Congress on the Future of Engineering Software 2011 conference (COFES11) ends today. People from all over came to Scottsdale, AZ for a week of conversation about…well, about the future of engineering software. I guess the name describes the event fairly well. Its agenda speaks for the conference well, too. From the event’s press release: “For design and engineering organizations, software is key to innovation,” explains Cyon Research President and CEO Brad Holtz. “At COFES, leading thinkers from all corners of the industry gather to explore where and how design and engineering software needs to evolve to.” Oh, and there is golfing too! 🙂
General Session on Day 3 of ATEC11
Day 3 of the Annual Technical and Educational Conference started off with the presentation of The Leader’s Voice. This was an informative discussion which focused on finding a balance between the emotional, factual and symbol aspects of leadership. There was a recognition that emotion cannot be taken out of leadership, but must be considered and even utilized to improve leadership skills. With that, there still must be efforts to present facts in relevant ways. Well crafted use of the metaphor (symbols or storytelling) is a powerful tool of leadership as well.
The session ended a bit early, which gave attendees time to socialize between the beginning of the breakout presentations.
Annual Technical & Educational Conference Day 2
Due to timing and problems with my flight, I didn’t get into Kansas City until 12AM last night. Obviously, this means that I completely missed day 1 of the Annual Technical and Educational Conference. The schedule for day 1 of the conference was geared towards part 1 of a full two day course covering GD&T principles.
When I arrived to the conference this morning, I was immediately greeted at Registration by Donna Brenton, who help organized the event. Not long after that, Floyd McWilliams (ADDA President) introduced himself to me. Olen Parker, ADDA Executive Director, introduced himself right after. This conference is put on by a very friendly group of individuals with lengthy experience in the field of design drafting.
Day 2 of the conference started out with a brief opening word from McWilliams. ADDA Board of Directors each introduced themselves to everyone.
The first breakout presentation I attended was by Jeff Levy, who covered Google Sketchup very well. There was also an interesting presentation and video by Dr. Edward Price, who discussed the Chicago Stormwater Retention System. After that, I sat in on a portion of the second day of the GD&T training course. My own presentation in the afternoon covered the establishment of company CAD procedures. Finally, there was a very engaging presentation by Terry Schultz that covered workplace ethics. I’ll go into more detail about most of these presentations at a later date. As I’ve learned from other conferences, it’s a good idea to pace my coverage over the couple of weeks that follow the event.
So far, I’m seeing a lot of value in this event. The GD&T courses are high quality. There is enough variety in presentations to justify attendance for just about anyone in the drafting field from all areas, including mechanical engineering, architecture, civil engineering and graphic arts. There is a lot of focus on covering several CAD applications, including SolidWorks, PTC, AutoCAD and Revit.
It should be noted that I did receive a pass to attend this event, although I’m kinda earning my keep by being a presenter. No other expenses were covered by the ADDA.
I’m in Kansas any more
I’m currently on my way to Kansas City, MO for the 52nd Annual Technical and Education Conference, organized by the American Design Drafting Association.
I had to get up early to get to the San Francisco airport for my flight to Kansas City. This means I had to feed and walk my dog earlier in the morning. He didn’t complain. The morning air was crisp and refreshing. A couple of ducks were waddling down the middle of the road as if they owned it. My dog tried to run them off. He didn’t see the jack rabbit sprinting across a grass field in a nearby park a few minutes later. I’m still amazed that I get to see all this wildlife even though I live within of the vast Silicon Valley metropolis. I haven’t yet spotted any larger animals, like mountain lions. At times, the roving gangs of raccoons are the near second to that.
Anyway, I’m flying into Phoenix on my way to Kansas City. There aren’t many direct flights from the San Francisco bay area to the heart of America, despite the fact there are three international airports within driving distance of my home.
I’ll be reporting on my trip to the conference here and on twitter at hashtag #atec11. I’m sure that the ADDA will also be posting comments to hashtag #adda for their own updates.
If you happen to be at this conference, please don’t hesitate to introduce yourself to me.
GOT COLORS?
If you are trying to color your models to make them look real, this is probably not for you. But – If you just want colors – any colors – fast – this is for you.
This SolidWorks macro automates assigning colors to Parts and Sub-Assemblies from within an Assembly.
Colors can be assigned at two levels:
1) Part Level
2) Assembly Level
There are two sources to generate various colors:
1) Random Color(s)
2) User Select Color(s)
There are three MAKE – modes:
1) All Selected Components the Same Color
2) All Selected Components have Various Colors
3) Various Colors – Except, Consecutive and Identical Components have the same color
Enjoy
Balloon Note – REBUILT
Howdy,
I have to admit my original Balloon Note macro was quite quirky. It was the most complicated VBA project I’d done at the time, so I don’t feel too bad about it. I finally had a chance to try out the SolidWorks 2010 implementation – SO – I decided to rethink the whole thing. WOW – I really have to apologize, I’m surprised that old code worked at all. However, if you liked the general idea found in my original Balloon Note macro, I’m sure you’ll like this completely rebuilt version.
If you have no idea what I’m writing about:
Balloon Note is designed to add a Reference Note to an existing Item Balloon and Group them together automatically. It can add an automatically updating Quantity Text object. The result is similar to a function SolidWorks added in 2010, but, you can adjust the location of the text using the ALT + Select and drag method. The strange squiggle (QTY variable) in the text box represents the selected part quantity, until you apply the Reference Note location (Top, Right, Bottom or Left). Balloon Note uses your current document setting for the Note font height to create the Reference Note. The Links button uses a plain text file “BalloonNote_07.ini” located in the same directory as BalloonNote_07.swp to store your lists of links and symbols. The download includes two versions, BalloonNote_07.swp for SW 2007 (you could possibly change the Reference Libraries to your version) and BalloonNote.dll for SW 2010 x32.
Enjoy
