Mike Puckett's Blog

SolidWorks 2009 Service Pack 4.0 Available

The full production release of SolidWorks 2009 Service Pack 4.0 was released into the customer portal today.  Full release notes along with the download itself can be obtained by logging into the customer portal at this LINK.

New Functions in SolidWorks 2009 Service Pack 4.0

The upcoming release of Service Pack 4.0 for SolidWorks 2009 will include a few pieces of new functionality including:

Ability to dimension the length of an arc in a 3D sketch:

 

Ability to rename driven dimensions:

 

And the ability to delete faces from multiple bodies at the same time:

 

The early visibility release of Service Pack 4.0 has been available for about a week, and the full production release should be ready in the next few weeks.

Happy Time...

Without a doubt, one of the best parts about working for SolidWorks is that I get the opportunity to go out and meet users around the country.  Whether it's at SolidWorks World, a user group meeting, or on customer visits, this week I get the chance to once again go out and meet a couple hundred SolidWorks users. 

My travels take me this week to Happy Valley Pennsylvania for the SolidWorks User Group Network 1-Day Summit.  Think of it as a mini-SolidWorks World.  It's one of the best values going in terms of SolidWorks training.  It's a full day of loads of SolidWorks tip's, trick's and how-to's.  It really is a full day of learning.  The SolidWorks User Group Network does a fantastic job of putting several of these summits on around the country each year.  

If your in the Happy Valley area and can get away on Tuesday, definitely make your way to Penn State, you wont regret it!  

Happy Valley SWUGN Summit 

Look For A SWUGN Summit Near You 

P.S.

Congrats L.A. Lakers on Championship number 15, and number 10 for coach Phil Jackson. 

A Sneak Peek at the CSWP Event at SolidWorks World 2010

Thinking about going to SolidWorks World 2010?  Are you a CSWP? 

If you answered yes to those, here is a video to get you excited about SolidWorks World 2010 including a sneak peek at what the CSWP Event will be all about.  If your not a CSWP, well then watching this video may make you want to think about that especially if your going to Anaheim next year.  While SolidWorks World is mainly a learning event, we still know how to have fun at night.

Who Want's SolidWorks 2010?

 

The beta testing for SolidWorks 2010 is just around the corner and once again SolidWorks is looking for your input.  Each year lot's of new features are built into the new release of SolidWorks and most of them are based off user requested enhancements.  While these enhancements have spent months undergoing lots of internal testing and debugging processes, the beta period is the final leg of the process to insure that they can perform as intended on the almost unlimited hardware configurations that SolidWorks users have around the World.  It's also a chance for last minute input by beta testers to tweak new functions to make them work better.  Last year there were several changes to newly added features that came directly from user feedback during the beta period.

So if you have the time and resources to participate in the beta process this year, you can get notified when the program is launched.  Simply follow the instructions found at the SolidWorks Beta Program Page.  The first beta version is set to launch within the next two weeks, and if you don't have the time to participate, well then you will have to wait for the full release early this fall to see all the new features that will ship with SolidWorks 2010!

Using The Weld Feature in SolidWorks

I promised to do a tutorial on the weld tool to someone who left a comment a few weeks back, so here is the first installment of weld tools in SolidWorks.

Here is a simple strap that will get welded:

 

The weld tool is available to use in a part file, but the edge or joint you are going to weld need to be separate bodies.  In this part you can see there are three separate bodies.  The weld tool is found under the weldments tools and toolbar:

 

Clicking on this brings up the Fillet Bead tool with the following property manager:

  

By clicking the different face sets you will end up with a virtual edge as shown above.  Here is the resulting weld bead:

 

Now lets play with some of the settings in the Weld Bead tool.  Aside from simply changing the width of the bead, you can also create a staggered bead:

 

Once you put the part into a drawing you can then call out the weld bead by inserting a weld symbol:

 

This is just a small portion of the weld tools available in SolidWorks.  Next time we'll cover weld beads in an assembly.