Mike Puckett's Blog

Spring is in the air?

Well some may argue otherwise, but all the official markers have been met.  Daylight Savings has returned (or has it ended?), the Easter Bunny has made his rounds, the boys of summer have returned to slug it out on the field, and SolidWorks has opened registration for its 2008 Beta Testing.

Now just in case you haven't read about it on the blog of Brian McElyea, or Ricky Jordan, or Matt Lombard, or Anna Wood, or Rob Rodriguez, I provided you a link above!  I listed all of them also to give you a quick chance to check out their blogs anyways since they are all overflowing with valuable Solidworks info!

Now what they didn't tell you is that there are two web casts coming up that will help launch the entire program (so much for being one of the first to report the beta program opening, huh guys?).  So if you are able to sign up, and have the time, I encourage everyone of you to do so.  It gives you the chance to see and test the new version before everyone else.

Learning New Stuff At A Usergroup Meeting...

I'm asked quite frequently what I find most frustrating about Solidworks.  My first answer is always "If there is one way to do something in Solidworks, there is a hundred ways to do it."

So understandably, seeing another user give a presentation at a user group meeting will present everyone with the opportunity to learn something new.  Such was the case last night at our meeting.  Phil Sluder of Triaxial Design was in attendance to give his all new and updated Tips and Tricks presentation.  During his presentation, Phil demonstrated what was a new way to me to convert entities by selecting a face, and then an edge.  By selecting the face of a surface you are sketching on, then selecting on edge, and then clicking convert entities, Solidworks will convert the entire edge that you clicked in a loop.  If you select the face and the other edge, it will convert the opposite edge loop.

What this really showed me is that no matter how much you use Solidworks, and how experienced you are, there is always something to learn from another user.  One of the reasons I enjoy running our user group is because of this.  Over the past 9 meetings we have held, I have yet to walk away from one without learning something new.  So I would recommend heading on over to the Solidworks User group Network page, and looking for a group near you.  And if there isn't one close by, dig a little deeper into the site, and find out how you can set one up!

So thats 2 methods to select lines, 98 more to go!

Fooling The April Fools.....

Well I'm sure it didn't get past many, and based on the few emails I got, I'm sure everyone had at least their suspicions!  Anyhow, no need to brush up on how fast you can type REGEN, Autocad and Solidworks are not merging.  April Fools!

By the way, here are the pictures of that lens mold we built:

Breaking News.....Solidworks & Autocad to Merge!!!

With the release of Solidworks 2007 Service Pack 4, Solidworks will abandon its own drawing package, and fully integrate the Autocad drawing interface.

"Its nice to see that the folks over at Solidworks finally have realized that todays designers have it too easy, and are making a switch to Autocad, to bring back the good old days of design lead times."-Jerry Jones, product development manager for Autocad Systems.

Upon hearing news of the merger, the blogoshpere exploded with excitement and an egerness to get SP 4.0 as soon as possible.  One blogger wrote: "I'm tired of finishing my designs before they are due, now I can spend more time than needed on my designs, and less time playing that paper airplane game from Solidworks!"

One un-named company that currently has 10,000 seats of Solidworks, said that once the SP is installed, it will happily increase its product delivery times, and consequently increase its prices.

While just a rumor for now, the talk is that Solidworks will change its official name to: Autoworks, and will use the new marketing slogan: ".....Why be efficient, when you can drag your work out, and really look like your busy?"

The C.E.O.'s will make the formal announcement on Monday April 2nd, where they will appear at a local Department of Motor Vehicles office to hold their press conference.  A person familiar with the choice of venue said: "We decided to make the announcement at the DMV, because they are a model for efficiency, and we wanted to show that Autoworks will be just as efficient."

Details of pricing and integration are expected to be mailed out via U.S. post.  They opted for snail mail over email citing that email is too quick a way to get the word out.  It is also expected that Autocad will now be able to cancel the orders for 1,000 taxi cab signs that were headed to San Diego next year.

Story is developing, check back on Monday for more details!

Back From Europe, & Back To Work...

"Welcome back to the United States".  What a great phrase to hear last Sunday afternoon upon landing in Chicago, and going thru customs.  While travelling abroad was fun, I sure did start to miss the good old U.S. pretty quickly.  Sure the food was delicious, the people were friendly, the snow was cold, and the beer flows like water in Germany, but home is home, and I'm glad to be back.

Our main purpose of traveling to Vienna, and then onto the Black Forrest in Germany was to visit and tour two factories.  In Austria we visited Wittmann Systems.  They manufacturer robots, thermolater units, and plastic material handling and drying equipment.  While we were there we got a sneak peak at a new system they had just completed.  The cell is for demonstrating their high speed robots in an 'in-mold-labeling' application.  They basically insert two labels, and remove two finished parts every 2.4 seconds.  Kind of hard to explain, but its extremely impressive.

In Germany we were there to visit Arburg Molding Machines.  This was the main purpose for our trip.  Each year they host around 4,000 people over 3 days at their 1.2 million square foot factory.  What an impressive place.  They have taken automated machine construction to a whole new level.  We got to see the different stages of machine construction, along with all the support equipment they make.

Whats even more impressive about these companies?  They both use Solidworks to create their equipment designs!  In fact Wittmann has several job openings for Solidworks experienced designers.  If I wasn't so allergic to snow, this might be an option!

Anyhow, Europe was fun.  Its always good to get out there and see things from a different perspective.  Oh and that post a few weeks ago about 3 molds in 3 weeks, we finished them this week.  Thanks to the power of Solidworks, and partners like Omni Mold Systems, we were able to do it.  I will post some pics when I get back to the office tomorrow.