Here’s a video updated to Youtube by Ben Eadie that describes the various ways to make threads. Even if you won’t use these techniques, it is very interesting.
Bertrand Sicot fails his test (but then passed on the second try)
Bertrand Sicot, new CEO of DS SolidWorks Corp is undergoing the three stages of the Certified SolidWorks Professional test. He passed the first stage on his first try, but failed the second stage. He had to retake that portion of the test. If you haven’t yet seen his most recent article on his journey to being a CSWP, please check it out on the SolidWorks Blog. I look forward to getting the news of how well he did on the last stage of the test, so that he will also be able to add those four letters C-S-W-P to his name.
Controlling how flag notes are attached to leaders (part 1)
SolidWorks provides the ability to support many different shapes for flag notes. In addition to shapes, there are several methods in SolidWorks to create flag notes on a drawing. Each method gives a slightly different result in how the flag note symbol looks and how it is attached to the leader line. Part 1 of this article will cover shapes and the flag note symbols.
Flag note symbol shapes
There are two general methods to add flag note symbols to an Annotation Note.
The first (and older) method is to use the symbol library. There are literally hundreds of symbols included within the library. The library supports triangle, square and circle symbols for numbers and letters, with or without the period. This method inserts a tag into the Annotation Note, which then generates the flag note symbol, based on existing data in the gtol.sym file.
Using the Flag note symbols from the symbol library
To use this method, create the Annotation Note with a leader.
While in the edit mode, click on the Add Symbol button in the PropertyManager.
This opens up the Symbol Library. Pick the appropriate flag note symbol and OK.This opens up the Symbol Library. Pick the appropriate flag note symbol and OK.
This will insert the symbol into the Annotation Note.
If the triangle is chosen, the resultant symbol is not an equilateral triangle. The square and circle symbols are truly squares and circles, respectively. Note the gap between the flag note and leader. This gap can get bigger or be completely removed with a different method, which I will go into in part 2 of this article.
I am a SolidWorks employee
As some already know, DS SolidWorks Corp recently hired me as the new Product Definition Specialist for drawings. As such, I am no longer a neutral outsider in affairs related to SolidWorks Corp or any products created by Dassault Systemses. I will no longer be posting commentary about future capabilities in SolidWorks, nor business plans of the corporation. I will also likely scale back the types of product reviews that I conduct. I will still contribute other types of articles to SolidWorks Legion, such as how-to’s, tips and tricks, coverage of public announcements, etc.
This website will still remain my own, and will still not be promotional in nature. Its content is not reviewed by SolidWorks Corp. It will not be an official channel for information from SolidWorks Corp. No specifics about my role at SolidWorks nor any projects, nor customers will be discussed on this website. I will still cover events, particularly those that I attend, such as user group meetings, SolidWorks World and SolidWorks Technical Summits.
That said, this website is called a Legion for a reason. There are other contributors to SolidWorks Legion are still free to express themselves. As always, each contributor is responsible for their own submissions.
I may post SolidWorks related communications via my new Twitter account @swsuper. That account will likely be used for any official SolidWorks work, such as survey links.
Your comments about this news are welcome.
So, where the heck have I been?
For the past week, I was driving across the USA. I stopped off at several cities along the way. There were some surprizes; nothing Earth shattering, but still surprizes. There was some minor disappoints too (mostly at Hotwire’s unpublished rates program). If you’d like to see my adventure, check out my personal blog here. Overall, the trip took 5 and 1/2 days. Each day was very briefly summed up with a few photos to enhance the retelling of the journey.
SolidWorks Legion April 2011 contest winners
Congratutations to Gary Hall (1st place winner) and Jeff Cox (2nd place winner). 3DConnexion will (or already has) shipped the SpacePilot PRO to Gary Hall and the SpaceNavigator to Jeff Cox. I hope they enjoy their new toys!
On a side note, I’ve not been able to actively post frequent articles recently. There is a very good reason for that. I’ve been busy. There will be more information about this busy-ness soon. ???Stay tuned! That said, article frequency should pick up in a few of months.