Drawing ER Blitz results are in

The results are in for the SolidWorks Drawing ER Blitz by Dwight Livingston.  He listed the results in order of popularity.  Here are the topic five.

  1. 60% Provide hole callouts for holes in non-planar surfaces.
  2. 59% Greatly reduce drawing user interface delays.
  3. 55% Provide the ability to item balloon sub assemblies that are inserted after the BOM is created using the Top assembly, ie 3.9 from BOM in a separate sub assembly.
  4. 54% Provide option in view properties window to add view title and/or view scale to view.
  5. 54% Create ability to combine multiple identical hole callouts in a single callout with a combined quantity.

It surprizes me a little that the view title/scale issue is in the top five.  That’s why we vote, though!  The top five seems to be a list that spreads across several difference topics, with a bias towards hole callouts.  In general, the list seems to put a higher priority for dimensioning and more ability to control tables.  It seems to put a lower priority of symbol functionality and handling.  There is a common complaint that broken views cannot be added to detail views.  For whatever reason, this appears low on the list.

The list is a bit surprizing.  Of particular note, very few items even got a majority vote.

Results

Which Way EPA?

Green industries, although growing, are still having a hard time getting the acceptance from the U.S. Government in the form of funding, supporting regulations and support from the EPA (Environment Protection Agency), or as Grampa Simpson called them, Eepah!  EEEPAH!

EPA was established in 1970.  It responsibilities cover issues dealing with the protection of the environment and public health.  They set clean water standards.  They specify limits for toxic waste sites.  They are also tasked to regulate industrial pollution, and now even the pollution from everyone’s vehicle.  Law mandates that the EPA use proven science and technical and legal data to make decisions that are in the best interest of all citizens.  (Contrary to the depiction in The Simpsons Movie, EPA doesn’t have armored tanks nor huge impregnatable city covering domes.)

In my opinion, these regulations should consider new environmental technologies.  The EPA should take a role in fostering new technologies that create solutions for environmental protection efforts.  When the EPA is doing its job, this happens.  Such efforts have already helped spark development of U.S. green industries.

The problem?  EPA is supposed to be partisan neutral.  It hasn’t be treated as such under the current U.S. presidential administration.  Its purpose and over all ability to function have been hampered on two fronts as a result of agendas that belong back in the Industrial Age. One, its budget has been substantially reduced to force it to downscale its operations.  Two, according to a recent Design World article, the head of the EPA, appointed by the President, is an individual that seems to act without regard to science or even his own staffs recommendations, in favor of the President’s agenda.  This agenda unfortunately focuses on protecting old industries, ignores the facts that those old industries can still be supported while encouraging green industry, and that old industries can actually be made safer and more efficient by using green technologies.

Beyond that, it is important to recognize that the human population is growing too rapidly for the current industrial centric paradigm to support in the long run.  I’m not talking about Global Warming.  Our planet simply does not have the resources to support the projected populations if things remain on their current path.  Being the largest consumer of resources, the U.S. bares a large portion of responsibility for these issues.  This isn’t a guilt trip.  We simply need to act in our own self-preserving interests.

New technologies need to be supported, developed and implemented to deal with the changing and currently unknown challenges 21st Century will bring.  Though some will argue that it is not the government’s job to be at the forefront of technological development, the reality is that this is a job the government takes on.  Without government “encouragement”, industry acceptance tends to lag until problems is so big that it cannot be ignored. At times, this has been to the detriment of our country, as the current fiscal crisis attests.

The EPA plays a particular role in all this by working with (and sometimes against) industry to do what is best for America’s people.  It can be a leader that creates new opportunities for U.S. industry, new jobs, new technologies, etc.  Hopefully the EPA will be able to fulfill the role for which it was established.  If allowed it, I believe it will benefit our economy (perhaps even sooner rather than later), including the creation of engineering jobs in the new and growing green industry.

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Source:  Michelle Shaland (2008) What’s the real role of the EPA?, Design World – August 2008

SW Real Rewards Program Update

Ok, so some time ago, I squibbed SolidWorks Real Rewards program in an article called SolidWorks Real Rewards (Smart Button).  SolidWorks Legion got a lot of attention because of that article.  That article is still in the top ten articles here on SolidWorks Legion.  So here’s the deal.  I did make fun of the program; didn’t see  a major reason to take it seriously.  However, there was an unintentional side effect, both to the program and to my article.  If you look at the article, you’ll find a lot of requests from individuals who wanted to be signed up for the program.My Rewards!!!

Program Purpose

As described to me by the program’s initiator at SolidWorks Corp, the purpose of this program was to encourage individuals to spread the word about SolidWorks.  If someone knew another person or company that could benefit from 3D CAD software (particularly SolidWorks), they could sign those individuals up via the Real Rewards website.  In return, if a purchase of SolidWorks was made as a result of the referral, the referrer would get a snazzy little prize.

Something Strange Happened

However, in practice, my article has attracted many people looking for a trial of SolidWorks for various other reasons.   I’ve dutifully submitted the email of each person that requested such within the comments of that article.  I never expected any of those leads would turn into a qualifying purchase of SolidWorks, but I thought I’d do it anyway, just in case (and kinda for the fun of it).

Well, guess what?  Recently, I contacted SolidWorks Corp about my many referrals to see if anyone did indeed make a purchase.  It turns out one did!  Of course, I’m a little annoyed that I had to ask instead of SolidWorks Corp just surprizing me.  But hey, free gifts, right?!  I earned the level 1 gift.  It is a package including a SolidWorks backpack (not the same one from SWW8 or given away at user group meetings), a business card holder all jazzed up with faux wood, and an insulating coffee cup that is so heavy, it could prolly be mistaken for a mortar shell.  I’m moderately delighted that I earned something from the program.  Maybe I can earn those Logitech Speakers at level 2!

Real Life Use

So, although this isn’t the word of mouth promotion SolidWorks Corp was hoping for, it has lead to the some good promotion and realization.  Several people who asked to be signed up for the program where looking to practice on SolidWorks before a job interview.  Those aren’t necessarily going to lead to future sales, but it does indicate that new SolidWorks users are entering into the job market due to job demand for people with such skills.  It also may indicate that the U.S. economy isn’t doing poorly in every sector.  (The program is limited to North America.)

One final comment.  Technically, the program only ran in the first quarter of 2008.  The rules for the program have not been changed.  It would seem wise for SolidWorks Corp to officially update the rules to make this an on-going program; if for no other reason than to give me a chance to earn my Logitech speakers!

Update (12/18/2009)

This program was cancelled by SolidWorks Corp as of December 2009. I am not able to fulfill any further submission requests for the trial version of SolidWorks. It is my understanding that SolidWorks still has other programs available. Please contact a local VAR for details. To find a local VAR or for information about current offers, please see the SolidWorks.com website.

PhotoView 360 research

PhotoView 360 is the new rendering software available in SolidWorks 2009.   SolidWorks Corp is now getting some feedback from users about PhotoView 360 and is also asking what features future versions of the product should incorporate. Upon finishing this short survey, there’s a webpage that features some renderings created by the PhotoView Community.  See the link here:

Survey:  http://www.solidworks.com/PhotoView360_survey

SW Dwg ER Blitz: Dwight Livingston Interview

Dwight Livingston is an Industrial Designer who participates on the SolidWorks Forums.  A couple of months ago or so, he took on a cause that hits close to home for many of us.  A discussion was started that asked the question, “when is solidworks ever going to focus on drawings for a new release?”  Mr. Livingston answered this call to arms by taking on a new project in the Drawings Forum called SolidWorks Drawing ER Blitz, where many people have come together to bring up drawing functionality that needs improvement, such as missing features, bugs, nice-to-haves, and more robust capabilities.   The purpose of this is effort is to compile a list in which all of us are welcome to vote.  The list will then be submitted to SolidWorks Corp, who have expressed interest in the results.  Stay tuned for more information on when and where to vote.

In the meantime, I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Livingston about his project. 

Dwight, you are running a project in the SolidWorks Drawings Forum that has generated a lot of attention. You named it SolidWorks Drawings ER Blitz.  Please, tell me about this project and how you got started with it.

Dwight LivingstonThe effort grew out of a couple of frustrations. One is with the current Enhancement Request system. I’ve put in a few enhancement requests, but I never felt it worked for me. When I look through the listed ERs, none seem to be those that people are talking about on the forum. Some of the ERs did not make sense. If I added my own ER, it would not show up. I wanted a better process, one that would engage people and encourage critical discussion.

The other frustration has been Drawing Tables. Vertical padding in tables has never worked right, ever since I started using SolidWorks in 2004. Every year I expected it to be fixed, but the fix never came. I have been involved in writing CAD procedures for our shop, and they include table formatting for our drawings. With the current versions of SolidWorks, the tables often look like crap. The work-around is a lot of manual fussing with row heights. I had to include a little table in our procedure that shows proper row heights for how many lines of text. It’s embarrassing.

When the Eddie Cyganik started the forum topic “What Drawing Functionality Does SolidWorks Need to Improve?”, I thought that was a good way to address the ER process. Other people had similar ideas. Steve Calvert suggested an Enhancement Request Forum, which I think would be a great thing to have. Users could have a dialog with each other and with SolidWorks people, focusing on a specific ER. There’s be a chance to improve the ER, get people to understand what the ER is all about, show perhaps that SolidWorks already had the capability requested.

The other part was establishing the importance of an idea. It’s frustrating to see SolidWorks come out with enhancements that I can’t use, rather than add the things I need. The users need to provide SolidWorks with priorities. Voting is a way to do that. So we’re doing a big voting survey to choose which of all the enhancements we came up with would be the ones most people really want.

What was the inspiration for the name SolidWorks Drawings ER Blitz?

Not much inspiration. I wanted a term that would be easy to search. I was thinking of football, I guess, and a play where the defense concentrates their forces on a limited objective and takes the issue to the other side. That’s instead of spreading out and waiting to see what gets tossed our way. In can’t say “blitz” describes the speed of the process; it seems too slow.

The project is feed by individuals posting responses in the SolidWorks Forums.  Posts related to this project now approaches 200 (possibly already more).  What do you think of (or feel about) the responses and participation so far with this project?

It’s been good. Some of my own ERs got shot down – that’s a good thing. People explained some existing functionality that made the ERs unnecessary, so we weren’t clogging the process with requests that don’t need solutions. Some of the other ER schemes evolved as people commented and improved over time. That’s how I think it ought to work.

I wished we could have had more people making critiques. There may be ways to draw people into the discussion, make it easier for people to join in. I think the process should be more competitive. There should be feedback to tell people that their favorite idea is going down unless they improve it. Matt Lombard’s current column has a nice example of using polling tools, placed right in the discussion. After reading a couple of paragraphs you get to fill out a poll. You pick if you think a feature should work this way, or that way, or it doesn’t matter. I can see adding some additional choices, such as “I don’t understand what you are talking about”  and “What we really need is. . . .” That way we might get more people involved in the process.

What are you getting about all this?  🙂

We’ll see. I’ve received emails from SolidWorks, with interest in the ERs and in the process. That’s what I really hope for, is an improved ER process, one that engages more users, is more competitive, is more open, and encourages evolution of the ideas.

Direct input to the list of items within the project has now closed.  It has entered the voting stage.  What is your plan for the vote results?

The results will be posted on the forum. The plan is to list popular items as official ERs, which people may then go and support. That stage may be unnecessary, as the survey will go directly into SolidWorks evaluation process, in some manner.