The SolidWorks Geek

Mating in SolidWorks – Standard Mates

The SW Geek — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:39:28 +0000

Unless you are completely new to SolidWorks, you have more then likely used the Coincident mate. It is probably the most common mate used when building assemblies. Today, we are going to look more into using the coincident mate to limit the degrees of freedom in your assemblies. If you are familiar with the Coincident mate, stick around… I am going to discuss another approach to adding the mate you might not of heard of before.

The Coincident Mate

One of the hardest parts about writing articles about SolidWorks is coming up with models that would best illustrate the points. After many failed attempts, I finally settled on using a model of a brick wall to show how the Coincident mate can be used. In the following steps, I will be showing you a couple of different ways you can apply the coincident mate to a brick to define its location on the wall. The use of the coincident mate will come pretty close to how mortar would be used on a real brick wall except for some minor differences.

If you are not familiar with the Coincident mate, it is used to ensure that two planes, faces, edges or points (or any combination of these types) are in constant contact between two components. In all cases, just one mate will not be sufficient to limit the degrees of freedom for the part. For example, in our brick wall example if we just added a Coincident mate between to faces of two bricks. The part can still be moved in the assembly as long as the two selected faces share the same plane. The faces do not even need to touch. I think it will all make more sense when you see the example, so let us go ahead and jump right into it.

Adding The Coincident Mate

After inserting a component into an assembly, you will see in the FeatureManager that its location is under defined with the minus (-) that is shown next to the model name. We will need to limit the part Degrees of Freedom before the symbol is removed.

1. Click S on your keyboard and select Mates from the Shortcut Toolbar.

2. Select the front face of the brick by clicking and releasing the left mouse button.

3. Select that face on the select part that will be mated. This part should, in most cases depending on your design, already have its position fully defined.

Mate Pop-up Toolbar

After releasing the left mouse button after selecting the second part, a Mate Pop-up Toolbar will be shown near the mouse pointer. The mate that is most appropriate based on the selections made in the Graphics Area will already be selected in the toolbar. If you need to select a different mate, you can make that selection in the toolbar rather then the Mate PropertyManager. If no other options need to be set, clicking the green checkmark in the toolbar would apply the mate and allow you to move onto another selection.

Mate PropertyManager

There maybe times when you need to set options that affect how your mate acts.In addition to setting options for the selected mate, you can also change the mate type in the Mate PropertyManager. Honestly, out of habit, I will confirm my mate selections in the PropertyManager instead of the Mate Pop-up Toolbar but this is something I am trying to address.

Mate Alignment

Near the bottom of the Standard Mates section in the Mate PropertyManager, the alignment of the mate can be adjusted with two buttons. The first button, Aligned, is usually the default when using a Coincident mate but it depends on the selection and the orientation of the parts prior to mating.

Aligned

The Aligned option orientates the moveable component so that both of the selected faces are pointing in the same direction.

The view below shows how the two selected faces are pointing in the same direction when the Aligned option is selected in the Mate PropertyManager.

Anti-Aligned

The Anti-Aligned options orients the moveable part so that the two selected faces are facing each other.

The view below shows how the brick is rotated to have the selected faces opposing each other when the Anti-Align option is selected in the Mate PropertyManager.

After selecting the appropriate faces, edges, points or planes and the options have been set in the PropertyManager, clicking the green checkmark in the PropertyManager will apply the mate and you can move on to the next mate. If you are done applying mates, clicking the green checkmark or hitting ESC will exit the Mate PropertyManager.

Using SmartMates

As promised, here is a great way to apply mates that you might not have head about before. SmartMates are used to apply the most commonly used mates without the need of the Mate PropertyManager. Throughout future posts, we will explore SmartMates with different mate types but today lets just look at how the Coincident mate can be quickly and easily applied.

1. Instead of initiating the mate command, if you hold the ALT key and select the desired face of the part and drag the part to to the target part. The mouse pointer will update to include a small paper clip icon.

NOTE: If you hold the CTRL key instead of the ALT key, the part will be copied and used to mate to the target part.

2. When the mouse pointer is directly over another surface, the mouse pointer will update to include a symbol describing the type of mate being applied. In this case, the pointer shows that two planar faces are being mated.

Changing the Alignment when Using SmartMates

Even though the Mate PropertyManager is not being used with SmartMates, the alignment can still be specified. While still holding down the left mouse button, release the ALT key and press the TAB key to flip between the two aligment options.

Accepting the Mate

To accept the mate, first release the left mouse button and then click the green checkmark in the Mate Pop-up Toolbar. Once the mate is applied, there is no need to close out of anything unlike when using the Mate PropertyManager. You can move on to another operation in your assembly or you can apply another mate using SmartMates. This is the reason why I prefer using SmartMates whenever possible.

NOTE: Even though they are not considered mates that are applied using SmartMates, you can change your mate type to any of the ones shown in the toolbar and still have no need to use the Mate PropertyManager.

Conclusion…

Once you finished defining the position of the part in your assembly, the minus (-) in the FeatureManager is no longer present. The part cannot be moved unless you delete the mates applied….but is a different post altogether.

I hope that even the more experienced SolidWorks users found today’s post helpful. Next time we will be going over the Parallel Mate, so keep on the look out for that one. Hopefully, it will be be posted soon. I promise

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Review: 3Dconnexion SpacePilot PRO 3D Mouse

The SW Geek — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:00:21 +0000

On April 16, 2009 3Dconnexion announced the release of a new addition to their line of 3D mice, the SpacePilot PRO. I recently received my review unit from the company and I was very excited since I have never had the chance to use a 3D mouse in the past. As soon as I opened the FedEx box, I had the mouse connected and running within 15 minutes.I was like a kid a Christmas and I couldn’t wait to see what all the buzz was about. Let me just say… I wasn’t disappointed.

The Heart of a 3D Mouse

If you are like me and you have never used a 3D mouse before then you are missing out. Over the years of using SolidWorks, I have become very proficient at manipulating the view in the Graphics Area by using the scroll wheel on the mouse. With nothing to compare it to, I thought the a regular mouse was more then sufficient for rotating, panning and zooming. But just 10 minutes after using the SpacePilot PRO, I know I will never go back to just using a regular mouse in SolidWorks.

Looking beyond all the buttons and displays, the Controller Cap is the heart of the SpacePilot Pro. The Controller Cap allows you to quickly and easily move in all 6 degrees of freedom simultaneously. With the scroll wheel on your mouse you can rotate the view, zoom and pan but not at the same time but with the SpacePilot…. It is so easy to manipulate your view. And it is not as hard as you may think, I am a complete novice and I was able to become very comfortable within a couple of minutes. After installing the mouse, I actually spent an hour playing in Google Earth using the SpacePilot. I felt like Superman flying around the planet effortlessly. If you ever get a chance to do it, I highly recommend it.

The Color LCD Workflow Assistant

The SpacePilot PRO brings the addition of a new color LCD screen called the Workflow Assistant. This screen gives you a “at-a-glance” access to your MS Outlook e-mail, calender and task lists. It also displays the commands that are mapped to each of the function keys depending on what program is currently active. There is also a RSS Feed functions that provides you with a list of recent articles that are posted for the sites you subscribe to.

Setting up your email, calendar and task list is beyond easy. Nothing has to been done in the software, all you need to do is open Outlook and you will instantly be able to view everything on the screen. The RSS feed took me some time to figure out, I couldn’t find anything in the documentation on how to set up RSS feeds but after a few minutes of digging through the control panel I was able to add all the feeds I wanted.

I know that the LCD screen was one of the top selling points with the mouse but I must be honest, I very rarely looked at it except to view which commands were mapped to the function keys. I was also a little disappointed to learn that there was no notification of new emails or scheduled meetings. In fact, the only way to see if you have new emails or scheduled meetings is to open Outlook Mail or Outlook Calendar on the screen. I guess I have been spoiled by on-screen notifications.

With that being said, I think there is still a huge potential for the Workflow Assistant. 3Dconnexion did the right thing by creating a open software architecture for the mouse. This will allow developers to create some compelling software applications for the Workflow Assistant. The first person to develop a decent Twitter app for the SpacePilot PRO will forever be my personal hero.

Navigation Keys

The Navigation Keys are conveniently located to the right of the Controller Cap. It is the perfect location because you can quickly switch between all of the standard views with your thumb. After a while I was able to switch through all 32 standard views with out even looking. This allowed me to concentrate on what I was doing on the screen. You might be thinking, “32 views from 5 keys… really?” Well, three of the buttons give you the Front, Back, Left, Right, Top and Bottom views. The middle button gives you two isometric views and the rest of the views are achieved by the last button on the top left. This button rotates the view by a preset increment, the increments and the standard views add up to 32. Each button has two views associate with it. quickly clicking the button gives you the first view and clicking and holding the button will give you the second view. Once you get used to it, it is extremely easy.

Intelligent Function Keys

On the left side of the Controller Cap are the Intelligent Function Keys. These 5 keys are fully customizable to allow you to quickly intiate up to 10 commands. So what makes them intelligent? Well, the SpacePilot PRO automatically detects which application is active and if it is a supported program, the keys will remap to the functions for that program. If you have been a long time reader of the blog, you should know how much I love the Shortcut Toolbar. To be honest, I only need one function key in this group and it wasn’t available by default; so the first thing I did was remap the center button to the Shortcut Toolbar and I couldn’t be happier.

Conclusion

I am in total love with the SpacePilot PRO and it is not because I got mine for free. In fact, I am considering moving so 3Dconnexion won’t be able to find me when it is time for me to return the unit. If you are a professional designer or 3D modeler you would find the SpacePilot PRO extremely helpful. The list price ($499) may seem a little high but your company will make that money back in time saved. I think that as developers begin creating killer apps for the Workflow Assistant, it will be extremely difficult to ignore the SpacePilot PRO.

Specifications

The SpacePilot PRO is back by a three-year warranty, and is currently available at a suggested retail price of $499. More information can be found on the manufacturers website at http://www.3dconnexion.com/spp/index.php.

- Operating Systems:

Windows XP and Windows Vista
Sun Solaris 8 (SPARC); Sun Solaris 10 (x86)
Linux

- Processor:

PC – Intel Pentium 4/III or AMD/Athlon processor based system

- Disk Space:

Windows – 250 megabytes

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Mating in SolidWorks: Introduction

The SW Geek — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:00:05 +0000

After a long break from writing, I have decided that I will make my return with the long promised series about SolidWorks Mates. The next few posts will cover every aspect of mating in SolidWorks. If you found this article after Googling mates and mating thinking you would find some cools tricks to help you in the bedroom, you clicked the wrong link. For the rest of you, we are going to start today with a brief overview of what are mates and some of the best practices. Then in coming articles I will go in detail about each available mate in SolidWorks 2009.

What are Mates?

I know a lot of my readers are fully aware of what mates are but there maybe a couple newcomers to SolidWorks who have only briefly heard about mates. Mates are relationships between parts in an assembly that often represent how parts in an assembly are put together when manufactured. Parts floating in 3D space have six degrees of freedom that mates are then used to constrain.

To better understand the 6 degrees of freedom, look at the Reference Triad above. Each unconstrained part can freely move along any of the 3 axes: X,Y and Z. The translation along these axes count for 3 of the degrees of freedom while rotation about the three axes account for the other three. When a part in assembly cannot translate or rotate on any of thee axes then the part is part is fully constrained.

There are a number of mates available in a SolidWorks assembly that are used to fully constrain a part. The most common mates used in SolidWorks can be found in the Standard Mates section and they include Coincident, Parallel, Perpendicular, Tangent, Concentric, Lock, Distance and Angle. These mates are so common, many users can go their entire time using SolidWorks without using any of the more advanced mates. By the end of this series, hopefully you won’t be one of them.

Good Practices & Resolving Errors

In the SolidWorks Help, there are some great pages that provide you with a list of best practices when using mates not to mention some of the articles that can be found online. And rather then reinvent the wheel, I just want to hit a couple of points to consider when applying mates. These are just somethings I run into when I am dealing with users at my day job and I feel that they are often overlooked.

When you have mate errors in your assembly, don’t ignore them. The extra couple of minutes you take trying to solve a mate issue when it happens is a lot better then trying to debug an assembly with 5, 10 or 500 mate errors.
When you have a mate error, look to see what components are being mated. Sometimes, a mate error is cause by a component being suppressed or deleted.
If both of the components are resolved and you still get an error, trying rebuilding the assembly by pressing CTRL-Q on your keyboard. CTRL-Q rebuilds the entire assembly and this will sometimes resolve your error.
If after rebuilding the assembly you still have an error, try dragging the component. Believe it or not, sometimes this will clear up the error.
Another trick that sometimes work to resolve mate errors, is to suppress then unsuppress the mate. This is another one of those weird things that will sometimes cause SolidWorks to reevaluate the mate and resolve the issue.
If all else fails, delete the mate from the Mates folder and re apply it. It is better to add a new mate then spend valuable time trying to debug a mate error….but that is just my opinion.
Don’t be lazy. Don’t just lock the position of your component in an assembly. Yes, it saves you 2 minutes when creating the assembly but imagine the poor guy that has to make a revision to your assembly later.
Try moving a part after mating it to see if it is indeed fully constrained. Sometimes, especially on more complex assemblies, it is easy to miss a mate or miss an issue with a mate.
I cannot stress this last one enough…. Fully constrain your assembly. Making sure that your assembly is fully constrained will prevent issues later, especially when revising components in your assembly. At the very least constrain the parts as required to fulfill your design intent. One mate I often over look because it does not affect design intent is constraining the rotation of screws in holes and shafts that are design to move linearly.

Way More To Come…

This was meant to be just a quick introduction to the mating series and later posts will be more detailed. I will also be sure to point out more best practices as they become releavent to the discussion. If you have any best practices or tips to fix mate errors, I would love to hear them and I am sure everybody will find them helpful.

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Important Site Annoucement – April Fools 2009

admin — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:22:07 +0000

I know it has been a long time since I have written a post. The new SolidWorks book has been taking up all my free time but I am hoping that I will be able to write again real soon. That does bring me to the reason for this article. I have been considering, for quite sometime, changing the purpose of the site. Since all my free time has been used writing about SolidWorks, I wanted to break up my day a little and write about something non-SolidWorks related. My biggest fear is that I will burn myself out and I would no longer be able to gain enjoyment from writing about SolidWorks. Starting today, I am repurposing the site. The URL will remain the same since the new blog topic fits well with the URL. The new site will now be known as The Star Wars Geek. I am extremely excited about this change and I am interested in finding out what all of you think. Please comment on this new site topic.

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A New Project for the Geek

The SW Geek — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:13:10 +0000

Some of you may have noticed that I have been posting with less frequency over the past few months but I have been working a new project. Those who follow me on twitter (http://twitter.com/swgeek) already know about my new project but I thought it would be good to share it with my readers. Last week I received confirmation from Wiley, http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/, that I will be writing a new SolidWorks book due out shortly after the release of SolidWorks 2010. The new book will be called SolidWorks 2010 – No Experience Required. This is an existing series that includes titles for AutoCad, Revit and Microsoft Frontpage and this will be the first book in the series that covers SolidWorks.

I am extremely excited about his awesome opportunity, to say the least. I am very passionate about sharing knowledge and I feel this will spread the gospel of SolidWorks even further. When I started writing The SolidWorks Geek, I had hoped that the site would become a great resource to new users of SolidWorks and based on the wonderful emails I receive from all of you, it has seems to be working. Now with this new project, I will be able to reach users who aren’t even aware of this great community that lives on the web.

If you are an avid reader of The SolidWorks Geek, do not despair…I will continue to write and share some great tips and tricks but a little less frequent. From time to time, I will also share with you my experiences while writing the book and maybe pose some questions to the reader. So please stay tuned and wish me luck!

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SolidWorks World 2009 – Never Too Old To Play With Toys

The SW Geek — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:19:57 +0000

One of the greatest advantages of being at SolidWorks World is being able to talk to SolidWorks users from around the world and learn how they are utilizing SolidWorks. At the CSWP off-site event, I had an opportunity to chat briefly with Thierry Beauegard. Thierry has the holy grail of SolidWorks related jobs, he designs toys. As the design supervisor of the preschool division for Mega Brands Inc., Thierry and his team of designers have created many well known toys in the Mega Bloks product line including the Dora the Explorer, Diego and Disney titles.
In talking to Thierry, I was surprised to learn how much he and his team fully utilize SolidWorks in their product development. The process all starts when Thierry’s team is presented with a request from marketing to create a new toy to fill a need in the product line. After initial sketches, the team begins modeling different ideas in SolidWorks using the same design process we are all familiar with. After a few ideas are modeled up, they are then printed out using rapid prototyping. This process allows them to quickly evaluate different design concepts and determine which design should be further refined.
After the prototype is approved, the design is further refined in SolidWorks using a combination of solids and surfaces. Using library features, they are able to make sure that all the mating geometry is consistent and will work with the standard blocks that are common among all product lines. Then using the mold tools available in SolidWorks, the model design is evaluated for moldability prior to sending the models for mold fabrication. From start to finish the process can take a few weeks to create new designs that are ready for manufacturing.
Even after the cool new toy design is complete, SolidWorks still plays a major part in the product lifecycle. The models used for manufacturing are then used to create the instruction manuals in PhotoWorks and used to create animations for marketing videos.
You are probably wondering how to get an awesomely cool job in tool design. Well, it is not as hard as you may think. According to Thierry, the following is what is required to be a toy designer. First, you need to be creative and innovative to be able to design toys that kids would really love. You need to be able to create hand sketches in order to create your concepts. You should be a little crazy and have a passion for toys. But don’t think it is all fun and games; you need to have good engineering skills since there are safety guidelines that are important to adhere to in designs. You also need to have a good knowledge of molding. If you cannot properly mold your design, that could be a problem.
So steal some of your kid’s toys and start modeling them up in SolidWorks. Who knows, you can be a future toy designer having the time of your life.

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SolidWorks World 2009 – Jeff Ray vs. Richard Branson

The SW Geek — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:24:44 +0000

After months of anticipation, this year’s keynote presentation was an interview with super-entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin Group. Instead of Barbara Walters or Katie Couric, Richard Branson was interviewed by none other then Jeff Ray, the CEO of SolidWorks. The audience made up of a few thousand SolidWorks geeks from around the world were first treated with a brief video highlighting milestones in the amazing history of Richard Branson and his accomplishments. Then, amid thunderous applause Sir Richard Branson was introduced to the waiting audience by Jeff Ray. Richard Branson made his way to one the two black leather chairs set up on the stage. With Jeff Ray sitting on the opposite chair, the interview commenced.
From the first question, you can tell that this was not the same canned questions that are normally asked of Richard Branson. Jeff Ray asked Richard Branson about his very first public speaking experience when he was only 17 years old in London. Apparently, two minutes into his speech in London, he became flustered and left the stage vowing never to do a public speech again. The great thing about the question is that the addressed the reason for the sit down interview rather than an actual speech by Richard Branson. I think the format also gave better insight into the man that from selling albums from the truck of his car that went on the form one of the most exciting companies in the world.
Obviously, not being an engineering or designer, Sir Richard Branson was not going to provide some great insight in the SolidWorks design process. But Jeff Ray did a great job of asking follow up questions that helped turn the conversation to some of the design aspects of his many ventures. When Richard Branson spoke about the design for the airline seats, I felt it provided a look into the mind of a man that strives for being the best at any cost. Sometime ago Virgin had spent a considerable amount of money design new seats for the entire fleet of planes but just prior to their release it was discovered that a competitor had installed seats with many of the same design elements. Most companies at that point would have just continued on with the release plans but not Virgin. Rather than follow a competitor, it was decided that the entire stock of seats would be scrapped and a new design would be created. This gave Virgin an opportunity to readdress the design issue and create something that was leaps ahead of the competition.
One moment in particular created an eruption of laughter when Richard Branson describes the design for the Virgin Cola bottle with Pamela Anderson. This created a design issue when of course it was desired to have the shape of the bottle match the shape of Pamela Anderson but the only problem was when the bottle kept tipping over. The question that came to my mind was, “Where do I sign up for that design job?”
If you are a reader of The SolidWorks Geek, then you know that Jeff Ray put the call out online for questions to be submitted for Richard Branson. Due to time constraints, they were only able to get to two of the submitted questions. One of the questions asked, was submitted by a fellow twitter resident Marijn. Overall, I think it was a great sit down interview with Richard Branson. I have mentioned before that I admire Richard Branson and what he has done. A high school dropout, creating a multi-billion multi-national business empire from a very modest beginnings is an amazing story.

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Geek at Large – SolidWorks World 2009

The SW Geek — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 13:11:34 +0000

It is finally here… SolidWorks World 2009 in Orlando Florida. SolidWorks World is the one time per year when SolidWorks users can loudly proclaim “I am a SolidWorks Geek” and no one would even blink an eye. Wandering around is a healthy mix of press, bloggers, users, resellers and employees of SolidWorks. In my day to day life I can go months without having a face to face conversation with someone that is as passionate about SolidWorks as I am. Here, I cannot walk 5 feet without running into people oozing with passion. It is really an experience that every SolidWorks user should have at least once in their life but if you were unable to attend this year, you’re in luck. All of the top SolidWorks bloggers, including myself, are here to provide you with all the information you need to help you feel like you are rubbing elbows with the elite geeks of SolidWorks.

Day 1 – Travel Day

Saturday was pretty much a travel day for me. I started out in the morning flying out of John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California. My flight was scheduled to leave at 6:45 AM and, as you can imagine, I was extremely tired when I boarded. But the excitement of what was to come worked better than any coffee that you can buy. I meant to do some writing on the plane, but between the spare tire I call my stomach, the small seats on the plane and my large laptop; it was impossible for me to find a comfortable writing position. So instead, I spent my time staring outside my window admiring the view and excitedly thinking about what was to come when I reached Orlando.

After landing in Houston, Texas I hooked up with Matthew Lorono from SolidWorks Legion. While we were waiting on our next flight, we started talking about SolidWorks World. This being my very first SolidWorks World, I enjoy hearing stories about previous SolidWorks Worlds that I missed. While we were speaking excitedly about our plans for the week, someone sitting next to us chimed in about SolidWorks World. How cool is it, that we were in a strange city talking about SolidWorks World and there happen to be someone within earshot that was also going? After exchanging business cards, we discovered that our new traveling companion was Justin Hoey, the Technical Marketing Manager from Autodesk.
When we landed in Orlando, the three of us decided to share a cab to the Swan & Dolphin. In the cab, our conversation returned to SolidWorks World pasts, and the infamous interview that Mike Puckett had with Lynn Allen from Autodesk. I hope that sometime this week, I will have time do an interview with Justin but I promise that it will not be as hard hitting as Mike’s was with Lynn. The coolest part about the cab ride to the Swan & Dolphin was upon arrival to the hotel; Justin offered to cover the $50+ cab ride. So Autodesk paid $50 for me to go to SolidWorks World. How cool is that?

Blogger / Twitter Meet up

Thanks to Matthew West of SolidWorks, we a small get together in the Bar area of the lobby. It was a chance for bloggers and twitter users to meet, talk, drink and have fun. It was a great opportunity to meet some of the bloggers and twitterers for the first time face-to-face. Of course, what happens at the tweet-up, stays at the tweet-up but I can say “I can’t believe he said that to her”
I didn’t bring my camera with me to the tweet up (less evidence), but of course the blogging pool did not disappoint. Go check out some posts from my fellow SolidWorks Bloggers for some great coverage and photos.
That does it for my day one coverage, I am already working on my day 2 and I will be posting it later today. If you haven’t already done so, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed so you won’t miss anything. Also, check out all of the blogger pools coverage over the next couple of days.

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Design For The Future Update

The SW Geek — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 19:49:29 +0000

I want to just start off by saying, I have been humbled by the overwhelming support for the Design For The Future campaign. As of today, you have raised $865 for the Orangewood Children’s Foundation and from what I am hearing there is plenty more to come. Also, in the coming weeks, we will adding prizes for donors that have been donated by various companies. Details will follow as they become available.

Orangewood’s Support

I have been in contact with the Orangewood’s Children Foundation and they are extremely excited about the Design For The Future charity drive. The foundation has not been immune from the current economic climate and they are experiencing a downturn in individual donations. They are excited to see an effort, such as Design For The Future, to generate awareness and donations for the foundation.

One of the questions I have heard from donors is whether donations made are tax-deductible. Unfortunately, as of now, donations made though Design For The Future are not tax deductible. However, early next week, I am scheduled for a sit down meeting with the Orangewood Children’s Foundation and one of the topics that is going to be discussed is how donors will be able to claim their individual donations as a tax deductible donation. I am confident that there will be some great news coming from my meeting and I will keep everybody updated on what transpires.

Blogger’s Support

One of the most exciting aspects of the Design For The Future drive, has been the support from the blogger community. Some bloggers from the SolidWorks, CAD and lifestyle community have written some great posts advertising the drive to their readers. In appreciation for their help in spreading the word, I would like to return the favor. The following blogs have written articles about the drive and I encourage all of my readers to visit their sites and subscribe to their RSS feeds. If I have missed anybody, please let me know.

SpaceClaiming – An online community about the latest CAD technologies.
Novedge Pulse – A CAD blog post and news aggregator
Novedge – The Blog – Novedge world of graphics and design
Land of Gracious Living – A site about living in Yorba Linda, California
The Glamorous Life Association – Marcy writes about living in Orange County California
CADFanatic – Brian McElyea is the CAD Fanatic.
Devon Sowell’s Blog – A fellow Southern California SolidWorks Blogger
Jeff’s Blog – Jeff Mirisola is a SolidWorks blogger and a good friend.
Rocksolid Perspective - Jason Raak writes about using SolidWorks
SolidSmack – Does Josh Mings really need any introduction? The media darling of the SolidWorks community.
SolidWorks: Heard! - Lou Gallo brings you the best damn SolidWorks podcast.
Virtually 3D – Burhop is a technology junky, SL Avatar, 3D software developer, car tinkerer, CAD user, and upcoming Social Media extremist.

I hope I got them all, if I missed anybody please let me know and I will make the update.

Help Spread the Word

Thanks to my friend Franco Folini, of Novedge, we now have a couple of images that you are free to place on your blog or site to help spread the word about Design For The Future. If you add one of these badges to your site, let me know and I will link back to your site. Also, If you or anybody your know would like to make some more badges, please feel free and let me know so I can add them to the Design For The Future page.

Thank You

Once again, I want to thank each and every single one of you for your amazing support for Design For The Future. Stay tuned for more updates as they come.

Alex R. Ruiz

The SolidWorks Geek

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Design For the Future Charity Drive

admin — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:09:12 +0000

The SolidWorks Geek is proud to announce the Design For The Future Charity Drive for The Orangewood Children’s Foundation. Information regarding the drive can be found the the Design For the Future page on The SolidWorks Geek blog. In addition to the new page, a thermometer has been added to the main page of the site to show the progress towards our goal of $5000. 100% of donations will be presented to The Orangewood Children’s Foundation in the name of the SolidWorks, CAD, Engineering, twitter and blogging community.

This is a great cause and I encourage everybody to donate what they can using the donate button on the page using Paypal. Please spread the word to support the children. If you have any questions or if you are interested in offering corporate sponsership, please email designforthefuture@theswgeek.com.

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