SolidWorks Legion contest for SpacePilot PRO (April 2011)

SpacePilot PRO

Republished reminder (original post here):

What better way is there for me to show my appreciation to SolidWorks Legion readers than to give away free stuff!  3Dconnexion gives away new 3D mice from time to time to raise awareness of their products.  This month, they have offered to give a SpacePilot PRO to the first place winner of the SolidWorks Legion April 2011 contest.  In addition, they have offered to give a new SpaceNavigator to the second place winner.  Of course, I’m running this contest to raise awareness of SolidWorks Legion.

SpaceNavigator

To enter the contest, send a Twitter Direct Message to @fcsuper with the following phrase “I want my 3D mouse” and include your first and last name.  If @fcsuper is not currently following your Twitter account, leave a comment on this article (below) prior to April 24, 2011 to ask me to follow you.  Otherwise, use the alternative entry method by sending an email to buzyperson@gmail.com with the “I want my 3D mouse” phrase and your name in the email subject.  Limit is one entry per person.  Only the first entry by an entrant is eligible.  The deadline to entry is April 30, 2011 5:00PM Pacific Time.   No entries will be accepted after that time.  It is each entrant’s responsibility to ensure their own ability to use Twitter or email in order to entry this contest. Unfortunately, due to restrictions established by 3DConnexion, only residents of the United States of America are eligible to win.

For additional rules and conditions, please see original post.

ATEC11: GD&T presentations

ATEC11 offered explorations into GD&T in the form of two separate 2-day courses prepared by the ADDA, GD&T Fundamental Training and GD&T Application Training.

GD&T Fundamental Training

This course, presented by Dennis Schwartz, trained attendees with great coverage of GD&T fundamentals.  It walked them through an educational approach to learning the ASME GD&T standard, as applied to engineering drawings.  I spoke with one of the attendees, Kahlil Owens.  Owens is a drafter for a local company in the Kansas City area.  He is also attending ITT Technical Institute for formal education in the Drafting profession.  Even though he had a lot of praise for ITT Technical Institute’s program, he said that GD&T isn’t covered very well within school.  He found ADDA’s course at this conference to be intensive and important to the development of his career.

I attended the portion of this course that covered positional tolerancing.  I found the presentation of the material to be well-paced.  It was repetitive where necessary to help attendees fully understand and appreciate the use of GD&T.

GD&T Application Training

This course, presented by Luis Aguirre, was designed for individuals that already have an understanding of GD&T fundamentals.  It engaged attendees to offer solutions to their own real world problems.  Focus was on sharpening GD&T skills, making GD&T more useful, reducing costs, improved datum selection, etc.  There was also discussion on the advanced use of positional and profile tolerances.

Interesting presentations at ATEC11

Dr. Edward PriceA rather unexpected bonus at ATEC11 are the variety presentations, from the highly technical to practical real world application.  Dr. Edward Price presented a video about the Chicago stormwater retention system, run by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago.  This program and collection of public works handles water pollution and sewer backup problems for 52 municipalities within Cook County.  Price covered how Chicago is setting up a water management system that can handle 11″ of rain in one day (from the so-called 100-year storm; there have been several such 100-year storms in the past 10 years!).  The system treats about 1.5 billion gallons of waster water each day.  Overflow is often stored in several reservoirs, including one called Deep Tunnel.  Treated solid waste from the system is used to convert old strip mine craters  into beautiful prairie land via a program called the Prairie Plan.  See the image below for a basic schematic of the water treatment system.

 

Sketchup Applications presentation

Jeff Levy gave an interesting set of hands-on presentations about Google’s Sketchup tool at the 52nd Annual Technical and Educational Conference.  Of course, Sketchup is a free 3D modelling application that uses mesh faces for the conceptual stages of design and graphic arts.  It seems to be most useful for architectural and civil engineering fields.  It also has functionality for mechanical engineering, such as simple physics simulation and animation (with plugins).  Some examples of this may be found on Youtube.   Sketchup Pro is a paid version that has some additional tools, such as Sandbox which allows the user to create natural looking topography.

Levy claims that companies are investing millions of dollars to develop Sketchup plugins.  The Google Sketchup community “has a plethora of models in the 3D warehouse”.  Models of real buildings may be added to Google Earth.  There is also 3D rendering available that has output which is almost like photography.

Levy advises to apply layers to elements within Sketchup.  Apply useful names to those layers.  Layers work differently in Sketchup than other applications as they don’t control visual properties.

Levy stated that his architectural students are asked two questions when they interview for jobs.

Do you know Revit?

Do you know Sketchup?

As with any 3D modelling application, users must learn the best workflows to get desired results.  Levy warns, “you get into trouble if you think like you build,” particularly when applying materials to elements that will be replicated within the model.

One area of difficulty with Sketchup is selection.  The selection window doesn’t have a field of depth.  Levy advices user to be careful in how they select elements, as unintended changes may occur.

COFES11: The Congress on the Future of Engineering Software

Congress on the Future of Engineering Software 2011 conference (COFES11) ends today.  People from all over came to Scottsdale, AZ for a week of conversation about…well, about the future of engineering software.  I guess the name describes the event fairly well.  Its agenda speaks for the conference well, too.  From the event’s press release: “For design and engineering organizations, software is key to innovation,” explains Cyon Research President and CEO Brad Holtz. “At COFES, leading thinkers from all corners of the industry gather to explore where and how design and engineering software needs to evolve to.”  Oh, and there is golfing too! 🙂