User Group meeting last evening

Hari Padmanabhan and myself presented at the Center Massachusetts and Northern Connecticut SolidWorks Users Group (CMNC-SWUG) yesterday evening.  The meeting was very well attended.   It’s prolly the largest user group meeting I’ve seen.  However, from what I understand, this is par for the course for this region.

Hari gave a very detailed presentation on SolidWorks Animation.  He demonstrated functionality on solid models of real-life toys that he had also brought in.  He  also did a great job of explaining the differences between the three modes within Animation, called Animation (simple point to point movement), Basic Motion (game engine physics) and Motion Analysis (complex physics model).

My own presentation covered DimXpert and TolAnalyst.  DimXpert is one of those capabilities that seems to be under utilized because people are simply unfamiliar with it.  It is a powerful and fairly easy to use tool.  It’s not a whole lot different than dimensioning a drawing, except that DimXpert dimensions and tolerances actually have a fundamental understanding of what they are controlling.

Technically, CMNC-SWUG is my hometown user group, so I’ll be looking forward to their further events.

SWW12 Attendee -> Press -> Presenter -> Employee

The first SolidWorks World that I attended was 2008 in San Diego, as an attendee.  My schedule was full of breakout and hands-on sessions, from which I learned a lot.  I also remember attending focus groups, the beautiful San Diego days, seeing lots of cool stuff at the Partner Pavilion, fun at special event in the Gaslamp District, the free iPod (still using from time to time), General Sessions, and meeting a lot of new friends.

For SolidWorks World 2009, something strange happened.  When you are a regular blogger of SolidWorks and CAD related topics, there’s a chance you’ll be invited to come to SolidWorks World as Press.  You don’t get “press credentials” or anything.  You simply get a badge that says “Press” and the right to go just about anywhere at any time in the conference.  This happened to me.

Being Press at the conference was somewhat surreal in 2009, 2010, and 2011.  The experience is completely different.  I never had time to attend more than a couple of breakout and hands-on sessions.  Instead, my time was spent at news conferences, interviewing important SolidWorks employees, quickly meeting special keynote speakers (Gene Kranz [smart guy], James Cameron [loved the campy Dark Angel show], Dr. Mike North [so sad his show got cancelled]), actually blogging, visiting historical locations, press events and other socializing.

At SolidWorks World 2011, I did double duty as a presenter.  Presenting a breakout session isn’t as hard as it might seem.  Being a great presenter isn’t the expectation that most people have of you.  Knowing your material is most important.  Being a presenter also gives you a new and unique experience at the conference, though arguably attending as Press is the most unique of all for people who are not employed by SolidWorks.

Well, this last year, something else strange happened.  I was hired as a SolidWorks employee and started my job in June.  Not only that, but my position has a significant number of responsibilities at SolidWorld World.  So, this year, I’ll be attending SolidWorks World 2012 as a working employee of SolidWorks.  Yet again, this will afford me the opportunity to see SolidWorks World from a completely different perspective.  To complete the circle, the conference is again in San Diego.

I’ve gone from presenting one breakout session to now presenting 3 sessions (1 breakout, 2 hands-on).  As if I wasn’t social before, I’ve got to be even more so now, talking to as many customers as possible, I’ll be running two focus groups, conducting product tests, and other behind the scenes tasks.

Unlike Mike Puckett, who has had a similar experience with changing rolls at SolidWorks World, I will not be presenting on the main stage during the General Session.  However, I will have a chance to see the response to my changes to SolidWorks by attendees during the What’s New for 2013 presentation.

If you are attending SolidWorks World 2012, try to find me.  My cell is 40…hmmm, yeah, just try to find me instead.  I’ll be looking for you to talk to! 🙂

ADDA hosts 53rd Technical & Educational Training Conference

American Design Drafting Association is hosting the 53rd annual Technical & Education Training Conference on March 27-30, 2012 at the Hard Rock Hotel in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  The theme this year is “Training with Evolving Technologies”.

The conference is a 4 day event focused around building drafting and design skills.  There is heavy focus on drawing standards by ASME, in particular GD&T and ASME Y14.5-2009.  CAD technologies are also well covered.

Though this is not one of the larger trade conferences, its tight focus on design and drafting puts it at the top for training in the area of ASME standards, in my opinion.  This will benefit individuals who need more in-depth skills related to GD&T and drafting (even when paper drawings aren’t used).  The two day workshops on GD&T are particularly valuable.

Due to scheduling conflicts, I won’t personally won’t be able to attend this year, but I do hope to get a chance to go again within the next couple of years.

The early bird special for people who register by March 5, 2012 is $100 off the attendance fee.  More information may be found at their registration form page.

**UPDATE** 2/2/2012

Description of workshops for this conference are now available.

Tuesday Two: powering eyes

Polyplus propel potentional power, providing pertinent p…oh…nevermind.  Polyplus new technology will allow for “ultra-high energy density [lithium] batteries ” to significantly increase battery charge.  This will allow cellphones and many other devices longer times of operation between rechargings.

A microchip may soon be available from the minds at MIT that will allow blind people to acheive some level of sight.  It’s not a full site, but “blind person to recognize faces and navigate a room without assistance.”

SolidWorks World 2012: Things to do in San Diego (Updated)

Due to the relatively good weather in San Diego all year long, family attractions don’t have to close for the “winter”.  Here are some of the places you may wish to visit while in San Diego for SolidWorks World 2012.  Have fun with these ideas!

Attractions

Enjoying the town

  • San Diego’s Downtown – Creation of downtown areas for denizens has become an art form by its own right in California.  Practically every little town to big city has a developed downtown.  San Diego is no exception.
  • Seaport Villiage – Great place in the San Diego harbor for diner, explore shops and more.
  • Coronado Island – Beautiful area to explore, just over the bridge!
  • East Villiage – Up and coming area near Gaslamp.

Enjoying the area

  • San Diego’s wine country – though it may not be as nearly as developed as other wine regions in California, still might be worth the time to explore.
  • La Jolla Cove – Beautiful beach and cove.
  • Pacific Coast Highway – for those who may want to drive along the beautiful California coastline.  This could be a couple of hours to a couple of days, depending on how far you want to drive and how much you want to see.

Special thanks to Troy Peterson on the SolidWorks forums for many of these ideas.

**UPDATE**

Daniel Herzberg has created a nifty utility on Foursquare (you don’t need to be a member of Foursquare to see the link) that includes additional points of interest and a general map of their locations.

 

 

Rulers!

Although the status bar of the SolidWorks drawing mode always displays the X and Y coordinates of the location of the mouse cursor on the drawing sheet, sometimes the visual aid of a sheet ruler may provide additional help. 

SolidWorks drawing mode rules can be turned on at View pulldown>Rulers.

Once turned on, the rulers appear at the top and left edges of the drawing window.

The rulers also enhance the usefulness and feedback when the Grid is displayed. This is because the rulers provide constant confirmation as to the mouse cursor’s drawing location on the screen, no manner how far in the zoom level.

This makes keeping track of one’s position on the drawing sheet more intuitive, especially during sketching and using snap-to-grip functionality.

Control over various aspects of snapping and grid are available in Tools pulldown>Options…>Document Properties>Grid/Snap. 

Changes to grid increments are reflected in the rulers.