News Archives - Page 27 of 52 - SolidWorks Legion

New 3D Printer under $5000!

Solido has announced that they will introduce a new commercial 3D printer that will sell for “considerably less than $5000″, at SolidWorks World 2010. If the announcement holds true, this has the potential to be a game changer in the industry.

Helping Solido to showcase their product are Scott Harris, co-founder of SolidWorks, and Terry Wohlers, president of Wohlers Associates. This will be at a press conference on Monday, February 1st (day 2 of SolidWorks World 2010).

Solido states that their goal for this product is to provide casual 3D printing of CAD models, just as one might print out a paper document. They claim that their product, called Solido SD300 Pro, will print models quietly, accurately and inexpensively right in the office with no toxic or messy materials.

They also claim that the SD300 Pro is suited for all stages of production with accuracy within .004”, including flexible living hinges. Printed parts could be drilled and finished, all without any outsourcing. Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to check out their product and claims.

Story of the revival of SolidWorks Yahoo! Group

The story of the SolidWorks Yahoo! Group revival began way back in Feb 2006. I was looking for new macros to improve work flow on SolidWorks at my company. I looked everywhere online. One of the places I found was the SolidWorks Yahoo! Group. It was fairly active, with professional participation in discussions about SolidWorks. There was a problem, however.

I tried to contact the group owner, but never got a reply. Eventually, I started looking into why the group was unmoderated. The owner had disappeared; bouncy, bouncy. No one else was assigned to run the group, so the group was left to the elements, those dreaded spammers. Well, the rule with Yahoo! Groups is ownership cannot be transferred except by the owner. Since the owner was bouncy, there was no hope. I forget about the group for awhile. Then, in November 2006, I checked it on a whim. It appeared that SolidWorks users where still actively using the group to post questions and answers.

This got me thinking that maybe, just maybe I could take ownership of this group to revive it. So, I contacted Yahoo! Groups with the following feedback comment:

Are you a… Member

Subject: Other

Type your feedback here: The moderator of SolidWorks yahoo group is not maintaining it, and has a bouncy email address. How does one claim control over a group that is experiencing this kind of neglect [but] still has large potential value to its members?

I waited for a few days before receiving this boiler plate response:

In a message dated 11/28/2006 11:49:36 P.M.
Pacific Standard Time, egroups-feedback@cc.yahoo-inc.com
writes:

Hello,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Groups.

I have received your email and you are asking on how does one claim control over a group. I appreciate you contacting us and I’ll be glad to assist you on this matter. I have checked the Yahoo! Group “solidworks”, and it shows that the owner’s account was bouncing. However, in as much as I would like to accommodate your request, I cannot appoint a new owner or moderator to the group as specified in the terms of our Privacy Policy. What I usually suggest is for you to contact the Group owner regarding this issue of handing over group’s ownership. You may send an email to: SolidWorks-owner@yahoogroups.com In the event that the owner can no longer be contacted, one alternative is for you to create your own group and send out invitations to those people who you would like to join your new group. I appreciate your utmost patience and understanding with regard to this matter. If you have any other concerns, do not hesitate to get in touch with us. Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.

Regards,

Shelley, Yahoo! Customer Care

Well, the bureaucratic wheels are churning. There was even double-speak that was self-referencial. At this point, I know I have one chance at getting what I want. My reply will have to be forceful and direct, including points that cannot be argued. Here’s my Hail Mary:

Yahoo,

Thank you for your reply.

I do realize that there is a Yahoo policy against the transfer of ownership
for yahoo groups. However, in light of this situation with SolidWorks yahoo group, I (as a Yahoo customer) feel that such a rigid and absolute rule on the matter is counter productive to members of Yahoo Groups in general (not just in regards to SolidWorks yahoo group). Though I don’t speak for the SolidWorks Corporation, the name “SolidWorks” is a trademarked name whose customers would benefit from having the only Yahoo Group that bares that exact name being made active again. Customers are users that are working, educated professionals that seek convenient interaction with other customers of SolidWorks. A new group creates confusion and increases the lack of interest in using Yahoo Groups at all for this purpose.

Also, if the current state of SolidWorks yahoo group is an indicator, with so many groups without reachable owners or moderators, Yahoo Groups appears to be cluttered, which makes Yahoo Groups less valuable as a service. As a matter of customer service, I request that you reconsider your policy in regards to the transfer of ownership for groups whose owners are bouncy for more than six months. Moderators should be able to claim a group at that time. If no moderators exist, members should be able to petition for ownership directly to Yahoo. To avoid spammers from taking charge of groups for professional purposes, set criteria for the approval of those petitions.

Matthew Lorono
Santa Clara, CA

The reply I then got surprized me. Yahoo! Groups staff stepped up the plate.

Hello Matthew,

Thank you for
writing to Yahoo! Groups.

We appreciate your comments on this matter and can understand your concerns.

Because your group is not currently moderated, we may be able to appoint a new moderator for the group. If you would like a new moderator for the group, please start a poll using the group’s polls feature and list the member names of a few members, who would like to be a moderator, as choices for the poll. Please announce the poll to your group and ask the members to vote on who they would like to be moderator. Once the poll has closed, please email me back and I will appoint the “elected” moderator. I do apologize for any inconvenience.

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.

Regards,
Gidget, Yahoo! Customer Care

The squeaky wheel gets the grease! This is how we do it! And I even got a reply from some girl with an overly cute name.

So, I left a message on the group asking for volunteers. Two people piped up. Of those two, only one had a history of contributing to the site, Chris McCormack. So, I put him up, and myself as the two options in the poll. A month later, I closed the poll and notified Yahoo! Groups staff. I wondered if I would hear from this “Gidget” again?

Gidget (Customer Care),

Per your requirements (see Customer Care email below), I have run a poll for the SolidWorks Yahoo Group to determine a new “elected” group moderator, because the group is not currently being moderated. Two individuals with a history of contributing to the site were self-nominated for this poll. The person with yahoo id maccormackc (Chris McCormack, who is cc:’d on this email) won the poll results. Please appoint maccormackc as the new group moderator for the Yahoo! Group SolidWorks as soon as possible.

Thank you for your prompt action in advance.

Matthew Lorono

Well, Gidget did not respond back. However, Derek did respond back with the happy news.

Hello Matthew,

Thank you for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.

The situation you describe has been completed.

We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused you. Please be assured that we’ll do our best to prevent such problems in the future. If you continue to experience the problem, or if we can be of assistance in another matter, please let us know by replying to this email. If you can describe in as much detail as possible the problem you are having, any steps you take leading up to it, how frequently it occurs, and the exact text of any error messages you receive, it will help us to provide a solution more quickly.

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.

Regards,

Derek, Yahoo! Customer Care

Derek was no Gidget, and his response didn’t make much sense, but he gave me what I wanted, and that’s all that mattered! 😉 After a couple of days, Chris and I began to revive the group, adding content, removing spam, banning spammers, approving new members, etc. And
it appeared to be getting the attention it deserved! Icing on the cake was when Richard Doyle joined the group soon after the revival. Kudos!

Direct CMM programming from SolidWorks

PAS Technology plans to exhibit a new application called PAS CMM for SolidWorks at SolidWorks World 2010. According toe PAS Technology, PAS CMM for SolidWorks enables the user to automatically create CMM programming directly from the SolidWorks Environment. It will take information “off line” from either the 3D Model or the drawing and convert it to CMM programming. The claim is that this add-on reduces task that used to take hours or days down to just minutes in three easy steps (reduction of “97% of CMM programming time”). Automation of CMM programming is definitely taking CAD in a new direction that leverages the 3D Model and drawing information to speed up even more tasks. Here are some press photos:

Solid Works Model converted automatically from Solid Works menu to CMM programming

Solid Works Drawing converted automatically from Solid Works menu to CMM programming

A complete CMM program from Solid Works Model, Drawing which both included GD&T

Another CAM application joins the club

Delcam is going to demonstrate its new CAM system at SolidWorks World 2010. According to Delcam, this new version of their software is called Delcam for SolidWorks and it will be integrated within SolidWorks. In this, it joins the small but growing club of CAM applications that run inside of the SolidWorks environment.

The application is said to initially support drilling for 2 through 5 axis milling. Delcam claims that “future releases will cover the full range of machining operations, including turning, mill-turn and wire EPM.” They also claim that Delcam for SolidWorks is more intelligent than other CAM systems in that it will be able to review and correct the choice of cutting tools and machining strategies for existing toolpaths. They also claim, “all toolpaths generated with Delcam for SolidWorks can be checked by the integrated simulation module on the computer before being passed to the machine tool.”

Here’s an early press image:

It should be interesting to see all the CAM offerings at SolidWorks 2010. It wasn’t all that long ago when the number of CAM applications that ran within the SolidWorks environment could be counted on one finger. It now seems that one will need their whole hand. 🙂

SolidWorks is on Facebook

SolidWorks Corp has a Facebook page. Become a fan to receive updates on SolidWorks related events, news and SolidWorks World. There are photos, videos, connections to other SolidWorks users. The page currently has almost 2000 fans as of today. It is updated about as frequently as their twitter account, with more information previewed. What? You didn’t know that SolidWorks has a twitter account? And that’s not all! Check out the SolidWorks social connections webpage for details on blogs, flickr, etc.

Move your head!

There is some press recently on Apple’s application for a patent covering a technology that moves a 3D model based on head movement or hand gesturing. A demonstrative video is included which shows an individual moving their head to peer around a model from different angles. This is pretty cool, expect for one minor detail. Are they really marketing this to CAD users? This is about as silly as voice command. Can you imagine this combined with voice command, with engineers weaving and bobbing about as they bark off orders “line!”, “extrude!”, “measure!”, “change my bed pan!”? I would start feeling like I’m playing one of those boxing games on PS3 or Wii.

This is a great tool when applied to the right application. Gaming comes to mind (as noted above). Remote control of deep-sea robots may be another application. Sales gimmick, er, I mean sales display in a department store may yet be another. But CAD? Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be to have to move your head from right to left just to rotate a model during a design review, or with your CEO looking over your erratic shoulder?

You know where this would be useful in CAD? When we finally have the type of display that Ironman has (from the recent Ironman movie). By the time we have that sort of thing, I fear the patent on this technology would have expired.

I asked Houston Neal of Software Advice about how CAD users would use this application. I ask this because Apple is developing this application and we all know how Apple is about stuff they develop (it only runs on Macs).

Unfortunately CAD users would likely have to run Bootcamp, Parallels or some other application to run Windows on the Mac, thereby allowing them to run their CAD app.

iTunes did eventually run on PCs, but Apple may have lost early market share and revenue by limiting their iPods and iTunes to Mac in the initial release.

If Apple is serious about supporting the CAD industry on its platform, this new head-bobbing application is welcome, but not nearly enough. Further, use of this technology shouldn’t be limited to just Mac usage at any time.