Author: Ricky Jordan

  • Reinventing CAD – Where are we headed? – Part 3

    Reinventing CAD – Where are we headed? – Part 3

    In this series of posts, I’ve laid out a few observations on some of the new trends in the CAD industry and where we might be heading as new platforms are developed for the future. You can catch Part 1 and Part 2 if you haven’t seen it already. Let’s dive into Part 3. So…

  • SOLIDWORKS 2017 Announced

    SOLIDWORKS 2017 Announced

    SOLIDWORKS took the wraps off their 2017 version today.  This is the 25th major release of the product.  (Had to count to make sure.)  There are quite a few enhancements as usual with over 90% of the updates being driven directly from user enhancement requests.  SOLIDWORKS has posted a Launch Page containing several videos highlighting the…

  • Reinventing CAD – Where are we headed? – Part 2

    Reinventing CAD – Where are we headed? – Part 2

      In this series of posts, I’ve laid out a few observations on some of the new trends in the CAD industry and where we might be heading as new platforms are developed for the future.  You can catch Part 1 here if you haven’t seen it already.  Let’s dive into Part 2. In Part 1,…

  • Reinventing CAD – Where are we headed? – Part 1

    Reinventing CAD – Where are we headed? – Part 1

      Ok…so the title of this post could be taken a few different ways.  Do I want to reinvent CAD? Not really…but I’m always on the lookout for new ways to work reliably but efficiently.  Note that I didn’t title this post “CAD Cloud” or “Online CAD” or “CAD in the Cloud”.  I guess I…

  • SOLIDWORKS 2017 Beta – Try Online

    SOLIDWORKS 2017 Beta – Try Online

    For those of you who are interested in test driving SOLIDWORKS 2017 Beta but had limited options to a hardware system or just simply didn’t want to have to deal with another install, there is a new option you might be interested in.  For qualifying Beta participants, you can test SOLIDWORKS 2017 Beta software online through…

  • SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual Announced

    SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual Announced

    Looks like SolidWorks World 2014 started off with a bang today with the release announcement of SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual.  With an NDA that still appears to be in place, I can’t comment much on the specifics of it, but it does have some very unique tools for conceptual and mechanism design.  Currently it is available…

  • SolidWorks 2014 Sneak Peek

    SolidWorks 2014 Sneak Peek

    Every year at SolidWorks World during the Wednesday General Session, users get a preview of what is coming in the next version of SolidWorks.  Its an event that many look forward to and is a great way to cap off the week.  So…here we go! As in past years the new features were presented in…

  • New Product: SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual

    New Product:  SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual

    The BIG news of the day on Monday at SolidWorks World 2013 was the announcement of SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual.  Over the last three years speculation has run rampant since the now infamous “Cloud” announcement was made at SolidWorks World 2010.  To begin with, I’m going to give you an overview on what was presented.  I’ll…

  • SolidWorks World 2013 – Monday

    SolidWorks World 2013 – Monday

    SolidWorks World 2013 officially kicked off this morning with the Monday General Session. SolidWorks CEO Bertrand Sicot greeted over 4,500 attendees to the conference. There are 280 Technical Sessions here and over 100 solution partners in the Partner Pavilion. SolidWorks crossed the 2 million user mark in December 2012. They have 25,000 schools all over…

  • SolidWorks World 2013 – Sunday

    SolidWorks World 2013 – Sunday

      And so it begins.  Sunday at SolidWorks World is always a busy day.  The highlights of the day included the CAD Managers Boot Camp, Certification Testing, and numerous Roundtable Sessions.  (To name all the sessions would take quite a few lines.) During the CAD Managers Boot Camp, SolidWorks announced My.SolidWorks.com.  This is a website…

  • Coming Up: SolidWorks World 2013

    Coming Up:  SolidWorks World 2013

    It’s hard to believe that that time is upon us again, but SolidWorks World 2013 is set to begin in just two days!  SolidWorks users from across the world will gather in Orlando, Florida at the Swan and Dolphin Hotel and Convention Center.  This will be 15th year of the event.  Ten years ago, I…

  • SolidWorks 2013: Measure Tool

    SolidWorks 2013:  Measure Tool

    If you look at the every day use of SolidWorks, I would think that the Measure Tool would rank among the most used features inside the software.  SolidWorks 2013 brings some very nice enhancements to the Measure Tool. The image below shows you two new options, Point to Point and History, that have been added…

  • SolidWorks 2013 on a Tablet?

    SolidWorks 2013 on a Tablet?

    During the SolidWorks 2013 deep dive demo last week at the Dassault Systemes North American headquarters, the SolidWorks staff sprung a little surprise on us.  When we came back from one of our breaks, there was a Samsung 700T Tablet sitting on one of the tables.  It was plugged up to a dock that had…

  • SolidWorks 2013: Mass Properties

    SolidWorks 2013:  Mass Properties

    I’ve found that through the years of using SolidWorks across various industries, different toolsets are sometime utilized more with one type of product vs. another.  In recent years as I have moved into working with Aerospace & Space products, Center of Gravity (Center of Mass) and Moments of Inertia are properties that I have to…