Now, there was a time when vassal and vessel sailed betwixt the vapored reef, but all the coin and all the curd could not save your hide from links like these. Alberto Cerriteno – I could seriously sip paint and look at Alberto’s art all day. Brilliant colors and design. Big Bang Big Boom -…
That’s right. Zombie. Killing. Machine. You may think you yourself are just that, but think about it. What if you had an entire factory to take on the jowl-sagging rampage of a hundred thousand brain gobblers? Mmmm-hmm. There’s plenty of ways to go about designing implements with the ability to knock off an arm, a…
I’ll tell you right now, when you can’t open 3D files from another system in your favorite modeling program, it’s like spooning soggy corn chips into your mouth… corn chips made of FIRE… and HATE. Fortunately, there are some smart people who know the tricks. Example? Opening a UG/NX file in Pro/E may make you…
Now don’t get me wrong. You can live on more than just gravy substitutes, but with that piled around your computer as you beta test SolidWorks 2011, people will know you are DEAD SERIOUS. There are two reason why you should get gravy’ed and beta. They were both results of cool ideas that worked, but…
Ya know, when you’ve come inside from a hard day of unnecessary antelope slapping, there’s bound to be some thoughts going through your head about how to make curved shapes in SolidWorks without overwhelming your mind. Over at the 3DVisions blog, chief antelope slapper and CSWP, Randy Simmons shows you how to make a Quick…
Most of you only have two fists. One for slamming out 3D geometry in SolidWorks and the other for punching it with pretty sauce using modo. However, if you’re just starting to build up those layers of rendering calluses, you may be looking for some soothing aloe to take the pain away from the workflow…
In the wide, wide, wide world of 3D training videos, there’s a lack of unfamiliar voices speaking dubbed over video of a guy picking around in your favorite CAD program. Not to worry. A small band of tech support pros on the West coast is putting that to an end. GoEngineer is a SolidWorks reseller…
This is a guest article by Michael Lord. Michael is a Design Engineer at Trakka Pty Limited in Sydney, Australia where they use SolidWorks to design Campervans and Motorhomes. I first talked with Michael on Twitter and asked if he would write up his experience using PhotoView360. The iPad Rendering Challenge is finished and won…
You’re a hardcore SolidWorks model whipper, but maybe you haven’t flipped the program over to see what kinds of features lurk on the bristly backside of the history-based beast. What features are these? Direct Editing features. Do not FEAR! These are some that have been there in one form or another for some time, but…
I’m not sure if you’ve experienced the joys of working as a fry cook in a back alley noodle house, but if you have, you’ll greatly appreciate the artistry it takes to design those chicken tender lovin’ mesh buckets. There’s a lot that goes into shaping that sheet metal and jabbing electronics in like a…
You know we can’t pass up a reference to embedding things into skulls, especially 3D. You could stab your eyes or computer screen with 3D data, but what it really takes to get 3D on the web is getting into that heinous web code. Deelip Menezes-obertron 9 touches on that with a couple posts on…
At the center of all that is possible within a SolidWorks assembly model sits the standard bearer of complicated surface geometry villainy… a component that won’t let the darn thing load. Who knows what it is – CPU, OS, RAM, imported parts, geometry bunions or maybe a new user that patterned his name on every…
So, the post about SolidWorks enforcing their long-standing policy of only granting service packs to the entitled on Subscription Service got some mild interest, boosted antacid sales and Devon’s Blog even interviewed the VP of Customer Services at SolidWorks, Rich Welch, about the matter. I could pick apart the interview notes Devon took, but I’d…
For all of you students who are drooling to create 3D prints of your SolidWorks parts at school… tough luck. You can’t. The SolidWorks Student Design Kit (SDK) doesn’t allow you to export .STL files and if you complain to the teacher about he will start crying again. So, besides downloading a free trial of…
I’m gonna bet a box of matches and some dry cedar that many of you work for companies who enjoy shoveling a fine mush of paper stacks and file cabinet dividers toward smiling documentation specialists. Who blames them… PAPER IS GLORIOUS! Especially, those first sweet sounds of the day sipping vodka coffee to the whirring…
Kick the wads of paper away from your coworker’s head and pick him up off the floor. It’s ok to slap him if he’s still unconsciousness, because he’s about to thank you for showing him a way to go through massive amounts of design iterations with fewer convulsive reactions or concussions. Last week, we discussed…
It’s happened to all of us. You’re bakin’ up sweet 3D assemblies in SolidWorks when all of sudden your supervisor walks over, scratches their dry chin skin over your keyboard and challenges you to 1) not vomit and 2) create 5 other version of the same assembly. All psoriasis and skin flaking antics aside, creating…
Go ask a molting yak this single question, “Are you using SolidWorks materials??!!” If it does anything other than say yes, you have total freedom to boot the fur right off his confused face. However, if he is using SolidWorks materials, pull a stump up to the waterin’ hole and prepare to show him how…
My math teacher hated me. She would beat me unmerciful and use sounds of warrior robot apes fighting over canned meat in equations in a feeble attempt to stifle my creativity… It didn’t work. And neither did her or anyone’s warnings of manipulating the estimated mass of objects. In SolidWorks you can apply materials to…
Before you pour milk into you bowl of oats and OS upgrades, take a whiff of this. Let’s say you’re rockin’ SolidWorks 2009 and want to get into Windows 7 stat because Vista is making you a bitter old curmudgeon with long fingernails. What are your options? Well, if you depend on the guidance of…
It’s just not working. You spit on your screen, rub your eyes and wait for your models to turn into a beautifully rendered animation, and all you get are frightened looks from your co-workers. We can fix that. If you do any rendering or use SolidWorks and their PhotoView 360 rendering product, you’re probably familiar…
So, last week I was bending up strips of sharp sheet metal with nothing but loud screams and occasional spewing of coffee from my nostrils when I got an email from a very cool ID chap asking about flattening an imported conical surface in SolidWorks. I thought, this should be a cinch, opened it up…
Two facts. There’s nothing that will hone your sense more than realizing you could be riddled by shurikens at any moment and… it takes phenomenal ninja skills to reorient geometry in SolidWorks. Ninja skills, or a fair amount of flailing about like a crazed shuriken thrower, which is exactly how I came upon five tips…
I’m judging by that look in your eye and the 50 lb sledge hammer in your hand that you’re aimin’ to beat something into shape. But before you pin me down, let me throw something sizzlin’ your way. How does this sound? Two ways to shape the shapes you love to shape using SolidWorks to…
A horn, a tentacle. Who knows what you may need to model these days. Why just the other day I had to model the pinnacle of perfection, and let me tell you, it had the sharpest point within a five and a half mile radius. Whatever it is, if it needs to come to a…
SPLINES! You say that too loud in a room full of structural engineers and you’ll either have 5 different types of guns pointed at you and a stapler in your forehead or… just… some very strange looks. Nonetheless, you love Splines, or at the very least have a mild curiosity about them. A curiosity that…
Do you remember the Audi R8 Surfacing video? The preview of how to model it in SolidWorks? If the fact that it wasn’t actually available then was enough to taunt you into joy-filled rage, you can wipe those frustrated tears. It’s here. Daniel Lavoie has put the entire process together. 14 hours and 20 minutes…
It’s a well-know fact that parasitic aliens love highly optimized part files in SolidWorks. It makes their job of attacking your nerve bundles to gain control over your salivary glands much, much easier. And like parasitic aliens, configurations give you control over the parts that show up in your lovely ‘nerve bundles’ of SolidWorks Assemblies.…
What kind of insanity could this be? People using a 2D drawin’ tool to get some curvy art into SolidWorks? It’s heresy, I say! Well, we may wish to banish them to the nether regions, but for some, working the Adobe Illustrator machine is a daily task. And, every once in a while, they need…
The least exciting part about modeling objects in 3D is, without a doubt, the back-end administration stuff. Glorious procedures like making sure users aren’t changing selection colors, adding jacked-up macros or forgetting to back-up their work. There’s nothing quite like shoving Giggabitties of SolidWorks 3D models onto your local hard drive. It makes that hard…
Five minutes from now, you will know two ways to recess a surface in SolidWorks. They won’t necessarily crush your skull, but they may expand it slightly by enriching your mind with the power of sketch, surface and split face features. It seems like there should be one feature to recess a surface in SolidWorks.…
So, last week we looked at a lot of new features in SolidWorks 2010 – the ‘best’ features and how to use some of the more prominent ones. It was, by far, a brief look at what will spill onto your screen come release day. There were a few mentions of what was lacking in…
How does a little more automation and a little less hassle sound to you? If you’re familiar with working with extruded text in a model, there’s no doubt you’ve had times it would have worked out beautifully to control it with a Custom Property through configurations. In SolidWorks 2010, you can now control what type…
Not that configurations aren’t pokeable or that I’m trying to stop something you enjoy doing, but really, it’s just a Configuration Publisher. It just so happens that is new in SolidWorks 2010. Kinda new, anyway. Call it an upgrade of sorts. It attempts to make the whole configuration creation a whole lot easier. What I’m…
Oooo, did I just use Multi-touch and SolidWorks in the same sentence? Yes, yes I did, but don’t get too excited yet. We need to talk about a couple new UI features you’ll see in 2010. One is, in fact Multi-touch support. The more noticeable Mouse Gestures, most will see and either be filled with…
So, you have stacks of bodies spilling out your doors, but none of them have materials applied to them huh? Not until now. In SolidWorks, it use to be that all geometry in a part had to be one body. Then we got the ability to create multiple bodies in a part with only one…
Slam a caffeine drink and stick some sparklers in your eyes, we’re about to take a surface-level look at the new features of SolidWorks 2010, complete with cheesy little award graphics and some special SolidSmack commentary. The 2010 version is still in beta, but that won’t keep us from pouring it half-baked from the beta…
What else is happening the last week of August? NOTHING. Absolutely nothing, but the raucous sound of you splitting your eyelids wide to read what lies in store for the upcoming release of SolidWorks. And it’s happening right here on SolidSmack. This week only, we’ll squeeze all we can out the SolidWorks 2010 Beta release…
If you’re the type of person that can turn peas into peas soup with a loud grunt from a squat position, this post may not be for you. However, if you’re mildly pea-challenged, like myself, and also wondering about constructing sub-assemblies to control them in other assemblies, read on. Often, you’re using SolidWorks, taking measurements…
The model you’re working on and the bad rice you had last night are sucking the will to live right out of your kabuto wearing head. Circular references are some of the most heinous problems to crop up in assemblies this side of ancient feudal Japan. The two worst things about these type of problems…
Let me ask you this. Have you ever been so determined to have consistent 3D geometry, that you paid someone to feed you Pad Thai while you linked dimensions on your model? No? Ok, so maybe that’s for special occasions. But if you’re interested in saving some time and eating Pad Thai on your own,…
Oh no, you not gonna do it are you? please, no, no. YES. Slowly step away from the rotor. Bolt Circles my friends. Large, circular, equally-spaced bolt circles to turn your manufacturing nemesis into someone that buys you cakes on holidays. Manufacturers have a special place in their heart for “B.C.” , and as engineers…
We’re reaching deep in our pool of unusual uses for 3D CAD today and pulling out something extra shiny for ya. If you’re into graphic design or making pretty 3D icons and graphics for your website, you’ll want to adjust your seat. You never would have thought it, but SolidWorks is extremely useful for creating…
Attack I say! Attack and plunder the riches… of … imported… geometry and… stuff. Ok, battle faces everyone, we’re on a warpath today, a warpath to create usable 3D geometric data from imported files. It’s an interesting issue submitted by a user tired of recreating sheet metal part when he already has a 3D .IGES…
I hope you all are ready for a fun and enlightening experience. I know we’ve pushed this iPhone modeling in SolidWorks clear around the table, but this is the model that everyone is and will be looking at for the foreseeable future. Nelson Au was kind enough to share his model and his process for…
Ok, maybe not ‘Crush’ so much, maybe more like, boot it into the future. You need to drop your bagel, Blackberry or coworker on the ground and run, nay I say sprint, to read Oleg Shilovitsky’s 6 reasons Why Google Wave will Change PLM Collaboration. Pivotal, my geometry-glazed friends. Oleg briefly points out how Google’s…
If you’re like any other normal person, you occasionally sit at your desk putting stickers and labels on your face, thinking there’s got to be a quick and easy way to create labels in SolidWorks. There is and it’s much faster than importing AutoCAD files filled with RomanS terror. So, ignore the looks from your…
You suppress one feature and everything underneath it gets suppressed. You cringe, a volcano erupts under the sea and five babies are born, slapped and all at once and named Llyod. Don’t you wish those ornery SolidWorks Features would just behave sometimes? Well there just so happens to be, not one, but two single ways…
Cover your hair. We are firing up the burners on the Feature furnace of SolidWorks about to drop some gas-drenched geometry into the flames. There’s a slew of Features that thrive on 3D geometry alone, but I’m not gonna say, “You, go learn about Features!” eight times. Post like that are useless and annoying. This…