This is probably old news for those of you that keep up with the forums and the rest of the blogs, but there are others that may be reading this information for the first time (I just found out myself).  An important and potentially destructive issue has been identified that affects SolidWorks users running PhotoWorks in 64 bit systems with SolidWorks 2009 SP 5, SolidWorks 2010 SP 1 or SolidWorks...

Time sure flies! I’ve been so sad about the recent death of my dog, Jumper that I almost forgot:  once again, it’s almost time for SolidWorks World. I’ll be there this year, courtesy of DS SolidWorks, who gracefully covers the cost of my admission to the event, accommodations at a nearby hotel, and a few meals.  I already bought my airplane tickets and will be landing in Anaheim on the 31s...

Part of the freedom I’m longing to experience this year is simply putting the fun back in what I do. Not everything needs to be solemn and extremely important, at least not all the time. So, with that in mind, I was working on this model of a hairbrush, just for the sake of practicing and having fun. I must admit, given the kind of item it is, I also thought it could provide a few examples on us...

Hey everyone, thank you for coming over and reading this blog throughout this year 2009, even if you came only once, or even if you just found out about it today. Just the same, thank you! As this year comes to an end, I find myself reflecting on all that was accomplished and/or left undone, and feeling that I could’ve done so much better. I bet we have all felt that same way at some point or an...

We have a say in my country about “bargains”.  People often warn you that what you buy for cheap will often end up costing you a lot more, because it will break, it won’t last, or it simply won’t perform as it was supposed to, and you’ll end up spending more money on repairs or replacing the product altogether.  I believe here in US people say, “You get what you pay for.” And you k...

Just a few minutes ago, I followed a link to an interesting survey about SolidWorks packaging and pricing. I’m not sure how long this survey has been going on, to be honest, so I apologize if you have already seen it or heard about it before, but it was news for me. I had included a link to it, but they told me that was my personal link and I’ve already taken the survey. You can access thi...

Over the last few days, I’ve been following a thread on one of the LinkedIn SolidWorks groups I belong to with great interest. Some of you may be familiar with it. It’s about a new website, Cadooku.com, where SolidWorks users can upload and sell their models.  This is something new for me, you know? I had heard of similar places, but none that catered exclusively to SolidWorks users.  The si...

This blog post was inspired by a question I received via email. The question was about how to create a section view in an assembly.  There was a picture attached to the email that showed an assembly  that seemed to have been cut along two planes, but only partially, and  it appeared that one chunk  of the assembly had been removed to reveal the inside, while the rest of the assembly remained v...

It seems to me like I’ve been out of touch with everything lately. I have certainly neglected this blog and haven’t even kept up with the entire buzz about SolidWorks related news, forums and blogs.  I apologize to those that have sent questions through email asking for help, and never received an answer. I wasn’t ignoring you, I was simply too busy working on a non-modeling, but SolidWorks...

A few days ago, my friend Chris Thompson, founder and owner of Appian Way Technologies, took a look at my model of the safety latch and suggested the following changes in order to improve the simulation study. First of all, he added small fillets to the areas of the latch where stress concentrations are expected, at the “root” of the latch. He also “cut” the model in half, in order to take...

Most of you have no idea and perhaps don’t even care about the fact that I adopted a little kitten about a month ago. What can I say? If you are a smart person, unlike moi, you’ll avoid visiting the pet store while the local cat rescue is showing off their adoptable cats. But I admit I would’ve probably ended up adopting the kitten anyway, eventually… I named him Troubles because it suits ...

Hey there! If you are wondering (and even if you are not) why this blog has been so empty as off lately, just let me tell you that everyone in my family, including me, has been sick on and off with some sort of flu or cold. I’m sick of it (no pun intended)!  So, that’s how with kids staying home sick and in between fevers and coughs, my days have been as boring and unproductive as they could ...

The weekend seemed very short and I apologize for not putting this up earlier, like I said I would, but I wanted to spend time with my husband, who had just come back from a long trip to Japan, and celebrate both our birthdays while he was here for a couple of days before he had to go back to Japan for a trade show.  Every year is the same: he’s travelling during the week of his birthday, by th...

Hey! It’s been quite some time since I updated this blog. I’ve been engrossed in a refresher of Chemistry and Materials Science, in hopes of better understanding about manufacturing processes of plastic products. Back in the day, I used to love Chemistry, and I think I wasn’t so bad at it, although some people may disagree with me, all because of a one-time tiny accident that left the lab st...

I must confess that the arms were quite a challenge for me.  My result is not perfect, I know, but I think it’s close enough.  Not so bad for a beginner, at least? Anyway, I had tried doing a surface sweep, but it didn’t look good, so I went with more lofts.  I started by creating some more geometry (What a surprise!).  I sketched a spline on the Top plane, following the silhouette of the ...