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In the realm of somewhat useless but cool stuff you can do to customize SolidWorks, I recently did a post about making your own background.
This can in actuality be very useful for two things
- Making things on your screen easier to see
- Giving a custom feel to product presentations
So, in light of all of that, I’ve created 5 backgrounds for you to use or to get some inspiration for what you could do with your own. Here they are…
Continue reading ‘5 Fresh Backgrounds for SolidWorks’
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There’s lots of things that can make a team efficient - collaboration, coordination, communications, 24” monitors, donuts. But there’s one thing that can make a team of SolidWorks users take those first three things and spread them like a warm stick of butter.
It has to do with standardizing SolidWorks settings in your group. At the very least this will give everyone a starting point. Or if you have a socialistic engineering agenda you can make everyone use the same settings all the time. Let’s dance…
Continue reading ‘The Vital Key to an Organized SolidWorks Team’
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I know it’s been hard on us all having to manually unroll the toilet paper for the past 100 or so years, but your worries are over and good old SolidWorks may have had a large part in it.
News was announced yesterday that Kimberly-Clark, the name most are familiar with in public restrooms, has developed and produced an automatic toilet paper dispenser. This is definitely new but not too unusual since they already have an automatic paper towel dispenser.
This product was developed in the Roswell, Georgia division which last I know uses SolidWorks as their primary CAD package. I imagine they have the most accurate 3D representation of toilet paper you can find.
A brief history of toilet paper
- 1857 - Joseph C. Gayetty of New York produced first packaged t.p. in U.S.
- 1880 - Rolled and perforated toilet paper invented by Scott paper.
- 1935 - Northern Tissue advertised “splinter-free” toilet paper. (Phew!)
- 1942 - St. Andrew’s Paper Mill in Great Britain introduced two-ply toilet paper.
- 1973 - America experienced its first toilet paper shortage.
- 1999 - The Virtual Toilet Paper Museum opened its virtual doors.
- 2007 - Kimberly-Clark creates the first automatic toilet paper dispenser.
- more here
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After being with SolidWorks since 1996 and leading since 2001, John McEleney has stepped down as CEO. Dassault Systèmes has named Jeff Ray as his replacement.
He brought vast amounts of knowledge, a friendly face and a well trimmed goatee to SolidWorks. I’m sure he’ll be missed… but not till the end of the year. He will be serving on the board of directors till then.
Thanks for sharing your passion and inspiration with us.
See Brian’s Cadfanatic post about John at a User’s Group in Huntsville
Source: BusinessWire
UPDATE: Here’s a link to CAD Insider where Roopinder Tara has some further details.
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A few weeks ago I did a post about Dimesioning tips. Looking back at it, I feel it was limited. So, I want to open it up to you and provide a little incentive as well.
I will be giving away this brand new SanDisk 2GB Cruzer Micro USB 2.0 Flash Drive.
To enter the Best SolidWorks Dimensioning Tips Contest, just reply to this post with your best or favorite dimensioning tip. I’ll draw a name next Monday and that person will be 2 gigs more powerful. I’ll accept only one comment from each person, but if you do a blog post with a link back to this post, I’ll count that as a second entry!
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I was going to wait and have some links from this site in the Friday Smackdowns, but there’s just so much good stuff I thought it deserved a post of it’s own.
If design matters to you at all or you’re interested in color, art or just making things look good you need to check out this site.
What you’ll find
- Discusion about Colors, Design, Fashion and Print
- Color palettes for any style and feel
- Blog of interesting articles and trends
- much more…
Interesting articles
Painting with Light
Magnets Change Liquid’s Color
Color Inspiration from the Masters of Painting
Ultimate HTML Color HEX Code List
Things you can use this site for?
- Impress the wife with your eye for color on the next room redecoration.
- Stump the designers with your insane knowledge of smooth delicate transitions and sharp accents.
- Rattle off hex colors to those annoying programmers that know everything about web design.
- Paint your cubicle or office each month with a different palette.
Quick, go and check it out before everyone comes back from lunch.
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Since their launch in March of 2007, SpaceClaim, out of Concord, Mass. has been making some waves with their new solid modeler. I’m even starting to hear more talk about it amongst the casual uninterested CAD users. Their assertions to a “highly flexible design environment” make some wonder if this is a fresh approach to solid modeling.
What’s creating the interest in this new CAD system?
It seems one of the largest assets pushing interest in the subject is by people through word of mouth. Matt Lombard is one who has put up an incredible review that looks at the fundamental difference in philosophy between SpaceClaim and SolidWorks.
Personally, I’ve been interested in it for two reasons. One, it was co-founded by Michael Payne. He was part of the group that started SolidWorks and was previously VP of R&D at PTC (Pro/E) where the parametric modeling philosophy was developed that SpaceClaim goes completely against.
Two, it’s new and different. This is where I wish I could try it out. I dislike being confined to sketches and feature history. Bottom line, it limits things I’d like to do. However, I don’t like nurb modeling either. But, from what Matt says, this sounds like it may be a happier medium - create things with sketches and then finish it off with edits. In other words, form it how you want it to look. I like it.
Is there anything not to like about it though?
Continue reading ‘SpaceClaim Taking on More Interests’
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Have you ever seen five tons of fire-breathing hamsters running at you? It would be best to turn and RUN.
Dave Quiggle Artwork - I love this guys artwork. His new Tattoo Flash is incredible.
Bionic Arm Uses Elephant’s Trunk as Design Model - elephant trunks can crush a man. I hope they took that into account. (via)
Fire-breathing FAQ - just in case you wanted to know.
Xbox 360 vs. PlayStation 3 vs. Nintendo Wii - good comparison. I’d go with the 360.
UrbanFonts.com - I love Fonts. This quells the addiction.
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Last week SolidWorks put out a press release about the two competitors in this years America’s Cup, Emirates Team New Zealand and Alinghi Switzerland.
Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) and Alinghi are competing in the America’s Cup 2007…Taking place off the coast of Valencia, Spain, the 32nd America’s Cup features a rematch of the two yachts that competed for the championship in 2003.
What’s unique about this competition is that both of the boats were designed using SolidWorks. The hull, keel, winch mounts, and other deck hardware of both boats are some of the aspects of each that were designed to withstand the forces of the high winds and mighty sea.
As I’m writing this, Alinghi has just won. Go swiss. You can see the race highlights at the America’s Cup website.
It’s very interesting to see what goes into designing vessels like this. My brother owns a 30′ sailboat and we always talk about designing a boat in SolidWorks.
To see some more about the design for each boat:
Emirates Boat Design
Alinghi Boat Design
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And when I say snot, I mean all that messy undefined-ness. That is some nasty stuff and can make your part sick I tell you. Sick, sick, sick. There is one thing that can help you though.
One Command to dimension them all, One Command to relate them, One Command to bind them all and in the sketch confine them.
What could this strange and mysterious command be?
Let me fill ya in. Some of you may remember a command, back in the ‘06 days, called “Constrain All” that allowed you to add a bunch of relations to an undefined sketch. Well, in SolidWorks 2007 they removed it and added the “Fully Define Sketch” command to give you ultimate power over those that do not dimension things. It’s superior in many ways.
How can I use it to defeat evil?
Ah yeah. Time to slap that sketch up side the face. Like I said in that brilliant title, you can do it in two easy steps, but first, let me show ya what happens.
Continue reading ‘Dimension the Snot out of Your Sketch in Two Steps’
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