News Archives - Page 23 of 52 - SolidWorks Legion

SolidWorks World 2011 registration is open!

Registration for SolidWorks World 2011 is open! It will be held in San Antonio, TX at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, from Jan 23 to Jan 26, 2011. There is a special deal for those who register prior to October 29, 2010.

As usual, information is available on the website to help potential attendees write a justification letter to their management. Included this year is a somewhat superficial video that may help grab the attention and interest of a boss.

As with previous years, a free CSWA or CSWP exam is offered at the time registration for a Full Conference Pass. Prices for Conference passes are the same as last year (and the year before that, and the year before that).

And don’t forget to check out some ideas for things to do in San Antonio, TX.

DraftSight; How can Dassault Systemes offer 2D CAD for free?

As mentioned in an article earlier this week, Dassault Systemes announced the release of a new “professional-grade” 2D CAD application called DraftSight. DraftSight is touted as an easy DWG file editor. The big bonus is that DraftSight is free!

2D CAD at Dassault Systemes

Within the Dassault Systemes family of products, DraftSight now takes its place as the 2D CAD offering. For non-SolidWorks users, it will effectively replace the old DWGEditor. However, according to Matthew West of SolidWorks Corp in a recent tweet,

The SolidWorks 2D Editor isn’t going anywhere for the time being. But [SolidWorks] customers are welcome to use DraftSight if they prefer.

It’s free?

Though it is free, DraftSight is not offered as open source. Nor is it offered under a true freemium marketing model. Dassault Systemes is taking a different path. When I talked to Arron Kelly, Sr. Director, DraftSight, I expressed my concern that DraftSight may be yet another application that starts off strong as free but then eventual fizzles out and is forgotten. What is Dassault’s plan to kept this product vital? His answer was complex.

swymers Dassault Systemes made a dual product release announcement that involves DraftSight. The DraftSight application is being closely tied to the DraftSight.com community. This new community is based on a new technology called SwYm (“See what you mean”). The community is also free. It will have community support, question and answers, voting on answers, blog, videos, knowledge base, etc. According to Aaron Kelly, Dassault Systemes plans to “leverage the community to build a better product.” They are going to rely on the community to determine how to develop DraftSight. Users will make suggestions and prioritize enhancements, similar to SolidWorks Brainstorm.

Funding for the development of DraftSight will come in the form of paid add-ons and services. For a yearly maintenance fee, users will be able to have direct telephone or online technical support. Larger customers will have a network license. DraftSight also plans to charge for the API extension.

I asked, does a user need to purchase the API package to use LISP, or do they just need it to develop LISP or C++ routines?

Kelly stated, users need to have the API extension to use LISP file too.

SolidWorks concern

One concern I have is for SolidWorks users who use SolidWorks 2D Editor (formerly DWGEditor). We get support for 2D Editor via our VAR. We are unlimited in our use of its API (limited that it may be). If DraftSight eventually replaces 2D Editor, SolidWorks customers do not seem to have a path to use their SolidWorks subscription to gain support and the API extension for DraftSight. Though 2D Editor is not often a selling point, it is part of what we pay for in the form of subscription and original purchase. Does Dassault Systemes really intend to leave SolidWorks users out on a limb if 2D Editor is ever cancelled?

Review of DraftSight

I will review DraftSight and DraftSight.com in future articles.

Dassault Systemes Launches new 2D CAD free!

Dassault Systemes has announced that they are going to shake up the industry by public beta releasing a free community driven 2D CAD application called DraftSight. Those of us who use AutoCAD or DWGEditor will find the interface familiar enough to use it without much trouble. Future development will be driven by the community via the new DraftSight community at draftsight.com. Dassualt Systemes plans to “leverage the community to build a better product”, according to Aaron Kelly.

sampleds

As I used a private beta version last week, I did discover a number of bugs, so I will reserve my full review until I have a chance to try out the latest officially released version of DraftSight. I will also talk about DraftSight’s place in the Dassault Systemes’ family of products and how this affects SolidWorks users. Additionally, I will talk about how Dassualt Systemes plans to fund future development of DraftSight offered as free product.

News: Dimension Palette improves in SolidWorks 2010 SP3

The people (i.e., SolidWorks users) have spoken and SolidWorks Corp listened. The infamous Dimension Palette now functions differently. The controversy surrounding the Dimension Palette started almost immediately after SolidWorks 2010 SP0 was released. People started posting heated complaints in the SolidWorks forums. I addressed many of those complaints in a previous article.

How has Dimension Palette changed? It no longer comes up automatically when the user accesses a dimension on a drawing. Instead, when one or more dimensions are selected, a Dimension Palette button appears above and to the right of the mouse pointer’s location. This is similar to other pop up toolbars, such as the Shortcut Menu.

dim-palette01

To active the Dimension Palette, simply move the mouse cursor over the Dimension Palette button. This will pop up the Dimension Palette. From there, use of the Dimension Palette is the same as before.

dim-palette04 Some minor visual tweaks were also added to improve the look and control of the Dimension Palette. The corners are now rounded. There is also the addition of a Move tab that allows the Dimension Palette to be moved around the view pane by the user.

dim-palette05

New behavioral improvements allow the Dimension Palette to be more predictable. If the user interacts with the Dimension Palette, it will remain on screen for as long as the dimension selection is active and the mouse cursor remains in the view pane. If the Dimension Palette is brought up by the user but the user does not interact with it, the Dimension Palette will disappear when the mouse pointer moves away from it. If this happens, simply press the CTRL key to bring the Dimension Palette button back, if desired. Also, if the Dimension Palette pops up and it is not wanted, it may be banished by pressing the ESC key.

I’ve had a chance to use this new functionality already. The changes to Dimension Palette represent serious improvement! I’m not going to say the solution is complete. I believe development of the Dimension Palette needs to mature before it becomes a classic like the Shortcut Bar. These improvements do make it more user friendly. If there are no other reasons to upgrade to SolidWorks 2010 SP3, the improvements to the Dimension Palette are reason enough.

April Contest prize requested photos

There was a recent request to add photos of the prizes for the SolidWorks Legion April 2010 contest. I guess this will makes the prizes more tangible. (All it takes to enter this contest is to leave comments on SolidWorks Legion articles that are published during April 2010 and any SolidWorks Legion articles linked via twitter by my fcsuper account.)

Prize Photos

First prize: There is no photo available for a CSWP test voucher, since its just a code that allows you to take the test. However, if the winner passes the test, they will be able to use their CSWP badge.

cswp

Second prize: I don’t have a photo of Sir Richard Branson’s book, but a press release photo should be fine to represent this prize. This copy is a new and unread book that has some sort of official replicated Sir Richard Branson signature. (I have my own “signed” copy, which is not so new.)

bransonbook

Third prize: Due to the rarity of the SolidWorks labelled insulated hot/cold mug, I could’ve made it a first prize in a different contest. These mugs are tough. I love my own personal mug. It literally keeps cold drinks cold and hot drinks warm for hours. (All bets are off if you try to mix cold and hot drinks together). This prize is for the new/never-used mug in this photo.

supermug

(Remember, even articles about the contest qualify comments for the contest during the month of April 2010.)

3Dconnexion adds new functionality to existing toys

A few months ago at SolidWorks World 2010, 3DConnexion announced that they are adding 3D mouse capabilities for SolidWorks. Their 3D mice now have a function that automatically and continuously determines the optimal center of rotation for any current view. When a model is fully in view, the center of rotation is the center of the model. When zoomed on a particular area of the model, the center of rotation becomes the center of the view. This makes the exploration and navigation of the smallest details on the largest models much more intuitive. This new function is called Auto Rotation Center.

Auto Rotation Center is displayed on the view pane of SolidWorks models or assemblies in the form of a translucent blue bubble. This bubble has three display states which are chosen by the user under 3Dcontrol pulldown>Properties>Part/Assembly section>Show center drop down. It may be always displayed, displayed in motion only (when the 3D mice is in use), or never displayed.

I’ve been using this new functionality since Feb 2010 in real world scenarios. Early on, I did have some initial issues with this function working properly on my computer system and version of SolidWorks. 3Dconnexion did fix the bug I encountered. Since then, I’ve been impressed with this new function. So much so that I don’t even remember not using Auto Rotation Center with my SpacePilot PRO.

An additional capability 3Dconnexion has added to their 3D mice is the ability to pick a new center of rotation from a point on the 3D model. With the Auto View Rotation, I’ve actually not used this other function even once.

So, if you have a 3Dconnexion 3D mouse which is currently supported, I recommend checking out their website to download the latest driver. Then turn on Auto Rotation Center.

One word of warning, installation of this new driver will wipe out any custom button mappings, so be prepared to remap your device’s buttons. (This won’t be an issue for new installs, of course.)

3dconnexion