Silicon Valley or Solar Valley?

Something is stirring in Silicon Valley again. I drive around and still see a lot of empty commercial lots in the industrial area where I work. Even still, larger new buildings are being built around me. Even weirder, the lunch crowd is becoming larger. I’ve been noticing this slow change over the past 6 months or so. Where lines at the local Togos and Subway used to be easy to get through, they are now extending well out the shop door. More people are starting to work in the area. The job market looks like it’s starting to pick up.

The old days of semi-conductor giants springing up over night are gone.  The dot-com boom-bust is long over.  The new industries of the valley are Biotech and Solar. Solar is starting to take off so fast that a new nickname for the valley might end up being Solar Valley. Biotech is growing rapidly too. It’s contribution is a little more dispersed thoughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Either way, you cannot throw a rock without hitting someone that is currently working in either of those fields.  That said, semi-conductor is still King.  You can’t pick up a rock to throw without bumping into someone working in the semi-conductor industry.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that the business casual guys are back. These are the slightly older guys that wear slacks and shirts that make them look like they just stepped out of a Leave It To Beaver episode.  They are filling the lunch lines with their open discussions of confidential information about their new jobs.

Speaking of confidential conversations in public, late last year I overhead this one group of younger guys.  They were dressed up a bit in the way that younger guys dress up (all name brand clothes, but not well coordinated). Anyway, they were going in to very exact detail about the technology of their start-up Biotech company. Let’s just say I understood what they were talking about. I heard so much that the only thing I needed to make their information useful was to know their company name. I tried and failed to catch a glimpse of their door badges (which foolishly had their company logo printed on them).   I think they figured out I was eavesdropping at that point, so they smartened up. They really shouldn’t have been talking about the proprietary matters in line at a sandwich shop in the first place.

The lull in the crowds and traffic was nice while it lasted. It looks like we have another boom cycle getting ready to take off as soon as the economy turns more favorable.

SolidWorks Functionality that we take for granted…

Some of the students here at my school recently attended the Minnesota PTC user group.  Here they unveiled the Wildfire 4.0 release.  Many were very impressed by some of the new functionality Pro-E had to offer.  Let me give you a couple of items to ponder.  I will add more later this week:

New functionality in Pro-E Wildfire 4.0 –

1. They can now import Word and Excel into their files.

2. Their sketchers automatically selects your reference geometry for you in an attempt to reduce the number of clicks you use to define your sketch.  (Wait a second, no I have to delete that reference geometry and add the correct geometry.)

3. One of my students asked, why can’t I add more than 1 hole in the hole command?  Response :was that would be very complicated programming as it would be a feature in a feature.  The student replied he can do it in the SolidWorks Hole Wizard!” (These statements were not exact quotations but what the attendees had told me.

Anyhow, these are functionalities whether you like them or not that have been available in the software for many years.  Do not take these for granted.

Workaround to edit Macros that are locked on network drive

Question:  I have macros on a network drive and need to edit them.  Unfortunately, someone has them locked (open).  How do I unlock them without going to that computer to manually unload the macros?

Answer: There is a live workaround.  While you cannot edit the files while locked, you can change their folder name! This allows for a sneaky little trick that doesn’t require going to the offending computer.

Simply rename the folder on the network drive where the macros are located. Then copy that folder (files and all) to the same drive. Rename the new folder to be the same name as before the original folder was renamed.

The macros in the old folder with the changed name will still be locked out, but the macros in the new folder with the original name will be free to edit!

In a day or so, the files in the old folder will be unlocked again.  Simply delete the old folder at that time.

Addendum: It should be noted that this method will not always work.  However, it is worth a try before taking any other action.

That Kindling in my Heart

I must confess.  Up until just very recently, I considered Amazon’s Kindle to be a bit of a joke.  Think about it. Who wants to get a device whose only purpose is to read books?!  Well, I may have been wrong about this little gadget.

This is a feature packed tool that looks to be a serious attempt at moving books into the electronic realm without strapping the reader in front of a computer screen.  That said, I’ll reserve further comment about this gadget until I’ve actually tried one  Of course, this is where the first problem arises.  It’s a $400 gadget.  So the decision to buy it may be delayed by my willingness to pay that kind of price for a book reader.  However, even at that price, I am now tempted.

Why am I talking about the Kindle on a SolidWorks related blog?  Well, I recently came up with the idea (jokingly) to put the SolidWorks manual on the Kindle device in a sarcastic comment criticizing SolidWorks’ lack of printed manuals.  However, after looking into the gadget, and reading Matt Lombard’s insightful insider comments regarding this matter, I’m changing my consideration.  I seriously think it is a good idea, at least in principle.

If I do get this device, I will post a review.

Survey on new Customer Portal for SolidWorks

In an effort for continuous improvement, SolidWorks is conducting two surveys regarding the Customer Portal, and unification of such areas as 3D ContentCenter, Knowledge Base, etc.

The survey is like 10 minutes long, so it goes by quick. 😉  There will be a second survey in a couple of weeks.

http://www.solidworks.com/swx050608_cust_commsurvey

(Originally posted by Richard Doyle here.)

ctopher’s SolidWorks Material Database

*New database is now available.  Links in this post have been updated.  See new post here.*

The new ctopher’s Material Database (offsite link) is here! The long anticipated update of my material database.

The new database version 041008 has been updated with more materials.

Because of conflicts with some of the materials between SolidWorks 2008 and older versions, we created two versions. One version is for 2007 and older and the other is for 2008 and newer. Both are included in the same file.

Also added is a text file with instructions.

Thank you to Matt and others for your help and contributions.

Chris (ctopher)

Download page: ctopher’s Material Database (onsite link)