Category: News

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

SolidWorks LabSolidWorks LabThe 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.

13 and 13 (likes and dislikes in co-worker behavior)

ThomasNet has a blog.   Apparently, it’s been running in one fashion or another since 2000.   Of course, back then maybe they didn’t label it as a blog, but that’s really what it is.   There’s a couple of articles that caught my attention recently.

13 types of irritating coworkers

13 Types of coworkers we like

In these articles, David R. Butcher explores the best and worst traits in our coworkers (and ourselves) at work.

His likes and dislikes may seem a bit arbitrary.   He complains about the suck-ups in the first article, but lauds the jokers in his second.   He makes the obvious observations regarding the positive coworker; yet in a sense of irony, he complains about the complainers.   It’s a fairly entertaining read.

SolidWorks 2010: Minor tweaks III

Quality is a word that is often confused when it refers to products.  It isn’t just reliability or a degree of excellence or fitness for use.

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing puts it this way,

The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.

ISO-9000 says,

Degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements.

ISO-9000 then defines requirements as a need or expectation.

Does a product have the features I need and work in an excepted manner?  In ISO 9000 terms, quality is determined by the comparison of requirements with the inherent characteristics of a product or system. Well, SolidWorks’ march to quality continues with SoildWorks 2010, as previously noted on this blog and other sites.  Along with more major changes, there are a ton of minor tweaks to take into account.  Here is a short list of more of those items:

  1. When using the Custom Properties of the Task Pane within an assembly, the custom properties belonging to lightweight components are now viewable.  As one might expect, changes to those custom properties cannot be made while the component is lightweighted.  Even here, SolidWorks 2010 doesn’t stop the user.  If the user edits a value, SolidWorks prompts to resolve the component.
  2. Normal To command now orients to the nearest global XYZ coordinates if nothing is pre-selected.  When applied to a 2D sketch, Normal To aligns the model view to the sketch.
  3. SolidWorks now lets the user see decals on SolidWorks models without activating PhotoWorks.  (Applying decals still requires PhotoWorks.) Use View pulldown>Decals, or Hide/Show Items inthe Heads-up View toolbar then View Decals.  There is also a View Decals icon in the View toolbar itself.

3DVia on iPhone!

Now any 3D model can be viewed and inserted into a photo with the new 3DVia iPhone app. Check out the video:




The SolidWorks Blog states:

…you can use 3DVIA Mobile to get your SolidWorks models on your iPhone.

This is big news, as it directly impacts when and where 3D models can be shown.  Check out the instructions for using the 3DVia iPhone app to view SolidWorks models: Get your SolidWorks models on your iPhone with 3Dvia.  One limitation is that 3DVia save functionality requires SolidWorks 2009 SP2 or later.  This is a great idea that is past due!  Now, only if they’d develop something for Palm and Crackberry.