Just as promised, here is the video of the second part of what was going to be my presentation at the local SWUG.  This one deals with Free Motion, changing component properties and changing the orientation and camera views during the animation.  By the way, I added a new option to the controls of the video. If you notice, there’s a button in the video control bar that will allow you to select...

Just as I promised, I got one of the videos about Animation ready. This one is about the easiest part: using the Animation Wizard to create animations of exploded/collapsed assemblies and rotations. I apologize if the video is not the best, more in particular the audio of the video (I kind of don’t like my voice), but I still hope someone out there finds it useful.  Enjoy!     ...

I had mentioned in a previous post that I was working on a motion study using a model of a pair of friction grabs. Here I have a short video of that motion study, demonstrating the use of friction when defining 3D contacts for motion analysis.   When defining 3D contacts for motion analysis in SolidWorks Motion, we have the option of acknowledging there’s friction between the components or no...

This is a short video I put together on using SolidWorks Motion to simulate the movement of an arbor press. This is really my first try on animation, I mean, besides the examples and exercises on books and tutorials. I’m currently learning at my own pace using the SolidWorks Motion training manual. There’s also a book called The Step by Step Self-Study Guide to SolidWorks MotionManager. I was...

I guess the bad thing about being a self-learner is that many times you have to make do with whatever materials you may find available, and sometimes they may be a little outdated. For instance, I grabbed this COSMOSWorks Designer 2007 manual on eBay and was going through the lessons using SolidWorks Simulation (that’s the new name for COSMOSWorks in 2009). Except for a few differences here and ...

Could it be? Is it possible that the day has finally come when Gabi Jack has nothing else to blog about? Is that why this blog has been so, well, empty ever since she came back from SolidWorks World? Has Gabi finally come to her senses and decided to renounce absolutely everything related to 3D modeling, design and engineering, and instead put her highly rated athletic skills and daring personalit...

Children and puppies have a way of keeping people busy and my home is no exception to the rule.  My five year old is extremely inquisitive (and possessive)  and has it figured out already that this is not a job I’m doing when I write the blog, so, for him, this that I do must be some sort of selfish hobby. Now, the problem with that reasoning is that, in his book, moms should not have hobbies....

I’m trying something new, just to see how it works out.  I want to feature at least three small videos a month, independent from the rest of the blog posts, with simple  tips and tricks, the kind of “How do I do this…”  stuff.  Hopefully, the videos can be useful for those visiting this blog. I would like to do this at least once a week, but we’ll see how it goes. The first featured ...

I stayed up late last night watching a long collection of sheet metal related videos. Some were tutorials on how to bend metal by hand or with simple tools, with a hammer, a leaf brake or a box and pan brake; some others dealt with the design of tools and dies. I know this doesn’t replace visiting a real shop and (hopefully) getting a try at bending a piece of metal myself, but the videos we...

Ever since Kenneth mentioned the “missing part” about the vacuum chamber, I’ve received a few emails from people requesting the video, so, by popular demand, here it is. In this video, Kenneth is showing us a few very interesting things he did with weldments, including, of course, the vacuum chamber and the use of 3D sketches in weldments too.  Hope you find it useful! ...

Just as I promised before, here is the video of Kenneth Barrentine’s presentation on weldments, from the last Tri-Valley SWUG meeting. I hope you find it useful. I haven’t ventured into weldments myself. So far, I’ve only used the weldment symbols in drawings, but I can’t deny they sound really interesting. ...

Thursday was a long day of presentations. I took lots of pictures and all kinds of notes. Ten pages of notes, to be precise… I feel I have so much that I want to say about this day, but, alas, I’m tired and it’s late here in Barcelona. My whole internal clock is completely messed up. This afternoon, after the presentations were all finished, I came up to my room to take a long nap. I slept a...

OK, second part is here. This is the part that includes the discussion on lenght of release cycle, number of service packs and backwards compatibility, among other issues. I don’t know if I’ll be able to edit the rest of the material or if I’ll have to wait for a few days, until I come back from Barcelona to take care of that, but, at least, I’ll leave you with this. Enjoy!...

I finally got a first part video together. I’m still working on the rest. For some reason (probably something I did wrong) the audio doesn’t seem to be completely in sync with the video, and the image seems to stutter a bit from time to time. Oh, well, at least the sound is still clear, which is really the important part. I hope to have at least the rest of the developers round table e...

What is a block? Well, a block is something I wish my Dynamics of Machinery teacher had used many years ago, while he was trying to explain to us the way different mechanisms were supposed to work.  It would’ve been so much easier to understand with SolidWorks and blocks, but, alas, he had no SolidWorks or blocks, so we had to make do with his dinky drawings on a blackboard and the awkward ways...