This podcast covers the CAD integration support for SolidWorks Enterprise PDM for SolidWorks, Inventor, AutoCAD, SolidEdge and Pro/Engineer.  Topics covered:

- Introduction and background of Enterprise PDM

- Difference between a "Plugin" and and "Add-In"

- Overview of the EPDM CAD support matrix

- Overview of the Pro/E Connector FAQ

So for the last topic of the year I thought I would talk about a topic that comes up a lot for people that are interested in getting Enterprise PDM for document management.  As you know, EPDM is the enterprise level PDM offering from SolidWorks and is growing in popularity as the importance of PDM in product development becomes more prevalent.  I have recorded episodes about EPDM on the show before and always do a higher level perspective since the product is so customizable.  I have thought about doing some specific breakouts on areas of the software and some of the capabilities that many are starting to implement but thought it might be too "inside baseball" for the general audience.

Today I thought what we could cover are the options for how Enterprise PDM integrates into, not only SolidWorks, but also other CAD tools out there and the level of support these tools have.  Many companies may have multiple CAD tools but want to have one PDM package to manage the data and since there is some new support in the SP1 release of 2010, I thought it would be an interesting topic. ~Lou
Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the SolidWorks tech news that broke since the last tech news show. It was a busy month of buzz around SolidWorks World 2010 and tech updates. Topics covered:

Tech Stories:

- November 24: People@ SolidWorks World 2010 - Jim Wilkenson

- December 2: SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2009 SP5 available for download

- December 3: SW World 2010 Presenter Spotlight - Gerald Davis

- December 4: People@ SolidWorks World 2010 - Jeremy Luchini & Hollywood Nostalgia Contest

- December 7: SolidWorks 2010 SP1 available for download

- December 8: People@ SolidWorks World 2010 - Marlon Banta & Updates to 3DContent Central

- December 9: SW World 2010 Presenter Spotlight - Phil Sluder

- December 11: People@ SolidWorks World 2010 - Tom Spine

- December 14: SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2010 SP1 available for download

- December 15: People@SolidWorks World 2010 - Rakesh Keswani & Save the Date for SW World 2010 Tweetup

- December 16: SW World 2010 Presenter Spotlight - Wayne Tiffany

- December 17: People@ SolidWorks World 2010 - Keri Prasky & Presentation Studio Fix for SW 2010.

- December 18: Guess the keynote speaker for SW World 2010 & the Hollywood Nostalgia Contest winner.

Top Solutions:

- December 10: SW 2010 SP1 Admin Image patch issue

- December 15: SW 2009 SP5 & SW 2010 SP1 file reference double click browse issue, workaround & hotfilx.

SolidWorks World 2010:

- Stump the Chumps info and question submission site

- SolidWorks World planning site

This was one of the biggest news shows of the year.  With SolidWorks World 2010 just around the corner there is a lots of content, prep videos and other news that is breaking.  This year SolidWorks is doing a lot to get people excited and thinking about SWW10 early as well as giving them resources to know the people behind the scenes at SolidWorks as well as some of the prominent presenters.

This is the last tech news show of the year and for those that celebrate, I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas. I should have one final show for 2009 and I will do my best to pull together s panel with a few of us to chat about something exciting to round out the year!  ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the full fledged lifecycle assessment offering from SolidWorks called SolidWorks Sustainability.  This is a modest upgrade of the free Xpress tool that is part of SolidWorks 2010.  Topics covered:

- Description of features (beyond Xpress)

- "Online Info" sustainability calculator tool

- SolidWorks Sustainability website

- Frequently asked questions (FAQ highlights)

Starting back at SolidWorks World last year, SolidWorks talked about their sustainability product that was going to hit the SolidWorks LABS site in summer and would eventually be in the SolidWorks 2010 product.  In June, SolidWorks launched this utility for download on SolidWorks labs and much of the feedback was that the tool was not full featured and the only really useful tool was the "Find Similar Material" tool.

The free version in SolidWorks named SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress, was for parts only and there was always a hint of a full Sustainability product to be available for customers who wanted more granular tools and the ability to work with entire assemblies.  This full tool went into a Beta when SW 2010 launched and is still in beta now in SP1.

Sustainability awareness has to begin with education and having tools available inside of SolidWorks to lend, yet another, evaluation tool to help make critical decisions in product design is a great start. We have to start somewhere and it reminds me of how recycling started 20 years ago.  Today we are more educated and adoption of this practice is almost everywhere we look. ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers a few web applications that I use a lot to keep my team synced as well as add a centralized place to collaborate.  Topics covered:

- Bubbl.us - Mind mapping and flow charting

- Campfire - Group-based chat rooms

- Backpack - Project organization

- Google Wave - Bringing 3D into Wave with 3dvia

Over the past month I have been busy migrating our company over to Google Apps from using Microsoft Exchange and other locally managed server products.  In this transition I have been thinking a lot about using the cloud more and realized how many applications I use on a regular basis that have helped in keeping my teams synced.  Out of all the services I have signed up for, there are usually a handful that end up becoming a part of my daily routine so I though I would share.

All of the web-based apps I talk about are used by me everyday (or had up untill my switch to Google Apps where I consolidated a bit) mainly because they offer a cloud-based place to collaborate with collegues and customers.  In an effort to keep the show from going an hour, I picked 4 that I really enjoy for their functionality and, better yet, their "free" pricetag.  Two of the apps do have pay versions (Backpack has only paid options now, but didn't when I started) but all are free or can be tried for free.

My Google Wave pick was mainly added for the growing curiosity of how it can be used by 3D CAD and I was able to use 3dvia's embed options to embed their content into an HTML gadget in Wave and viewed using the 3dvia Player browser plug-in.  This allows 3D models to be uploaded directly from SolidWorks to 3dvia.com and easily embedded into Google Wave for collaboration.  This process gets a viewer into the Google Wave interface but will be much more useful when the model can be marked up and measured by multiple collaborators.  I hope to see CAD companies create viewer gadgets that will work with Wave to kick-start a true 3D collaborative environment in Google Wave.  ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the support of Windows 7 on SolidWorks 2009 and a specific issue with installing the most current 2009 service pack 5 via the SolidWorks Installation Manager.  Topics covered:

- A quick "thank you" for your support through 250 episodes!

- The explicit killbit in the SolidWorks 2009 SP5's SWIM and Windows 7

- Anna Wood's SolidMuse manual workaround

- Jason Raak's Rock Solid Perspective compatability workaround

- Enterprise PDM 2009 issue with Windows 7 & workaround

- Forecast of roundtable discussions or December on the podcast.

I just wanted to thank you all for listening, giving feedback and continuing to support the show over the past 250 episodes. I am a month away from the 4 year anniversary and hitting show 250 is a big deal as far as podcasts go so thank you again for listening!

Well now that SolidWorks 2010 SP1 is probably going to be official here in the next week or so and full support for Windows 7 is part of that update, I wanted to take an opportunity to talk about a development that popped up over the long holiday weekend from a few bloggers and friends of mine Anna Wood at SolidMuse and Jason Raak at Rock Solid Perspective.

Even though SolidWorks explicitly shows Windows 7 on any other version of SolidWorks besides 2010 is not supported, this is the first time they have placed a killbit in the SolidWorks Installation Manager to prevent it from installing.  Companies and users might be migrating to Windows 7 before upgrading to SolidWorks 2010 and could possibly get bit by this intentional restriction.

To date there really hasn't been any major issues that have been reported from running SolidWorks 2009 on Windows 7 except for the one I discovered with Enterprise PDM. (Windows Explorer lockup with eDrawings preview). Luckily there are those of us out there who are not satisfied with the word NO and push the limits to make these things work! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the news for November on topics on SolidWorks, tech news, SW World, Windows 7 and the list goes on. Topics covered:

TECH NEWS:

- October 27: SolidWorks Enterprise PDM SP0 available

- November 2: SW World Internet Correspondent Contest launches

- November 3:  SolidWorks 2009 SP5 EV available & Why SW 2010 or SW Explorer 2010 might not launch.

- November 5: Jon Hirschtick on 3DVIA Mobile, Dell M6400 Giveaway, and SolidWorks donates to Formula Hybrid.

- November 9: SolidWorks LABS launches Presentation Studio Theme Editor

- November 11: SolidWorks 2010 SP1 EV available & 3DVIA Adobe Photoshop plugin launches

- November 16: SWWC Internet Correspondent Winner is picked - Chris McAndrew

- November 17: SolidWorks launches SW World First-Timer Contest

- November 18: Tip from Wilkie - How do I manipulate my model view; let me count the ways.

- November 20: SolidWorks launches a video series called "People @ SolidWorks World 2010

TECH TOP SOLUTIONS:

- November 2: Why SolidWorks 2010 online help still has a "Beta" label?

- November 11: Why drawings views are not up to date with the model?

OTHER NEWS:

- Windows 7 Taskbar tips

- Building a federated Google Wave server notes (one of my projects)

Hopefully many of you have either attended a SolidWorks rollout, read a blog post or two on SolidWorks 2010 or have installed SolidWorks 2010 for yourself.  The aftermath of the SolidWorks 2010 launch is over and now November is nearly to a close and time to talk about all the stories of the month.  The focus on SolidWorks 2010 is falling into the background and the new sights are set on SolidWorks World 2010.

It has been a busy month of news but I also decided to add a few tips on using the new Taskbar in Windows 7 that I am finding very valuable as well as my short story about building a Google Wave Federated server.  I always have a project goinog and this one has been very fun to get working.

Show 250 is coming up next week and I am going to try to get a roundtable together to talk about some interesting topic and am up for suggestions.  I have a few ideas in the mix but I am always interested in hearing your thoughts as well.  Enjoy your week and for those of you in the US, I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the most recent project released by the SolidWorks LABS group which is a theme editor to a previous product released about a year ago called Presentation studio. Topics covered:

- Presentation Studio refresher

- Presentation Studio issues with SolidWorks 2010

- Presentation Studio Theme Editor introduction

- PSTE editing toolset

- PSTE picture and text area specifics

- First impressions and uses

In the last news cast I talked about the launch of a product called Presentation Studio Theme Editor and wanted to cover it in more depth.  This is an extension product to an earlier tool released back about a year ago called Presentation Studio.  For those that don't remember what Presenation studio was, I will refresh your memory and discuss this new additon to the LABS and how it can expand the output of your designs in presentation form.

One of the main issues users had with Presentation Studio was customizable themes, which were left in the form of comments on the LABS blog.  This product is in direct response to those requests, adding a graphical editor to the XML theme data.  I believe this expansion of tools will make Presentation Studio more attractive to those who want simple, interactive presentation s right out of SolidWorks. ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers a few topics about the new Configuration Publisher that debuted in SolidWorks 2010.  This new capability allows the specification of parts or assemblies used in upper level assemblies to be done in a PropertyManager interface.  Topics covered:

- Difference between DriveWorksXpress and Configurations (blog post)

- Introduction to the Configuration Publisher (CP)

- Using CP with files with and without existing design tables

- Tips for building option tables in CP

- Caveats to CP adding configurations automatically

Over the past couple of years, I have been digging into DriveWorks related products, from DriveWorksXpress, to the full DriveWorks Live and recently DriveWorks Solo, which I covered on the show a month ago.  While presenting at webinars, seminars and hands-on test drives with DrivewWorksXpress, the question that comes up often is, what's the difference between DriveWorks and configurations in SolidWorks. Almost exactly 2 years ago I wrote a post of the blog, "DriveWorksXpress vs. Design Tables" addressing this common question.

SolidWorks 2010 introduced Configuration Publisher which extends the PropertyManager to the process of dropping in parts and assemblies into an upper level assembly to configure them on the fly.  The best part about this new addition is it works with files that have existing design tables as well as files without them.  The customization tool is modeled after the Property Tab Builder, introduced in 2009, which has a built in preview option and the ability to publish up to 3D Content Central. ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the new feature in CORE Solidworks called Design Studies. This feature is a morph of Design Scenarios and Optimization from SolidWorks Simulation's past and has been integrated into SolidWorks for design evaluation.  Topics covered:

- Poll results for SolidWorks 2010 adoption plans

- Introduction to Design Studies in SolidWorks 2010

- Creating Design studies

- Evaluation vs. Optimization (without Simulation)

- Tip to save iterations into SolidWorks Configurations

I am still trying to recover from an extremely busy October and it is still all a blur.  SolidWorks 2010 has now shipped and available for download, most of the VAR rollouts are over around the world and now it is time to dig into the new functionality with a fine tooth comb and actually see how well it all performs!  After a month of events, I have talked with a lot of customers from all walks of design and the feedback is pretty positive to the lack of "new features" and focus on core functionality.

Another area that attracted a lot of attention was the fact that SolidWorks 2010 worked so well on Windows 7.  All of us were running it and nobody crashed running Pre-release 1 and even SP0 during any of the events (It usually happens at least once!) Knowing that SolidWorks is not "officially" supporting it until service pack 1, it is good to see this level of stability now since many customers are anxiously awaiting the upgrade!

Design studies is a great addition to core SolidWorks as well as SolidWorks Simulation and marries the best of Design Scenarios, Sensors and Optimization into one slick interface.  I wanted to talk about this new feature since so many SolidWorks users will think it is part of Simulation only (since the rollout demo focused on that part).  Hopefully many of you will try out the What's New Tutorial on Design Studies and see how it can give you greater design insight.

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the tech news that happened in the month of October including the release of SolidWorks 2010 SP0, Windows 7 and Google Wave!  Topics covered:

- October 1: Vuuch V1 ships

- October 5: SolidWorks Asia/Pacific Innovation Day 2009

- October 6: MicroWind Technology gets National Attention

- October 7: SolidWorks World user agenda available

- October 19: SolidWorks 2010 SP0 ships

- October 22: SolidWorks LABS Treehouse 2 & Microsoft Windows 7 ship

- Quick bit on Google Wave

As you can see October was not packed with the most stories but it was definitely the month for releases!  The month started out busy and full of news then it dropped off for the week 12th and then earlier than expected, SolidWorks posted 2010 SP0.  A few days later Microsoft launched Windows 7 on the 22nd, as expected, followed by a huge group of CAD users beginning to collaborate on Google Wave, playing around with all of it's HTML5 goodness!

I encourage you, if you are interested in installing SolidWorks 2010, to check out the Release Notes for 2010 first to make sure you are aware of some last minute info about the release.  I talk about some of it briefly in the podcast but I think it is always a good place to scan before doing a major update.

It has been a very busy month, after doing 12 casts in the What's New Series and being in the middle of Launch Month for DDI, I am looking forward to getting all of my new technology installed and ready.  I am currently running Windows 7 RTM with SolidWorks 2010 SP0 and all is running great.  I know official support for Windows 7 on SolidWorks 2010 won't be until SP1 but when has that stopped me...especially since I am doing all this on my Macbook Pro, which by the way, is also not officially supported either! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast is an audio version of the What's New PDF included with every major release of SolidWorks.  Topics covered:

- DimXpert

- Cut list items

- Drawings views of weldments

- Materials in cut lists

- Property tab builder

- Support for virtual componenets in SolidWorks Explorer

- Support for the /3GB switch

This covers the last 3 chapters 25 - 27 of the What's New PDF (link provided by Ricky Jordan) and I recommend that you read this document to fully understand what is to come in SolidWorks 2010.  This document is written for those who have used the previous release in order to bring awareness to those new features and improvements added.

The goal of this series is to give you a portable, audio version of What's New to let you get up to speed on the go.  Maybe you will hear about something that will help you and when you get into the office, you will take a look.  We all get into our routines and typically don't venture out to find alternative, possibly more efficient ways of using this tool in our jobs.

I will be trying to release a show or two more a week (3 shows total) in order to try to get as much of the What's New delivered before the official download of SolidWorks 2010 FCS (First Customer Ship).  I will also try to still place the monthly Tech News cast on Sunday, once a month, to keep you up to all that is happening in the SolidWorks community.  This is the busiest time of year for SolidWorks with the launch and all the events around the new release so brace yourself for a month or so of constant SolidWorks content! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast is an audio version of the What's New PDF included with every major release of SolidWorks.  Topics covered:

- Sketch fillet tool

- Fit spline tool

- Configurable # of instances in sketch entity patterns

- Linking sketch text to file properties

- Convert entities sketch tool

- Equation-driven curves

- Dimensions in 3D sketches

- SolidWorks Sustainability overview

- Compare BOM utility

- Simplify utility

- Utilities usability improvements

- Toolbox & Enterprise PDM integration

- Australian standard

- Toolbox custom properties

This covers chapters 21 - 24 of the What's New PDF (link provided by Ricky Jordan) and I recommend that you read this document to fully understand what is to come in SolidWorks 2010.  This document is written for those who have used the previous release in order to bring awareness to those new features and improvements added.

The goal of this series is to give you a portable, audio version of What's New to let you get up to speed on the go.  Maybe you will hear about something that will help you and when you get into the office, you will take a look.  We all get into our routines and typically don't venture out to find alternative, possibly more efficient ways of using this tool in our jobs.

I will be trying to release a show or two more a week (3 shows total) in order to try to get as much of the What's New delivered before the official download of SolidWorks 2010 FCS (First Customer Ship).  I will also try to still place the monthly Tech News cast on Sunday, once a month, to keep you up to all that is happening in the SolidWorks community.  This is the busiest time of year for SolidWorks with the launch and all the events around the new release so brace yourself for a month or so of constant SolidWorks content! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast is an audio version of the What's New PDF included with every major release of SolidWorks.  Topics covered:

- SimulationXpress

- NAFEMS benchmarks

- Simulation interface

- Simulation Studies

- Connectors

- Mesh

- Contact

- Result viewing

This covers chapter 20 of the What's New PDF (link provided by Ricky Jordan) and I recommend that you read this document to fully understand what is to come in SolidWorks 2010.  This document is written for those who have used the previous release in order to bring awareness to those new features and improvements added.

The goal of this series is to give you a portable, audio version of What's New to let you get up to speed on the go.  Maybe you will hear about something that will help you and when you get into the office, you will take a look.  We all get into our routines and typically don't venture out to find alternative, possibly more efficient ways of using this tool in our jobs.

I will be trying to release a show or two more a week (3 shows total) in order to try to get as much of the What's New delivered before the official download of SolidWorks 2010 FCS (First Customer Ship).  I will also try to still place the monthly Tech News cast on Sunday, once a month, to keep you up to all that is happening in the SolidWorks community.  This is the busiest time of year for SolidWorks with the launch and all the events around the new release so brace yourself for a month or so of constant SolidWorks content! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast is an audio version of the What's New PDF included with every major release of SolidWorks.  Topics covered:

- Manufacture-style flattening

- Adding components and assembly fittings to routes

- 180-degree elbows or bends for piping

- Access to pipe, tube, or electrical harness coverings

- Multiple CPoint enhancements

- P&ID data import and modeling process

- Reference designators

- Pipe and tube route export enhancements

- Routing library enhancements

- Multibody sheet metal parts

- Closed corner improvements

- Hem improvements

- Flat pattern improvements

- Exporting sheet metal parts to DXF or DWG

This covers chapters 18 - 19 of the What's New PDF (link provided by Ricky Jordan) and I recommend that you read this document to fully understand what is to come in SolidWorks 2010.  This document is written for those who have used the previous release in order to bring awareness to those new features and improvements added.

The goal of this series is to give you a portable, audio version of What's New to let you get up to speed on the go.  Maybe you will hear about something that will help you and when you get into the office, you will take a look.  We all get into our routines and typically don't venture out to find alternative, possibly more efficient ways of using this tool in our jobs.

I will be trying to release a show or two more a week (3 shows total) in order to try to get as much of the What's New delivered before the official download of SolidWorks 2010 FCS (First Customer Ship).  I will also try to still place the monthly Tech News cast on Sunday, once a month, to keep you up to all that is happening in the SolidWorks community.  This is the busiest time of year for SolidWorks with the launch and all the events around the new release so brace yourself for a month or so of constant SolidWorks content! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast is an audio version of the What's New PDF included with every major release of SolidWorks.  Topics covered:

- Materials & multipbody parts

- Features

- PhotoWorks decals in PhotoView 360

- Controlling scenes

- Support for background images and custom environments

- Video tutorials

- Saving custom views

- Camera effects

This covers chapters 16 - 17 of the What's New PDF (link provided by Ricky Jordan) and I recommend that you read this document to fully understand what is to come in SolidWorks 2010.  This document is written for those who have used the previous release in order to bring awareness to those new features and improvements added.

The goal of this series is to give you a portable, audio version of What's New to let you get up to speed on the go.  Maybe you will hear about something that will help you and when you get into the office, you will take a look.  We all get into our routines and typically don't venture out to find alternative, possibly more efficient ways of using this tool in our jobs.

I will be trying to release a show or two more a week (3 shows total) in order to try to get as much of the What's New delivered before the official download of SolidWorks 2010 FCS (First Customer Ship).  I will also try to still place the monthly Tech News cast on Sunday, once a month, to keep you up to all that is happening in the SolidWorks community.  This is the busiest time of year for SolidWorks with the launch and all the events around the new release so brace yourself for a month or so of constant SolidWorks content! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast is an audio version of the What's New PDF included with every major release of SolidWorks.  Topics covered:

- DXF/DWG Output PropertyManager

- Importing Rhino files on 64-bit

- Importing and exporting Adobe Photoshop files on 64-bit

- Importing Autodesk Inventor files

- Importing Adobe Illustrator files

- Saving TIF, JPG, or PSD files to a custom size

- Event-based Motion analysis

- Rigid groups

- Structural Simulation analysis for Motion

- Contact

- Setting the exact time for key points and the time bar

This covers chapters 14 - 15 of the What's New PDF (link provided by Ricky Jordan) and I recommend that you read this document to fully understand what is to come in SolidWorks 2010.  This document is written for those who have used the previous release in order to bring awareness to those new features and improvements added.

The goal of this series is to give you a portable, audio version of What's New to let you get up to speed on the go.  Maybe you will hear about something that will help you and when you get into the office, you will take a look.  We all get into our routines and typically don't venture out to find alternative, possibly more efficient ways of using this tool in our jobs.

I will be trying to release a show or two more a week (3 shows total) in order to try to get as much of the What's New delivered before the official download of SolidWorks 2010 FCS (First Customer Ship).  I will also try to still place the monthly Tech News cast on Sunday, once a month, to keep you up to all that is happening in the SolidWorks community.  This is the busiest time of year for SolidWorks with the launch and all the events around the new release so brace yourself for a month or so of constant SolidWorks content! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast is an audio version of the What's New PDF included with every major release of SolidWorks.  Topics covered:

- Managing tasks

- Enterprise PDM and Toolbox integration

- File Explorer and SolidWorks add-in

- Item management

- Administration tool

- API

- Installation

- Documentation

This covers chapter 13 of the What's New PDF (link provided by Ricky Jordan) and I recommend that you read this document to fully understand what is to come in SolidWorks 2010.  This document is written for those who have used the previous release in order to bring awareness to those new features and improvements added.

The goal of this series is to give you a portable, audio version of What's New to let you get up to speed on the go.  Maybe you will hear about something that will help you and when you get into the office, you will take a look.  We all get into our routines and typically don't venture out to find alternative, possibly more efficient ways of using this tool in our jobs.

I will be trying to release a show or two more a week (3 shows total) in order to try to get as much of the What's New delivered before the official download of SolidWorks 2010 FCS (First Customer Ship).  I will also try to still place the monthly Tech News cast on Sunday, once a month, to keep you up to all that is happening in the SolidWorks community.  This is the busiest time of year for SolidWorks with the launch and all the events around the new release so brace yourself for a month or so of constant SolidWorks content! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast is an audio version of the What's New PDF included with every major release of SolidWorks.  Topics covered:

- Annotation attachments

- Balloons

- Bills of materials

- Blocks

- Center marks

- Cosmetic threads

- Dimensions

- Notes

- Tables

- Title blocks in parts and assemblies

- Drawings

- eDrawings integrated publisher

- eDrw print preview

- eDrw enhanced BOM support

- eDrw Apple Mac printing enhancements

- eDrw Display States linked to Configurations

- eDrw title blocks

- eDrw decals

- eDrw sketch pictures

This covers chapters 11 - 12 of the What's New PDF (link provided by Ricky Jordan) and I recommend that you read this document to fully understand what is to come in SolidWorks 2010.  This document is written for those who have used the previous release in order to bring awareness to those new features and improvements added.

The goal of this series is to give you a portable, audio version of What's New to let you get up to speed on the go.  Maybe you will hear about something that will help you and when you get into the office, you will take a look.  We all get into our routines and typically don't venture out to find alternative, possibly more efficient ways of using this tool in our jobs.

I will be trying to release a show or two more a week (3 shows total) in order to try to get as much of the What's New delivered before the official download of SolidWorks 2010 FCS (First Customer Ship).  I will also try to still place the monthly Tech News cast on Sunday, once a month, to keep you up to all that is happening in the SolidWorks community.  This is the busiest time of year for SolidWorks with the launch and all the events around the new release so brace yourself for a month or so of constant SolidWorks content! ~Lou\

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast is an audio version of the What's New PDF included with every major release of SolidWorks.  Topics covered:

- CircuitWorks UI

- CW updating assemblies

- CW importing non-CircuitWorks assemblies from SolidWorks

- CW PADS support

- Configuration Publisher

- Modify configurations

- Integration of Design Checker

- DC one-button push to correct all errors

- DC UI enhancements

- DC virtual sharp check

- DC Task Scheduler option for auto-correction

- DC samples of industry vertical custom checks to 3DCC

- DFMXpress sheet metal validation

- DFMX managing standard hole sizes

- DFMX zoom to selection

This covers chapters 7 - 10 of the What's New PDF (link provided by Ricky Jordan) and I recommend that you read this document to fully understand what is to come in SolidWorks 2010.  This document is written for those who have used the previous release in order to bring awareness to those new features and improvements added.

The goal of this series is to give you a portable, audio version of What's New to let you get up to speed on the go.  Maybe you will hear about something that will help you and when you get into the office, you will take a look.  We all get into our routines and typically don't venture out to find alternative, possibly more efficient ways of using this tool in our jobs.

I will be trying to release a show or two more a week (3 shows total) in order to try to get as much of the What's New delivered before the official download of SolidWorks 2010 FCS (First Customer Ship).  I will also try to still place the monthly Tech News cast on Sunday, once a month, to keep you up to all that is happening in the SolidWorks community.  This is the busiest time of year for SolidWorks with the launch and all the events around the new release so brace yourself for a month or so of constant SolidWorks content! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast is an audio version of the What's New PDF included with every major release of SolidWorks.  Topics covered:

- Assembly visualization

- Mirror components

- Virtual components

- Componenet reference per instance

- Display states

- SpeekPak

- Mates

This covers chapter 6 of the What's New PDF (link provided by Ricky Jordan) and I recommend that you read this document to fully understand what is to come in SolidWorks 2010.  This document is written for those who have used the previous release in order to bring awareness to those new features and improvements added.

The goal of this series is to give you a portable, audio version of What's New to let you get up to speed on the go.  Maybe you will hear about something that will help you and when you get into the office, you will take a look.  We all get into our routines and typically don't venture out to find alternative, possibly more efficient ways of using this tool in our jobs.

I will be trying to release a show or two more a week (3 shows total) in order to try to get as much of the What's New delivered before the official download of SolidWorks 2010 FCS (First Customer Ship).  I will also try to still place the monthly Tech News cast on Sunday, once a month, to keep you up to all that is happening in the SolidWorks community.  This is the busiest time of year for SolidWorks with the launch and all the events around the new release so brace yourself for a month or so of constant SolidWorks content! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the news for September covering the launch of SolidWorks 2010 Pre-release, top solutions and other news of the month. Topics covered:

- August 24: Embargo on 2010 lifted - let the "Riot Week" begin!

- August 25: SolidWorks 2010 Beta 3 available!

- August 26: SolidWorks updates Anti-virus page

- August 31: SolidWorks EPDM Beta 3 available!

- September 2: Statistics on the Engineering Stimulus Package

- September 9: SolidWorks updates System Requirements page

- September 16: SolidWorks 2010 Pre-release available and PhotoWorks retirement announcement

- September 18: SolidWorks 2010 Beta program ends - survey available and PhotoView 360 contest ends.

- September 21: New CSWP exams available

- September 24: SolidWorks EPDM Pre-release 1 available

- Top Solutions for September

- Updates to THE HEaRD with new features!

- Launch of 3DVIA Mobile with feature descriptions

As many Septembers of the past, it is a very big month for news due to the activity around the new release which should be "on deck" for October.  With the embargo being lifted on Beta 2010, a flurry of posts from many of the bloggers as well as SolidWorks corporate encompased most of the month of September.  Impressions and insight from users around the globe flooded my feed reader and made for a very action packed month for SolidWorks news.

With the 2010 Beta program coming to a close, people are starting to plan their update and migration strategies for SolidWorks' new and shiny 2010 product line fresh out of Concord. With the Internet giving many users insight much earlier than previous years, I am wondering if this early awareness impacts the possibility of SP0 adoption.

This month also made a mark for mobile 3D with Autodesk's iPhone apps launching along with the 3DVIA Mobile app.  Touch technology is going to be something that not only is going to extend to the mobile platform but also to the tablet and other devices over the next 12 months. This is an exciting time to be in the CAD industry! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast is an audio version of the What's New PDF included with every major release of SolidWorks.  Topics covered:

- Documentation for SolidWorks

- Display States for parts

- Custom properties

- Reference planes

- Viewing decals in SolidWorks

- Saving multiple documents

- Normal To command

- Applicataion Programming Interface

- Self-service catalog publishing

- My 3D ContentCentral

- Request content

- 3D ContentCentral community

This covers chapters 3 - 5 of the What's New PDF (link provided by Ricky Jordan) and I recommend that you read this document to fully understand what is to come in SolidWorks 2010.  This document is written for those who have used the previous release in order to bring awareness to those new features and improvements added.

The goal of this series is to give you a portable, audio version of What's New to let you get up to speed on the go.  Maybe you will hear about something that will help you and when you get into the office, you will take a look.  We all get into our routines and typically don't venture out to find alternative, possibly more efficient ways of using this tool in our jobs.

I will be trying to release a show or two more a week (3 shows total) in order to try to get as much of the What's New delivered before the official download of SolidWorks 2010 FCS (First Customer Ship).  I will also try to still place the monthly Tech News cast on Sunday, once a month, to keep you up to all that is happening in the SolidWorks community.  This is the busiest time of year for SolidWorks with the launch and all the events around the new release so brace yourself for a month or so of constant SolidWorks content! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast is an audio version of the What's New PDF included with every major release of SolidWorks.  Topics covered:

- Installation improvements

- SolidWorks Rx

- Converting files to SolidWorks 2010

- Heads-Up view toolbar customization

- Context toolbars

- Instant3D enhancements

- Mouse gesture support

- PropertyManager improvements

- Graphics area controls improvements

- Larger icons for Windows Vista

- Data Migration tab in CommandManager

- Touch and multi-touch support

This is the first two chapters of the What's New PDF (link provided by Ricky Jordan) and I recommend that you read this document to fully understand what is to come in SolidWorks 2010.  This document is written for those who have used the previous release in order to bring awareness to those new features and improvements added.

The goal of this series is to give you a portable, audio version of What's New to let you get up to speed on the go.  Maybe you will hear about something that will help you and when you get into the office, you will take a look.  We all get into our routines and typically don't venture out to find alternative, possibly more efficient ways of using this tool in our jobs.

I will be trying to release a show or two more a week (3 shows total) in order to try to get as much of the What's New delivered before the official download of SolidWorks 2010 FCS (First Customer Ship).  I will also try to still place the monthly Tech News cast on Sunday, once a month, to keep you up to all that is happening in the SolidWorks community.  This is the busiest time of year for SolidWorks with the launch and all the events around the new release so brace yourself for a month or so of constant SolidWorks content! ~Lou 

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the newly released product from DriveWorks, LTD. called DriveWorks Solo.  DW Solo is a product that fits between the free DriveWorksXPress tool in SolidWorks and DriveWorks Professional packages.  Topics covered:

- NEW DriveWorks Solo website

- Registration on the DriveWorks Solo website

- The "30-day trial" experience and options

- Supported versions of SolidWorks and Operating Systems

- Installation and setup

- Getting started and options

- DriveWorks Solo training materials

- First impressions

Well as you know I was going to begin the What's New Series this weekend, however with the announcement out of the UK from my friends at DriveWorks Limited introducing DriveWorks Solo, I decided to cover this first.  DriveWorks Solo brings the best of the DriveWorks Professional's form navigation and customization tools and blends them seemlessly into the SolidWorks Task Pane. This is an overhauled build of their technology based on the next version of DriveWorks, which is due out in the next few months, that bridges the functionality of DriveWorksXpress to the full DriveWorks Professional offerings.

I wanted to get it downloaded so I could play with this new and shiny technology but also so I could report back my initial thoughts.  One of the features I realy enjoy about the new Solo interface is that I never need to leave the SolidWorks environment, making the experience of design automation more uniform and streamlined.  The new "Preview" option is extremely convenient, especially when specifications are astethic and require a visual preview in order to make the final decision.

The training resources realy make DriveWorks Solo's trial worth it's weight, giving everyone who tries it an assisted walkthrough of what this tool can do instead of assuming everyone will just "get it" at first glance. I installed, setup and am currently testing this on a Windows 7, 64 bit, SolidWorks 2010 system and all works very smooth.  I think this is a great addition to the DriveWorks lineup for 2010! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast explains the options and changes to system requirements, activation and licensing available in SolidWorks 2010.  Topics covered:

- System requirement changes for SolidWorks and Enterprise PDM

- Updates to video card testing

- Changes to anti-virus support

- Standalone SolidWorks and Simulation activation

- SolidWorks SolidNetWorks licensing (changes with activation)

- Licensing for Enterprise PDM and 3DVia Composer

With SolidWorks 2010 Pre-release around the corner and the availability of SP0 to be out around early October (guessing), I thought we could dig into some of the questions that come up on licensing, activation, and system requirements.  This past week SolidWorks announced that they had updated the System and Hardware Requirements page on the SolidWorks website which prompted me to scan a few other changes around the site.  It has been a while since we covered common questions about activation and with the introduction of network licenses shipping without dongles, it was worth a revisit.

Also in the coming week I will be starting the What's New series, which I have now done for the past 3 releases, which goes through every page of the What's New PDF (link provided by Ricky Jordan) along with my own two cents!  This will probably increase the show delivery schedule by adding an additional show or two in order to cover the content by the time of launch.

If you have other comments or topics your would like me to cover to help get prepared for the relase of SolidWorks 2010, please drop me a note! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the tools available to migrate your active SolidWorks data to the 2010 format whether it resides locally, on the network and even within PDM. Topics covered:

- Converting local files with Task Scheduler

- Converting network files utilizing Network Monitor

- Converting data within Workgroup PDM

- Converting data within Enterprise PDM

Hopefully you are all enjoying the long Labor Day weekend (US) and not thinking about SolidWorks. However, with the release of SolidWorks 2010 now just weeks around the corner, the process of migrating your "in-process" files (WIP) to the new version's file format is a task many of us don't want to think about. This typically involves the conversion of files on your system, your network and possibly inside your PDM tool.  Today I thought I could touch on some of the tools available with SolidWorks to convert your files regardless where they reside.

A few weeks back I touched on all the capabilities of Task Scheduler and how two of the tasks available were conversion tasks, one outside and one inside SolidWorks Workgroup PDM.  There is also a tool for converting data to the current release within SolidWorks Enterprise PDM that I also wanted to cover.

At the end of the show I share some feedback about the hosted server for 2010 Enterprise PDM that SolidWorks announced for beta testing.  I encourage you to get signed up if you need to test the next version of EPDM in order to make the process as easy as possible. ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the news and posts following the NDA lift of SolidWorks 2010 Beta this past Monday (August 24th) and what the "Buzz" is among the SolidWorks Blog Squad.  Topics covered:

- Overview of the 5 Prongs of SolidWorks 2010

- Highlights from SolidSmack's "New Feature Awards"

- What's New according to Ricky Jordan

- Tweaks to Knit and Performance over at Dezign Stuff

- SolidWorks "Tune Up" attacked by SolidWorks Legion

- SolidWorks 2010 Instalation Manager by Rock Solid Perspective

- Gabi Jack on the "Not So Obvious 2010 Changes"

- Mike Puckett's perspective on 2010

- SolidWorks lauch site details

This past week starting on Monday, August 4th, SolidWorks lifed the embargo / NDA on anyone talking about SolidWorks 2010 beta.  Many of us were ready to post our opening stories the morning of August 24th and that led to a flury of stories out of many bloggers out there.

The usual suspects were part of the Buzz machine: SolidSmack, Ricky Jordan, Dezign Stuff, SolidWorks Legion, Rock Solid Perspective, Mike's CAD Blog and Gabi Jack, among others,  all posted both specific posts on features as well as a "top picks" approach to presenting SolidWorks 2010. So if you have not had time to read all the blogs, I thought I could give you a sense of what is being talked about and the general concession of blog mob.

This podcast is not a replacement for the What's New series that I will start once the official release (FCS) is posted.  Since the current build is Beta 3, I think it is important to wait to explain the new additions since it is not uncommon for aspects of the new release to be pulled due to stability.

I also encourage you to get into Beta since it is still in progress to test the things you would take advantage of in order to make an upgrade plan.  ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the news for August containing Beta contests, SolidWorks SP4.1 and the future support of Windows operating systems. Topics covered:

- July 28: Jim Wilkinson's post on SolidWorks Regular Toolbars

- August 3: How memory is handled by XP vs. Vista in "I'm losing my memory - Part 1"

- August 6: Jim Wilkinson's post on SolidWorks Menu Bar & SolidWorks World 2010 Website live

- August 7: Usability testing continues for SolidWorks

- August 10: Beta Referral Program launches & SolidWorks 2009 SP4.1 ships

- August 12: PhotoView 360 Beta 2010 Rendering Contest launches

- August 14: SolidWorks 2010 Beta 3 ships

- August 18: Jim Wilkinson's post on SolidWorks CommandManager

- August 19: First wave of PV360 2010 Rendering Contest week 1 winners

- August 20: 3D Content Central 2010 beta program

The SolidWorks news just keeps rolling in and August was a big news month just like July.  This month was filled with the launch of Jim Wilkinson's User Interface Blog which is chalked full of tips and inside baseball of why certain aspects of the SolidWorks user interface was designed.  The first three posts were really informative and there was a couple of nice tech tip nuggets to boot!

I also mentioned that Matt Lombard released a post of the contents of a SolidWorks Partner newsletter that stated the future plans of SolidWorks on XP and Windows7 as well as what is going to happen with PhotoWorks.  Much of the news is not totally surprising but this is the first time we have the plans in writing.  SolidWorks 2010 will be the last version to support XP and the first to support Windows 7 (In SP1 due out in November of this year).

I also speak briefly on THE HEaRD and the fact that I had been getting more SPAM than I wanted to deal with and made the service Invite Only so if you are currently a member and want to invite others in you can do so by clicking on "Invite" in the upper right corner of the website.  I hope to get the next build of Laconica in the coming weeks which will bring support for attachments and other cool features I hope to rollout including a captcha feature to reduce the spammers.

The fan page for SolidWorks Heard seems to be growing...slowly but I hope that it brings another vector that the show can reach.  If you are currently on Facebook, you can search for "SolidWorks" and under Pages you will see the link to the site.  I am always interested in feedback as well so let me know if you like the FB page and what would make it better! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers some basics to using SolidWorks Simulation and some of the major changes in the 2009 product. Topics covered:

- 6 steps to Simulation/FEA

- Interface changes

- Study backgroud processing

- Simulation workflow

- Automatic mesh selection

- Tips and tricks

I wanted to switch gears and get into a few things that everyone should know and utilize when using SolidWorks Simulation.  Still after over a year of the whole COSMOSWorks to Simulation name change, I am still having issues not saying COSMOS every once in a while.  For those of you that have been in the SolidWorks family for many years know how much more integrated the FEA tools have become over the past 5 releases.  Since more users have access to these tools, especially in Solidworks Premium, I though I would give a few tips and explanations to what to expect when using Simulation.

I like some of the changes to Simulation in 2009, however I have a few hitches that cause some stress to those of us that want more control of the software.  I also wanted to share tips of how to use this tool to it's fullest and some of the fundamental utilities that can assist in streamlining your use. ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the technique of using layout sketches in SolidWorks to quickly verify and change designs before 3D modeling.  Topics covered:

- Technique definition.

- Layout relations (Traction, Belt/Chain, Make Path)

- Creating and using blocks

- Creating layouts in parts and assembles

- Converting layout sketches into parts

- Two SPR issues within assembly "Layout Sketches".

- Tips for using layout sketches

This week we are going to talk about layout sketching and some of the uses for this capability.  Layout sketches in SolidWorks are a top-down assembly modeling technique to assist in adding associative elements to a design before starting the 3D model.  This technique has been integrated into SolidWorks as a "feature", however many of us who have been using parametric modeling software have approached designs using this same technique using standard sketches.

It had been over three years since I had talked about this topic and in researching the details about the capability I uncovered two issues that I hope to see fixed in the coming service pack.  I describe the issue in detail in the show how the "Belt/Chain" (SPR-375387) and "Make Path" (SPR-393207) options are greyed out within the "Layout Sketch" functionality in SolidWorks assemblies.  This has been verified as bugs and have SPRs (above) associated with them.

Matt Lombard did a quick tutorial on this topic over at Matt's Minutes for DesignWorld's 3D CAD Tips as well. Watch it here!  ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast discusses the new forum launch from a few weeks ago running on the backbone of Jive, a social business software. Topics covered:

- First impressions

- Registration and login

- Setting up your profile page

- Notification preferences

- Connecting with other users, communities and groups

- Creating content (discussions and bookmarks)

- Customizing "Your View" tab

- Setting your status

Over the past week or so I have been spending a lot of time in the new SolidWorks forums since the redesign.  There are a ton of features that allow me to get into the mix and help out as many as I can in a very short amount of time.  It is part of being in a community like SolidWorks and I thought today I would talk about the features and layout of the new interface and some of the things I find most enjoyable.

If you were already a member, your login should work just fine, however if you have not been hooked into the forum community this redesign is worth taking another look and utilizing the knowledge!  I hope this new redesign attracts more users and allows those of us who can provide solutions a more efficient way of contributing.  See you in the forums and add me to your click! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the news for July containing a new SolidWorks Forum launch and 3DVia Composer 2010.  Topics covered:

- July 1: Sneak Peak 2010 CSWP event video released

- July 2: SolidWorks 2010 Enterprise PDM beta launched

- July 7: Keynote speaker for SolidWorks World 2010 requests

- July 10: SWWC Call for papers, New 3 Dudes gone 3D underground Episode

- July 13: New SolidWorks Forum launches

- July 15: SolidWorks Enterprise 2009 SP4 available for download

- July 17: 3DVia Composer 2010 HF0 available for download (What's New highlights)

- July Top Solutions (Weldments and Microsoft Office instability hotfixes for x64)

- Brief update on Windows 7 and SolidWorks

- SolidWorks Heard! has a Facebook Fan page

Well as usual, July ended up being a very busy SolidWorks news month.  There was a ton a good stuff that launched and a whole list of news that flooded the month.  The launch of SolidWorks 2009 SP4, Enterprise PDM 2009 SP4, New SolidWorks Forums and 2010 3DVia Composer was just the start to what may end up as the biggest tech news month for SolidWorks yet.  I will begin to include the "Top Solutions" information as part of the tech news shows since some of these can be show stoppers for many users.  The two that were talked about in this show were specifically problematic to those who use SolidWorks x64.

I have been running Windows 7 RC1 and was impressed how well all my applications, including SolidWorks, have been running and commented about it on Twitter.  I was replied to from SolidWorks saying that support for Windows 7 will be in SolidWorks once Windows 7 ships. This was then followed up by Mike Puckett posting confirmation of this fact.  It is good to know that SolidWorks is being proactive for the release since I think many who didn't go to Vista will go to Windows7.

Lastly, I wanted to explain the feature of the SolidWorks HEARD! fan page on Facebook since I have still not joined personally since I have too many services already but understand the importance of presence in this extremely popular "Walled Garden".  The page includes all of what the SolidWorks HEARD website offers including THE HEaRD, Podcast, Blog and a Discussion area for fans to suggest future show topics.

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the task automation that can be performed by Task Scheduler as well as detailed setup information about the new Network Monitor utility introduced in SolidWorks 2009 SP4. Topics covered:

- Introduction

- Available tasks

- Task Options

- Network Monitor setup & configuration

- Exporting PDFs

- Boosting performance for lightweight assemblies

- Exporting data from within PDM

I had not talked about Task Scheduler since March 27th, 2006 back in episode 13 (which back then was DDi Tech Tip #7) and with the launch of SolidWorks 2009 SP4 and the new Network Monitor, it was time for a refresh.  Task Scheduler was introduced back in SolidWorks 2004 and every year receives some new tasks that can be run.  This is one of my favorite utilities due to it's "Set it and forget it" nature however it is often forgotten by many users.

This past week I also tested out the Network Monitor capability and ran it on a few "Convert Files" tasks and it was extremely quick.  Setup was straightforward but did require using IP addresses and disabling the software firewall.  I hope to see this capability grow and applied to more tasks than just file conversion in future releases! ~Lou

*** The earlier download ended up pulling the wrong link and put the March 27, 2006 cast instead of the one I recorded last night.  I have corrected it now so the feed should be right. Sorry about that. It was a late night! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast is a roundtable discussion with Vuuch's CEO Chris Williams and SolidSmack's Josh Mings discussing Vuuch, design communication and collaboration as well as a bit of social media's impact on it all.  Topics covered:

- Vuuch's mission

- What makes Vuuch different than traditional design tools

- Current desktop integration

- Future desktop platforms for Vuuch

- Goals of the current open beta program

- Feedback about Vuuch thus far

- Unique uses for public discussions

- Rough outline for Vuuch's release

- Pros / Cons of social media tools used today by design groups

- Customer testmonials

Well today I have pulled together a fun show around the product Vuuch and what impact a tool like this has on the design process.  I covered Vuuch back in May in Episode 213 but have wanted to get Chis on the show to speak about how Vuuch came about as well as how customers are using it.

I hope to be following this show up over the next few weeks with a few other discussions getting more into how social media is impacting product design.  As Chris says in the discussion, "When people talk about social medial they talk about the connection between people but there is not much value in connecting people if the content isn't there!"  This conversation seems to be a growing topic and I look forward to exploring it deeper with a diverse group of panelists very soon! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the most recent addition to the SolidWorks LABS site called SustainabilityXpress (SusX).  Many of you may remember this from SolidWorks World 2009 when they debuted this product under the code name SAGE.  Topics covered:

- Introduction to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

- SusX Taskpane Interface

- SusX Workflow and Use

- Environmental Dashboard

- Find Similar Materials tool

- Reporting features

- How SusX is a useful design tool

SustainabilityXpress was introduced by SolidWorks LABS on June 24th and is a partnership with PE International, a  20 year sustainability consultant. This design tool can give environmental insight to SolidWorks users and real-time feedback on decisions about manufacturing processes, material selection as well as an ability to find similar materials and evaluate their impacts in real-time.

SusX is currently available in 32 bit only. SolidWorks LABS has commented that they are trying to deliver all their projects on both 32 and 64 bit platforms simultaneously and will do their best for future announcements.  I would expect the 64 bit version to follow soon. ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the SolidWorks news that broke in June including 2009 SP4 and Beta 2010 launch.  Topics covered:

- June 1: Design Library Content Survey launches

- June 5: Announcement of SolidWorks 2010 Beta coming...

- June 9: SolidWorks Satisfaction Survey email invite sent out

- June 10: SolidWorks SP4 Early Visibility available for download (covering Release Notes & Mike Puckett's Blog)

- June 22: SolidWorks launches 2010 Beta Program

This was a very busy month with the launch of SolidWorks 2009 SP4 EV and now SolidWorks 2010 Beta 1.  There are some nice little nuggets coming into 2009 SP4 and addresses about 24 SPRs and should launch in the next weeks or so.  Beta 1 is now in full swing and will consist of 3 stages: Beta1 = 3 weeks, Beta2 = 2 weeks, Beta3 = 4 weeks (subject to change).

The beta home page has been updated and streamlined to make submitting bugs and getting your feedback to SolidWorks.  As I mentioned in the previous show, it is important that if you do decide to participate in the Beta Program that you get involved in the Beta Forum, Beta Brainstorm and Beta Bugstorm to share those "easter eggs", vote on bugs and how to improve the beta program.

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers what can be done to best be prepared to participate in the SolidWorks beta program.  The checklist discussed are steps to get the most out of beta and helping the community test the next major release of SolidWorks.  Topics covered:

- How to get notified

- Reviewing the What's New PDF

- Reviewing the Release Notes

- Verifying system and hardware requirements

- Planning a scope

- Beta data-sets

- Reporting bugs

- Options for beta installs

- Tips from Matt Lombard at DezignStuff

Every year beta comes out about the same time and many users are not sure about if they should participate in the beta program.  Granted, beta testing is not for everyone but it can give you insight on what is to come and the changes that are in store for features you may use everyday.  Whether you test to make sure the next release is going to be address current issues or to see if there are any major reasons to upgrade at release, the choice is yours.  Maybe you are like me and enjoy testing the latest and greatest, either way, it is an opportunity to contribute whatever you can to the user community.

This is not about testing for SolidWorks Corporation but more about getting into the software and determining what has changed and how it will impact your usage.  I personally am not motivated by the prizes but more about what easter eggs I can find that are undocumented and understanding the impact to design approach or workflow. Beta is what you make of it as long as you have the right mindset going into the beta jungle.  Hope to see you all on the beta forums once 2010 launches.  Make sure you sign up in the Customer Portal, click on "My Profile" and check the "Notify me for beta programs" so you know when SolidWorks Beta 2010 goes live. ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast is an interview with NovEdge CEO Cristiano Sacchi about their business and the impact of social media on business, users and the CAD/CAE community.  Topics discussed:

- NovEdge website and offerings

- How blogging has helped NovEdge (commenting and Disqus)

- The social media impact (LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter, etc.)

- How NovEdge Pulse was started.

- Thoughts about COFES

I want to thank Cristiano for coming on the show and taking the time to share how NovEdge got started and how the Internet and social media have impacted their business overall. NovEdge has a tremendious product offering and makes finding the right product simple.  Amazing that their site is completely hand coded and built from the ground up by Franco Folini so they can add/change their site which offers over 4000 SKUs!

I found out about NovEdge through their community interaction through Pulse and the comment system Disqus. Both Cristiano and Franco are very involved in the CAD/CAE community and have made a place for all our content to be consumed by everyone in the industry! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers a tool that was introduced in COSMOSWorks 2007 (SolidWorks Simulation) and was brought into the SolidWorks interface in 2009.  SolidWorks sensors can monitor criteria within your design and notify you when design criteria is breached! Topics covered:

- Sensor capability with SolidWorks

- Mass property sensors

- Measurement sensors

- Interference detection sensors

- Notification options

- Suppression with configurations and design tables

- Tips for setup and use

In design, we are always focused on the solving the problem and many times we need to solve these problems within a certain scope.  So if I was designing a new heat sink, yes the main goal is to keep the product within a certain temperature however it is also important to ensure that the new heat sink still fits inside the product. SolidWorks has the ability to notify you when you breach one of these design criterion known as Sensors.  Sensors debuted in SolidWorks 2007 for COSMOSWorks (now Simulation) and were extended to the SolidWorks interface for monitoring common concerns that may govern your design. This is another useful tool that allows SolidWorks to worry about the constraints so you can focus on your design.

Sensors can do the tedious monitoring of those critical design boundaries while you focus on trying to solve the design problem. Just because the tools exist to do it manually in SolidWorks doesn’t mean you can’t “Set it and forget it!” ~Lou 

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers a technology that has been in SolidWorks Simulation for a few releases now but is underused by many of us performing analysis with Simulation.  Topics covered:

- Adding Motion features to Design Library

- Introduction to "Analysis Design Library"

- Setup and Library locations

- Creating new analysis library features

- How to add existing features to the library

- Editing/references/values

It has been over 3 years since I touched on this topic (episode 22) but wanted to share some tips to utilizing this Simulation Library to speed up the creation of studies for "What If?" scenarios.  With SolidWorks Simulation being positioned as an engineering tool to be used in-line with the design process, this Task Pane tool-set can really help get some of the more complex boundary conditions into your study via drag and drop.

Along with the ability to save analysis "features" like a force, this tool is capable of allowing parts and assemblies to be saved into the library format and used as a guide along with the features to assist to in proper setup from the seed example.  This can be a great way to bring the expertise of an analyst down into engineering to keep their test accurate as well. ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the news that broke in May from SolidWorks and related products. It has been a busy month for news and it is not over yet! Topics covered:

- SolidWorks Ships 1M licenses

- eDrawings for Mac 2009 SP3 ships

- More SolidWorks Surveys Save

- SW Engineering Stimulus Package available for Europe!

- SolidWorks extends support

- SolidWorks Viewer 2009 SP3.1 ships (issues addressed with EPDM)

- SolidWorks 2009 Student edition supports 64-bit

- Internet Explorer 8 not playing nice with SolidWorks x64

- Vuuch ships new SolidWorks Addin

- Xpresso becomes a SolidWorks Solution Partner!

This has been a busy month for tech news and it is only going to get busier once summer is here since summer means BETA! SolidWorks beta should be starting soon so if you would like to participate in SolidWorks 2010 beta I suggest loggin into your Customer Portal account and clicking on your profile and check "Notify me of Beta Programs".  This way you will know when it all starts and can get going early.  Beta is not for everyone but if you have a system and some time to check if the newest release is going to better help you address design problems you may be having in your current process.

I also encourage you to take a spin around both the SolidWorks website as well as the customer portal to know about updates and new offerings the site has. If you are paying for maintenance, this is another place to get those "perks" of free training and knowledge resources.

I have been in talks with a few people in the industry about getting some rountables going about social media and engineering and how these two camps can be helpful in product design.  Stay tuned in the coming weeks for these casts in addition to the regular show. ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the innovative web-based collaboration / discussion / social network called Vuuch. Vuuch was brought up in the SolidWorks World Roundtable podcast but was never dug into enough at that time.  Last week I had some time to join Vuuch and experience all that it has to offer.  Topics covered:

- Introduction

- Registration and setup

- Web Portal interface

- Attachments

- Group creation

- SolidWorks integration and workflow

- Excel integration and workflow

- Overall impressions

In a nutshell, Vuuch is a cloud based web application that offers group based treaded discussions, similar to a forum but can offer associated CAD and Excel based discussions with attachment uploading.  I would say that it is Twitter or Facebook meets Engineering & CAD. By using email as the notification mechanism, Vuuch keeps the discussion central to the topic and in sync with the cloud for unlimited accessibility to all associated participants. I think this is a fantastic service to bring design teams closer and much more in tune with what is going on in the overall process.

I encourage you to signup for this service while it is still in beta and help them sculpt this service before release.  Chris Williams, Vuuch's CEO, is asking that you let them know what you think and to fill out a survey so they can really understand the challenges you face day to day. This is only the beginning to what Vuuch has to offer and I look forward to see more innovation out of Vuuch in the coming months! Now go sign up today and add me as a contact and Vuuch me! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers tools within the FeatureManager to help navigate and organize your designs withing the SolidWorks environment.  The goal is to lay an organization foundation for next week's show about a beta tool called Vuuch.  Topics covered:

- FeatureManager toolset

- Utilizing the Flyout

- Tools for the Rollback bar

- Find and GoTo

- Filter search

- Design Binder (journal & attachments)

- Adding comments

- Folders

- Tags (take a look at Tagger)

With the FM being the starting point for everything we do in SolidWorks, it is no surprise that it is also the source of the unorganized nature of our models.  There are many tools to help us get a system in place to not only organize but to navigate these complex designs more efficiently and assist us in communicating exactly what our design intent was along the way.  I hope some of these tools can help get you organized, not only for your own sake but especially for those of you that need to work in a team environment.  I will be expanding on what else can be brought to the table when you can collaborate even more with this new revolutionary tool called Vuuch next week. 

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers all that is THE HEaRD micro blog that I run and what this 2.0 SolidWorks comunity offers its visitors and participants. Topics covered:

- Introduction to the technology called laconi.ca

- Offerings to those who just visit

- Registration (username/password or OpenID

- Profile options (profile, avatar, password, Email, OpenID, Auto URL shorting)

- Connect and post via Instant Messenger, Web, or many third party applicaitons like Twhirl

- Notification via email, SMS, IM

- Cross post THE HEaRD notices to Twitter

- Posting web content and links via THE HEaRD bookmarklet

- Showing your timeline with the badge on your site!

I wanted to do a show on this dynamic SolidWorks based community since it can truly be the pulse of all news that is SolidWorks as it breaks.  Many of use use feed readers, web browsing and other ways of getting info about SolidWorks and THE HEaRD is a way to get content out that pertains to your interests as well as a community that allows participation via any modern mechanism like IM or third party applications.

By using this open source infrastructure (laconica), the offerings are constantly being developed and pushed out and I can implement them quickly.  One feature I didn't mention is that these laconica instances can be everywhere and used to create communities just like the HEaRD but can communicate via Open Micro Blogging. What this offers is a standard protocol to "remote subscribe" to uses on other laconica instances without having to get an account on that service.  Unlike Twitter which you would need to have an account on to follow anyone, I could subscribe to someone on another laconica instance without joining and see those notices from that person on that network in my timeline on the HEaRD.  This mesh-type system can simplify the experience and streamline how we all interact.

So take a moment and visit http://herd.solidworksheard.com and register so you can start to be a contributor to most dynamic SolidWorks community! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the news that broke in the month of April.  There were a bunch of little tidbits of news that SolidWorks pushed out of their tech alerts feed.  Topics covered:

- SolidWorks Enterperise PDM Service Pack 3 & Hotfix_482805

- SolidWorks Engineering Stimulus Package

- Influence the Future of PDM

- UTC support on the SolidWorks Customer Portal

- New SolidWorks Simulation Premium training lessions

- Review of Xpresso for SolidWorks

April was a busy week for news and announcements. I have been running SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2009 SP3 for almost a month now with the Hotfix patch installed without any issues.  If you are running EPDM 2009 SP3 with SolidWorks 2008, there is a hotfix for that as well in the SolidWorks Knowledge Base on the Customer Portal.  I encourage you to participate in the survey above if you are using any form of PDM since your input can help SolidWorks make their PDM offerings better in future releases.

I also wanted to share my experiences with Xpresso (voice command for SolidWorks) from installation, configuration to use.  Overall, I am extremely impressed with it, so much that I actually used it in a demo for a local Institute for the Blind whose engineers were using 27" monitors to see the menus and icons.  Using a tool like Xpresso could give them full voice control much easier.

I think next week I will do a show about THE HEaRD, a micro blog/community that I started late last year but in recent builds of Laconi.ca, there are some great new features that can really extend the conversation and allow us SolidWorks users to communicate about all that we have in common!  Talk to you next week! ~Lou
 
Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast is a summary of the Congress for the Future of Engineering Software (COFES) 2009 that I atttended this past weekend.  The event was 2 1/2 days of packed intense conversation about the hot topics of today and tomorrow in the engineering software space.  Topics covered:

- Introduction to COFES

- Keynote - Innovative Engineering for a Disruptive Time by Chuck House

- Analyst Briefing - Design, Engineering and Social Media with Jim Brown

- DaS Symposium - The Role of the Engineering Sofware Provider in Sustainability

- SpaceClaim presentation

- Analyst Briefing - Affordable PLM with Steve Wolfe

- Maieutic Parataxis - 8, 5 min presentations on future technologies

- Keynote - Remembering the Future by Joel Orr

- Keynote - BlindSpotting by Peter Marks

- Roundtable - Is Direct Modeling th Interoperability "Holy Grail"?

- Rountable - Leveraging Gaming and Social Networking in Business

- Congress - The Business of Design and Engineering: It's the Economy, Stupid!

- Overall impressions and high moments

COFES was an amazing conference focused more about the conversatoin than presentations. It was full of many of the founding minds in the engineering software space and dispite the economy....*drink*, the attendance was very good.  The key participants were everywhere from analysts and journalists to vendors and users. This was the 10th annual COFES and was designed to be "All Hallways" by both Brad Holtz and Joel Orr, since that was were most of the productive conversaton was in traditional conferences. I was honored to be a part of COFES and enjoyed bringing it to as many people as I can through this show and the live coverage. ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers a very powerful tool to assist in adding custom properties to your parts, assemblies, and drawings by building a custom interface right inside of SolidWorks 2009 called the Property Tab Builder. Topics covered:

- Overview of this standalone tool

- What the impact the PTB has on PDM

- How to build tabs for parts, assemblies, and drawings

- Elements that can be added to property tabs

- Problems a tool like PTB solves

This past week I visited a customer who is a big Enterprise PDM house and had to do a presentation to them about What's New in SolidWorks 2009.  They are a larger facility and it takes them some time to validate and certify an upgrade to the next release of SolidWorks, so they gave me a punch list of topics they wanted me to cover.  While refreshing my demo material, I went into detail on a new feature, that in my opinion has not gotten enough press, known as the Property Tab Builder.  This standalone tool allows users to build custom interfaces to enter the meta-data or file properties that are an essential building block to PDM/ERP/MRP systems.  Typically this data is cumbersome to enter and typically entered multiple times into these systems.

Utilizing the PTB allows SolidWorks users to streamline the way properties get into the system and can be built to automatically display areas of needed data based upon options the user selects. If parts only need a certain number of details if they are purchased vs. if they are manufactured, PTB can show/hide area of the tab.  This makes the barrier of entry low and in the end allows the data to flow freely into one system, only to be propagated to other systems automatically!  Not to mention that it is kinda fun to build this interface automation without a single line of code! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast is an interview with XpressoSoft, the company behind Xpresso for SolidWorks, a speech recognition control interface. In this interview I talk with Josh Updyke, one of their engineers and co-founder of the product. Topics covered:

- How 3 Engineers & XpressoSoft was started

- What Xpresso is

- How to setup the product

- Steps to configure

- Hardware requirements

- Command sets

- Productivity gains

- Possible future direction

After holding the roundtable discussion after SolidWorks World, many of the panelists had talked about Xpresso for SolidWorks one of the most interesting products in the Partner Pavillion. I was very interested but as we all get busy it sort of fell between the cracks. A few weeks ago I was contacted by Josh saying he had heard the show and wanted to see if I wanted to talk more about the product. I was thrilled to finally get a free spot to get on the phone with Josh and talk about this unique and powerful product.

With us both being Mechanical Engineers and having a focus on robotics and control systems, we had much more in common than we knew and the chat about Xpresso and other cool technology was a lot of fun. After talking about the product for almost 45 minutes, I am now anxious to get it downloaded and installed so I can test out how fast this additional interface can be. Being a small company of 6, they seem to really pay close attention to what their customers want and have developed this revolutionary product into something that can take CAD, as we know it, to the next paradigm. So sit back and "Start Listening" to how Xpresso works! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the SolidWorks Premium tool for communicating bi-directionally to electrical CAD packages called CircuitWorks.  CircuitWorks has been a long time gold partner of SolidWorks and was acquired about a year ago.  Topics covered:

- Introduction to CircuitWorks

- Product misconceptions

- CircuitWorks Lite features (core SolidWorks)

- File format read

- CircuitWorks filters, libraries and modification tools

- MCAD <-> ECAD work-flow

I covered "SolidWorks and ECAD" in Episode 140 back about a year ago but this was before SolidWorks acquired Priware and the most current version, 2009.  With the new release the work-flow has improved and turned the focus on making this powerful, bi-directional tool intuitive.  Bringing features like an improved interface, import/export of saved filters, and comparison  has brought CircuitWorks to the next level.  As I has said before, any tool that can allow two design departments to communicate seamlessly is going to bring efficiency to the design process.  Mechanical concerns can impact the electrical system's design just as much as the electrical requirements can, therefore handing off the same design iteratively can address both concerns.

As a side note, SolidWorks has released SolidWorks 2009 service pack 3.0 last week and does come with some great new features for weldments and print scale.  Remember to take a look at the release notes for details as well as the fixed SPR list. ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the resources available to assisit in troubleshooting issues you may run into with SolidWorks. Many times we get an error message or something is not working correctly and need to know steps to get on the right track.  Topics covered:

- Troubleshooting area of the Help file

- Common tools

- Tips & Errors

- SolidWorks Customer Portal

- Knowledge Base

- Discussion Forums

Over the years, I have heard customers call in with issues that could have been found in the SolidWorks help or Knowledge Base.  Now I know that the SolidWorks help file continues to get a bad rap due to the lack of pictures and specialized content but instead of focusing on any possible shortcomings, I thought I would point out some jewels that can get you on the right track or at least give you a few things to check first before having to call support in a panic.  The troubleshooting area of the help acutally has some good solutions to common issues that come up including the display and printing.

Most of the error messages though are not in the help so that is when the SolidWorks Knowledge Base comes in.  This was redesigned last year and give you a powerful way to refine your search to find that "1603" error message and find that you are not alone and there is a fix to get you back to work. ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the news that had broke since the last tech news cast which was back in mid-January. This past week was full of news and with the release of SP3 for SolidWorks 2009 I thought we were due. Topics covered:

- SolidWorks 2009 SP3 Early Visibility Release Notes

- Say goodbye to the Shape Feature in SolidWorks 2010

- Details about "3 Dudes Gone 3D" marketing campaign by SolidWorks and Small Army

- SolidWorks World 2009 Preceedings site details

- Experiences of my backup with Microsoft Skydrive and Microsoft Mesh

There are some great features coming back to SolidWorks in SP3 for printing as well as some great additions to Weldments, PhotoView 360 and WildFire 4 support. Overall the update looks like a good one, however I am not able to know exactly what SPRs have been addressed.  Usually that info is available when the service pack is official and available for download.

With the announcement of the "preceedings" site and the launch of "3 Dudes Gone 3D" I thought it was about time for a news show. I wanted to round out the show sharing my findings to complete my mission to backup my local data to the cloud with Micrsoft Skydrive and Mesh.

I look forward to the next episode of 3DG3D since I find it funny and easy to relate to. I worked for a company about 10 years back that had the same temporary trailer offices and know, too well, the typical dynamic you get when you cram 3 engineers in an environment like that. ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers some options for backing up your SolidWorks data within SolidWorks as well as outside of SolidWorks.  Many of us know that our computer's hard drives will fail at some point but don't know when.  With only about 5% of users actually backing up their data I wanted to talk about some options to create some redundancy.  Topics covered:

- Backup statistics

- Backup/Recovery options in SolidWorks

- Creating local redundancy (Tethered storage)

- Scheduled folder redundancy with SyncToy

- Pros/Cons with Network drives

- How PDM changes Network files

- Cloud storage options like Amazon S3

- Free 25GB of online storage!

We all know that we should be backing up or trust that our data is backed up by our company's IT department.  The issue is that much of our in-process designs are located on our local drives that are outside of our backup loops.  Many of us either get to the point where we forget or just have too much faith that our computers will not fail us but they will eventually.  The trick is to get something in place that won't forget and that is where many of these online options come in.  All of them have a way of scheduling the backup process and give you redundancy offsite as well.  If anything, Microsoft SkyDrive has 25GB for free and all you need to do is sign up.  Now we all don't have an excuse to at least try to get our current projects in the cloud! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the experience of unboxing and setting up the new Dimension uPrint 3D desktop printer. Topics covered:

- The boxes and what is contained

- The unboxing experience

- Specific issues/findings upon my unboxing

- Wiorkflow of printing parts from SolidWorks

- Specs and Options of the uPrint

Last week I had received the uPrint 3D Printer we ordered which are the newest model on the Dimension line and are referred to as a "Personal Desktop 3D Printer".  Now there are many 3D printers on the market, all with their own pros and cons, however this will not be the focus of this show.  I want to talk about this printer because usually 3D Printers are quite large and bulky and take a bit to install, setup and configure.  One of the goals of the uPrint machine is to allow anyone to unpack and set it up just like any standard paper printer you may pick up at Best Buy.  So with the boxes just sitting in a room, I wanted to really experience what any customer would go through if they ordered this machine.

Dispite the fact I had to update the PC software and the firware that was shipped with the printer I would have been up and running from box to printing parts in about 30 minutes! It was really an eye opening experience and I thought that if this experience continues to be this easy and at this price, these tools will become ubiquitus in engineering departments in the future.

I should have a blog post out shortly laying out the experience with photos and specs as well. ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast is a roundtable discussion and wrap up of SolidWorks World 2009 with a few of the SolidWorks bloggers. In this episode we talk about everything from the venue to what was revealed in Day 3's general session.

THE PANEL:

- Ben Eadie - SolidMentor and SolidJott

- Ricky Jordan - RickyJordan.com

- Jeff Mirisola - Jeff's Blog

- Mike Puckett - Mike's CAD Blog and SolidWorks Certification Specialist

THE TOPICS:

- Details about the SolidWorks "Tweetup"

- Overall thougths of the SWW09 venue

- Partner Pavillion - most innovative products

- General Sessions

- Breakouts attended (best/worst)

- SolidWorks 2010

- Thoughts about format of presentation of 2010, quality of the updates

- Predictions on the impact of "Brainstorm"

It was a great time to get together with everyone after the even and "decompress" with them about all that was SolidWorks World 2009. This is a long episode but I think with the amount of topics we cover it is worthy of the duration. I want to thank everyone for coming on the show and please leave some comments on your thoughs about the format of this episode. A few of us have been kicking around the idea of making this a regular spot either on this show on as another show.

Overall I think the concensus was that SolidWorks World Conference 2009 was a huge success and we all look forward to attending next year in Anaheim, CA on January 31st, 2010! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This is the PDF of my notes and pictures taken on Day 3 of SolidWorks World Conference 2009. This has been a tradition of mine to post my notes and every year I try to add a bit more than just my written notes. This year I was able to have screenshots and details I have not had in the past. Topics covered:

- Presentation layout

- Details and screenshots What's New in SolidWorks 2010

- Links to full size pictures on Flickr

- Direction for Enterprise PDM 2010

- New Product called "SAGE"

- Top 10 list from "Brainstorm"

- Summary and Wrap up

When it comes to SolidWorks World there is really only one day that everyone continues to talk about and that is day 3’s General Session. Always falling on a Wednesday, this is the day that SolidWorks Corporation gives the attendees of SolidWorks World a sneak peak into the next release of SolidWorks.  This year it was SolidWorks 2010 and unlike year’s past, the What’s New presentation was not themed, but instead was centered around two companies that design unique products, TerraFujia and Magenn.
TerraFugia is in the midst of building the first aircraft/automobile conversion allowing its passengers to fly into an airport and simply engage the transmission, fold up the wings and drive to their next destination.
Magenn is an innovative wind turbine manufacturer that creates “lighter-than-air” turbines that are filled with a lighter than air gas that allows them to ascend this tethered device to the altitude best suited for wind energy generation.

Overall it was a great preview and I look forward to see what features make the final release as well as the impact that "Brainstorm" will have on SolidWorks 2010! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

Download SolidWorks World 2009 Preview Notes PDF

This podcast covers the final day of SolidWorks World Conference 2009. This is typically known as the day of reveal because of the preview of the next version of SolidWorks due out later in the year.  This year they didn't do a themed presentation of the features but the features pretty much spoke for them selves.  Topics covered:

- General Session guest "Prototype This"

- Top 10 Enhancement Request

- What's New revealed features in SolidWorks 2010

- SolidWorks "SAGE" project

- Optimizing your workstation for SolidWorks breakout

- SolidWorks Engineering Stimulus Package details

- SolidWorks:Heard! coverage archive

- Next year's SWWC location....

Overall I must say that this year was a great success and I enjoyed meeting more of the SolidWorks community. Had a great time at Jon Hirschtick's room learning about blackjack and between the general sessions and technical breakouts, SWW09 was an event to remember. I look forward to what the future of CAD is to bring and in the mean time we all need to buckle down and start innovating! Thank you to all that watched the live blog and followed my updates on Twitter. I appreciate the kind words of gratitute and I am glad to be able to assist in the bridge that many of my fellow bloggers were able to extent to all of you at home.  I hope next year to see you all in Anahiem, CA for SolidWorks World 2010! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast covers the second day of SolidWorks World Conference 2009 including the general session, breakouts as well as details about the special event. Topics covered:

- General Session with Jon Hirschtick

- Tips and Tricks breakout with Phil Sluder

- Direct Editing breakout details

- API to solve the Rubik's Cube

- Details about the SW event at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Today was a great day and I am always thinking about the technology surrounded around CAD and the general session today was lead by Jon Hirschtick, founder of SolidWorks Corporation and he shared his predictions of what technology trends will take part in CAD's future. I was also able to attend the famous Tips & Tricks session presented by Phil Sluder, whom, by the way has presented at SolidWorks World since the beginning, 11 years ago! It was, as always, a great session filled with all types of great tips and not a copy/paste session from the help file. The rest of the breakout were also interesting and the Twitter tips (#SWWTips) were flowing today as well.

I will be traveling tomorrow after the show and will have to get the show to you on Thursday or Friday but hope to get a big Episode 200 to you this weekend! Remember the genereal session tomorrow will be the big reveal so don't forget to view the live blog! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!

This podcast talks about all the activities that went on in the General Session, Breakouts, Coverage and the CSWP event on day 1 of SWW09. Topics covered:

- The "21" night in Jon Hirschtick's Suite

- Highlights of the General Session - Sir Richard Branson

- Breakout tips (where to find #SWWTips)

- The CSWP event highlights

Today was a great day 1 starting with the general session, tips and the great CSWP event! Thanks Jeremy and Team! It was amazing to see all the content that was being pushed out today. The blogs were flowing with content and the Twitter feed was busy especially after Jeff Ray mentioned Twitter and the #SWW09 hash tag. Overall it was an extremely busy day and I am looking forward to getting into all the details tomorrow. Remember if you were not able to attend the live blog you you visit the site and see that day's show in it's entirity as a scrollable window. Talk to you all tomorrow! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter and THE HEaRD!