Cool demonstration of the full scale of the Universe

The full scale of the Universe traverses the sizes as small as one Planck Length (hypothetically the size of quantum strings, branes and foam), all the way up to the distance to the farthest galaxies (and a bit beyond).  A project called “The Scale of the Universe 2” by Cary Huang helps put all of ths into perspective.  Differences in sizes between different elements of the world around us is a bit surprizing.  In particular, check out the size comparison between an ant and the largest bacteria.

 

The web tool doesn’t just show examples at each scale.  It also provides a brief summary or explanation of every object when you click on it.

 

SolidWorks World 2012 Proceedings site is now available ( #fb )

SolidWorks World 2012 presentations are now available for download or viewing on the preceedings website.  Visit http://www.solidworks.com/sww/proceedings/ to access the proceedings information.

Also available there are videos of the General Sessions, Partner Pavilion information and some photos.

What’s New in Solidworks 2012: Search Commands

One more notable What’s New item from SolidWorks 2012 is the new Search Commands tool.  Search Commands in the Search corner that allows you to quickly find a command by typing its name.

Simply start typing a common name in the Search Commands field and you will be immediately presented with possible matching commands.  Not only that, if you click on the eye-glasses next to the command name, SolidWorks will automatically take you on a step-by-step path to the location of the command within the menu or toolbar interface.

But there’s more.  

When searching for a command:

  1. Click and hold on command from dropdown.
  2. Drag the command to any visible toolbar or CommandManager.
  3. Release mouse button to drop command at that location.

That’s right, Search Commands allows you to quickly add a found command to any toolbar within your user interface so you can keep at a favorite location for future use.

The customization doesn’t stop there.   Multiple-letter shortcuts can be added to Search Commands!  This can be done at Tools pulldown>Customize…>Keyboard tab in the Search Shortcut column.

As a bonus to even all of that, Search Commands is automatically accessible when the you strike the “S” key to bring up the Shortcut Bar.  Whenever the Shortcut Bar is up, you can just start typing!  Your entry appears in the Search Commands field and automatically initiates your command search.

 This new tool helps new and occasional users find commands that they may never have used before or may have forgotten about because they don’t use the SolidWorks every day.  Additionally, it can help experience users find commands on unfamiliar workstations, since many users like to customize toolbar layouts.

Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs speaks at SolidWorks World 2012

One of my favorite shows on TV is Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe.  Even though the keynote speaker was announced ahead of SolidWorks World 2012 (Tony Fadell), there was still a surprize guest speaker!  Can you guess who (as if you didn’t already know): Mike Rowe.

Mike Rowe is a down to Earth kind of guy that has a passion to honor the men and women who do the jobs that the rest of us are thankful we don’t have to do.  Rowe spoke about wanting to bring white collar and blue collar trades together.  Though there is value in having degrees (of which he has one in Communications), he states that our society is too focused on that.  In particular, he does Dirty Jobs to honor his Grandfather, Carl, who was a plummer and mechanic.  With all the unemployment, there doesn’t seem to be enough people to fill jobs like plummers and electricians.  A very good article covers details of his talk on Graphics Speak

He talked about mikeroweWORKS, built by the fans of Dirty Jobs, which seeks to help close the skills gap and link up tradesmen.  His mission statement says it better than I ever could.

Meeting Mike Rowe

When travelling across country late last year with my wife, I discovered a section of our hotel store at the Grand Canyon that was dedicated to Dirty Jobs.  There was a foam board cut out of Mike Rowe’s image.  To joke with my wife, who never found her way into the store, I took a photo of me with the 2D cut out.

In a bit of irony, I actually did get a chance to meet Mike Rowe at SolidWorks World 2012, and yes, he gracitiously took his photo with me.  Can you tell which is the real Mike Rowe?

 

SolidWorks World 2012 announces enhancements for 2013

Briefly, here are the announced enhancements planned for Solidworks 2013.   (As noted by Fielder Hiss, other enhancements are also planned.)

– Show Hidden Bodies in Parts

– Assembly Performance Offender

– eDrawings Markup Import

– Quick Section Views

– Revision Cloud tool

– Snapshots in and Doc

– Bounding Box Cut-List Properties

– 3DVIA Composer- new support for multiple cameras

– Quick Pick Document Type-for filter files

– Envelope Enhancements

– Insert Multiple Parts all at once

– Multiple Exploded Views

– Rotate Exploded Part

– Favorites Folder

– Plastic Boss Mount Control

– Cosmetic Thread and Dowel Holes

– Surface Intersect to add and remove materials

– Extrude Multiple Thin Contours

– Equation Entry to enter equations in any property

– Vary Pattern Dimensions

– Previous Release Interoperability (can open 2013 in 2012 as long as running SP5)

– EPDM- collaborate with others

– DraftSight- EPDM Checkout and Copy Sketches