SolidWorks community in action.

Periodically, we run into an interesting story that helps you realize how small the world can actually be.  I recently ran across this story at SolidWorks World 2009 in Orlando, Florida. I will start by setting up the “chance” meeting so you can understand how I heard about this story, first hand.

At SolidWorks World 2005 in Orlando, Florida, I met Mike Baljak from Automation Tooling Systems.  The both of us were joining some people from the EngTips forum for breakfast or lunch.

I met Matthew Cummins of Tacton Systems, a few years ago at a regional SolidWorks User Group Meeting in Racine Wisconsin. 

Each user group meeting, regional conference or SolidWorks World I go to, I usually run into, one or both of these people either in the vendor pavilion or in the halls between sessions, but never at the same time.  When we see each other, we always take the time to talk to each other to see how each of us are doing.  The recent SolidWorks World 2009 in Orlando, Florida was just a bit different and provided the basis for this interesting story.

Prior to Sunday’s Welcome Reception, I was in the hall talking to Mike Baljak and we were catching up on what had been happening in the past year.  During this discussion, I saw Matthew Cummins heading for the partner pavilion and asked him to join our discussion.  After some short introductions, Matthew’s first comments were “Yeah, he’s just the guy who, unwittingly, has had perhaps the single greatest impact on my present career path.”   This needs further explaination!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Here’s the story:

The first SolidWorks World that was attended by Matthew Cummins was in 2006 in Las Vegas.  At that time Matthew was working for a retail design firm looking for ways to create assembly models and Bills of Materials (BOM’s) more efficiently.  His company had a 300 page catalog of stock components, but no two assemblies were ever the same. 

On the first day of the event, Matthew had the good fortune of meeting Gopal Shenoy, then Manager of Product Definition at SolidWorks.  As they discussed assembly automation, Gopal asked if Matthew knew Mike Baljak from ATS and recommended that Matthew attend a break-out session that Mike was giving later that week.  (Matthew still has the conference program with his talk circled)

Using SolidWorks Effectively in a Machine Design Environment, Mike Baljak, Automation Tooling Systems

Abstract:  By examining a particular automation machine, this presentation reviews the design challenges faced by Automation Tooling Systems and the SolidWorks functionality used to overcome them.  You will learn ways to design, manufacture, and integrate components faster, so you can save time and money while working under tight schedules.

Before attending Mike’s talk, Matthew thought he would learn about some pretty clever ways to speed up the design process with SolidWorks.  Mike’s demonstrations that day turned Matthew’s whole SolidWorks world upside down.  (Forgive the pun).  It was the first time that Matthew had seen truly high level design automation in SolidWorks.  Matthew remembered one example in particular.  For certain machine components, instead of relying on a library of pre-built parts, an engineer could enter his or her component requirements into a custom form.  Their automated system would then scan a database of vendor catalog information until it found a matching component.  Seamlessly, it would read in the corresponding dimensional data, generating a new SolidWorks component on the fly, complete with vendor item number, description, etc.  It all made perfect sense as Mike laid it out, but Matthew remembers being stunned nonetheless.

Matthew has spent the last few years studying and presenting on design automation techniques, now with TactonWorks. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Matthew had to leave the discussion early to meet up with some customers during the Welcome Reception.  I looked at mike and said “How cool is that?”  I think Mike was speachless.

Every engineer wants to make a positive difference in someone else’s life, whether it be in the products we develop, or the information we exchange at meetings or conferences, or in the presentations we give at such conferences.  We don’t always hear of these positive effects we have on other people, but we do believe they are happening.  It always feels good to hear of such positive influences we have on other people.

Simply another example of the SolidWorks community in action.

Comments

[Jeff Mirisola]

Cool story, Lenny!

[Anna Wood]

What a cool story. I remember attending Mike Baljak's presentation at SWW06. It was a very eye opening breakout session.

Cheers,

Anna

[Lenny Kikstra]

This is only one example that helps showcase the advantages of being involved in the SolidWorks User Community. This involvement may be anything from giving presentations to help other users learn something you know, or learning from other users.

As a community contributor or presenter, we all want to believe someone will benefit from reading your contributing articles or attending your presentation, even though you may never hear about it. This story proves that it can and does happen.

As an reader or attendee, this learning experience can make a difference in your career in many ways, from improving your productivity, to learning about other capabilities within the software that you can take advantage of.

[Jay Eppinga]

Hi Lenny,

Cool story.

I've got a unique problem, or maybe it's not unique. I'm actually an FEA guy who is working on a Solidworks API project (I have both the requisite Visual Basic as well as Solidworks backgrounds for the project).

So far, I've been working through a tutorial manual on SW 2006 API, and looking through the online help of the Visual Basic editor (invoked from Solidworks), and am not finding either particularly helpful. What would be helpful is a help system for API, that lists the commands, methods, functions etc., that are particular to API, beyond Visual Basic.

Do you know if such a thing exists?

Thank you,
- Jay E.

[Lenny Kikstra]

Jay, Under the SolidWorks "Help" Menu, click on "API Help". I have found this to be the best source for API calls and their syntax.

[Jay Eppinga]

Hi Lenny,

Thanks .. I found it, but not by looking that way. It hadn't been installed that way (the reason I couldn't find it at first), so I located the chm file by poking around the ProgramFiles \ Solidworks directory.

Seems like no matter how many times I add something to my skillset, I have to trudge through this part of the learning curve.

Thanks again,
- Jay

[Gopal Shenoy]

Wow, very happy to hear that my mention of a presentation was able to have such a positive impact on Matt's career.

Gopal Shenoy
http://productmanagementtips.com