Assemblies people! Not assemblies of people, which can have you going through more gallons of fake blood than a remake of the Re-animator, but assemblies of inanimate chunks of 3D data. You can make really, grossly huge assemblies but there’s a point where people start whispering about you behind your back. Instead of spending your…
Slice! Dice! Oh, shazang! my favorite Scrubs episode is on right beneath my tomato slices! Sweet! This fine example of kitchen gadgetry was created in SolidWorks 2008 and rendered in PhotoWorks by Marc Nardangeli, an industrial designer. It’s an acrylic board with a chromium handle and a flexible (OLED?) screen embedded within. The idea is,…
Last week I gave you some tips on how to get hired on the spot. I got some good feedback from it and apparently some people are taking the advice. Like Caleb Stoll who just launched SolidWorks Unleashed and already has a healthy amount of great video posts. Buell Motorcycles, which primarily uses SolidWorks, is…
Every once in a while I’ll come across some really nice looking images of models created with SolidWorks on Flickr, but finding exceptional Architectural Design created with SolidWorks is rare. It’s not that architecture can’t be done in SolidWorks, it’s justs been focused primarily as a solution in the MCAD market. Architecture was my first…
It’s amazing how simple this is. You can actually do this in less time than it takes you to learn how to trap small animals and sell them outside Wal-mart. Draw a cube This is like the multi-tool of CAD. If you don’t know where to start, draw a cube. Use the annotation tool This…
It’s kind of an unprecedented move, but SolidWorks, the 3D corporation that has called Concord, Massachusetts home for the past 15 years, has finished the final paperwork to relocate most of it’s home office to Venice, Italy. “[SolidWorks] felt it was time to be closer to lots of water and when some building became available…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
“Oh man, Josh is doing a tip on one of those useless features in SolidWorks 2008! I have gaskets and pinions to engineer!! Who has time for some silly ‘smags’ or ‘tags’ or whatever! I’m going to YouTube and watch squirrels race.” Hey, hey, hey! Hold back your fury and check this out. You can…
SolidWorks finished up their second year Student Design Contest a couple weeks ago and I’m finally getting a chance to look at some of the designs. I’m two things: hungry because I haven’t eaten breakfast and impressed cause these students did a rockin’ good job. Most of the entries were from Universities around the world…
Whoa there buddy, I think you’re getting carried away with all of those colors. That much color is certainly not per procedures and we’re gonna have to beat you black and white. It happens, I know. You want an accurate color for your model and you can’t help but spend hours dragging your cursor through…
Just about everybody wishes SolidWorks could do this or that or complains that it doesn’t do something really cool. I could throw down a list of things I don’t like, but that’s just makes the selection of fresh organic produce seem even worse than it actually is. Which is actually better than the selection of…
Awww, look. That tiny assembly is so… tiny and cute. Makes you want to grab a million of ’em and just give ’em hugs. Now, I know some of you aren’t that attached to your bracket or gasket assemblies, but you gotta admit there’s a special place in that documentation system for those little boogers.…
Looks like Kenny is firing up the furnace at the SolidWorks EV and Beta News Feed. Gettin’ out the cobwebs so to speak. I’m sure they’ve been getting ready for a while, but you just can’t forget about the Beta Feed now. “Testing, Testing. Hello, is this thing on? More me in the monitor please.”…
I came across what is probably the most interesting job title I’ve seen associated with SolidWorks. A SolidWorks Visualiser. It’s on a job posting out of Northern England and is listed in the Creative Media Industry. The pay for this is 25k-30k pounds (50k-60k USD) full-time. The job description reads like a typical engineering position.…
This 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…
You’ve been working on a 13,000 part mega-assembly in SOLIDWORKS with the most well thought out top-down assembly structure ever devised by man. The next morning, you gingerly sip your coffee as the model ooooopens, and then… something doesn’t look right. Suddenly, that pastry loses its sweetness as you come to grips that all your…