Entries Tagged 'SolidWorks News' ↓

There’s only 3 days remaining to submit your rendering of the Mach 4 Racer to Rob Rodriguez’s November PhotoWorks Rendering Contest. The contest closes Friday October 21, 2008 and voting will end the following Friday, October 28, 2008.

I would love to see us break some records for the number of entries so fire up PhotoWorks or PhotoView 360 and submit your entry today!  I can’t wait to see your renderings!

You can download the model from my Downloads page or from Rob’s Page.

Stay tuned….more to come!

As I was channel surfing this morning I ran across a program on the Military Channel called Backyard to Battlefield.  I came in about halfway through the episode but it IMMEDIATELY caught my attention.  If you are not familiar with the show it features “outsider” defense contractors made up of small teams that are often times working out of their garages or workshops.  This of course is a stark contrast to the more common (and MUCH larger) military contractors.

The show featured two projects that were VERY interesting.  It turns out that BOTH of them were designed in SolidWorks!  The Howe brothers of Howe and Howe Technologies from Maine have designed a truly remarkable vehicle called the Ripsaw MS1.  Even though it has “tank like” tread, it’s design enables it to handle almost any terrain and reach speeds around 80 mph!  You can see it in action in this YouTube Video.

Click the image to watch the video!

So how did I know it was designed in SolidWorks?  A quick look at some of the Deleted Scenes on the Military Channel website shows how they design and fabricate some of the structural tubing for the frame.  It appears that they are using the Weldment functionality inside of SolidWorks to design the entire main portion of the frame!  What was facinating to me was how they were taking some of the structural tubing with complex intersection cuts and converting them to sheet metal parts to get a flat pattern of the cut.  This profile was then fed to a CNC laser cutter!  That is quite an innovative approach!  You might also recognize the PhotoWorks background in one of the images above.  Since I missed the first half of the show there may have been more scenes showing insight into the design process.  I’ll be queuing up the DVR for the next time it comes on! (Wednesday October 15th at 2:00pm EST in case you are wondering.)

The second project show was the BEAR life saving robot from Vecna Robotics.  The BEAR is designed to balance itself on two legs while picking up a 200 pound mannequin (or later on an injured soldier)!  It uses hydrualic power in combination with various tracks to rescue wounded soldiers in the field.  Towards the end of the episode the BEAR team discovers a failure in one of the hydraulic units.  One of the team engineers is then shown bringing up the SolidWorks model of the hydraulic unit and the results of a SolidWorks Simulation study that predicts a high stress in the area where the cylinder ruptured.  The BEAR team also used physics based simulation programs to predict how the robot would perform based on the programmed movements.  Very cool stuff!

According to the Military Channel website, this is the premiere episode of the series.  This looks like a show you want to keep your eye on for sure.  Also - For all of you Discovery Channel geeks out there - Don’t miss the premiere of Prototype this coming up this Wednesday.  You can check out Josh Ming’s post over at SolidSmack about that series HERE.

Stay tuned….more to come!

No…I’m not talking about Saturday Night Live.  They have had some pretty darned funny skits on the Presidential candidates lately though….but I digress.  I’m talking about the SolidWorks Network License (SNL).  If you wish to upgrade to SolidWorks 2009 in the next few weeks, you will need to download a temporary network license file to use.

You can find the temporary license file by logging into the Customer Portal and searching the Knowledge Base with the keywords “SolidWorks 2009 License File”.  The first entry in the search results should be the one you are looking for.  The license file will last until October 31, 2008.  By then the SolidWorks 2009 license files should be available.  When the permanent license files become available you should be able to download it from the Customer Portal via the “My Products” link.

Stay tuned…more to come!

If you click on the image above it will take you to a website that will allow you to sign up for a Free 30 day evaluation copy of SolidWorks Premium 2009.  Unfortunately for some folks, this offer is only available to those in the United States.  If anything changes with that, I’ll post it here.

At the same time you can get some free entertainment in the form of some comic strip style cartoons showing the advantages of 3D design (using SolidWorks Premium of course).

As soon as you sign up SolidWorks will mail you a DVD containing the software.  You can also request a Live demo if you like.

Getting evaluation copies of SolidWorks has in the past been handled mostly on a case by case basis by the SolidWorks Resellers.  I’m glad to see there is another option out there for those interested in test driving SolidWorks!

Well, after a week in the HOT sun of Orlando, Florida at Walt Disney World, I’m finally back and ready to get back to Blogging.  There was quite a bit going on last week in the World of SolidWorks both stateside & at the SolidWorks press event in Barcelona.  I’m sure you’ve read many of the details of the press event from the SolidWorks Blog Squad.  The biggest news stateside was the release of SolidWorks 2009 SP0.  Now that the software is officially released, all customers can implement SolidWorks 2009 with full support from SolidWorks and its Resellers.  You can download it now at the Customer Portal.  I haven’t heard anything official yet, but I assume that the SolidWorks 2009 DVDs will be shipping soon.  For full company wide implementation, I still recommend that you wait for your DVDs to arrive.  I’ll post my annual implementation recommendations as soon as the DVDs start to arrive.

I just got SolidWorks 2009 installed tonight and the Installation Manager worked perfectly for me.  I’m still using SolidWorks 2008 where I work, but we will be looking to upgrade to 2009 as soon as we finish our current projects.

Stay tuned…more SolidWorks 2009 posts coming soon!

Being involved in the SolidWorks Community connects you with many great people doing great things.  A few years back in a former life as a SolidWorks AE I met Matt Rece who was at that time working at SolidWorks in Technical Support.  I’ve kept in contact with Matt through the years and get to work with him from time to time as he is now the SolidWorks Territory Technical Manager for my area.

Matt along with several SolidWorks and Dassault Simula employees recently participated in the Pan Massachusetts Challenge which is a charity bike ride across Massachusetts to benefit cancer research.  The ride is a 192 mile trek from Sturbridge, MA to Province Town, MA out on the tip of Cape Cod.  Each rider on the 2 day 192 mile route must commit to raising at least $4000 dollars by Oct. 1st.  Here’s a picture of Matt at the PMC.  (He is the tall guy on the left.)

We’ve all lost loved ones or acquaintances to cancer at some point in our lives so if you would like to make a donation for Matt’s ride, click on the link below to make an eDonation.

http://www.pmc.org/mypmc/profiles.asp?Section=story&eGiftID=MR0121

It’s a great ride for a great cause.

It seems like every corporation these days totally overhauls their website every few years.  SolidWorks is no exception to this rule.  Take a look at the brand new SolidWorks site if you haven’t had a chance yet.  I do like the layout of the new site better than the old site.  You can even find a list of SolidWorks User Blogs in the Communities section.

OK…almost a week now and no posts?  I have a good excuse. 

Back in June Matt Lombard asked me to be the Technical Editor for his upcoming SolidWorks 2009 Bible.  Having never worked directly on a project with Matt nor on a book of this size, I thought it was a great opportunity and gladly accepted his offer.  Even though this was only an update to the 2007 Bible, 1100 pages and two software revisions has proven to be quite a bit of work.  Its a great way to dig into MANY of the details of SolidWorks 2009 and also provide some additional support for what is already the most complete book on SolidWorks ever produced.

It has proven to be what I thought it was.  An enjoyable but time consuming task.  This is actually the second SolidWorks book I have been Technical Editor on.  The first book was the SolidWorks for Dummies, 2nd Edition authored by Richard Doyle, so I pretty much knew what I was getting into.

The early release from the SolidWorks 2009 NDA combined with the launch of my new site got me a little behind on my technical editing but I am happy to report that after a BUNCH of work this past week I’m back on target and only have a few sections to finish.  I have been VERY impressed with what Matt has added to the book and I highly encourage you to check it out when it is released.  No…this is NOT a paid advertisement. 

Make sure you check out The SW Geek’s contest where you could win a 2009 Bible.

I should be able to roll out a few posts before going on a fun filled week long vacation to Disney World on September 12th.  If you follow me on Twitter, I’ll be posting from all around the Disney parks the whole time I am there.

Stay tuned….more to come!

SolidWorks Developer Greg Leuenberger has posted an EXCELLENT video showing off MANY of the details of PhotoView 360.  You can click on the image above to view the streaming version or click HERE to download a zipped version of the video.

The video is a little over 28 minutes long…which is perfect for viewing during a lunch break!  Watching Greg’s video has made me want a workstation with an 8 core processor!  You’ll see what I mean when you view the video! 

Stay tuned…more to come!

No, SolidWorks 2009 has NOT exploded.  But it has now “officially” burst onto the scene this week with SolidWorks posting their SolidWorks 2009 Launch site and Industry Magazines putting out stories.

The SolidWorks 2009 Launch site is action packed with at least 10 different videos posted on new features and behind the scenes happenings.  There’s also 5 new Whitepapers (which I have had NO time to read yet) posted.

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a NEW CAD magazine out called Develop3D.  CAD Industry veterans Al Dean and Martyn Day (among others) are the driving force behind it.  Their latest issue for July/August 2008 has an article on SolidWorks 2009 authored by the “slightly eccentric” Josh Mings of SolidSmack.  Go to the Develop3D site and subscribe for FREE.

Another industry publication that’s got an article on SolidWorks 2009 is the Canadian based Design Engineering magazine.  Ben Eadie of SolidMentor penned their SolidWorks 2009 Review.  Thanks for the link Ben!

Wait…there’s MORE!  Rob Rodriguez posted a GREAT interview with the 3 time SolidWorks Beta Contest winner and multiple time PhotoWorks Contest winner Lin Shaodun.  Lin has not just “eeked out” wins in the Beta Contest.  He usually wins by a LARGE margin.  Congratulations to Lin for winning the contest (AGAIN) this year and to Rob for posting the interview.

Stay tuned….more to come!