All the ways SolidWorks Legion communicates in Social Media

The use of Social Media has blossomed in the Information Age.  There is a lot of variety available.  SolidWorks Legion is now automatically published to several outlets in one form or another.

  • RSS feed, with a partial or full preview.  It has been employed for republishing snippets at a variety of sites, including SolidMentor, and is the backbone for several other feed systems, including personalized sites like Netvibes.
  • Twitter, with title and link.
  • Tumblr, with title and link.
  • Posterous, with title and link.
  • Facebook, with partial preview (a Facebook app is also available, though I’ve not seen use for this yet)
  • Google+, with partial preview (not automatically published at this time)
  • Linkedin, via my Profile page with partial preview.

The amazing thing is the SolidWorks Legion has followers on all of these sites.  Many of the followers are the same across the sites, but many are not.  Though Facebook is has become the de facto standard, its top status is by no means guaranteed in the long run.  Due to the nature of Twitter, Facebook and Google+, the content of each of these outlets varies a bit beyond the articles that are publised on SolidWorks Legion.

                    

On Twitter, I publish SolidWorks Legion content to my personal Twitter account, fcsuper.  I talk about a lot of different things through my Twitter account, many of which have nothing to do with SolidWorks, CAD or Engineering.

SolidWorks Legion uses Tumblr and Posterous in a similar manner as Twitter, to post just the article title and links.  Though followers are light on these sites, they do generate some hits.

                     

On Facebook, I’ll often post extra interesting links to other blogs and news articles.  However, SolidWorks Legion has not had a Google+ page long enough to develop it’s own personality there.  I like the formats of both Facebook and Google+ because they allow me to publish links in an attractive and informative matter, mixed in with additional content.  They also allow me to crudely track the reach that each article achieves.

                     

In addition to these avenues, another form of Social Media is taking off.  SolidWorks Legion doesn’t have an outlet in these (yet), but image sites have really expanded in the past few years.  Sites such as Flickr, Photobucket and deviantArt have increased the social element  with engaging tools such user generated contests, groups, favorites, comments, notes, embedded links, and other functions now common in Social Media.

                    

Then, of course, there’s the 800 pound gorilla in the room, YouTube (this link is to my personal channel).  Again, SolidWorks Legion isn’t publishing there yet.  YouTube is now a tremendous resource for all sorts of content, including thousands of SolidWorks videos.

The average person involved in Social Media doesn’t need to think about the variety of options available.  You can choose for yourself which medium is best to suit your style.  A publisher needs to think about all of these outlets, to reach as many people as possible on their own terms.  As such, sites like SolidWorks Legion post across multiple outlets.  Fortunately, there are many tools that make this fairly easy.

 

SolidWorks World 2012 just a month away

Breakout Sessions

SolidWorks World 2012 is only a month away!  It’s already shaping up to be a great convention!  The breakout sessions schedule is filled with great topics.  These are a small sample of what is on the schedule as of January 1, 2012 (schedule is subject to change):

  • IAW ASME Y14.5 – Use It Only if You Know It by Rustin Webster, to provide “fundamental rules for creating drawings with IAW ASME 14.5M standards.”
  • Advanced Sheet Metal Techniques by Jeff Parker, to teach “advanced techniques to create complicated, functional sheetmetal parts and, explore what types of parts can be flattened.”
  • EPDM – Enabling Data Exchange Between SolidWorks and SAP/ERP by Kyle Kraudy, to demonstrate a solution for “data exchange between SolidWorks Enterprise PDM and SAP.”
  • Advanced Weldment Techniques – In Large Scale Live Theater by Ange Horst, to “discover how a live theater production takes shape through SolidWorks.”
  • Utilizing Mold Tools and Other Techniques for Better Mold Design by Andy Hall, to “learn how to use the automated mold tools for your molded parts”
  • Better, Faster Sketching by Tyler Beck, to “learn a common sense approach to proper sketching and troubleshooting.”

Session catagories

The general topics covered by Breakout and Hands-on sessions include a wide variety of areas.

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What’s new in SolidWorks 2012: Magnetic Lines

Just over a year ago, 3DVIA was showing off something called Magnetic Lines.  In 3DVIA, Magnetic Lines are a documentation aid that allows you to quickly line up any type of objects with each other by attaching them to a common line.  Most notibly, Magnetic Lines can be used to quickly align item balloons on assembly drawings.  Many users asked the question, if it is in 3DVIA, why not have it in SolidWorks.  Well, the SolidWorks team took the request seriously.  Within one year, they introduced Magnetic Lines in SolidWorks. 

Unlike 3DVIA, SolidWorks’ Magnetic Lines only control item balloons.  (SolidWorks has other tools to align annotation notes and drawing views.)  You can add a Magnetic Line to your drawing with the Magnetic Line command from Annotations toolbar or the Annotations tab in the CommandManager.

This will enable you to draw a line on your drawing with two points, thus forming a Magnetic Line.  You can drag one end of the Magnetic Line through the center of an existing balloon to attach it to the line.  You can also drag a balloon onto a Magnetic Line.  Magnetic Lines are only visible when the command is active, or when a  balloon is selected. 

Once balloons are attached, they can quickly aligned in any direction by dragging one end of the Magnetic Line.  They can also be moved in unison by dragging the Magnetic Line from the middle.

To detact a balloon from a Magnet Line, click on the balloon to drag it off of the line.  In my opinion, just about everything with this new tool is intuitive and easy!  It is a powerful new drawing aid that makes organizing balloons on assembly drawings much easier.

Ontario SolidWorks User Group meeting, mid Dec 2011

Some would say that travelling to Ontario in December is foolish.  It is wet, snowy and very cold.  Well, call me a fool.  I visited Toronto to present at the December meeting of the Ontario SolidWorks User Group.  It was cold, but not much different from Massachusetts.  It was a little rainy, again no difference from where I live.  No snow!  This time of year should’ve been nothing but snow everywhere.  Then again, Massachusetts also had not snow at that time.  Maybe I’m not so foolish afterall.

I presented on Advanced SolidWorks Customization Techniques.  This is a preview version of what I will be presenting at SolidWorks World 2012.  This is a presentation similar to one given a few years before at a SWUGN Technical Summit, now updated for SolidWorks 2012.

Several discoveries were learned on this trip.  I discovered the locals believe that Toronto has the “worst traffic in North America”.  That’s an arguable yet still valid assessment.  Rain, no matter how slight, makes the traffic unbearable.  And, even with reduced crowds due to rain, a SolidWorks Employee can draw people from miles (er, kilometers) around to a SolidWorks User Group meeting.  Oh, and one more thing.

This is Canadian Slice Pizza: bacon, pepporini,  mushroom, and of course, cheeze.  It’s apparently normal to serve it on a corrugated paperboard as a stand-in for a plate.

Yes, it’s called “Canadian” in Canada.  Quite tasty, and it is a combination of toppings that I’m not quite so unfamilar with.  Thank you to Chris White for organizing this event and to everyone who attended!

 

SolidWorks World 2012 is on Valentine’s Day (luvification letter included)

Heart

The following humorous article has been re-posted closer to SolidWorks World 2012 as requested by several individuals.  Use in good health and good luck!

Yes, it is true. SolidWorks World 2012 will be from February 13-15, 2012. It’s on Valentine’s Day! Maybe SolidWorks Corp is trying to schedule the event around other major conferences in southern California? Maybe someone didn’t think about the fact that many of us not only have to get approval from our boss at work, but now we have to get special approval from our boss at home?

Well, SolidWorks Corp has decided to help out. They created a new justification, or luvification, letter to help potential SolidWorks World 2012 attendees get approval from their spouses to be away on Valentine’s Day.

From their new weblink:

DS SolidWorks Corporation understands that SolidWorks World 2012 will fall on Valentines Day in 2012.  Unfortunately, scheduling around other major events in southern California, such as the MD&M show, requires us to push our conference into mid-February next year.  We are sympathetic to the many spouses that may be away from their loved-ones on Valentines Day.  This justification, or luvification, letter was written to aid in getting spousal approval for attending SolidWorks World 2012.

SolidWorks World Luvification Letter

Dear madam or sir,

I am writing to you [spouse’s name here], who I love, to request permission to attend the SolidWorks World 2012.  It is highly important that I attend this significant event because I believe the conference’s opportunities for technical training and networking with SolidWorks users worldwide can help me accelerate my career.  In turn, that will help me bring home more bacon (and other such required groceries).

Don’t worry about me enjoying myself.  I’ll be too busy with more than 150 technical training sessions and three long General Sessions.  Then there’s the Special Event where I will congregate with other individuals who are missing their spouses.  Yes, dear, I will miss you something fierce.  The pain and agony of being away from you on Valentines Day will not be bareable.  Therefore, the very next weekend, I’m taking you on a very special trip to [insert appropriate location and activities here] without the kids.

Thank you in advance for your consideration, and please let me know if you need additional information on specific conference opportunities and activities. I look forward to your positive response to my request.

With great love,

[insert your pitiful name here]

I originally posted this “luvification letter” in the SolidWorks Forum.  And in case someone missed it, this is a joke. 🙂

 

New inspection symbols added to SolidWorks 2012 symbol library

An unofficial standard has crept into the Drafting field for mechanical drawings.  In an effort to leverage drawings for functions other than defining the specifications for product, many companies are placing Quality Inspection (also known by other names such as Incoming Inspection) instructions on their drawings.  One common method to identify inspection dimensions is to place a “race track” symbol around them.  This is essentially a border with rounded ends.

When I last checked, neither ASME or ISO standards currently support the race track inspection symbol.  This means use of the symbol technically has no meaning unless the drawing has the definition somehow included within it.  This can either be in the form of a reference to a company’s drafting standard or a note within each drawing’s general notes.

If a company chooses to define the symbol in the general notes, they are left with an interesting problem.  How do they describe the symbol so that they can define it.  Although the race track may be easily placed on a dimension in most CAD applications, it is not so easily placed in annotation notes.  They could use a verbose method.

The problem with this?  It doesn’t necessarily get the message across.  What’s a race track border?  Maybe they could say “…DENOTED BY ROUNDED OUTLINE” or “…DENOTED BY OVAL.”  The general problem is the same with any of these options.  The description doesn’t fully communicate what is being defined.

SolidWorks does have a few methods to include a faked symbol in general notes (such as a border around empty spaces, or a sketch block placed under the note).  Now, here’s something you won’t see in the SolidWorks 2012 What’s New document.  With SolidWorks 2012, there is a new heading in Symbol Library called Inspection Symbols.  Depending on company preferences, there are two new symbols that may be included with an annotation note.

Also included in the Inspection Symbol library is a new symbol that may be used for non-dimensional inspection points.