SWW8 Pre-Day (Jan 20, 2008) Part II

Sunday was beautiful, as I mentioned before.

On route to the convension centerGaslamp Quarter

But did I get to enjoy it?  No.  Being the dedicated SolidWorks user (geek) that I am, I attended workshops (called Focus Groups) about different functions of the software.  The convention center wasn’t all that crowded on the Pre-Day.

Entering Focus Group meetings

Did we change the world in the Focus Groups?  Only time will tell.  Later in the evening, the Partners Pavilion was opened to us early attendees as a reception.  I got to leisurely stroll around.  This would be my only chance to do this, as my schedule for the next three days was booked with hella events and things.  One of the displays in the Partners Pavilion that struck my fancy at the sheer irony was this item, labelled as a competitive class luxery off-road racing truck.  If that isn’t a whole series of oxymorons, I don’t know what is…but hey, I wouldn’t mind having one of these in my garage!  (And yes, luxury appeared to be purposefully spelt with an e.)

competitive class luxery off-road racing truck

This truck was completely laid out in 3D before production began.  It is called the Luxery Prerunner and made by Stewart’s Raceworks, Inc.  Another cool vehicle getting a lot of attention was an Orange County Choppers creation made for SolidWorks World 2005.

Orange County Choppers' SolidWorks Chopper

I took this picture at just the right angle to catch the star sheen gleaming off the chopper’s chrome, and just in time to avoid yet another person trying to take of shoot of themself sitting on the seat pretending to ride it.

I didn’t go out that evening too late, as I wanted to be well rested for the next day’s activities.

SWW8 Pre-Day (Jan 20, 2008)

Flying in on the afternoon of Saturday, I was greeted by beautiful San Diego weather.  It was the sort of picture perfect day that one tends to take for granted in San Diego.  Sunday was just a beautiful, but I didn’t know that from personal experience.  See, I was at the first day of SolidWorks World 2008, buried deep in the heart of the San Diego Convention Center.  In the morning, I attended two Focus Group sessions, the Design Checker Focus Group and the Surface Model Functionality Focus Group.

Now, I know what you are thinking, “Who cares about Design Checker, and in fact, who even uses it?”  Well, this is likely part of the reason SolidWorks held a focus group on the topic.  Participation was a little light.  When invited to the focus groups, participants were told that the group size would be limited to 12 people.  The group for Design Checker hit 9 people, and that was including the two SolidWorks employees there were putting it on.  Points discovered in the meeting basically revolved around the fact that Design Checker is not nearly as flexible as people need.  For example, there’s no way to create custom checks for type of items not included within the software.

The Surface Model Functionality Focus Group was brimming at the edges with over 15 attendees.  Most of the comments during his session revolved around increased functionality and ease of use for the various surfacing features.  SolidWorks staff was on hand to both take the suggestions and immediately respond when someone mentioned a bug-like issue.

After that, I attempted to take the CWSP test.  I got hung up on an apparent error in the test that turned out to be an acceptable part of the test.  I will need to leave some feedback about the issue since it has the distinct appearance of being unintentional.  If it is intentional, it’s an issue that should be evaluated at least, since it is distracting to say the least.  It is frustrating to see a flaw in the model only to find out I got the problem correct (after wasting half my time trying to resolve the issue).

After that, I attended the Attendees Reception in the main Exhibitors hall.  I found a few familiar faces among the vendors’ booths and fellow attendees.  I didn’t walk out of the Reception with nearly as much swag as I would’ve expected.  That is prolly for the best since I forgot my backpack.  Oh yeah, let me tell you about this backpack.  This is the best swag I’ve ever received.  It’s like a million pockets.  However, there is one area where SWW8 was woefully lacking.  They didn’t provide pens!  I can honestly say I have never been to a technical event where pens where not provided, either as swag or just as courtesy.  But despite this frustrating point, the overall experience was great.

SWW2008 – Pre-marathon

So I have been in San Diego since Friday Jan 18 @ 10 PM.   Flight out of Hubert H Humphery terminal in Minnesota (Tundra land) was delayed 3 times.   Apparently the planes were afraid of the 30 below wind chill.   The bump to 1st class payed for it though.   Free beer – Good.

Anyhow, back to my story – been here since Friday and I am already wearing a knee brace.   I chose the Hampton Inn about 1 mile North of the convention center and have probably put on 15 miles since I arrived.

Met with many people so far, Richard Doyle (unfortunately I missed his blogger event last night) the great folks from COSMOS (Had dinner with them last night (Thanks guys!   Even my wife had fun) and some of my regular chums in passing.

Did some alpha testing in which I had to sign the NDA with my wife as collateral so I cannot mention that any further.

Today I set out for round table discussions.   These are always fun to me.   I love listening to what others are looking for because often it is something that I want.   At the same time I find out new and creative ways people are using SolidWorks.   My favorite still is the Mayo Clinic   Precision Blown Glass Colons used to test CT and MRI machines.   This year I am hoping to also note these for my students to ensure they are more prepared for industry.   Any of you who think you have great ideas for Engineering Drafting Design and CAD technolgy curriculum please find me.   I am anxious to get your ideas and implement what I can.   Today I am wearing a white Hawian shirt, blue jeans and a knee brace on my right knee.

Take care all!   Off to work I go.

DIMXPERT – COOL TOOL BUT SCARY

So, I have been playing with the DimExpert tool to apply annotation dimension and GD&T on models.  I really like this tool to a point.

My concern is that to date there is no real good modeling standard that I have seen that encourages modeling that enables easliy changing models for design changes.  Most of the time when I had to do eco’s most of my time was spent trying to figure out someones mental state when they created the model.  Then I had to make my changes followed up by a model comparison to ensure that I did not inadvertantly screw something up with my changes.  What should have taken minutes and been simple became hours and mundane even frusturating.

With this cool new tool I fear that models will continually become harder to edit when it comes to change or data reuse.  The DimXpert for those who have not played with it yet enables the user to create models in any manner then when the user is ready for detailing they select the DimXpert tool which allows them to added driven dimensions to the model’s annotation view making the detailing process easier and more accurate.

In my mind this tool is a pandoras box that enables SW users to continue modeling without any regard to fututre changes or data reusage.  For this tool to be effective, when this tool is activated the dimesnions that it adds would need to somehow convert the sketched and feature dims to driven and the added dimnsions added by the tool then become the parametric driving dimensions.  Ooh ohh, that would be nice.  Difficult (Quoting Rick Chin and John Hirschtek) this is the Absurdly Ideal DimXpert.

Try this tool out.  Let me know if I am off my rocker or not.  By the way – When using this for GD&T it is soooooo much easier and correct than attempting at the sketch level.

Ahhhhhhhhhh!

[moved from comments to its own posting]

Ahhhhhhhhhh!

That is the sound of actually completing my preperation for 2 break out sessions for SolidWorks World 2008. I hope that all attendees will not only learn but will have a lot of fun.

Also, feel free to let me know if I am cracked.

Anyhow, my presentations are :
1. Teaching GD&T using the power of SolidWorks.
The goal is for instructors and corporate trainers to use SolidWorks and all of its glory to help clarify what GD&T is and how it is applied. Eventually I will be submitting course wear to SolidWorks EDU for all instructors to use and this will be included.
2. Making life simpiler with Design tables (Formerly Design Tables Paris Hilton could do).
This is a unique presentation where we will look into “Company X” (I used to work there) and see how design tables could simplify their lives in their product design. Another added bonus for this presentation is one of “Company X’s” lead designers helped me out with this and will be helping me out.

All in all – SWW2008 looks to be like a fantastic event. I hope that I get a chance to finally meet some of the BLOG community over a beer or 2 or.

Until then – Have a great week.

Macro to add Revisions to Drawing Revision block table

A while ago, I created a SolidWorks macro that allows the user to quickly add new revisions to a drawing’s revision block table. It’s called RevBlockControl. I’m fairly proud of this macro because of its flexibility and easy of use. Within SolidWorks, it can be used for any ASME Y14.35M-1997 compliant revision block table and even supports not so compliant layouts. One cool feature is that it supports revision block tables that start either from the top or bottom of a drawing. The macro even provides an option to update a revision custom property (though the name of the custom property is stored in the code). This one function, of course, is not as useful for those who update their custom properties within the part model. Another requested feature that was included is the addition of buttons to insert some common special characters like line feed and the +/- symbol.

RevBlockControl 1.01

Image of an early version of the RevBlockControl

This macro will not work with manually drawn or excel based revision blocks. It only works with a SolidWorks revision block table.  One area of the macro needing improvement is that of settings. Currently, the settings are stored within the code itself, or user selected each time the macro is run. Also, it does not validate if the current revision block table matches the user selected settings. However, it does have clear instructions within a detailed help area that will allow even a novice user to quickly modify the code to establish their settings preferences. There is currently only one known bug involving the form X button. Use the actual Cancel button if quitting the macro without making changes to the revision block table.

One big plus of the macro is that it has a simple preview area that allows the user to visualize how their revision entry will appear. The preview updates to match whatever settings are selected, and any data entered into the input fields.

The macro may be downloaded here: RevBlockControl.  It may be freely distributed. For additional details, see its .txt file and its help area.  Feedback is always welcome.