| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 |
My VAR Graphic Systems has started a Tech Blog. You can check it out at: http://gxsc.typepad.com/ They have several of there instructors and tech support people writing regular entries. It should be a great source for wide range of tips.
Last night I attended the MASWUG (Madison Area SolidWorks Users Group) meeting. The presenter was the well known and appreciated Ed Eaton of the DiMonte Group out of Arora, IL. He did his presentation on Lofts that he will present at SolidWorks World in 3 weeks. He’s still refining the details, but I was impressed. As always, his presentation will be posted on the DiMonte Group web page sometime after SolidWorks World w/ DVD extras.
If you used lofts, you have had problems with lofts. He talked about the common problems. Why lofted sheet metal parts sometimes won’t unbend, how to get your parts to have nicer blends between their surfaces, why two surfaces that appear to be the same, but have a line between them and how to get rid of that line.
When you don’t use lofts often it’s hard to remember what all the options are for and when you should use them. On top of that the wording that SolidWorks uses is not easy to understand. Ed talked spent a good amount of time talking about the functionality and more importantly why things work the way they do. He coved are the difference between using surfaces and solids lofts, end constraints, centerline parameters, when you should use guide curves, when a sweep be more appropriate and more.
This was a great presentation and I recommend checking it out.
The Milwaukee, WI group has a meeting coming up on Tuesday Dec. 5th featuring Jon Hirschtick, Founder of SolidWorks Corporation. See their website for details: http://www.smart-wi.com/home.html If you register soon their may still be room.
And of course the Madison, WI group has a meeting coming up on January 11th featuring Top Down Design, Sketching Techniques and an Open From. See their website for details: http://www.maswug.org/Next_Meeting/next_meeting.htm
If you're in the Midwest you should have received several e-mails already about the 2006 Midwest SolidWorks User Conference. This is an excellent event. It's like a mini-SolidWorks World. It's relatively local and doesn't cost much to get in. This year it is October 4th - 6th at the Racine Marriot in Wisconsin. Check out this website for all the details: http://www.impactengsol.com/SWKUserConf.cfm
Be sides being a lot of fun, there are 2 days of technical sessions, lots of vendors to talk with and helpful, friendly people you will meet. If you've never gone to an event like this you really need to. Really...just ask. If you think you need some supporting arguments check out the "Why Attend and "Boss's Justification" for SolidWorks World 2007, many of the details apply to both events. http://www.solidworks.com/pages/swworld07/index.html
Last night was our local users group meeting, summer edition. Typically in the summer we have a meeting on a Friday down at the University of Wisconsin Memorial Union. This is a more laid back fun meeting, and it was.
I lead the group in a version of a presentation Marla Schmidt and I saw at World last Jan. It was called Top 10 Do's and Don'ts by Stan Sweet. We broke into groups and came up with our own lists. There were some very good discussions about what to do and not to do. All the lists we came up with in the meeting will be posted in the future on the user groups web page www.maswug.org . This is a really great format for user groups. I highly recommend it and feel free to contact me if you have questions about it.
As always we also left time to socialize and enjoy some snacks and refreshments. Several people commented to me that they enjoyed the meeting and a few brought questions, which members of the group had good answers for.
I have a problem that makes it difficult for me not to volunteer or fill in when I see a need. I push myself and take on a lot. I tend to surround myself with other active people socially and professionally, so I just see this as normal.
The other day I stopped to think about it more. It occurred to me there are people out there in the CAD community that only go to user groups to listen and learn. And there are people that learn about a new cool tool and don’t tell others their colleagues. There are people that just do their jobs and what’s required of them. Weird!
Don’t get me wrong we need some people that just get their jobs done with no distractions, but we could also use more people to contribute, more people to speak up and fill a void, simply because they found it, more people to approach others and say how can I help.
So, I encourage you to lend a hand and don’t be afraid to offer before it is asked for. This could be at work or in your community (user groups or personal interests<volunteering, donating, etc…>). The benefits you get from doing this will be more than ever expected and it’s contagious. You will get compliment, you will get respect, your career will grow and others will be more willing to help you out.
I guess now that I thought it through, I’m not really jealous after all. And to all of you out there doing this already THANK YOU!!!
The next MASWUG(Madison Area SolidWorks Users Group) meeting is coming up. This is their annual summer meeting at the Memorial Union. It's a great location and always a lot of fun. So, mark your calendars now!
SolidWorks Users,
After a short break, the MASWUG will have their next meeting at:
UW - Madison Memorial Union
Friday, August 18th
3:00 - 6:00
The topic will be "Top Tips and Tricks". Please send us your top tips
and tricks president@maswug.org . Gifts will be presented to the top items!
Do you have any web design knowledge? We are looking for someone to
maintain our web site, www.maswug.org. This shouldn't take more than a
couple of hours a month. Please contact us if you are interested.
Mike Allex
President, MASWUG
