Mike Puckett's Blog

Live From Barcelona.....

Ok, so not live for a couple of more days, but I wanted to update how the coverage will be of the press event for the rest of the week.  Tomorrow (9/16/08) I will be traveling to Spain.  I arrive on the morning of Wednesday the 18th.  Spain is 11 hours ahead of West Coast time in the United States.

That being said, I will be providing updates via www.mikescadblog.com on a live basis.  For those in Europe you will be able to follow along live as the events carry on through out the day.  For those in the states not willing to stay up past your normal bedtimes, you can return back here the next day and you will be able to scroll through the event coverage and read all the updates.

Now this is all new software and technology to me, so please understand if things don't work out perfectly.  I will try to test this system tomorrow while traveling 35,000 feet above the U.S. while flying to New York from Los Angeles.  If all goes well, expect more for the rest of the week.

This of course all hinges on the availability of WiFi in Spain!  So lets keep our fingers crossed!  Thanks for following along, and if you like what your seeing, tell all your friends!

Solidworks World 2009 for Free? Your Last Chance......

If you would like to get into Solidworks World 2009 for free, well today is your last day to take a shot at getting that opportunity.  Today is the deadline to submit your abstract to present a technical breakout session at Solidworks World 2009 in Orlando.  If accepted you would be granted full conference access free of charge which could save you as much as $995!

If your interested in trying out, head over to the Call For Papers site and get registered.  If you get accepted, a great piece of advice would be to preview your presentation at an upcoming Solidworks User Group Meeting.  That will give you an opportunity to polish your presentation before hitting the stage in Orlando!

Some Fun At The County Fair

Around here, then end of summer is pretty much signified by the arrival of the Los Angeles County Fair.  It normally opens the weekend of my birthday, so I always go just to walk around the exhibits and the buildings where they pretty much sell the same stuff year after year.  Being that it's $17 to get in, plus $10 to park, I decided to go on a weeknight since it's only $5 to get in after 5pm.  Anyhow, here are some pics from lastnight:

Ah yes the ever so popular super shammy.  Remember, if your one of the first three people to step up and buy one, you will get two sets of super shammys for the price of one!  Thats's a hundred dollar value for $19.95!  Such a handy item for those times you spill 2 liters of soda:

Space age car wax developed by NASA engineers:

Oh yes it mixes, chops, cuts, slices and dices:

Who can pass up a set of fancy cooking pans that will change your life:

I don't do windows, but if I did, would one of these make my job easier:

Let's not forget the super futuristic drill bit that will drill through any substance known to man:

And of course a county fair wouldn't be complete without the tons of food offerings.

Deep fried treats including spam, pop-tarts, coke, white castle burgers, twinkies, avocados and frog legs:

How about something hot off the grill?  A 45 foot long grill:

Looks as if the Obama campaign found a use for the stage from his acceptance speech:

As far as the rides, well I tend to not ride on structures that can be assembled in only a few hours, and are operated by such strange looking people.  There is one ride I used to ride with a girlfriend and her son before she unexpectedly passed away a couple of years ago.  So each year I make it a point to look for it, and watch it go for a spin a few times.  It always brings back some good memories of her:

   

Seven Years Later....

It truly is hard to imagine that seven years have passed since the attacks of September 11th, 2001 were executed on our country.  Like the assassination of President Kennedy, or the lunar landing, hearing about the attacks will be an event that people will always remember where they were at when they heard the news.

For me, I was just beginning my shift at 6am in the morning when a co-worker told me a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center Towers.  What we first thought was a bad accident, soon developed into something bigger than us all.  I remember driving home that day, and seeing all the car dealership electronic signs simply displaying an electronic version of a waving American Flag.  At the time I lived about two miles from Ontario International Airport.  It was surreal to see all the planes parked on the runways, and see the entire parking lot empty.  When Major League Baseball resumed a week later, myself and a friend went to the Los Angeles Dodgers game.  I had never heard the National Anthem sang so loudly at a sporting event.

For that time, we were all Americans, united as one.

I never got a chance to visit the World Trade Center before it was attacked.  I did get a chance to visit the site this past April, and it was surreal in size.  I took the opportunity to take the official WTC Foundation tour which was guided by a firefighter that survived that day, and by the mother of one that didn't.  I am grateful that I got to meet with, and speak to a couple of very courageous people.

So on this 7th anniversary of the worst attack on the United States, a simple graphic to leave you all with:

We Will Never Forget.....

Solidworks 2009 Rolls On....

This week has seen a few announcements regarding Solidworks 2009.  For starters, the Pre-Release 2 version was  posted for download in the download section of the customer portal.  Both 32 and 64 bit versions are available.  Typically Pre-Release 2 is the last release before Service Pack 0, so the release time line of late September, early October looks to still be on track.  Combine that with the VAR's starting their roll-out events the first week of October, and the time line looks even more solid.

The recently released new product from Solidworks, Photo View 360, also has moved from Beta, to Pre-Release 1.  PV360 will be available to Solidworks Premium, and Solidworks Professional licenses, as well as some legacy products like Solidworks Office and stand alone PhotoWorks.  The PV360 is no longer a separate download, and is supposed to automatically download depending on your serial number, but it didn't get downloaded with my Solidworks Premium serial number.  Another SW blogger experienced the same issue, so I'm going to blame the Installation manager, but this is still technically a 'beta' version, so I'm not expecting perfection until Service Pack 0.

There is also a nifty new website Solidworks recently launched to promote Solidworks 2009.  You can access all the cool videos, and product info by visiting this Link.

To wrap up all the feeling of newness, the Solidworks Website has an all new look and feel to it.

Solidworks 2009 Follow Up: Hole Wizard

Even though I wrapped up covering new features coming up in Solidworks 2009, I have received a few questions here and there about various topics. So in the interest of getting as much info out there as possible, I will be covering any questions I get about the new stuff, here on the blog.

The first question came from Daniel B in reply to this Post
He asked:

Hi Mike,

Does this work for the Hole Wizard also?

Daniel

Well Daniel, lets take a look.

Solidworks 2009 does in fact give you the option to propagate hole wizard features in an assembly, down to the part level. Here is how to do it:

First we start off with our now famous assembly of clamps, bolts, and blocks:

Next we go to Insert > Assembly Feature > Hole > Wizard and select a feature we want to cut into our assembly:

Just like we did before when cutting a hole, you need to scroll down the Hole Wizard Property Manager and check the Propagate to Part check box under feature scope:

Now if we open the brass block, we can see that the hole feature is in the tree with an external reference, and the sketches are derived:

And thats how you can propagate hole wizard features down to the part level.