Time for a change

Well, its been about 5 months since i started this blog and to be honest, I really didn't know if I would enjoy it or have enough to write about. I took Richard Doyle's advice and started this blog with Blogger which is a free service, but limited to what I want to do.

So what I'm currently looking at is moving this to a self hosting site and using WordPress as my blogging software. I hope to provide a lot more videos and tech tips in the future.

My goal is to have this done by April before #2 child arrives. Otherwise, it might not happen.......

Thanks for reading...!

Tip of the Week: Viewing common mates

This week we'll look at a way to view common mates in a assembly.

If you select a component in the graphic area or in the feature tree and click on the PropertyManager (Second tab in your feature tree) you will see all the mates for that component.

If you use your Ctrl key and select components and then click on the PropertManager you will see all the common mates are in BOLD.

Tip of the Week: Zip files

I'm sure most (if not all) of you have downloaded a 3D model from a website. Most of the time you can just download the file (STEP, IGES, Parasolid) and open it in SolidWorks. But lets say the file you downloaded is a zip file with a spec sheet or a Readme file included. What do you do now? What I've done was unzip the files, delete the documents I don't need and them open the file I do want in SolidWorks.

Well, you don't have to do all that. All you need to do is download the zip file and drag and drop it into SolidWorks. SolidWorks will open the file formats it can and toss the rest. It will even tell you which files it can't open. Pretty slick, huh..?

Tuesdays Tip of the Week

Every Tuesday I'll be going over a quick SolidWorks tip. This week we'll look at using the SHIFT key to select through a transparent face.

Here is a simple part with a transparent face.

Currently I have the option "Enable selection through transparency" turn off. I prefer having this off because I don't want to be able to select through a transparent face. To me, if there is a face there I want to select it. But that's just me.



With the option turned off I can select the transparent face, but what if I want to select the other faces.

To accomplish this, just hold down the SHIFT key and make your selection.

Using the SHIFT key works with the option turned on or off. If you like the option turned on, then you can use the SHIFT key to select the transparent face and by default you will be able to select through all transparent faces.

Tune in each week for another SolidWorks Tip

SWUG Leader of the Year Award

I wanted to thank everyone for this GREAT honor. Being a SolidWorks user group leader has been a great experience for me. I've met so many people over the years.

Looking back at the general session and all the pictures, I wish I had a little notice of the award. Once I got on stage I looked out at the 4000 + people and didn't really know what to do. I didn't know if I was suppose to say anything or just run off the stage. My biggest fear was triping over some camera cord..!!

You can see the general session video here.

If you're like my boss, you'll play it over...and over....and over..!! Good stuff.

SolidWorks World: Monday....I think

It's been another busy day at SWW09. I'm not going to go into all the details because there are bloggers that come to this even as members of the press and they do a outstanding job of covering whats going on. You can check it out here

What I'm going to talk about is the 10th annual SWUGN Summit. My very first SWW was in 2005 here in Orlando and for whatever reason I went to the SWUGN Summit to see what the user group's were all about. After getting back from Orlando I contacted Richard Doyle and said I want to start a group. Richard was all for it (this isn't a big shock if you know Richard). Starting the Southern MN User Group was one of the best things I've ever done! I have gotten to meet some of the greatest people in the SolidWorks Community.

Every year at the SWUGN Summit they give out awards...kind of. There are nominees for SWUGN reseller of the year, Partner or the year, User group of the year and User group leader of the year. This year one of the VAR's from Minnesota got the Reseller of the year award. Congratulations to Alignex!! Also, there were 2 SWUGN user group leader of the year nominees from MN. Anne Yust who runs one of the only Simulations User Groups and yours truly. I don't know about the others, but this made my conference!! What a honor!!!

I'm not going to go into details about the meeting. If you were there, you know the commitment Richard Doyle brings to this group. And I didn't get a chance to tell him, but it's been a pleasure working for.....I should say, with him these last 4 years. And I just want to say "Thanks Richard".

SolidWorks World Pictures

This is going to be a quick post. I think its pretty cool seeing the products your company designs at SolidWorks World....!! Awesome