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Ahh, It’s one stormy day before April. What better time than this to give away a SpaceNavigator courtesy of 3DConnexion. Don’t know what it is? It’s a 3D mouse that allows you to move every which way in a 3D environment. I’ve been using one and really like it after getting use to it.
So, in honor of being able to manipulate things in 3D, I’m giving a SpaceNavigator away to a randomly chosen person. All you have to do is a leave a comment below. Tell me what you think the future of CAD will be like or how you want to use this thing. As an added bonus if you follow me on Twitter and send me a message, your name will be entered twice. Just type:
@solidsmack I want to win the SpaceNavigator!!
The winner will be announce this Friday, April 4th at noon (CST)!!
If you haven't already, consider subscribing to SolidSmack so you can easily receive updates when new articles are published or announcements are made.
So where is everything about the world of SolidWorks being stored out there? It’s not under your patio bench. It’s actually spread out across the entire chasm of the interwebular galaxy and is very difficult to harness at times.
Soooo, here’s a bunch of links that help me find SolidWorks content when I’m trying to find something to share with you all. Some of these I don’t talk much about, like the videos. There’s a bunch of them. And if children laugh at your SolidWorks skills, check some of them out.
Any other resources you use? Let me know and I’ll add it to the list.
News Google SolidWorks Public - This is my personal SolidWorks Feed you can access anytime. Includes all the feeds from SolidWorks. Google SolidWorks Blog Public - This is my personal feed for SolidWorks related blogs. Let me know if I’m missing any. SolidWorks on Technorati - You can also find things through Technorati. This is a “Real-time search for user-generated media” so you can get good stuff and not-so-good stuff. Google SolidWorks News - With this, you can pick up any news story that has SolidWorks in the content. It’s usually press releases and such, but every once in a while there’s something else.
Video SolidWorks on YouTube - There’s a lot of SolidWorks video content on YouTube. The quality is not spectacular on all of it but much if it is good enough. One Minute Tips - You can see this on the SolidWorks Homepage. So far there are 15 videos created by SolidProfessor. SolidMentor Video Section - A newish section on SolidMentor from some of the best users. There’s about 15 videos on here as well, but the quality is GREAT. CADJunky - Hosted by SolidWorks but has video with anything related to CAD. It has it’s own video player and is a bit of a mash-up itself that supports video from Youtube and Google. The tips are good but I keep wishing the video quality was better.
If you haven't already, consider subscribing to SolidSmack so you can easily receive updates when new articles are published or announcements are made.
Dwindling squirrel population? I thought. These people want to take all my acorns and squirrel babies and leave me with these wretched links.
Photoshop Express - It’s finally here, edit photos online. Not as good as the real thing but tuning and some filters. TimeMachiner - Send Emails to the future. Remind yourself of what you wanted to do in life 10 years from now. creepy. Scrapblog - Create a scrapbook of memorable memories… online. How much easier does it get? Redfin - Hello housing crunch. Meet my online home brokerage friend that will help me sell. Limited cities right now though. Quamut - Really cool how-to’s quick charts on the cheap. 3 bucks a pop and a free one everyday. Hottest Cars of 2008? - what do you think the are. Number one is a Nissan. Check it.
If you haven't already, consider subscribing to SolidSmack so you can easily receive updates when new articles are published or announcements are made.
For all of you crazed 3D-modeling, equation-using junkies out there, you may be really, really excited to know that your equations will update in real-time when using Instant3D in SolidWorks 2008.
Jeff, from ExtensibleCAD, shows this happening when using logical (if-then) equations to drive features. See video below. The equation is set up to change the number of spokes when the diameter changes. If the diameter is X then number of spokes is Y and it’s all done as you drag your mouse around.
One caveat to this is that the model and the Instant3D updated can get really slow and clunky the more complicated the equations and changes are. If your dimensions are driven by other features you’ll also not be able to adjust those.
If you haven't already, consider subscribing to SolidSmack so you can easily receive updates when new articles are published or announcements are made.
Have your circuit boards been feeling a little disconnected as of late? That resistor is just not fitting in right with the others? There’s hope.
SolidWorks has acquired Gold Partner Priware, the makers of CircuitWorks and is including it with SolidWorks Office Premium. Additionally, it will not be available any longer as a stand alone product.
In fact, if you have SolidWorks Office Premium you can go download CircuitWorks right now. It’s even available in XP and Vista - 32 bit and Vista - 64 bit flavors. but watch it, this is a 90-day trial and will require you to move to SP4.0 when available.
If you haven't already, consider subscribing to SolidSmack so you can easily receive updates when new articles are published or announcements are made.
There’s an interesting segment in technology that really has the largest direct effect on how we work and how teenagers spend 20+hours of their week. The Screen. That amazing peripheral you’re gazing into right now to which we’ve come to view the entire world through… until it goes black or your laptop is yanked off the table by a toddler.
From the ready availability of laptop screens it seems as if this happens to quite a few of them. Without a doubt, in the near future, we’ll put the isolated workstation aside for the ultra-portable laptops that have the same capabilities. I’ve developed a lot of interest in the displays over the past few years because of the advances in technology with thinner laptops like the Sony Vaio or Macbook Air, flexible OLED screens and of course all the multi-touch stuff that has come out.
Then, the prices of LCD’s drop off so much because of competition and increased manufacturing, Best Buy stop carrying the tubes, and I wonder if I can just buy a whole palette of replacement screens to cover the wallpaper I have yet to take down in the bathroom. How sweet would that be?… How expensive would that be? And then replacing them along with the lightbulbs when they go out?
On top of that, there’s the business side where you could invest in the companies producing laptops or in the manufacturers pumping out the screens. To use the California gold rush analogy: It wasn’t the miners who got rich; it was the people who sold the picks and shovels. Who has the next best shovel?
The technology is certainly changing. More than anything though, I’m just glad I don’t have a huge CRT sitting on my desk anymore.
If you haven't already, consider subscribing to SolidSmack so you can easily receive updates when new articles are published or announcements are made.
I’d like to hear it from the man himself, but according to DesignNews Jon Hirschtick, the nicest guy and founder of SolidWorks, was one of the original MIT blackjack team members depicted in the upcoming film, 21.
The movie, based on the book of the real events, stars Kevin Spacey who leads a group of MIT student to huge winnings in Vegas.
The part I doubt they embellish is when one of the guys uses about $1 million of that coin to help startup your favorite CAD company, SolidWorks. Pretty cool if true, and the side of the story you always wish you could hear more about. Game of Blackjack Jon?
Here’s the trailer for the movie, it comes to a theater near you March 28th.
If you haven't already, consider subscribing to SolidSmack so you can easily receive updates when new articles are published or announcements are made.
Here’s a slightly useful and not-at-all complicated tip on reducing features by using 3D sketches. It’s more fun to have people gather around your desk, get all attentive and then yell the first step very, very loud as they hunker down around your screen… Now move in close people…
Two Tips in One
This is really two tips in one. What a deal. I’ll show how to create a plane at any angle against a curved surface and do it with a minimum number of features, all thanks to the handy 3D-ness of the 3D sketch tool. There’s a video later on, but here’s the step-by-step. Continue reading ‘How To Use 3D Sketches To Reduce SolidWorks Features’
If you haven't already, consider subscribing to SolidSmack so you can easily receive updates when new articles are published or announcements are made.
It’s odd how time beats things into submission and then also how soup gets cold so fast. And when I say “time” I mean those geeky and mildly disturbed types that actually live on cold soup while they create new apps and innovations from their basement. Yeah, and it’s even more odd to see what some people thought years ago about the future those guys bring about and then how it actually turned out.
How you live and work now probably doesn’t even phase you. Talking with people instantly. hello? That is insane. I bet your ‘musicbox’ doesn’t have any wires and you can send your ‘Polaroids’ instantly through space. suuuuure.
I imagine there will always be two opinions about the futuristic future (R.I.P. Arthur C. Clark.) One pessimistic, one optimistic. I’ll take whichever one sounds cooler, laugh at the other and see what happens. However, if you look at two version from the years gone by, it’s kinda obvious which route technology took. Continue reading ‘There’s Cold Soup in My Technology: Two Sides of Yesterday’s Future Tech’
If you haven't already, consider subscribing to SolidSmack so you can easily receive updates when new articles are published or announcements are made.
If you are thinking about upgrading to Microsoft Windows Vista or think that SolidWorks will not run well on Vista or that everything in the world sucks because of Vista, you NEED to read Mike Puckett’s SolidWorks on Vista experience.
With Vista SP1 now available this makes the move to Vista even more important in you future hardware/software considerations. Now you can plan those summer upgrades with fewer worries.
If you haven't already, consider subscribing to SolidSmack so you can easily receive updates when new articles are published or announcements are made.
Ahh, It’s one stormy day before April. What better time than this to give away a SpaceNavigator courtesy of 3DConnexion. Don’t know what it is? It’s a 3D mouse that allows you to move every which way in a 3D environment. I’ve been using one and really like it after getting use to it.
So where is everything about the world of SolidWorks being stored out there? It’s not under your patio bench. It’s actually spread out across the entire chasm of the interwebular galaxy and is very difficult to harness at times.
Dwindling squirrel population? I thought. These people want to take all my acorns and squirrel babies and leave me with these wretched links.
For all of you crazed 3D-modeling, equation-using junkies out there, you may be really, really excited to know that your equations will update in real-time when using Instant3D in SolidWorks 2008.
Have your circuit boards been feeling a little disconnected as of late? That resistor is just not fitting in right with the others? There’s hope.
There’s an interesting segment in technology that really has the largest direct effect on how we work and how teenagers spend 20+hours of their week. The Screen. That amazing peripheral you’re gazing into right now to which we’ve come to view the entire world through… until it goes black or your laptop is yanked off the table by a toddler.
I’d like to hear it from the man himself, but 
Here’s a slightly useful and not-at-all complicated tip on reducing features by using 3D sketches. It’s more fun to have people gather around your desk, get all attentive and then yell the first step very, very loud as they hunker down around your screen… Now move in close people…
It’s odd how time beats things into submission and then also how soup gets cold so fast. And when I say “time” I mean those geeky and mildly disturbed types that actually live on cold soup while they create new apps and innovations from their basement. Yeah, and it’s even more odd to see what some people thought years ago about the future those guys bring about and then how it actually turned out.
If you are thinking about upgrading to Microsoft Windows Vista or think that SolidWorks will not run well on Vista or that everything in the world sucks because of Vista, you NEED to read 
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