Phil's Blog

Getting updated

It has been quite some time since I had updated the blog. I have been, as we all are, busy beyond my capacity. I have been evaluating the PDM Enterprise application and will provide a post on the experience. I will provide my opinion and views compared to PDM Works Workgroup as well. I recently have begun working at a local college as an instructor for the SolidWorks course and it has been very rewarding. It is amazing how many simple tasks that we take for granted when we have been working with the software for any period of time. I will also share a few of those realizations. There are a few hardware experiences that I will also be discussing here such as 64-bit pc's, and the Dell Precision M6300 laptop. It was surprising to see SolidWorks letting the cat out of the bag on this years SolidWorks World guest, Sir Richard Branson, as this has usually been an event surprise. Perhaps the decision to tell the community is to help bolster attendance this year at an event that may be faced with less attendance due businesses trying to cut back expenses in this financial time at a venue that is sure to be fun but harder to justify for some business professionals. I plan on attending, however, this may be on my own expense. I know this is brief and I wanted to get some of my thoughts down as well as let people know I am going to present more in the blog. There is more to follow shortly. Thanks and be sure to check back.

Installation Manager

SW2008 Installation Manager - Two word summary

Not Impressed!

The new installation manager for SolidWorks 2008 has several flaws. Outside of a bug which does not install Cosmos applications on designated machines with the "One Step Installer", pre or post application functions not running when setup in the installation manager, or the fact you should completely re-download the entire SW2008 application with each new service pack (which appears to come out ever 3 or 4 weeks), and a myriad of other issues, it works great. I am very disappointed with the current performance from the administration end. Having been deploying and administering previous versions of SW through batch files and updating an image, this installation manager tool does not have the flexibility nor the usability desired. I am certain the tool works well for individuals who do not run admin images for multiple configured clients and individuals with no need to mass deploy through a push. People I had spoken to at SolidWorks World and at the local users group that are having success are physically walking around to each workstation and installing manually with the Installation Manager, and often do not perform pre-deployment testing. I hope in the future there will be an opportunity for administrators to have a focus group to provide development feedback or suggestions. The Installation Manager has been a pain and I have spent countless hours working on the issues. My VAR has attempted to help which is how we identified issues to SW which later have been identified as bugs. If I am only using this tool to deploy vanilla flavored applications and require extra effort to deploy additional tools (Cosmos applications) then I might as well setup SW 2008 to deploy through a proven method of batch files and discard the Installation Manager toolset.

SolidWorks World 2008

     SolidWorks World 2008 was again a great event. It was a great opportunity to meet wonderful individuals who are willing to share their ideas, experiences, frustrations and solutions. The general sessions this year where very inter-related and the start of my discussion on the event. I thought the ideas of Dr. Norman speaking about designing for people was a great point, perhaps over simplified in his presentation, but valid none the less. I think SolidWorks had demonstrated its ability to focus on the people in the business of design by having more SolidWorks employees providing sessions. Please don't get me wrong, I believe real users presenting is incredibly valuable and necessary. The fact that more sessions were offered by SolidWorks employees is SoldiWorks employees there was a demonstration of truly focusing on the users themselves. In several sessions I had attended there had been one or two other individuals in the back taking note of questions or supporting the answer presented from questions by the attendees. I know it may be my simple observation, but I think it is worth noting.

     Getting back to the general sessions, there is was a buzz among groups of people, and I know I had been one, discussing Theo Jansen, a kinetic sculptor. I have seen other people describe him as a mad genius or a modern say Leonardo DeVinci. He was definitely a unique man and very intriguing to listen to about his creations. He will be remembered by many, if not everyone, that had attended that day.

     Dr. Robert Ballard had also spoken at the general sessions and was extraordinary in his explanation of technological developments shaping the world he knows and researches. He was certain to stress the importance of our future generations and what they can and will accomplish. One point he made was for all of his accomplishments in science, it was not until his discovery of the Titanic he had begun receiving letters from children explaining how they hope to be a scientist one day and his number one request in these letters was "Take me with you.", and with todays technology that is almost possible. He had spoken of how in 1981 he had written on the future of undersea exploration and that some day a scientist/explorer could research from thousands of miles away with remote robotic technology. It was inspiring to see how the visions of the future and what technology could do for us over time resulting in being part of a paradigm shift in the way things are done.

     Another speaker also shared the concerns of our children in the United States and their interaction with technology and science, Mr. Dean Kamen the founder of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and inventor of the Segway. I have not begun to look into this in depth personally; I do plan on finding out more. http://www.usfirst.org/ His mission and vision were very clear. The concern on the youth of our society not being more involved with science and technology. He has taken action to change and shape the minds and ideas of youth and emphasized the value in science and technology to these children.

     All of these speakers had the theme of the conference clear in their message: to "inspire". At SolidWorks World 2007 there was a young lady whom had spoken of a vision with automobiles. Anna Jaffe, from SolidWorks World 2007, was a brief topic that The SolidWorks Users Group Leaders Network had briefly discussed about the potential of providing support to Anna and her team at MIT. I don't have many details now but I will certainly bring them back here. Potentially being part of the Vehicle Design Summit is an exciting opportunity to contribute to valuable goals. Perhaps become part of an inspired idea and contribute to a shift as well.

     There are certainly many other things I will discuss in the next few days and weeks from this event and I thought the general sessions are a great place to start.

Review Under Way

Well first of all I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!Time always goes by fast when your sitting at home, eating turkey and watching football. Go Packers

Today Richard has announced the SolidWorks Legion to the "Blog Squad". Welcome guys! I look forward to reading your postings.

Today I will begin the process of reviewing the NextEngine 3d Scanner. This is sure to be an exciting and educational. In just over two weeks I expect myself to present this product at our next RASUG (Rockford Area SolidWorks Users Group) meeting. The plan is to have my review posted by the end of this year....so I better get started.

SolidWorks World 2008 is approaching quickly and Lenny at lennyworks as well as Mike Puckett's blog have great information on the event. Be sure to check them out and I hope to see you there.

SolidWorks 2008 previews

     Recently I had attended a SolidWorks 2008 release event. The turn out was great. There were over 100 users in attendance and we all seemed to appreciate various features and improvements. At this point probably many of you have previewed the release in Beta, pre-release or other blogs and articles. In my discussions with several users at the event, none of them seemed to will be moving to 2008 in the next month. I do plan on getting this new release installed and running by the first or second week of November.

     Not only is there a new look to the user interface but numerous commands can be accessed from the design area, eliminating some extra mouse movement (a minor benefit). In our current 2007 environment I get calls from users that are frustrated with errors and conflicts. In 2008 one improvement is the ability to identify over-defining constraints and providing logical solutions and alternative suggestions to resolve the conflict. Fillet commands have been improved with the use of filter selection tools and the ability to grab multiple fillets in same size fillet design on the model. The new fillet expert provides alternate fillet options and selections  of surfaces/features. Live section is a new function which I think will aid in creating multiple designs from existing models of products and components. There were a number of partners on hand as well. What I thought has been a pleasant surprise is how SW and the partners have maintained sight on how everything works with PDMWorks Workgroup. There was information on the Enterprise edition which was well received. I am focused on the PDMWWorkgroup and I think SW and the SW partners maintained that focus adequately as well.

     I look forward to getting the admin images setup and deployed. I do have concerns with the new administration tools as they are more automated and less configuration "hands on". Deploying on an individual license and machine installation seems less of a concern than a network image and deployment. This will be my next blog in the future......what I think of the new admin deploying tool set.

Glad to be here

Well I want to thank Richard Doyle for the opportunity to begin this blog. The support from SolidWorks, Patrick Cook and Nick Lwaskow is greatly appreciated. Thank you also to Jeff Mirisola for taking the time to speak with me and help me get a better understanding of what to expect. I look forward to contributing solid content (a little pun there - haha) and providing information (hopefully useful) back to the community. I am a little nervous about this task but this will be exciting and educational. In my role with my company I have been very fortunate to have the opportunity to evaluate products and services. I look forward to sharing my experiences and opinions from my evaluations. I may occasionaly run off on a tangent especially during football season!!! I will be in attendance for the SolidWorks World 2008 confernce and I am sure this year will just continue to offer wonderfully useful information. After SolidWorks 2007 I was inspired by Jerry Winters sessions and began learning Visual Basic. I wonder what new and exciting lessons will be offered in SWW2008!!! So with that, I will begin this adventure in blogging!