I hope you are not growing tired of my SolidWorks World chronicles just yet, because I still have a lot more to write about. This was a particularly good SolidWorks World for me and I want to share what I learned with you.  This time, let me tell you about yet another hands-on session I attended. This one was presented by Michael LaFleche, Regional Technical Manager for CAPINC, and it was an int...

If you are one of the few that visits at least every week and you are wondering where I’ve been, well, let me just remind you that it’s summertime here in California, and right now I’m home with a sick dog and eight kids. No, I’m not Octomom.  I only gave birth to two of them, but the other six are friends and neighbors that come to play or get “casually” dropped off by their mothers ...

Hey everyone, I’m sorry I’ve been out of action for a whole week! I somehow managed to first hurt my rib cage merely by coughing,  and then, just in case that wasn’t enough,  poison myself with the very medications they gave me at the urgent care clinic to help me “feel better”.  Hmmm…  Anyway, I’ve been doing some light reading on how to model using surfaces in SolidWorks, just ...

It’s amazing how sidetracked one can get! Quite a few months ago, I was very excited about the new SolidWorks Surfacing book that had just come out and adamant to go through it as soon as possible. However, as time went by, I got distracted with other things:  spent some time preparing for the CSWP test, got bitten by the rendering bug, and discovered a fascination for Sheet Metal I never knew ...

I’m working on a new video, but before that I wanted to add a small post as a way of an answer to a question I’ve been asked quite a few times already: where do all those buttons and toolbars that you’re using come from?  I know this is something that the more experienced user already knows, but it is a very real and very justified question when you’re just getting started. So here it goe...

The Insert Part command is used to add one or more solid bodies (parts) into an active part. This is not the same as creating an assembly, although there are certain similitudes about the way the inserted part is oriented using the Locate Part dialog.  The big difference, however, is that what we end up with is a multi body part, that allows no movement of the bodies relative to one another, and ...

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 ...

As the week begins, I feel proud to say that I’ve finally completed one more of the SW training manuals, the Advanced Parts Modeling one. Each day, I’m getting closer and closer to finally feeling prepared enough to try my luck with the CSWP test, but most importantly, I’m learning  tons of new stuff about SolidWorks, getting some practice, and having lots of fun along the way. Among the e...

I don’t know what tops your list of favorite activities, but for me nothing beats  “Date Night”  with my hubby.  Whenever we have a chance, we leave the kids with a babysitter and head over to the most romantic place in town. Why, the bowling alley, of course! OK, so it’s not precisely what the dictionary describes as romantic, but we always have a great time there, and part of the fun ...

Well, last week was so hectic that at times I wished I could be the one splitting myself into multi-bodies. Hmm, perhaps, what I really need, is a few good buddies (like Molly Maid and Supper Nanny) that can come over and give me a hand every now and then.  Anyway, not so long ago, I was telling you about my little exercise in creating new parts using the Split command. But that isn’t the onl...

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve spent some time learning about the use of multibodies in SolidWorks.  It’s a fascinating subject, indeed! I had used multibodies before, when modeling the hairclip, but mostly I had limited myself to combining two or more bodies into one. Now, I’m learning to do the opposite: create two or more separate bodies out of one, and save them as individual f...

Coach Mark, who trained my son during last year’s baseball season, was proud to lead a great team of “midgets”.  He led them from mere midgets, all the way to becoming last year’s champions of their own division. Most of the kids in the team, including my own gentle giant of a son, were not as big or tough as many kids in the rival teams. Some were scared of being hit (yet again) by the b...

Ah!  Spring is in the air! So many wonderful things all around us are finally making their way back: flowers, birds, butterflies, higher temperatures, tree top squirrels, gophers digging out my flower bulbs, those darn raccoons that keep messing up my yard…, and, of course, Little League baseball season! While sitting on the bleachers for a good two or three hours, I read from one of my books a...

Now that the euphoria of being officially promoted to the level of “SolidWorks Advanced Beginner” has finally worn off, and most importantly, that I’ve had some time to sleep, I can  go back to learning more about SolidWorks. I can once again explore a bit on the intermediate and advanced topics and techniques, confident that I have successfully managed to cover the basics. Yeah! So, this w...

All throughout the last week, I’ve been trying really hard to focus on getting ready for the CSWA test. Not that I feel ready  right now by any chance, but  I’ve been working on the exercises and tutorials in Planchard’s  Guide.  I must confess that, after reading more than half of Matt Lombard’s book and solving other tutorials here and there, going through the first two chapters of t...