It's summer*, which means there's a gang of interns roaming the halls here. It's nice to have some young people around, which makes me feel increasingly old at the ripe age of 33. One of the great things about college students is that they think of stuff that you never would.
So when I was asking my intern to come up with some interesting things for our Facebook page a little while ago, he mentioned something about SolidWorks graffiti. To be honest, I didn't really understand what he meant. So imagine my surprise when, three minutes after leaving my office, I get this in my inbox:
Copyright Josh Harris
So that's what he meant. Never in a hundred years would I have though that someone would do something like this, but I think it's pretty cool nonetheless.
What other unorthodox usages of SolidWorks (or any other CAD software for that matter) have you seen?
* Here in Massachusetts, it'e summer in name only. I don't think the mercury has risen above 80 degrees fahrenheit the entire month.
Back in March Jeff Ray wrote the blog article ‘Why Amazon Will Save the World’ which talked about the Amazon Kindle. Since reading that article I had toyed with the idea of purchasing an ‘electronic book reader’ but paused when I read that a newer model of the Kindle would be available soon. The Kindle 2 soon became available but then I balked at the price for a device that only allowed me to read books.
Recently I took a trip where I endured a four hour airport layover. I browsed the ‘electronic gadget’ store where the Sony Reader was being promoted and I thought; an electronic book reader would sure be handy now.
But, what to buy? I ended up buying the Sony Reader because it could store PDF files (and I wanted to store my vast library of EPDM Tech Tips) and because I got a really good deal price-wise.
Huh? I have a netbook that I take with me everywhere outside of the office. I like the small size and the fact that I can read my email, browse the web and keep up with social networking sites. Turns out my netbook is perfect for carrying around my library of PDF documents! Additionally, you can install Adobe Digital Editions or Sony eBook Library software and download eBooks.
Possible caveats might be eye strain that reader technology minimizes. Also, I have found that the Kindle offers access (via the Amazon book store) to more book titles at better prices.
In closing, figure out how you want to use your reader and choose the best option for your needs.
SolidWorks 2010 beta isn't the only thing going live next week. In a few short days, you'll be able to get your hands on a beta version of SolidWorks Sustainability Xpress, the product we announced at SolidWorks World 2009 under the code name Sage. It'll be available for download on the SolidWorks Labs site. Until then, here's a quick look at what you'll get. Director of Product Innovation Rick Chin was nice enough to take a few minutes and give me a quick run-through. Enjoy!
Last week I posted about our 2010 beta program. I've gotten confirmation that we're going live next week. Let the testing begin!
If
you've already signed up to be notified when the beta program starts,
be on the lookout for an email soon. If not, drop everything, click on this link, and sign up. We look forward to seeing you.
That's all. Until tomorrow, anyway. I have something exciting to show everyone.
Over four million children die each year before their first
month of life; 99% of them in developing countries. For those of you who joined
us at SolidWorks World this year (or watched the videos), you’ll recall us
recognizing local nonprofit Design That Matters for
tackling this problem with an incubator designed specifically for the needs of
developing nations.
Well, DtM isn’t resting on its laurels; the engineering and
design students have taken on the next phase, providing a low-cost, low-maintenance respiration
device for “thermoregulation” using CPAP (Continuous Positive Air
Pressure). This will help premature and low birth weight infants with
respiratory distress.
I’ll let you go to their website to learn more about the
medical condition – I’ve already exceeded the limits of my medical know-how.
So, let’s look at the winning design, as presented by a cross-functional team of students
from the MIT school of Engineering, the Sloan Graduate school, and the Rhode Island School of Design.
I was lucky enough to attend their final presentation and
was blown away by the team’s resourcefulness and problem-solving skills. Now,
these are students from very different backgrounds and disciplines, all thrown
together to attack this one problem against a strict deadline (the grading
cycle). So seeing them learn how to work together was fascinating. But the
design was cool. Most respirators cost from $2,500 - $9,000 and require lots of
training and expensive parts.
This device (shown above) had one moving part, and made clever use of
off-the-shelf products to save cost and complexity. It ended up coming in under
$600, and did all the important things of the fancy machines. The user
interface got the same attention as the device itself, with no words and simple
“happy face” and "sad face" pictures for three lights. There were three design goals:
affordability, intuitive UI, and the ability to be locally-maintained. The DtM students went
three for three!
What do we get out of this? Thousands of lives saved, and
the next generation of engineers and designers who are inspired to make this
world a little better. What a great time to be an engineer!
Ever since we first launched the 3 Dudes series, the one question I get more than anything else is "when are you putting out more episodes?" Well, if you haven't already seen it, a new episode is available now. Just click here to visit the 3 Dudes Gone 3D website or click on the screen shot below (beautiful, huh?) and see what the gang are up to. While you're there, you can even download a ring tone. Because who doesn't want to hear the "macrobating" quote over and over?
Every year we give our customers a chance to preview the newest release of our software before it's made available to the public, and this year is no different. In the very near future, we'll be making the beta version of SolidWorks 2010 available for download to current subscription support customers in the SolidWorks Customer Portal.
You'll have all summer to play with the software, see what's new, and generally get an idea of what to expect when it's finally baked. If you want, you can even let us know if you find bugs or other problems. Find enough and submit them through the system and you can even win prizes. If you want to get a peek at what new features you can expect to see, click here to read the list Ricky Jordan posted on the last day of SolidWorks World 2009.
If you've already signed up to be notified when the beta program starts, be on the lookout for an email soon. If not, drop everything, click on this link, and sign up. We look forward to seeing you.
Thinking about going to SolidWorks World 2010? Are you a CSWP?
If you answered yes to those, here is a video to get you excited about SolidWorks World 2010 including a sneak peek at what the CSWP Event will be all about. If your not a CSWP, well then watching this video may make you want to think about that especially if your going to Anaheim next year. While SolidWorks World is mainly a learning event, we still know how to have fun at night.
I remember the guy that introduced me to SolidWorks really well. A manager - my first engineering manager. I had just started working in the department and he handed me a CD with a getting started book. He said, "take a look at this and see if it's something we can use."
At the end of the day, I had finished the short manual and showed him what could be done. We bought a few seats and started tearing into SolidWorks. I'll always remember Paul for the confidence he put in my opinion of that software. That was nearly 13 year ago.
What's your story? Who introduced you and got you started in SolidWorks
Josh Mings runs the popular SolidSmack blog, and lives in Tulsa Oklahoma. Josh's opinions are his own, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of DS SolidWorks Corp.
Wow, no posts in a while. Things are busy around here, and I guess the rest of the crew and I haven't had much bloggin' time. I'll get to work on that.
That said, I need to go out and start recruiting some new faces. We should have some guest bloggers coming on soon (more about that later), and I'm going to get those guys in the UK cross posting some of the great technical stuff they've been writing. But what I really want to know is who you want to hear from. When I go out and start knocking on doors next week or the week after, it would be good to know which doors to be knocking on.
Let me know. Is it our VP of R&D? The guys writing the code? The mail guy? Sock it to me.
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