If CAD was like drumming… the Swiss would be the 3D pummeling force of a 5000 lb. gorilla. I lived in Basel for a little bit, but didn’t get to see the Top Secret Drum Corps. If you like drums and junk, you’ll love this. This is exactly what I would be doing if I…
Wow, so thats how many times you can poke a dead cat until it actually moves. These links have nothing to do with that. Icons for your Desktop and More – If you told me there were such a thing as too many Icons, I would never believe you. Layout-o-matic – I wish I had…
I finally got a Nikon D40 today for my wife Maggie. The camera is sweet. What’s disconcerting is one of the user manual warnings. Apparently there’s some people with twitchy fingers poking themselves in the eye.
In a recent poll I held, some of you were waiting to upgrade to SolidWorks 2008 till SP1.0 came out. Psst, hey, it’s out. Whatcha waiting for?I just installed it with the Installation Manager and had no problems at all on my XP machine besides what Jason also came across with the full installation download.…
You may recall a post about the Koenigsegg CCX being the fastest street legal car designed in SolidWorks. Now they have the fastest biofuel car designed in SolidWorks, and it doesn’t look ridiculous and slow. It’s called the CCXR. “… the ethanol in biofuel has the positive side effect of cooling the combustion chambers, as…
There’s a new blog in town and it’s sporting a crop of writers. SolidWorks Legion has come on the scene and plans to give you the huzzah on SolidWorks. You may recognize the authors if you frequent the SolidWorks Yahoo group. FCSuper, and his two compatriots, are sporting a Wordpress Blog with a nice blue-gray…
Getting through a project in a multi-user environment is one of the greatest challenges an engineering company can face. There’s this PDM and that PDM, this process and that process, and it quickly turns into a community of gopher-heads popping up to have each other check stuff in ‘real quick’ while schedules dwindle into the…
You like free stuff? I though you might. You can now get Camtasia Studio 3.1.3 absolutely free and record all the computer screen goodness you want. Create video tutorials, zoom, pan, then share on a site like Vimeo. Here’s the simple 3 step process. Download the software from here (28.3MB). Go to this page and…
One of the speakers at SolidWorks World 2008 is going to be Dr. Don Norman. His book The Design of Future Things just came out last Monday. “It’s meant to be fun to read, but it’s meant to be a little bit scary and cautionary.” Sounds good. The book is a continuation of a previous…
You know that feeling you get when you look out over a drop off and you’re like I could jump that and you get that funny feeling? These links are kinda like that. Flickr Related Tag Viewer – Take an interactive journey through Flickr. from the maker of SimpleViewer. World of Warcraft Commercials – Mr.…
Register for SolidWorks World…check, Get free weird Lookin’ mouse…cheeeck. The quickest 100 people who register for SolidWorks World here will get a shiny new Space Navigator 3D mouse. Just look at it in it’s ubiquitous model-manipulating glory. It cost $59 retail. You could swap that for half a barrel of oil or 11.8 cups of…
I’m not to keen on Macs, even though I was raised on them years ago, along with meat, potatoes and iodized salt. You may have seen the Apple ads on TV. Now you may start seeing some even more creative ones online. Macs don’t run SolidWorks (for shame), but you can’t beat a good ad,…
You know that open-source software like Apache or OpenOffice that actually makes it possible for you to do things on your own? Some bright guys applied that to hardware and have developed BUG, an open source, web-enabled, modular software + hardware platform. Sound cool? Here’s what they have to say. Bug Labs is a new…
I’ve hired Burt Reynolds to convince you to chip into a fund to buy my wonderfully supportive and extremely cool wife a Dell XPS. Here’s the video from Burt. Mad-cap Consumerism at its best This is actually a pretty cool promotion from Dell. Get someone famous to convince people to chip in and buy you…
So I went to a SolidWorks user group last week. The Tulsa SolidWorks User Group (TULSUG). It’s the first one I’ve been to since, oh, since I was a reseller and I had to go. That was a few years ago. This one I’m not only a user, I’m helping out where I can as…
I just ate five different kinds of chili, one was a seafood chili and it was disgusting. please stop that. Search by Color – Search websites designs based on color. I like red. The Feidad Building – a high rise building created using the dynamic forms and patterns of hair. yeah hair. Free Open Source…
A little while ago I did a cannonball into the serene waters of assembly design and gave you 3 Unique Solutions to Modeling in SolidWorks. It was almost a taunt, because I just jabbed at the concept. Well, here’s a little bit more of a jab. Something with a little more pepper… and some delicious…
Have you ever wanted to lock your SolidWorks model in a certain spot to keep it from rebuilding and save some time? Well, you can’t do it. But you can be part of making it happen. Deep in the heart of Wisconsin, a guy named Lloyd told a guy named Lenny, “You gotta help me…
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…
Keep the video game addicts back. There’s a new game (about to be) in town. Crayon Physics. A game where you draw 2D shapes that turn into physical objects to do your bidding and solve the puzzles. Yeah, I know it’s 2D, but I’d call it Cool-D. That’s like 50 levels above 2D. Check out…
In case you’ve made a comment and didn’t see it show up, hold tight. I am using a shiny new plugin called Defensio that tightens and controls the spaminess of comments. It’s in the process of learning so it may accidently quarantine a comment here or there. If you have a Wordpress blog, I highly…
I love the industrial, mechanized late 18th century kinda look. That whole LXG or hellboy visual of a bunch of mechanized parts and oversized components that give something a rough and gritty but highly engineered feel. Love it. That’s why you gotta check out SteamPunk’s Flat Panel LCD Mod. It’s everything an avid collector of…
I’ve had a poll up for a couple months to see when you plan on upgrading to SolidWorks 2008. It was started during pre-release and SP 0.1 is the latest Service Pack. To date, there’s been 151 responses and it seems close between those that already have upgraded and those waiting for bugs to be…
What’s up with knuckle skin? Why’s there got to be so much? Same with elbow skin, what’s that all about? These links may answer your question. Joshua Davis Art – I love this guys art, it’s very bubbly deco-mechanicorganic. Call of Duty 4 – Released this week for, ya know, playing at work during lunch.…
Don’t you just love some seriously beautiful wallpaper to customize your programs with? Sure, you can customize your SolidWorks background, but that’s so SolidWorks 2007. Now, in SolidWorks 2008 you can even add a custom image to your drawing background. In fact…are you ready… it already comes with… a crinkly paper background. Yeah, pretty hard…
I finally know what I want for Christmas. An ASR Carbon mountain bike from Yeti cycles. It’s only $6149.00, fully loaded. These high-end bikes are just plain tough looking and make my purple GT Outback look wimpy. Oh yeah, and they are designed in SolidWorks. My favorite one from their line-up, the ASR Race/Trail bike,…
Do you remember those little prizes in Cracker Jacks you could flip back and forth and see two different pictures? The team down at Big3D have been busy making a much more complicated, 98 foot wide by 13 foot tall one of those. The Lenticular Mural at the Mandalay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas…
Just wanted to let you PDF-on-crack users know I recently did an article for the Adobe Acrobat User Community to show the throngs of people out there using Adobe Acrobat 3D 5 Time Saving Benefits of Adding Acrobat 3D to Your Engineering Workflow. I literally take a standard workflow, tear it apart and neatly locate…
There’s usually a lot of change in a new software release that doesn’t get reported. There’s also most likely an equally sad employee that doesn’t get to bask in the brilliance of that small “mediocre” addition. Well, that’s about to change. Whether you’ve been noticed or not, we know you’re in front of your computer…
And I definitely mean that in a rock-your-cad-soaked-gourd kind of way. I’m always impressed by the articles on the MCAD magizine website and the diverse topics they cover. They’re based out of the UK, but you can see the current issue and back issues online. This month particularly caught my attention because they cover a…
Them anteaters are huge. I was eatin’ my lasagna and all of a sudden they come stompin’ through the livin’ room like it’s a naturally inhabitable arid grassland. These links saved my life. 100 awesome hi-res Photoshop brushes – My search is over. These are all the brushes I’ll ever need… maybe. What are your…
Gone are the days of your typical PDF. Adobe is cranking up the possibilities with Acrobat Version 8 3D and they’re on top of the issues to make you look as cool as possible. I wrote previously about Acrobat 8 3D. At that time it was great with small to medium size models, but there…
You may have seen the news about Dassault’s poor earnings yesterday. Well, as suspected, PTC (Proe/E, MathCAD) is reporting higher earnings. But, that’s not the interesting part. PTC also announced they are acquiring Germany-based CoCreate, another 3D CAD System, for…get this… 250 million. That’s about $2500 per seat CoCreate reports having. not too shabby. Why…
If you think your Tuesday was bad, how would like to get 36% of your revenue taken for taxes. That’s exactly what happen to Dassualt Systemes (SolidWorks, Catia) today as they reported their Q3 earnings. Their net income fell 24% over the last 3 months due to the higher tax rates and the weak US…
The title of the post is actually a post I’ve been working on, thinking about and contemplating since the iPhone came out… then, BLAM! all of a sudden SolidWorks Labs goes and announces Drawings Now available on the iPhone. Thanks guys. you’ve ruined hours of coming up with the future of CAD and thinking of…
Wouldn’t it be nice to automate all the modeling you do in SolidWorks? There’s ways to do this but when you’re first implementing SolidWorks or need to add some methods to speed up model creation there’s a way to make adding features quicker. It’s through Library Features and this will show you what they do…
When I say we gonna get down, I don’t mean three-quarter time. 3D Abstract Art – a whole mess of interesting and inspiring 3D art at DeviantART. GigaPan – This site allows you to upload, share, and explore hi def gigapixel+ panoramas from around the globe. 25 Skills Every Man Should Know: Your Ultimate DIY…
Free 3D modeling software. Yep, that’s right Joe Lichtenberg announced at 10:54 am on the SpaceClaim Blog that you can download the Release Canidate for SpaceClaim 2007+ right here. Just fill out a short form and it’s all yours for the taking… and feedbacking. The goal of the program is to gain feedback from you,…
A nice bin always comes in handy. In one way or another we are managing or organizing something each day. There’s no limit to the frustration that seems to be associated with that for some reason. But with there’s a lot more and a lot better ways to collaborate and go home early. This article…
SolidWorks has just linked up a group of tips by some VEX Engineers for the VEXplorer Robot. The videos concentrate on tips you need to build a good foundation for modeling in SolidWorks . They’re short and to the point. I’ve watched them as they came out at CADJunky.com, but I’d recommend downloading them to…
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…
If you’re thinking of switching to SolidWorks, this deal may entice you a little. If you’re buying SolidWorks before November 30th, you’ll get a $500 coupon for one of those fancy Dell Precision Workstations. Not too bad if you’ve been waiting for a good deal to come along.
Well, if you add a little style and a some hydraulic planetary gear units I’d have to say, about this big… Now, this wasn’t designed in SolidWorks. It’s a civil engineering project done by TG&P out of the UK, but looking through the Falkirk Wheel site you can imagine what could be done in SolidWorks.…
Usually, CAD business can be pretty boring. But occasionally even the most subtle movement and conversation can get interesting. Recently Autodesk had a summit on manufacturing. Sound’s exciting huh? Well, Upfront.eZine posted some highlights that have sparked the fires of speculation. If what AutoDesk says has any merit you’ll be jumping the SolidWorks ship, but…
Microsoft and Dassault Systemes announced Tuesday and Thursday that you can make 3D models inside Microsoft’s Virtual Earth with the 3DVia technology. “This free online application, developed by Dassault Systèmes, allows consumers to imagine and create realistic 3-D models — such as of buildings and structures — then share them through Microsoft Virtual Earth and…
If you find someone that really likes colors, has a bit of a strange look in their eye and giggles incessantly, grab that person cause I’m pretty sure it’s a leprechaun that has escaped. it may be rabid. Mandolux.com – a lot of hi resolution photo wallpaper for single and dual screen monitors. Up to…
That’s right, a Dell Precision M4300 laptop valued at $1500. And it couldn’t be easier for SolidWorks Users. Adobe Acrobat Users Community is running a contest for users to submit example of 3D PDFs that show the capabilities of Acrobat 3D and 3D PDFs. Other prizes include Apple iPhones, Apple Video iPods, 3Dconnexion navigation devices,…
If you’ve always wanted to participate in the SolidWorks community without leaving your desk, nows your chance. SolidMentor.com, a central location for everything related to SolidWorks has just gone out of beta…un-beta. I would strongly suggest going over and signing up for two reasons. 1) It’s a great source of information and community and 2)…