“Where can I find SolidWorks specific job listings?”
There was a time when one of the only answers to that question was SolidWorks Job NetWork. Many companies have posted jobs on this site over the years. But for whatever reason, it vanished. It has now returned! There are already a few new postings listed. It’s worth a look, and hopefully employers will begin to catch-on to this valuable resource!
Companies like Saleforce.com are changing the very nature of business communications by embedding social media technology within their products (Chatter). There are engineering software companies that also understand the value of this new media and how to use it within CAD and PDM applications. Communication between collaborating engineers doesn’t have to be limited to face-to-face or phone conversations, as these methods are not always practical.
Though seemingly not as developed as solutions from Salesforce.com, PTC (maker of Pro Engineer and Windchill) is offering a “repackage” of social-networking features as part of a product development system, termed Social Product Development. This takes several forms under the ProductPoint label. Included in their set of solutions is a wiki style design log and a chat application which may increase communication between engineering collaborators.
The model-wiki function offered by PTC in ProductPoint is a critical idea. At first glance, there doesn’t seem like much of a difference between it and SolidWorks’ Design Journal. However, the ability to access the model-wiki from the PLM environment is a big bonus that takes design collaboration to new levels that are becoming increasing important in the engineering environment. There can still be drawbacks to this approach. Seriously, to have true wiki functionality would require a lot of crazy coding within the wiki. The PTC model-wiki strikes a good next-step to improve design collaboration.
The instant message functionality seems a bit redundant. There are hundreds of chat programs now available. I’m left wondering if yet another one is necessary and if it is really all that useful to have it embedded inside of my CAD application.
Even still, there is something else compelling about bringing social product development into product design. The file lock, unlock and out-of-date pop-up notifications (MS Office style) seem like they can be extremely useful. Another impressive development is the collaboration workspace. The PTC promotional video is worth a look to get a sense of how they’ve implemented these concepts within the design process:
There’s a funny commercial from Priceline.com where William Shatner plays his own evil twin who tries to talk someone into booking through a website that is offering a sale by declaring, “it’s a sa-ell; nothing beats a sa-ell.”
This is a sly reference to a Star Trek episode where Kirk did indeed have an evil twin.
As far as getting good prices for rooms and flights for SolidWorks World 2011, be sure to shop around. If bidding on rooms and flights isn’t your thing, then check out KAYAK. It provides alerts via email when deals that fit your criteria become available from almost any other travel site.
Also, be aware that business travel is more complex in these times of airline baggage fees, carry on bag fees, handling fees, overweight fees, Groundhog Day fees, unleavened bread fees, etc. Many travel agencies simply will not handle baggage and other particular fees, which leaves the traveller to pay when they arrive at the airport. Reimbursement for these on-the-spot fees from your company can be a serious pain. Have you ever tried collecting credit card interest from an employer? It’s next to impossible.
So, travellers should be cautious and frugal. Plan ahead for any trips. It’s hard to believe that SolidWorks World 2011 is so near. Didn’t we just get done with 2010?
Creating animations with SolidWorks can be both fun and challenging. With the capabilities and options that SolidWorks now supports, making animations of models can fell like walking through a maze. The book Creating Animations with SolidWorks is a self-study guide that attempts to teach readers how to navigate that maze to create animations with SolidWorks. SolidWorks Corp provided me with one copy of this book for the purpose of this review. This review is my own content without input of others.
Even though some of the animation functions in SolidWorks seem intuitive to me, please know that I have a small amount of professional video editing and production experience. Most readers will not likely have this sort of background. There is a lot of complexity in the creation of animations with models. To inexperienced SolidWorks users, many functions can be missed, particularly when using physics. Creating Animation with SolidWorks covers animation functions in great detail. However, I feel that the flow of the book needs some improvement, as the tutorials are sometimes hard to follow and information is needlessly repeated.
This is a big book with over 500 pages. It’s big for a reason. This books covers all three methods (called motion study types) for creating animations in SolidWorks. These are Animation, Basic Motion and SolidWorks Motion. Many users will only have access some of these, as license type determines the add-ins which are available.
There are 18 chapters.
Chapter 1 is a general overview of the book itself and animations within SolidWorks.
Chapters 2 through 5 cover animation basics.
Chapters 6 through 8 go into detail about motion and animating parts.
Chapters 9 through 14 cover Basic Motion and SolidWorks Motion.
Chapters 15 through 18 cover advice on how to get best results when creating animations and editing video.
Creating Animations with SolidWorks is available in the SolidWorks store for $89.95. It comes with a DVD that has all of the files for each exercise and case study, so there is no need to download them separately. Although I did get an error when I installed the package from the DVD, the files seemed to work fine.
This book covers just about every topic necessary in the creation of animations with SolidWorks. In this, the book is very thorough. It is a step-by-step guide. I do not recommend starting at some point in the middle of the book. I also do not recommend using this book as a reference guide unless the reader is already fairly familiar with creating animations with SolidWorks.
I found the formatting of the book to be harder to follow than the authors intended. For example, in the step-by-step SolidWorks exercises, the headings for each step seem more confusing than helpful, as they are often redundant or lack any useful information. My recommendation to the authors is that this book should list each step without the headings. This would improve space on the written page and likely reduce the size of the book itself while enhancing readability.
Redundancy is common in this book in other ways. On page 6 there is a section entitled “Animations”. This section defines animation in the context of SolidWorks. Then, right on the next page (7), the reader encounters another section entitled “What is an Animation?”. Better organization of the topics will help reduce these redundancies.
As mentioned, the step-by-step instructions are sometimes hard to follow. This is why I don’t recommend using this book as a reference guide. In an attempt to cover every detail about animation, this book includes many variations of similar tasks within each step-by-step exercise. This is good, right? Well, the problem is that it is not always clear when the reader should start a new series of steps or when to continue from the last step. I found several occasions in the step-by-step exercises where I could not continue because a task completed in the previous step was interfering with the very next task. The exercises should be better organized to let the reader know how to transition between different tasks.
This book impressed me in one way. Creating any sort of video requires a bit of art. Creating Animations with SolidWorks actually provides very useful advise on the art to help the reader create animations with better results. This is somewhat outside the scope of a simple tutorial and adds a bit of value to the book.
Overall, if someone is looking for a book that will self-teach them how to create animations in SolidWorks, this isn’t a bad book. It does cover practically every aspect necessary for that work. However, using this book may require a little patience.
SolidWorks Blog just announced a new hotel deal for SolidWorks World 2011. The deal is available until August 25, so check it out soon. It’s still likely a bit pricy for individuals.
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.
