Interesting recent industry articles

There are a lot of interesting topics going on in the CAD blogospere recently.  Topics ranging from interesting business decisions to commentary about contraversial statements.  I contemplated covering many of these topics in individual articles.  Well, instead here’s a list of what I found to be most interesting recently:

Are Autodesk Products Unimportant? – Deelip Menezes

How do I manipulate my model view; let me count the ways – Wilke of SolidWorks Corp

What is Dassault Systemes up to? – yes, this is my own article

Dassault spins out SmarTeam development and support – Al Dean of Develop3D

What’s going on at Adobe? – Al Dean of Develop3D

SolidWorks Mythbuster: fully defined sketches and rebuilt speed – Matt Lombard of Dezignstuff SolidWorks Blog

How did you learn SolidWorks?

In a previous article, I recently asked for the opinions of others about the best methods to train new employees for SolidWorks.  So far, the response is split between “on the job training with a mentor” and “VAR taught introductory courses”.  This is a bit of a surprize given the emphasis placed on VAR based training these days.   Do others question of the value of VAR training?  Is it effective?  Or, is VAR training just not worth the costs or the time away from work?  My own experience is that VAR training classes do not necessarily give the best benefit to new users.

The responses made me curious about something else.  How did current SolidWorks users learn the software?

How did you first learn the SolidWorks application? (Pick the primary method)

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SolidWorks World 2010: International Travel

SWW2010 international travel bannerThe event is called SolidWorks World because it is the international convention for SolidWorks.  Attendees are from many countries.  The SolidWorks World website has special information to help the international traveller, available on its international travel information page.  It includes passport and visa information.  There is also contact details for those who require an invitation letter for a visa.

SolidWorks Labs: Watchit Widget

Watchit!Watchit!SolidWorks doesn’t just make CAD software.   They also make Yahoo! Widgets.   One cool widget from SolidWorks Labs is Watchit Widget.   This widget tracks when changes to watched files.   When Watchit detects a change, it populates its window with information about that file.   This is useful in environments where two or three CAD users are sharing files in a single network folder.   I think this is the intended use.   As a bonus, this widget is also good for CAD Administrators who want to make sure network locations for support files are kept intact, as it not only tracks files, but also whole folders.   The admin can track if additions are placed into the Materials Database folder (say from materials downloaded from Matweb.com).   Such notification would allow the admin to then take that file and incorporate it into the company’s material database.   It would also allow the admin to detect if some user has “accidentally” modified the SolidWorks template file.

Note, it might seem that this sort of application works best if placed in a corner in the “second” monitor of a dual monitor computer system.

Richard Doyle is looking for first-timers

Ok, Richard Doyle, leader of the SoilidWorks online community, didn’t say he was “looking” for folks who will be attending their first SolidWorks World in Jan 2010.  He does have a message for first-timers, including useful advice and links.  However, I’m sure he would appreciate comments from people who are planning on attending their first SolidWorks World.  As for Richard, he has attended every one.