SolidWorks Legion

Value of training options for SolidWorks

For me, SolidWorks was a fairly easy application to learn. In fact, I am self-taught for the most part. I learned it progressively over a couple of months because it was necessary for my jobs and I had to do it. That was over a decade ago. These days, that may not be an acceptable option. Users often need to hit the ground running. Not every situation is the same. Even still, I’ve created a new poll to get the opinions of others. Imagine you have a new hirer at your company for a position that required the use of SolidWorks, but they don’t have experience with the software. How would you handle that?

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SolidWorks 2010 Save Mod Docs notice

With SolidWorks 2009 and any previous versions, when the user clicks on the X (exit) in the upper right corner of the SolidWorks window and they had a lot of modified files open, they would be presented with notice after notice asking if they wish to save, don’t save or cancel. It was very annoying. And, it was also nearly impossible to understand the relationships between the files being asked about.

SolidWorks 2010 has introduced the Save Modified Documents window. Now, when the user goes to quit SolidWorks, they are presented with a well organized window that shows all visible documents, with detail on how they related to each other.

The window offers the user several choices: save all of the modified documents, selectively save modified documents, don’t save documents, and the all important cancellation of the action to quit SolidWorks. (Sometimes when one sees what they are about to quit on, they will need to cancel the quit.) Oh, and don’t forget that Help button! 🙂

With this new window, the task of quitting SolidWorks is now quicker and more predictable. I think this going to end up being on of these functions we will take for granted very quickly (forgetting just how annoying previous versions where in this).

SolidWorks World 2010 correspondent quest

Just announced yesterday, SolidWorks is conducting a contest to find a worthy person to act as their Official Internet Correspondent at SolidWorks World 2010. The winner of the contest will be loaned a camcorder to use to document their experience at SolidWorks World 2010 on a blog and Youtube (and associated Tweets too)!

The decision as to who wins the contest will be made November 13. I would like to ask everyone to vote for our very own Chris Saller (if he accepts the nominations he has received already). Unless someone has a more clever idea, I say just vote for Chris by commenting on the article linked here.

Have fun!!!

Welcome to the brand new look

Welcome to the brand new look for the SolidWorks Legion website (http://www.fcsuper.com/swblog). The website is now upgraded to the latest WordPress version 2.8.5. This allows for more powerful functionality. I finally have polls that don’t suck!!!

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

Please explore the site. Contact us if there are any funny things that happen with the site during your visit here. Many of the previous posts where formatted for the old website layout. Due to this, they may appear a little messy. I’ll be working to clean these up over time. The old version of WordPress used to hide double spacing between sentences (for whatever reason). The current version does not. Apparently, as part of this upgrade, I get a bunch of extra symbols where the old version hide those spaces. So, if you see a funny A after every sentence in an older post, just ignore it.

Thank you Jennifer Szabo for again rescueing me from certain calamity.

SolidWorks Labs: Tagger

The ability to tag features within a solid model was added with the release of SolidWorks 2008. This sometimes under-utilized capability may go unnoticed by many. After all, the function to add tags is a tiny little icon in the far right corner of the status bar. SolidWorks Labs has developed an improved user interface for tagging in the form of an add-in called Tagger. Within its own task pane, it allows the user to see all of the tags used within the open SolidWorks document. Users can even select specific tags as favorites that can be easily applied to a feature at any time. To use the tags, simply click on the term in the Tagger task pane. This will highlight the the associated features within the FeatureManager. This add-in from SoildWorks Labs adds new functionality that makes tags all the more useful.

SolidWorks World 2010 Agenda

Agenda header

The preliminary agenda is now posted for SolidWorks World 2010 on the SolidWorks website. The agenda is subject to change, of course. That usually means that more breakout sessions may be added.

If justification for attendance is still needed, the agenda itself can serve as an excellent resource. One way to look at SolidWorks World is that it is an opportunity to attend up to twelve educational classes. At $995, that works out to be just under $83 per session. I’ve easily paid over $800 a day for some industry seminars. SolidWorks World is a big bargain.

But wait, there’s more! Attendees also get to explore a large trade show (Partner Pavilion) with hundreds of exhibitors. Some trade shows are free, but more technical ones tend to charge some sort of nominal fee. At SolidWorks World, it’s included as part of the package.

Agenda links

	CAD Administration
	Data Management
	Design Automation
	Design Validation
	Education
	Modeling Essentials
	Productivity Tools
	Customer Success/Designing Better Products
	Design Communication

Coming soon in November, attendees will be able to pick their session preferences. Spots are not guaranteed for regular breakout sessions even with advanced session preference selection. However, it’s important to pick preferences soon, especially for hands-on sessions which usually fill up fast.