Mike Puckett's Blog

New Certification Logos And Certificates Available

Every few years we undergo a redesign of our logos and certificate backgrounds which is done to keep them looking fresh.  This week we released the latest version of both the certification logos, and the certificate backgrounds.

New logos are avilable to everyone that has passed one of our certification exams, and the new style backgrounds are available to those who have passed a certification exam in the last year or so.  See the attached document that explains how you can download these new items.  In the meantime, here are some smaple shots of the new designs:

Download Accessing Your Certificates And Logos

Connect With SolidWorks Certified Users Online

For a few years now we have offered users who posses a SolidWorks Certification the option to be listed in an on-line directory.  At SolidWorks World 2013 in Orlando we announced some new functionality that would allow users who choose to be listed in the directory, the additional option to also list their LinkedIn Account.  This allows for those users to be contacted directly by anyone who finds them in the directory. 

So if you are a independent contractor looking for work, or a company who has Certified SolidWorks users on staff, and would like potential customers to be able to contact you, here is a good way to make that happen.

In order to appear in the directory you need to enable that option in your SolidWorks Certification Center Profile.  Once you enable that option you can then connect your LinkedIn profile to your account.

Download the attached PDF file that will walk you through how to both enable your on-line directory listing, as well as how to connect your LinkedIn Profile.

Download Online Directory And LinkedIn Listing

SolidWorks World 2013 Is Right Around The Corner!

Hard to believe, but SolidWorks World 2013 is just two weeks away!  For us, we'll be leaving in just over a week to get to sunny and warm Florida.  For the SolidWorks Certification team, the next two weeks are the busiest time of the year for us.  We are putting the final touches on the CSWE event, and getting everything ready for our Sunday testing event which usually draws over 200 people to take one of our certification exams.  On top of that we're also putting the final touches on our general session main stage presentation.

For those of you lucky enough to be headed to SolidWorks World 2013, there is a lot to look forward too.  The general sessions, the networking events, the break out sessions, and the Tuesday night offsite event at Universal Studios Adventure Island!  From what I have seen the SolidWorks Events Team has put together another home run of an event for this year!  Still not announced are the keynote speakers, and I'm sure there will be a special surprise guest or two that will show up!

So if you haven't started planning yet, you better get started!  Head on over to the main SolidWorks World 2013 site for all the informationyou can digest, fire up Twitter and Facebook and look up the usual information giving suspects, and last but not least, get your comfortable shoes ready, because there is a lot of walking to be done!

Hope to see you all in Orlando!

Join Me & The CEO Of SolidWorks This Week In So Calif

Long ago (closer to 4 years) I was a SolidWorks customer, but more importantly, a user group leader of the Los Angeles Area SolidWorks User Group.  When I joined SolidWorks as an emoplyee I was fortunate to find a couple of guys who were willing to take over the group and keep it running.  Since then I have returned a few times to do some presentations and visit with all my old friends, many of you who receive my blog posts via email.

Well this wekk I'll be back in So Calif to attend the user group meeting and I'll be meeting up with a couple of other well known people.  Namely our CEO, Bertrand Sicot, will be in attendance to give us all an overview of the state of SolidWorks, and I'm sure will more then likely take some of your pressing questions on topics like V6, the cloud, and the fabricated story floating around out there that SolidWorks is abandoning it's kernal (some people actually believe it).

The meeting will be Thursday evening, October 4th at 6:00 pm at Mountain Meadows Golf Course in Pomona near the 57 and 10 freeways:

1875 Fairplex Drive

Pomona, CA 91768

(909) 623-3704

Also in attendance will be Phil Sluder who will join us from San Diego to show us some of the benefits of multi-body vs assembly modeling.  Phil will also answer any question you may have.

I know that a lot of the original user group attendees automatically receive this post, so if you do, don't worry if you don't receive any further emails, just show up.  There is no need to register to attend for anyone, and it's sure to be a nice big cowd.  As usual there will be plenty to eat and drink.

I hope to see you all there.

CSWE Profile: Will Mayo

Name: William Mayo

Position: Design Engineer

Company: IDEAL Fastener Corporation

Date of CSWP: Nov, 2009

Date of CSWE: Aug, 2010

Advanced Certifications: Sheet Metal, Surfacing, Mold Tools

 

William (Will) Mayo has been a CSWE since 2010 and is one of the first 100 users to have achieved the highest SolidWorks certification.  Will graduated in Mechanical Engineering from NC State and started learning SolidWorks there in his engineering classes starting all the way back in 2005.  Will actively used SolidWorks for many of his engineering projects beyond his CAD and design classes and this led to his initial expertise.  Upon graduation in December, 2008 he and some business partners started their own company.  In spite of the fact that he didn’t actively use SolidWorks in this business venture he still maintained his SolidWorks skills and eventually achieved his CSWP almost a year after graduating. 

IDEAL Fasteners is one of the industry leaders in supplying zippers to the fashion and clothing industry.  Will started working for IDEAL Fastener in December, 2009 and attributes his CSWP as a major factor in his getting hired.  At that time IDEAL had relatively recently purchased their first seat of SolidWorks and were looking for a user that would make the best use of it.  Prior to this, IDEAL primarily used AutoCAD (of which Will is certified as well) for their CAD design. After being hired Will used SolidWorks as the primary CAD tool to design the manufacturing machines that IDEAL uses in their factory.  His responsibilities include updating the older factory machines to either be more automated or be more structurally sound.  Will also designs completely new machines when a much more efficient manufacturing process is recognized.  Occasionally he also uses his skills to create zipper models for prototype manufacturing or 3D printing. 

After starting at IDEAL Will converted most of their 2D CAD and paper drawings into 3D parts and assemblies.  This practice along with practicing various on-line tutorials made available by members of the SolidWorks community helped him hone his 3D CAD skills.   

Will attributed the SolidWorks Certification exams in helping him learn skills that make his current job much, much easier.  To pass the CSWP Will had to learn to master equations, configurations and Design Tables.  He now uses these features to create families of parts for many of his factory machine components and has turned jobs that used to take hours into minutes.  Without the need to study these areas for the CSWP Will feels that he would have continued modeling in the way he always had and would not have taken advantage of these time saving functionalities.   

Another example of how the Certification exams have helped with his job was the Advanced Surfacing test.  To pass this exam he studied a lot of advanced surfacing techniques.  He now applies many of those surfacing techniques in designing parts for both factory machines and product for customers.

IDEAL has recently hired 2 recent graduates from NC State to supplement their growing CAD group.  Will has been tapped to be their mentor and has advocated their passing of the SolidWorks Certification exams since he has recognized the value they have had in his own career. 

Note: If you are a Certified SolidWorks Expert and would like to be featured in a future CSWE Profile, email us at [email protected] and include a short message telling us about what you do.

eDrawings Pro For iPad

So you downloaded eDrawings for iPad a few months back and thought it was a pretty good start for an app right?  If it seemed like it would be nice to have some additional features, your wait is over! 

Just like SolidWorks, the team behind eDrawings for iPad was hard at work on the next version of the app even as the first version was being consumed by all.  And just like SolidWorks, most of the newly added features have come from you the user.  So, in this new version, what do you get?  Here is the laundry list:

• Zoom, pan, and rotate your 3D and 2D CAD data using multi-touch
• Browse your assembly components tree, model configurations and drawing sheets
• Hide, show, or make components transparent
• Select View mode: standard orthogonal views, shaded with edges, perspective view
• Play animated 3D standard views as well as 2D drawing views
• View your designs in full screen and double tap to fit it on screen
• Double tap zooms to drawing views
• Markup your designs and send to others, and read others’ markups
• Measure your design data
• View cross sections of your 3D designs
• Sample files included

My favorite three enhancements are in bold above, markups, measure tool, and cross sections. 

Before these additions the app really was a good display tool, good for looking at designs and sharing information.  With these further enhancements the app becomes much more of a true collaboration tool in the sense that you can use it to share and communicate design changes, and have the ability to look into your designs further, al without lugging around a 10 pound mobile workstation!

Since eDrawings for iPad was released a few months ago, I have shown it at a few user group meetings to see what users reactions are.  At first most people see it as a pretty cool, neat looking app, but once I ask for ideas on how it could be used professionally, the light bulbs really start to turn on, and people see value in it, and how they could make the app work for them.

The app is available for $4.99 USD until about the end of September 2012 when it will go up to its normal price of $9.99 USD.  The 'sale' is meant for those that have already purchased eDrawings for iPad a chance to upgrade for a lower price.  Of course to get the app, search for it on the app store under eDrawings Pro.

I was sitting at the airport on Friday morning when the app went live in the app store, so I figured I could spend a three hour flight playing with the app.  I paid my money for the app, and it downloaded in a few minutes.  I spent the plane flight showing the guy next to me what 3D CAD was about, although I think his kid enjoyed the model of the toy tractor more than he did!  eDrawings for iPad is simply a great way to communicate your designs to anyone, even a construction worker on the way to Vegas for the weekend with his family!

SolidWorks 2013 Beta Is Available

SolidWorks 2013 Beta is here.

Head to the SolidWorks Customer Portal to get started.  Beta is open to SolidWorks customer with current subscription service contracts.

Remember, SolidWorks 2012 was the last release of SolidWorks that will run on Windows XP, therfore Windows XP users will not be able to install 2013 Beta or production releases.

eDrawings For iPad!

Today SolidWorks released a new app for the iPad called eDrawings for iPad.  I have been playing around with it for a few days and thought I would share some tips for using the app.

The app is $1.99 U.S. Dollars and is available via the iTunes App Store.

The app takes advantage of the multi-touch gestures available on the iPad:

• One finger rotates the model
• Two finger drag pans the model
• Three finger drag slides between the file menu and the document
• You can pinch to zoom
• And double tapping fits the model to the screen

If you are viewing an assembly that has an exploded view, you will be able to see that view as well.  Configurations also carry over so you can view them.

The fly out menu is where you access the configurations as well as being able to tough on a part and have that part highlight:

Once you purchase the app the first thing youre going to want to do is add some of your own content to it.  So what are the best ways?  Well I'll show you two simple and free ways.

Adding files via iTunes:

Once the app has been installed, and you have synced your iPad with iTunes, you will notice when you have your iPad selected in the left hand navigation pane, then you select "Apps" from the top menu, you will see eDrawings appear in the list of apps you can add files too.  Simply click the add button and you can then drag and drop files to the iPad. 

Click sync, and your files will appear in the User Files tab in eDrawings.

(Inserted Note)

• The following example uses the Dropbox program, but you are also able to use Box, SkyDrive, SugarSync, Google Drive and an FTP site.

Adding files via DropBox

Dropbox is a service that allows you to store and share files via the cloud.  Once you install the app or program onto a computer or any device, they will all share one common folder whose contents are available at anytime.  You can even access your files via a webpage.  The service is free for up to 2gb of storage, and they sell monthly plans for larger storage abilities.

I downloaded and installed the free app to my ipad, and then downloaded and installed the free program to my SolidWorks laptop.  Once that was done I dropped a folder containing a SolidWorks assembly into my 'dropbox' folder.  I then went to my ipad, launched DropBox and my folder was there.  I selected one of the files and of course DropBox is not able to display the SolidWorks file.  So I touched the 'open in' icon, and eDrawings is one of the options:

Selecting eDrawings then launches the app and opens your model:

From this point you can then use the normal functions found in the app.  But how about displaying your model in a meeting?  The iPads 10.1 inch screen isn't the best screen for a bunch of people to look at.  You can plug it in to a projector or tv using an available plug, or if you have an Apple TV you can use Airplay Mirroring:

Airplay Mirroring is something new that came to theiPhone 4, iPad 2 and the iPad 3, along with Apple TV 2 and 3.  You can read more about that here: Apple Airplay Mirroring.

One Heck Of A Week At SolidWorks World 2012!

Having just arrived back home from the five hour from San Diego, I figured it was a good time to sit back, relax, and maybe share some stuff from SolidWorks World 2012 while it's still fresh in my mind!

For the Certification team SolidWorks World each year actually begins about 5 days before the actual conference opens.  This year the SolidWorks Certification team decided to meet in Las Vegas for 3 days before driving down to San Diego.  This gives us a chance to sit down and discus issues with our developers, and with each other, as well as get a chance to discus what's in store for the new year.  This year we have at least five new exams scheduled to be released, so keep an eye out for them.

On Friday we jumped in a couple of cars and hit the road for the drive through the Mojave Desert.  Both or Sweedish and German counterparts were amazed at the desert landscape, and the utter lack of anything green for nearly 200 miles!

Arriving at the conference is always fun for me, it's a chance to check out the venue, meet up with coworkers I have not seen in a year, and to sneak into the general session to catch up with our production team and see what awesome new stage tech they have brought for us this year.

Of course the weekend is also full of work stuff like helping to unpack shirts, set up computers, and then on Sunday conduct testing for 220 people.  This year we had 180 people brave the CSWP exam, and 57 of them passed.  We also had 2 new CSWE's as well.

As you may have heard, this years SolidWorks World was the biggest ever.  The previous record of 5,100 was blow away by an attendance figure of 5,950 that was announced on Monday morning.  By Tuesday afternoon I had heard that number had crept even higher, so perhaps we'll get an official number next week.

The conference was so big it even got the attention of the locak Fox station that stopped by to do a story, you can see that clip here: SolidWorks In The News!

Here is a video recap of the day one general session:

 

Next up will be what I see as the most important night of any SolidWorks Worlds, the CSWE/CSWP Event!

What Will Users See At The CSWE-CSWP Event?

Well besides a bunch of military aircraft and one large ship?  They will see plenty of pretty cool renderings of products created in SolidWorks by CSWE's and CSWP's from around the world.  Here are just a few quick samples:

How about a Pagani Zonda:

Or a battery powered scooter:

Or even a multi-level parking structure:

And those are only three of the over 100 images we received to show off on Monday night aboard the U.S.S. Midway!  Hope to see you there!