{"id":100,"date":"2008-07-23T04:59:58","date_gmt":"2008-07-23T12:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=100"},"modified":"2008-07-27T06:03:40","modified_gmt":"2008-07-27T14:03:40","slug":"solidworks-resources-availability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=100","title":{"rendered":"SolidWorks Resources Availability"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a time when online SolidWorks resources were far and few between.\u00c2\u00a0 When I started using SolidWorks back in 1998, I found nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 As time progressed, sporadic sites popped up and vanished.\u00c2\u00a0 This or that VAR would occasionally put up a page with macros or examples of models.\u00c2\u00a0 Many of these\u00c2\u00a0sites were never\u00c2\u00a0updated or were simply taken down later.\u00c2\u00a0 After a time, I stopped looking online for SolidWorks resources.<\/p>\n

Then in 2005, I started looking again.\u00c2\u00a0 To my surprize, I found several useful sites.\u00c2\u00a0 Most of the sites were still limited to one or two pages of content, but they provided real resources.\u00c2\u00a0 Some had a page or two of macros, some\u00c2\u00a0How-to articles, career info, etc, such as Matt Lombard’s old site<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0and Lenny’s site<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0A couple of sites where commercial in nature, selling macros, add-ins\u00c2\u00a0or educational services, such as Bitwright<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0or SWTools\u00c2\u00a0<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course, some\u00c2\u00a0promote the individual’s consulting business while providing free content, such as Roland’s site Esox Republic<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0and also Joseph Jones’ site\u00c2\u00a0NHCAD<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 The most ambitious site was likely Mike J. Wilson’s Web Site<\/a>, which used to have tons of models and the infamous SolidWorks based debunking video <\/a>which proved the 9\/11 Pentagon attack<\/em> was by an airliner and not<\/strong> a missile (still available on YouTube here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

However, the one thing I missed was a comprehensive site with tons of files, FAQ’s and other SolidWorks items in one place.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 My particular interest was macros.\u00c2\u00a0 I remember back in the AutoCAD days when I could go searching out LISP routines, blocks and customized menus in databases (even before the days of the modern internet).\u00c2\u00a0 CADalyst\u00c2\u00a0<\/a>provided\u00c2\u00a0invaluable resources, some of which is still available in various forms such as\u00c2\u00a0books <\/a>and their home website<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Nothing similar existed for SolidWorks.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

To answer this need, I created the independent site Lorono’s SolidWorks Resources<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0My intent was to\u00c2\u00a0create a site for\u00c2\u00a0new, intermediate and experienced users looking to expand their knowledge and\u00c2\u00a0SolidWorks skills in a way that I wished was available when I started using SolidWorks.\u00c2\u00a0 It includes over 100 files, mostly focused on macros, data content, utilities.\u00c2\u00a0 It has tons of weblinks in a collection so big, I’ve not been able to find any others like it.\u00c2\u00a0 In this collection are links to\u00c2\u00a0SolidWorks related forums, resource links (such as the above sites), tutorials, online inquiries, general engineering and SolidWorks blogs.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

This brings me to the next point.\u00c2\u00a0 SolidWorks related blogs have exploded in the past year and a half.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0I’ve\u00c2\u00a0been a participant in the online blogging community\u00c2\u00a0since 2001 and maintained my personal blog <\/a>since the beginning of 2002.\u00c2\u00a0 However, I never\u00c2\u00a0thought about blogging on SolidWorks until Matt Lombard started up his blog<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0in early 2007<\/strike> mid-2006.\u00c2\u00a0 Then Lenny started up a great blog site<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0in July of 2007.\u00c2\u00a0 These are not\u00c2\u00a0the earliest SolidWorks related blogs, but they are the first ones I noticed.\u00c2\u00a0 Mike Puckett’s blog goes back to Feb 2007.\u00c2\u00a0 Devon Sowell’s Blog<\/a> goes back to June 2006.\u00c2\u00a0 He now has another blog as well which is specifically geared for PDMWorks<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0and other similar software.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0SolidWorks User Group Network <\/a>(SWUGN) now lists 16 major SW blogs<\/a>, and more are out there<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 I attribute\u00c2\u00a0a lot of this growth directly and indirectly to the SWUGN and its leadership.\u00c2\u00a0 The blog<\/em> has proven to be a very valuable tool.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another valuable tool is the new incarnation of 3D ContentCentral (3DCC), available as a link\u00c2\u00a0from within SolidWorks software.\u00c2\u00a0 When I first saw the new site, I started thinking that I would no longer need my own resources site.\u00c2\u00a0 However, they serve different purposes and have little overlap.\u00c2\u00a0 Many types of downloads on\u00c2\u00a0Lorono’s SolidWorks Resources are not available on 3DCC, and visa verse.\u00c2\u00a0 SolidWorks has done what it needs to do to keep 3DCC relevant and useful.\u00c2\u00a0 3DCC maintains its focus on 3D models from manufacturers and users.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a new request line in which users can put in requests for models.\u00c2\u00a0 Another user can fulfill the request by uploading that model.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

I think the SolidWorks online community is finally providing the breathe needed to support its supposed 600000 users.\u00c2\u00a0 I have noticed that\u00c2\u00a0a slim percentage of those individuals are online finding\u00c2\u00a0what is available.\u00c2\u00a0 It seems the next step would be for SolidWorks to promote its online community aggressively to make the average user aware that free, comprehensive resources are available.\u00c2\u00a0 They started doing this at SolidWorks World 2008 by upping the profile of SWUGN.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0More has to be done to get the word out.<\/p>\n

I’m just a blogger who is blogging about blogging.\u00c2\u00a0\ud83d\ude42 I’m doing what I can to help the effort.\u00c2\u00a0 I know others are giving demonstrations at user groups about what is available.\u00c2\u00a0 Hopefully everyone can\u00c2\u00a0get the word out, even if it is just to person in the next cube over.\u00c2\u00a0 I suspect that more people being\u00c2\u00a0aware of what’s out there will result in even more resources becoming available online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was a time when online SolidWorks resources were far and few between.\u00c2\u00a0 When I started using SolidWorks back in 1998, I found nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 As time progressed, sporadic sites popped up and vanished.\u00c2\u00a0 This or that VAR would occasionally put up a page with macros or examples of models.\u00c2\u00a0 Many of these\u00c2\u00a0sites were never\u00c2\u00a0updated or … Continue reading “SolidWorks Resources Availability”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,12,84],"tags":[246,232,231,92,230],"series":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-resource-review","category-swugn","tag-246","tag-blog","tag-history","tag-links","tag-weblinks"],"yoast_head":"\nSolidWorks Resources Availability - SolidWorks Legion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=100\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SolidWorks Resources Availability - SolidWorks Legion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There was a time when online SolidWorks resources were far and few between.\u00c2\u00a0 When I started using SolidWorks back in 1998, I found nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 As time progressed, sporadic sites popped up and vanished.\u00c2\u00a0 This or that VAR would occasionally put up a page with macros or examples of models.\u00c2\u00a0 Many of these\u00c2\u00a0sites were never\u00c2\u00a0updated or … Continue reading "SolidWorks Resources Availability"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=100\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SolidWorks Legion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-07-23T12:59:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2008-07-27T14:03:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"fcsuper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@swsuper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@swsuper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"fcsuper\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=100#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=100\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"fcsuper\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/#\/schema\/person\/859d9f25668554f7193852892dbad92b\"},\"headline\":\"SolidWorks Resources Availability\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-07-23T12:59:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-07-27T14:03:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=100\"},\"wordCount\":836,\"commentCount\":11,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/#\/schema\/person\/859d9f25668554f7193852892dbad92b\"},\"keywords\":[\"\",\"blog\",\"history\",\"links\",\"weblinks\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\",\"Resource Review\",\"SWUGN\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=100#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=100\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=100\",\"name\":\"SolidWorks Resources Availability - 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