Archive for the 'Working Smarter' Category

PDM Assassin: Combine the Best, Eliminate the Rest (Could it Ever Be?)

Published
by
Josh
on April 9, 2008
in Working Smarter
. 5 Comments

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pdm-assassin.jpgI’m not sure about you, but I am increasingly frustrated in the separation between 3D design and data management. Yep, I have two hairs left on my head and permanent marker all over my face from nervous twitching each time something needs to be checked-in or out.

There’s creating a model and then there’s managing it. It’s separate, but for the most part you’re already managing the data in the assembly structure you create and the drawings you churn out. All that data is in the model files. For some reason it takes another program to structure the data, produce reports, handle revisions, etc. even though you build that every day into the model. Heck, not only models. Any document.

I imagine sooner or later this could merge and completely destroy what we know as PDM or PLM. Maybe it because we think of it in the sense of managing 3D CAD Data in lists instead of like filling a glass of water, so to speak. Part of this happens because companies want reports and revs to look like they always have. The hardest part about developing a new technology is convincing people that it’s better than how it has been done. That scary.

Hopefully, one day, the resource and data management will happen behind the scenes and data can be generated dynamically not matter if we start from a spreadsheet or a 3D environment. think it can happen?

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How To Get Hired On the Spot Plus Have An Easy Interview

Published
by
Josh
on April 3, 2008
in Working Smarter
. 5 Comments

will-work-for-money.jpgThis isn’t going to tell you what to put on your resume, how to dress or what to say. This is going to show you what you can do right now without even setting up an interview, making a call or going out to buy a new outfit. It’s really easy and you’re probably closer to being in the spotlight for that new position than you think.

It used to be that all the effort of getting preparing for an interview was put into the resume and looking sharp. Now, a clean resume and outfit are not bad, but there are new techniques that make them less a factor.

Personal Branding Secrets
There are no secrets. The job hunting and people hiring have pretty much changed. You may not even be aware that half of your interview could take place online. This can be bad if you’re not aware of it, but really, really good if you are and it’s a whole lot better than mailing resumes to the HR waste basket.

So, experience aside, here are four things (plus some bonus items) that can help you get hired on the spot, make any interview easier and have you standing out above everyone else.
Continue reading ‘How To Get Hired On the Spot Plus Have An Easy Interview’

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How Do You Take The Suck Out of Work?

Published
by
Josh
on March 13, 2008
in Working Smarter
. 2 Comments

norma-jean-redeemer-sm.jpgMan, that looks painful huh. This is the cover art on a CD of a band I listen to called Norma Jean. Do you ever feel like this?

A lot of times you’ll get demands from work or a client that just seem completely unreasonable. You can dish out a sarcastic attitude and get a unfriendly look or you can do something about it.

It’s a tough call sometimes. What do you do?

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Parkour and SolidWorks: Aware of Your Suroundings

Published
by
Josh
on March 10, 2008
in Working Smarter
. 5 Comments

parkour-jump-roll.jpgThis weekend I got a chance to do a bit of Parkour, or Freerunning, with a friend also interested in it. Now at first glance (see video below) you may think it’s a bunch of idiots trying to break their legs acting like monkeys, but, yeah, it’s actually much more.

I would define Parkour as a way of moving through your physical environment without slowing. My brothers and I basically did this growing up, chasing each other across the wooded cliffs and riverbeds of the Shawnee National Forest, but we never had a name for it.

Now it’s something I do for exercise. It’s more fun than running and less dangerous than sitting in a cubicle. You need a happy medium.

Think Fast
When your running as fast as you can at a stair railing or a bunch of rocks you gotta think pretty quickly what you’re going to do to get around them. Like what are you gonna do if someone is chasing you with a bat. Now, SolidWorks isn’t as life threatening, for now, but, you know, you have to figure some things out pretty quick even if you don’t know what’s coming or how you’re going to progress until you get there.

Aware of your surroundings
This is one of the funnest activities I’ve ever done and I find that when I’m really tested against my surroundings at work in completing a model or a redesign is when I enjoy that part of work the most.

What’s even cooler
It’s not one of the hokey feel-good mindsets. You don’t have to force yourself to be aware of every instance. It’s happening faster than you can think and you kinda realize it because you feel confident you’ll know what to do. But there’s one thing needed.

It takes training
Lot’s of it. This weekend was particularly painful because I haven’t done some of those things in awhile. We did runs where we took turn following each other getting over and around anything. The concept being, when you put yourself into a situation you limit yourself. Whereas, when someone else puts you in a situation you have to perform or stay home. Once you face it, your flying over obstacles (redesign, modeling errors) and not even losing a breath. It feels super cool and, even more, you get to show someone else how it’s done.

I can’t wait to get out the next time. If any of you are in to Tulsa area, let me know.

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Rock Productivity With the Xobni Outlook Plugin

Published
by
Josh
on January 10, 2008
in Working Smarter
. 19 Comments

xobni_logo.pngEmail, and especially Microsoft Outlook, can get really convoluted with all the foldering, contacting and searching. The Xobni plugin makes the day to day email task much easier.

xobni-screenshot.jpgWhy it’s Cool
After you install Xobni, it indexes everything in Outlook in less time it usually takes you to search for that email you sent Jim about that bad meat he sold you. You’re organized right away. No making lists, moving stuff, importing contacts. It does it all, right off the bat.

It’s actually functional too.
You have all the people you contact the most right up front. The search capabilities alone are enough to drop your sandwich, slap your melon and gape in awe. In one pane you have email stats with info on your contact and email. On another pane you can organize your appointments, to-do’s and see how long it’s been since you contacted (avoided) someone.

The program is in Beta, but the first 10 people that comment will get an invite code to try it out.

More?
Xobni was recently featured at the Techcrunch40 Event as one of the great productivity apps. You can find out more and see videos on the Xobni website.

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Best Music To Model and Groove To

Published
by
Josh
on December 27, 2007
in Rockin' Cool and Working Smarter
. 5 Comments

thomyork.jpgDays and nights of sitting in front of a computer can be very hard on the ol’ melon. The low droning buzz of the fluorescents is enough to make you go completely mad and your ipod just ran out of juice.

Fortunately, the interweb has had little radio babies with endless hours of streaming tunage to help shut out the annoying noise of others people being productive. There’s many out there, but my favorite has to be Pandora. It adapts to what you want to hear and the music quality is excellent.

But what’s the best music to listen to when you’re sitting for hours studying or modeling or writing helpful articles?

It’s all about the groove
Hand’s down, the best music to listen during times of deep concentration are tunes without words. Who needs some singer going on about this or that when you’re trying to get things done. Boot the singer and settle into a nice groove. Here are 10 stations that are bound to help you keep the rhythm going.

Got another one you like? Hit the comments!

Groove 70’s Radio
The Meters, Mighty Imperials, Soul Strokes, etc.

Groove Dixie Jazz Radio
Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Jack Teagarden, Pete Fountain, etc.

Groove Drum n’ Bass Radio
Deiselboy, DJ Zinc, Roni Size, etc.

Groove Flamenco Radio
Paco Pena, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Carlos Montoya & Andres Segovia, etc.

Groove Guitar Radio
Leo Kottke, Bert Jansch, Preston Reed, etc.

Groove Quintette Radio
The New Quintette Du Hot Club De France, The Hot Club, Pearl Django, etc.

Groove Rock Radio
Stevie Ray Vaughan, Chris Duarte, Led Zeppelin, etc.

Groove Smooth Radio
BT, Tosca, Rocket, etc.

Groove Surf Radio
The Tornadoes, The Ventures, The Lively Ones, etc.

Groove Western Radio
Ennio Morricone, Liz Carroll, Jack Nitzsche, etc.

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The Importance of a Good Back-up System

Published
by
Josh
on December 12, 2007
in Working Smarter
. 4 Comments

trees-down-in-tulsa.jpg

It looks like a war zone in my neighborhood. Trees down everywhere.

Day 3
I’m dead in the water. The winter storm that came through Tulsa knocked out the power to half the city and has left a lot of companies kaput. Especially those that have all their data on one server, in one building.

So, all of our contractors, our satellite offices and employees that depend on data from that server cannot do anything because it’s off. The server is off, the phones are off and the remaining few of us that have power at home are trickling IMs to each other.

This has me thinking that a back-up server is in order, but what works the best?

If you have any suggestions throw them out.

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Designing the Engineer

Published
by
Josh
on November 14, 2007
in Working Smarter
. 9 Comments

desktop-with-un.jpg

The light spills in through the windows of your studio. You’re sketching things up, importing illustrations, optimizing models here and there, and making the most beautifully designed product a consumer has ever seen. You have a perfect balance between a love for esthetically pleasing design and what you went to engineering school for.

However, there are a lot of engineering and design professionals that find themselves on one side desiring more involvement in the other. This is especially true for engineers that have a bit of a creative tendency. Like when you see a product and smile because you know how it goes together and what it took to manufacture it, but still, your amazed at the appearance and wonder why that aspect seems familiar yet somewhat foreign. Then you see something that is completely hideous and wonder who they drug out of the potato factory to design it. Either way, the design has caught your attention and you get that twitch called inspiration.

“The Engineer who can Draw”
I recently read an article talking about the disembodied engineer. Poor guy. Confused about life, secretly wanting to add a curve here or there, unable to add an ounce of industrial savvy inspiration and constantly foiled by the whims of bracket-happy stress engineers.

…this can end up producing a working engineer or recent graduate with the dull, sinking feeling that they’ve spent the best years of their life struggling up the wrong professional ladder.

Don’t tear up now. It’s a revealing article from a design perspective. But guess what? Just because you enjoy Prismacolors and Balsa wood more than adding numbers and brackets doesn’t mean you have to pull up your roots and switch to being a designer. You’re actually in a better spot. You have the training in engineering, and the interest in design. But how do you find that balance you desire to be involved in design and engineering?

Continue reading ‘Designing the Engineer’

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Why Smart Numbers are Dumb: SolidWorks Guidelines for File Names

Published
by
Josh
on October 24, 2007
in SolidWorks Tips and Working Smarter
. 26 Comments

recliner.jpg

Everybody likes to know what they are getting. When it comes to organizing files on your computer it’s not any different.Using a smart numbering system may seem like a good ideas at first, but it invariably leads an organization down the wrong path. Why? Simply put, things change. This material become that material, that changes location, on and on till the break of dawn.

If I think about this, and try to come up with a clever analogy, smart numbers are like your favorite recliner. It’s comfy, has a leg rest, but it’s so big it only fits through one door and in one room. So it is with a smart part number. It works, right there.

For example, your part number differentiates between a part and an assembly. If you create a part and later it turns into an assembly, your part number is now meaningless and, even more, it’s confusing. To avoid this type of confusion, here’s a few guideline to use.
Continue reading ‘Why Smart Numbers are Dumb: SolidWorks Guidelines for File Names’

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5 Things to Learn from ‘The Office’

Published
by
Josh
on October 1, 2007
in Working Smarter
. 0 Comments

the-office-screenshot.jpg

The new season of ‘The Office’ started last week on NBC. It’s downright hilarious and uncomfortable as you could possibly make a show about relationships in an office. It’s also a veritable fountain of how not to do things at work. So in honor of the first episode, here’s some simple principles to take away from the show.
Continue reading ‘5 Things to Learn from ‘The Office’’

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