture and product design company in Denmark. It formed as a merge between the two design companies of Christina Strand and Niels Hvass. The two attended the Danish Design School.

Some may think this style of furniture is for skinny people that live in Manhattan and wear all black. Well, maybe, but there’s is an edge to contemporary design when you can mix hard straight elements with curves and materials that keep a clean look. These guys do this well.

I’ve found furniture design to be somewhat challenging. While keeping something esthetically pleasing you have to make sure its going to be comfortable and not tip over. Strand-Hvass seem to have a handle on this. Take a look.

strand-screenshot-01.jpg

wawe_12_b.jpg

flight_b.jpg

hrex_table.jpg

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10 1/2 Tips to Rock Your SolidWorks Assemblies

Published
by
Josh
on July 18, 2007
in SolidWorks Tips
. 16 Comments

solidworks tipsMany times I will be cruising along on an assembly and realized I should be slapped hard for not taking time to do a few things that will make my work much easier. Yeah, my assembly is looking like that thingjohn carpenter the thing from John Carpenter’s “The Thing” and the room is getting dark. So, to keep your assemblies from absorbing somebody’s flesh, I’ve put together a list of 10 ½ things that could save you from certain doom.

These have the added benefit of making you look extremely organized. Your boss and co-workers may realize the thought you’ve put into things and give you more stuff to do, so use these wisely and then show others how to make their assemblies shine. Here they are.
Continue reading ‘10 1/2 Tips to Rock Your SolidWorks Assemblies’

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The Best Site to Download 3D Models Online

Published
by
Josh
on July 17, 2007
in Resources
. 5 Comments

I’ve had to search for some models lately and I was going to do a helpful little post on the best places to find and download models, but after searching for hours and messing around on a bunch of sites, there is just one that stands out. I bet some of you could have told me this too.

3dcontentcentral-logo.jpg

After looking through 4 sites, this had the closest to or exactly what I was looking for. It turns out it is owned by SolidWorks, which really isn’t a disappointment, but I figured there would be an independent site with a large database. There is actually, Traceparts. But, again, it turns out, they are a SolidWorks Solution Partner and their models are also included in 3D Content Central.

So why is 3D Content Central better than the others?
Continue reading ‘The Best Site to Download 3D Models Online’

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Burton Car Design Competition Using SolidWorks

Published
by
Josh
on July 16, 2007
in Product Design
. 7 Comments

burtoncar.jpgBurton Car Company, the largest sports car manufacturer in the Netherlands, holds a design competition each year for a new concept sports car.

The 2007 grand prize is a €12,000 Burton kitcar. The concept has to be designed in SolidWorks based on an available chassis and meet specs for kitcar manufacturability.

SolidWorks.nl, HP, W3D, and 3D Connexion are some of the various partners in the competition.

The contest for this year ended June 30th and I happened to come across one of the contestants entries on flickr. After looking at the rest I will have to say it’s definitely one of the best. It was rendered in PhotoWorks. Here’s some pictures of this cool concept.
Continue reading ‘Burton Car Design Competition Using SolidWorks’

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Winner of the 2GB Sandisk Crusier

Published
by
Josh
on July 16, 2007
in Contests
. 1 Comment

sandisk-cruzer-2gb.jpg

Congrats to Steve Calvert for winning the 2GB SanDisk Crusier in lasts weeks dimensioning tip contest. He now has 2GB more room to carry stuff around with him. I have one and have even run an Apache web server off of it! enjoy Steve!

Keep an eye out because there will definitely be more contest coming up soon.

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Solidworks Settings for Inventor Users

Published
by
Josh
on July 13, 2007
in Resources
. 6 Comments

SolidWorks for Inventor

In response to the post about The Vital Key to an Organized SolidWorks Team, one of our readers, Kyle Mason, sent a response about his experience at college where Inventor is really pushed.

I have [created a Reg file for Inventor users] to make SolidWorks a little more “Inventor friendly.” I am going to college right now and… I made these settings to help some of my fellow classmates out because most of the students don’t know how powerful SolidWorks is. It is on the tools section of my website. There is a direct link to the .sldreg [settings file] and also a Word document with the keyboard shortcuts. The .sldreg file sets up the toolbars, buttons and things like that to make everything look like Inventor, however I still can’t figure out how to make the middle mouse button pan instead of rotate. That is the leading complaint that my friends have about using SolidWorks. They are so used to Autocad and Inventor where the mmb is pan.
arrow-down.png Download Here

What version of SolidWorks was this done in?
The .sldreg file was created in SolidWorks 2006. Settings will copy over though when you upgrade to a newer version.

What about the Middle Mouse Button/Scroll wheel?
You would need a programmable mouse to set the middle mouse button to pan. If you use a regular mouse you won’t be able to, but if you hold Ctrl down while pressing the Middle mouse button everything will pan.

Thanks for making this Kyle and for helping out your classmates. You may have saved them from a painful future of continued Inventor usage. Your experience shows how useful having the right settings for each situation can be. I think a reg file like this would be something helpful for SolidWorks to package with the product as well.

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Friday Smackdown

Published
by
Josh
on July 13, 2007
in Smackdown
.

mosaicYep, he jumped off thar and his kneecaps done shot out his legs and clear through that window over thar. Said he was tryin’ to get to these here links.

PicFindr - free stock photo search engine.
Will an iPhone Blend? - The ultimate product stress test. guess what. it fails.
A new breed of mouse - with gestural control and a pretty design.
Car with disapperaing doors - watch this incredible video of the Lincoln concept car being sold on eBay.
Skate Videos Online - my new favorite site. All the skate videos ever made. some of the video is bad, but man the videos are so good. Zero, Toy Machine, even old Plan B. sweet.

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