Category: Career

Free Certified SolidWorks Associate or Profession exam when you attend SolidWorks World 2013

There are a lot of extra benefits to attendees of SolidWorks World 2013.  One benefit is that when you sign up to attend, you are given the option to take a free SolidWorks certification exam at SolidWorks World.  My advice is that if you do not yet have certification, take the exam!  It’s free with your full conference pass!

There are two entry points for certification on SolidWorks:

  • SolidWorks Certified Associate (CSWA) which covers basic SolidWorks skills.
  • SolidWorks Certified Professional (CSWP) which covers deeper understanding of SolidWorks skills.  This certificate is required to qualify for advanced exam modules as you work your way to earning CSWE.

I’ve heard that some people shy away from taking the exam because they are not confident in their skills.   I’ve heard this from some well experienced individuals.  If you have neither certification and are nervous about the exam, then attempt the CSWA exam.  If you are already a CSWA or have been in industry for awhile, than take the CSWP-CORE exam.   Preparation is still very important in either case.  There are plenty of materials that are available to help get yourself read for the exam.  There’s even a sample exam with which you can practice!

The exams are held on Sunday, January 20, 2013, the afternoon prior to the official start of SolidWorks World 2013 at Disney’s Swan and Dolphin Resort.

New Section View Assist tool in SolidWorks used as example of teamwork

I was recently interviewed by Entertainment Engineering, an online magazine that covers technologies used in many types of entertainment devices and events such as movies, concerts, theme and amusement parks, electronic games, etc.  The November 2012 issue focuses on the value of individual contributors and also of teamwork in the design process.  Here’s the kicker, I’m quoted in the issue’s editorial article along side the great Steve Wozniak.  Kinda cool.

The article for which I was specifically interviewed is called Teamwork Improves Section-View Options in SolidWorks 2013, which leads-off a series of interviews with various individuals from all over the engineering discipline.  In my interview, I talk about the new SolidWorks section view functionality (now called Section View Assist) that has a whole new user interface that changes the way section views are created on drawings in CAD.  This includes how I originally developed the concept which was then improved and refined via teamwork within the SolidWorks organization.

Section View Assist replaces the need to first create sketches before being able to create a section view.  Instead, you can directly place cutting line on the original view and have the section view generated automatically.  If you want to use aligned section view, you can add offsets to the cutting line directly in the Section View Assist interface (without the need to draw lines or edit sketches).  Same goes to notch and single offsets.  The new user interface saves time and steps.  The improvement is nearly exponential.  The more complex your cutting line, the quicker you can create it versus old methods using sketches.

Recently found in the SolidWorks Blogospere

There is a number of good articles that have popped up recently in the SolidWorks blogospere.  Here is a selected set of particularly interesting finds:

Enjoy!

Firsts and lasts and repeats of SolidWorks World 2012

SolidWorks World 2012 saw some firsts and some lasts.  Attendance peak was just shy of 6000, first time attendance reached that level.  Attendance of the CSWP-CSWE Event was well over 800, also a first.  Yet, there’s a last too.  This was the last time the event is for CSWP attendees.

Next year, the special event will only be for CSWEs.  In part, this is in recognition of the success of the CSWP program, where having the Core certification is becoming the norm.  It is also meant to honor the new status of the CSWE.

This is also my first SolidWorks World as an employee.  This means I was very busy with the business of…well, I was working.  This was the reason for my lack of posting articles during the conference.  As mentioned previously, I did frequently update the SolidWorks World 2012 flickr group and the hashtag #sww12 on Twitter.

Along with some first and lasts, there are also some repeats.  San Diego was again a great host city, even covering the conference on a local news station.  We again had an awesome Gaslamp Block Party as the Special Event.  The food was much better this time around.

Birds-of-a-feature is where people of similar interests can enjoy their meals together and have interesting discussions.  There’s been some experimenting with the format of this idea in recent years.  This year, Birds-of-a-feature was returned to the Breakfast and Lunch room, where it seems to work well.  It is no longer limited to just one day, nor just to lunchtime.

The keynote speaker, Tony Fadell (billed at the inventor of the iPod), was announced just ahead of the conference.  Yet, SolidWorks World still managed to have a worthy surprize speaker, Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs!

When looking through the Conference Notebook and Show Program, I discovered that the list of Breakout Sessions started with one of my presentations, Advanced Customization Techniques in SolidWorks within the CAD Admin category.  Ironically, this session was scheduled in the last timeslot of the conference, on Wednesday at  2:45pm.  Of course, there were 214 total sessions spread across 11 timeslots.   I’m not 100% sure, but I believe that’s also a record.

SolidWorks World 2012 prelude (after the fact)

With my new role at SolidWorks, my time at SolidWorks World 2012 was spent working.  As such, my hobbie (this website), was not updated during the conference.  I had hoped for a chance to post at least a couple of updates during the conference.

I wasn’t fully out of commission though.  There are many tweets and flickr updates from me during the conference.  Though I made a few Facebook updates, most of these where via Twitter; so it almost goes without saying that Google+ didn’t get updated.

Also, I forget my camera, so all of my photos where with my phone.  Fortunately, its camera isn’t half bad.

More to come.

 

SolidWorks World 2012 comes to a smartphone near you

SolidWorks World 2012 has several high quality applications for various devices.  SolidWorks World 2012 is available for the iPhone and the iPad on the iTunes store, and for Android devices on the Android Market.  (At SolidWorks World 2011, the mobile application was only available for the iPhone.)  The 2012 version is loaded with practically all the information you’ll need to navigate the conference.

  • Full conference schedule
  • Log on to your SolidWorks World 2012 attendee account
  • All sessions, including descriptions, maps of how to get to the assigned room, link to speaker’s bio, and the ability to add the session to your agenda
  • All speakers and their bios
  • Floor maps for each level
  • Partner Pavilion directory, map, and other information
  • General conference information, such as overview, hours, food, and special event
  • Location of important points of interest
  • Info about Dassault Systemes, including information other mobile applications

Additionally, there are links to SolidWorks related accounts on Twitter (tweet updates on the #sww12 hashtag), Facebook (SolidWorks World page, [not the SWW12 page]), Flickr (SolidWorks photostream including SolidWorks World 2012 group with uploaded photos by SolidWorks and attendees) and Youtube (SolidWorks related videos).

As a bonus, there’s a feature to scan QR codes of badges from other attendees to start building your contact list.