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Archive for the ‘SolidWorks Community’ Category

Thank you! One thousand words could not say it better than that. Thank you!

I’m so grateful for the friends I found through the network of SolidWorks users. I don’t have to name names, you know who you are. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for all the help you have given to me right now when I need it the most. While I still don’t know what the future holds for me and how my situation will turn out in the end, I do know I’m blessed to have wonderful friends like you.

Thank you!

Gabi

Hi everyone,

 Yesterday was one of those fun times for me because I had the great pleasure of attending GoEngineer’s SolidWorks Roll Out at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.

This was actually my first time attending a Roll Out, and I had a great time. In case you’re wondering, a Roll Out is a special event organized by the VARs to introduce their customers to all the  functionality available in the newest release of SolidWorks. This is a little similar to what you may see during the last day of presentations at SolidWorks World, but with the added advantage that  here you have a whole dedicated team of application engineers available and ready to answer any question you may have about it.

The event was a great success and I can see that it’s extremely popular with GoEngineer’s clients. The place was full of excited engineers and professionals, happy to be there, networking and learning something new together. I spied a few familiar faces and spent some time reacquainting with some folks I had met at previous SolidWorks events.  There was plenty of delicious food, coffee for the morning people and even prizes. One lucky fellow went home with a brand new iPad!

Dang! I wish I had taken my camera with me. I tried to improvise using my phone, but this is the best shot I could get. 

If you have the chance, I strongly recommend that you attend one of these events. Ask your local reseller about them and get yourself in the attendance list. It’s really a great experience. I want to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Lon Hudson for inviting me to the Roll Out. I had a great time.

Oh, before I forget. While at the roll out yesterday, I learned about this blog, www.goinnovatenow.com, written by Sam Scholes and Brock Vasic, both of them employees at GoEngineer. They blog about topics relevant to engineers and designers, cool products and companies, and, of course, SolidWorks. Go check them out. 

And I believe I had already told you about their channel on YouTube, didn’t I? In case you forgot, check them out at http://www.youtube.com/user/goengineer . Make sure to subscribe and visit often because they’re constantly adding new materials.

A few days ago I saw a new discussion that had been started by a SolidWorks user in one of the many groups I follow on LinkedIn. The question that this young man was asking from other members in the group was a very valid one, I think, and one that I believe has been in many people’s head at some point or another.  The question was as follows:

I graduated over a year ago and have been struggling to keep my skills sharp (or at least keep them from not dulling too much). To do this, I need the software. While I found full time work, a full license is a little beyond my reach. Are there other, cheaper (and legitimate) options I’m overlooking, apart from the somewhat dubious “have a friend still in college register a student edition” route?

Only two people answered to this. One of those who answered agreed with him that it was, indeed, hard to do, specially while unemployed. The other person simply suggested perhaps he should enroll in a class at a community college. 

Well, I don’t know but I don’t quite agree with this “solution”. I don’t think it solves anything at all, actually.  Why? To begin with, because this guy probably already conquered the basics, which is usually what is taught at those classes. What he wants now is the ability to practice and increase his knowledge; he needs to grow and go beyond the basics, beyond the introductory tutorials, beyond the textbook. But how can he do it if he doesn’t have the tool? 

While I do think we’re always learning and, in some way, students all our professional life, I don’t think it’s realistic to expect that users should really be perpetually in school in order to be allowed access to the tool they need to grow.  What if you can’t find a way to afford enrolling in school, even if you aren’t unemployed? What if you simply can’t find the time to physically be there? What if your boss doesn’t see the need for you to take a class with your VAR?  So, shame on you for not wanting to grow? I don’t think so. 

Do you read blogs? Watch videos on YouTube? Well, it can only help so much, but it you don’t have a chance to practice what you’ve read or seen, then it’s really not going to take you very far. It would be like trying to learn how to fly a plane by simply watching videos of a guy flying it but never actually setting foot inside a plane or even a simulator. Would you let such a “pilot” fly you to your destiny? I mean he’s got like 400 hours of “flight watching” on YouTube.  I think I’d pass.

The worst of all is that this has the potential of becoming a vicious cycle for professional unfulfillment. If you have a crummy job doing repetitive and boring tasks and you would like to be the one tackling more interesting assignments, you need to grow and perfect your skills, you need to explore those areas of the software that you usually don’t even touch… but you don’t have the tool to do it in your own time and you can’t do it during working hours because that’s not what your boss is expecting from you. Some bosses might want you to grow… not all expect you do it on their time or with their money.

If you are unemployed or a career changer, then you need better skills to get yourself a new job. You need to have really sharp skills to compete with others that are also aiming for that job, specially in this economy, but how can you get those skills if the only way to access the software is through becoming a student again or coughing up a large sum of money for a commercial license? Can you cough it up? Try harder… harder… it may come out… no? Oh well…

I know, some of you may think this is really not such a big issue. “Hey, Gabi, there was that stimulus program not so long ago, remember?” Yes, I do remember. It was helpful. It was an awesome thing SolidWorks did for unemployed engineers all over the country, but it wasn’t enough. I’m telling you, 90 days is not enough. In the time I’ve been writing this blog, it’s the story I’ve been hearing over and over, from real people everywhere.

So, what to do about this? Personally, I think SolidWorks should follow the example of PTC  with Pro/Engineer Wildfire and allow non-students to purchase the student edition of SolidWorks, perhaps at a higher price than the one offered to students. See? PTC sells the personal student edition for like  $100 more than the student edition. They’re both the same thing and they are not for commercial use, but you pay $100 more or so if you’re not a student.  

I mean, I respect DS SolidWorks and I know they have their own reasons to do things the way they do, but I don’t see how it could mean them any harm to allow more people to learn and practice. I think it would actually benefit them. If more people have access to the tools they need to learn, the community of users becomes stronger and more users gain knowledge of those higher end tools that are also available and often overlooked.

What do you think? Am I dreaming too much?

It just went through a fantastic makeover! OK, for those of you that haven’t heard about it, SWUGN stands for SolidWorks User Group Network and is the place to go if you’re looking for other SolidWorks users in your area or pretty much anywhere else in the United States, Canada and even some other places around the world.

A SolidWorks User Group is a group of individuals that use SolidWorks or are learning how to use it (there are groups for students too) and that gather together for a couple of hours on a regular basis (once every one or two months) to discuss all sort of topics related to SolidWorks and SolidWorks related products.  Joining a user group is free and it’s also a great way to learn about SolidWorks and the local industry, and to network and interact with other professionals in the area.  There’s also lots of fun, delicious food and giveaways. If you haven’t joined a group yet, check out the SWUGN website, where now it’s easier than ever to find a group close to you. And if you can’t find a group that suits your needs, why not start your own? You’ll also  find information about how to do it at the new SWUGN website.

Also check out the SWUGN special events, known as Technical Summits.  A Technical Summit is a one-day training event that takes place every month in a different location all over the United States and Canada.  Think about it as a mini SolidWorks World. You get to attend several one hour training sessions on a variety of topics, from Drawings to Simulation, Rendering and Sheetmetal, all of them presented by local experts and SolidWorks employees.  I attended one just a few weeks ago, remember? I strongly recommend them!  Check out the new SWUGN website and see if there’s a Technical Summit coming up near you.

Now it’s easier than even to connect with other SolidWorks users in your area, to learn and to network, so what are you waiting for?

Hi everyone! I’ve been keeping a close eye on the site statistics, to try and figure out if my latest “experiment” had any future at all. I’m happy to see that several people  have already downloaded the pdf file and examples on easy surfacing techniques that I put up  a few days ago. I haven’t heard any feedback from those that downloaded, but I  hope they did find the information useful! 

In the past, several readers had already asked me if I could provide more detail than that allowed by a blog post’s size and format. Many people have been asking for step-by-step procedures and formal tutorials with example files included. I had shied away from attempting that approach, however, because I didn’t want to seem pompous, you know, like I was pretending to be what I’m not: and expert telling others what to do or how to do it right.  I am no expert! Then again, if you think about it, nobody can really claim to be an expert in anything. We are all learning here and whoever thinks he/she knows everything there is to know is foolishly wasting away a great opportunity for growth.

Anyway, philosophical views aside, last Tuesday, while I was at the SWUGN Summit, getting ready to do my presentation and talking with other SolidWorks users, I realized that most people are actually very open to the idea of other users sharing useful information with them. They don’t see you as pompous if you do. If you have anything useful to contribute, they’ll be happy to take it. And a lot of users, especially those that are in great need of learning fast,  really dig tutorials and step by step examples. So, with that in mind, I added a page called Downloads and uploaded thee  my first tutorial in pdf format. I hope to add more tutorials and files with time, always free, of course, and the best thing is that they can be about just pretty much anything that comes to mind, even if it’s not something I’m learning right at this moment, and they can be as short or long as needed. This, of course, doesn’t mean that I won’t continue to blog about what I’m doing or learning right now. I always blog as I go, you know that.

So, what do you think of that? I would like to see some comments. Do you think it’s a good idea? What kind of things would you like to see there?  Where are you, people? How come lately I get more comments from my regular spammers than I do from my regular readers? LOL

There’s also a couple more things I wanted to mention for those of you looking for more information and learning resources right now.   First of all… For the very beginners, my fellow blogger and friend, Alex Ruiz, has just come up with a really nice book  “SolidWorks 2010: No Experience Required“.  I actually had the pleasure to work with him and help him complete three of the chapters for the book. It was a great experience, but no, I don’t get comissions or royalties, so don’t think I have a secret agenda.  This is a very nice book for the beginner user and student and Alex put his heart and soul into this volume; he even prepared materials for teachers and a companion website to provide the readers with help and more content. Check it out!

This is also the time of the year when all sorts of learning resources become available. If you are going to buy, take advantage of the offers. For instance, with the coupon code SWFUND10launch you can receive a $20 off  your purchase of the SolidWorks 2010 training from Inspirtech. I checked out what’s new and improved in their materials and I must say I was very impressed. Among other things you’ll find that now you can access the training from the Task Pane, plus  plenty of review exercises and questions to test your knowledge. Again, I’m not getting any commission or payment for passing this info to you.

For those looking into learning more complex stuff, such as surfacing, for instance, IGetIt  has just released some new courses. I’m just telling you this because I got a newsletter from them not so long ago.  I don’t have a coupon code for this one, though, but I’m sure they may be having some sort of offer going on, so why not ask?  Also check out the video lessons offered by Solid Professor and Matt Lombard’s series of books on SolidWorks.

There’s actually so much out there about SolidWorks, I could never list it all here. Please, feel free to add to the list if you know any other good books, websites, videos, etc. And, please, keep those comments coming!