SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 446 - July Tech News

July Tech News:

This podcast covers the SolidWorks and CAD-related tech news that broke since mid-June covering the SolidWorks Blog, various tech alerts and other industry tech news. Topics covered:

SolidWorks Blog:
Tips:
- SolidWorks Modeling Methodology: Before You Start Your Design
- 5 Steps to Create a SolidWorks Rx Capture 
- Symmetry Fixtures on Shell Elements
- How to Replace the Viewport Compass with Your Company Logo

News:
- My.SolidWorks.com now updates features and devices it works on.
- How to Get Speedy with SolidWorks Enterprise PDM
- Exploded Views Made Easy with SolidWorks Composer

Tech Alerts:
- SolidWorks 2014 Beta 1 is available for download
- Enterprise PDM 2014 Beta 1 is available for download
- Featured content from July

 SolidWorks Support Monthly FAQ:
- Beta 2014 program 
- Service Pack News
- Noteworthy Solutions from the SW Knowledge Base

Industry News:
- Google Reader has now been sunset..
-  THE HEaRD SolidWorks Community has now been sunset..
- Stratasys and MakerBot merge
- GrabCAD and Luxion partner to add to GC Toolbox
- Windows 8.1 Preview available for download
- GrabCAD launches an Android App

Beta season is here and SolidWorks 2014 product line is up for testing.  In addition to testing out the next major release of SolidWorks, Microsoft has also launched a preview edition on Windows 8.1 for anyone to download and test. Both Beta 1 and Windows 8.1 have guides to see what is new to help with a roadmap for testing what matters to your use case.

With every new services that launches, some are shut down and on July 1st I decided to shut down THE HEaRD, the micro blog (twitter-like open source clone) that I ran for nearly 5 years.  It was a hard decision but with the ubiquity of social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus, I decided to put my effort there directly instead of using THE HEaRD as a hub for my SolidWorks activity.  I had been contemplating it for a year or so but when the lead developer moved on, that was my final push.  Thank you all who were part of the community! ~Lou  

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SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 445 - Windows 8.1 Preview

Windows 8.1 Preview: 

Microsoft has released a preview version of their next generation operating system, Windows 8.1 and in now available for download through their Windows Store. Topics covered:

- How to get Windows 8.1 Installed

- Preview Checklist and FAQ

- Other options for preview

- What exactly has changed? 

- Impressions so far

For the past year reports have been coming out of Redmond that "Windows Blue" (codename) was going to be the next major release of Windows and the possibilities of a return of the Start button and maybe an option to boot directly to desktop would make the cut.  Microsoft had been quite cagy about any specific details and had not really mentioned the upcoming product publicly. 

At their BUILD conference in June, Microsoft release for public Preview Windows 8.1. Despite what the name might suggest, this release is not a minor update but a major release in this new release schedule of updated operating systems from Microsoft.  8.1 will bring refinement to Windows 8 similar to what Windows 7 brought to Windows Vista.

I have had some time to get this installed and use it regularly to get a taste of what to expect.  I ran into a few issues with some old hardware and resorted to doing some testing in VirtualBox.   In preliminary testing all the SolidWorks seem to work thus far. ~Lou

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SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 444 - June Tech News

June Tech News:

This podcast covers the SolidWorks and CAD-related tech news that broke since mid-May covering the SolidWorks Blog, various tech alerts and other industry tech news. Topics covered:

SolidWorks Blog: 
Tips:
- Vibration tips for Simulation
- SW Sim Tips: Parameters and Design Studies
- SW Intersect Tool: Using Intersection Surfaces to make Solid Bodies
- Could Top-down Assembly Modeling Save You Time?
- Composer Tip: Improving Tech Pubs by Integrating Color
- Using Bend Notes for Sheet Metal Design in SW 2013
- Indexing EPDM Vault for Content Search

News:
-  My Perfect Electric Bicycle is a Motorcycle!
- New SW Certification Logos and Certificates
- Can spatial aptitude tests help predict your success as an engineer?
- Knowing When to Contact Your Reseller for Support
- Introducing the New SW Composer YouTube Channel!

Tech Alerts:
- SolidWorks 2013 SP4 Early Visibility is available for download
- Featured content from June
- One Minute Tech Tip Videos

Support Monthly FAQ:
-  SW 2014 Beta coming...
- Spotlight on features
- Noteworthy Solutions from the SWKB

Industry News:
- Matt Lombard's Dezign Stuff blog closes shop...
- Autodesk Buys TinkerCAD (Expanding 123D...)
- Intel Launches Next-Gen Haswell Chipsets
- Apple Announces New iOS and OSX platforms at WWDC
- Google Redesigns GMail and launches Project Loon
- GrabCAD Workbench comes out of Beta!
- TeamPlatform launches a refresh with new UI and enhancements
- Sunglass partners with CADENAS (1M+ Models)

It's officially Summer and that means product launches and beta season is around the corner.  It has been an exciting year in technology thus far but SolidWorks has been pretty closed lipped about beta up to this point.  I am curious to know what other products we might be able to test out, especially cloud-based apps like SW Mechanical Conceptual.  

As we discussed last week, the sightings of the SolidWorks 2014 Beta page is in the works but not all there yet.  In this month's Support FAQ there was mention that beta would start in the second half of June... WHICH IS NOW.  I expect that the flood gates will open on Monday and it will be time to get to testing. 

June was also the month of Apple's WWDC (Developers Conference) where previews of new hardware and software are going to enter the fold in the coming months.  After seeing both Apple and Google talk to their developers, there is going to be some exciting stuff entering the market in the second half of this year. ~Lou

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SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 441 - May Tech News

May Tech News:

This podcast covers the SolidWorks and CAD-related tech news that broke since mid-March covering the SolidWorks Blog, various tech alerts and other industry tech news. Topics covered:

SolidWorks Blog:​
Tips:
  - ​Breaking a sheet metal loft so it shows bend lines.
  - Using SolidWorks Sub-Weldments
  - Revision Clouds in SolidWorks 2013
  - Driving SolidWorks Assemblies with Curve-driven Patterns
  - Simplify Your Models Using the Intersect Tool
  - Note-Building Machine: SolidWorks vs Infinite Monkeys
  - Creating Section Views in SolidWorks 2013
  - 5 SolidWorks Tips You May Have Never Seen Before

News:
  - Free SolidWorks Certification for Subscriptions Service Customers
  - Q&A: Keeping up with the U.S. DoD Requirements
  - ​Romotive turns your iPhone into a programmable robot with the help of SolidWorks
  - Learn More About SolidWorks Using the Built-in Tutorials

Tech Alerts:
  - May Featured Content
  - 2 Questions Survey

Support Monthly FAQ:​
  - New format from SW Support
  - Service Pack News
  - Noteworthy Solutions from the SW KB

Industry News:​
  - Google Now comes to iOS
  - GrabCAD Workbench Launches
  - Windows "Blue" officially now Windows 8.1 (will be free!)
  - Google I/O 2013 Announcements

I know this is a little late but I opted to give myself a little break, catch up on some work and wait till the Google I/O conference was over so I could add some interesting information to the Industry news area of the show.​

SolidWorks news seems to be a little slim.  I would imagine there will be a high volume of stuff hitting the web once the beta for 2014 comes out.  I am hoping to hear more news in the coming weeks about SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual, which was announced at SolidWorks World in January.  As many of the announcements of years past, it has been silent, however I am anxious to see if we get a beta opportunity in conjunction with the desktop version of SolidWorks 2014.​

As you might imagine, I was focused on the big Google Developer conference that launched this week so I decided to push the show out till I could add some of the announcements from Google I/O since they have such a powerful impact on the future of the web.  Every year Google gives a good outlook on the future of the web and all it could potientially offer us.  Whether you love or hate them, the employ more PHDs than any other company so "pushing the envelope" is woven into their DNA.  ~Lou

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SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 437 - April Tech News

April Tech News:​

This podcast covers the SolidWorks and CAD-related tech news that broke since mid-March covering the SolidWorks Blog, various tech alerts and other industry tech news.  Topics covered:

SolidWorks Blog:​
Tips:
​   - Allowing SolidWorks to Perfiorm
   - Editing Legacy Electrical Data with SolidWorks Electrical
   - Forget the Cavity search--user the Intersect command for filled volume (SW2013)
   - SolidWorks Simulation Time Saver: Sub-Modeling
   - Stripping a Coated/Plated Part in SolidWorks
   - New in SW2013: Change Your Life with Search Options (on of my fav)
   - The Magic 8-ball in SolidWorks

News:
   - Design That Matters uses SolidWorks to help save newborns with jaundice (Born to Design)
   - SolidWorks 22 min Webinar Series reminder...
   - How to Learn SolidWorks (tutorials)
   - Setting the record straight on the future of SolidWorks Mechanical CAD
   - Introducing My.SolidWorks
   - Replicating History: Teversham Engineering's Project to Rebuild the First Computer using SolidWorks.

Tech Alerts:
- ​SolidWorks 2013 SP3 is available for download (release notes)

Support Monthly FAQ:​
​​- Top Questions and Issues
- New Knowledge Base Articles

Industry News:​
- Google Pixel first thoughts (besides expensive)
- Google announces a Realtime API for Drive (more collaborative tools to come!)
- Microsoft's next revision to Windows 8 (codename: Blue) leaks
- Blake Couter, Founder, Leaves SpaceClaim for GrabCAD
- Fielder Hiss leaves his post at SolidWorks (VP of Product Marketing and Management)

​The tech news this month was hard to choose what exactly to cover since there was more than usual.  On the SolidWorks front, the news has a few eye openers and some reflection and even worry when it comes to the future of the SolidWorks product direction.

This past week Fielder Hiss, a long time friend of mine and the VP of Product Marketing and Management stepped down to after 14 years with the DS SolidWorks.  It took many by surprise but raised concerns on exactly what was behind the decision.  Fielder had reportedly said his decision was NOT due to any broad organizational changes but more around a need for change after spending 1/3 his life with the same company.  He is taking a similar role with in a non-CAD industry (EnerNOC).

The other news was from a "Getting the facts straight" post on the SolidWorks Blog by CEO, Bertrand Sicot about the future of SolidWorks Mechanical CAD.  SolidWorks is finding itself ​in these situations due to unclear statements in public arenas like SolidWorks World or the shear lack of updated information to the general public after such announcements. (i.e. closed beta on SW Mechanical Conceptual).  Users and analysts like updates and the lack of updates causes wild speculation which then requires actions like this. ~Lou

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SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 434 - March Tech News

March Tech News:

This podcast covers the SolidWorks and CAD-related tech news that broke since mid-February covering the SolidWorks Blog, various tech alterts and other industry tech news.  Topics covered:​

SolidWorks Blog:​
- Tips
   - Revisitng You SolidWorks Copy Settings
   - SolidWorks Dismissed Warnings and Error Messages
   - New "Bounding Box" in SolidWorks 2013 (it's not just for weldments!)
   - Using the Intersect tool in SolidWorks 2013
   - Snapshots of PhotoView 360: Viewpoint (Part 5 of series)
   - It's Easy to Convert that old Legacy Data to SolidWorks
   - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Your Sketches
   - Remote vs. Distributes Mass in SolidWorks Simulation
- News
   - Donn McKinney's U.S.S. Missouri (in eDrawings)
   - SolidWorks World 2013 Technical Presentations are now available for download
   - Designing a Standing Desk in SolidWorks
   - How Design Has Changed The Way We Drink (St. Patty's Day)

Tech Alterts:
- ​March Featured Content

Support Monthly FAQ:​
- No SMFAQ this month...

​Industry News:
- Google Released the Pixel Chromebook ($1300 bones..)
- CADFaster lauches MyCadBox beta (cloud based collaboration on Azure)
- Dropbox launches version 2.0 Desktop sync tool
- Google to Kill Reader July 1

This has been a busy month in tech but pretty slow month with respect to SolidWorks.  The SolidWorks blog was stocked full of great tips from the AE community but there were no tech alerts or support monthly FAQ.

There was, however, a number of technology updates across the web, devices and other services in and around many of the technologies I personally use.  Google launched a high end, Macbook Pro quality, Chromebook but came with quite a price tag of over $1300 USD (plus tax). 

Google Reader, a tool that I use daily, reading over 270K articles across the web since 2006, was announced last week that it was going to be shutting down July 1.  Google has been doing a lot of "Spring cleaning" since Larry Page took the helm.  ~Lou

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SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 430 - February Tech News

February Tech News:

This podcast covers the SolidWorks and CAD-related tech news that broke since mid-January covering the SolidWorks Blog, various tech alerts and other industry tech news.  Topics covered:

SolidWorks Blog:
- Tips
  - SolidWorks Hole Callouts for Hole Wizard Holes on Cylindrical Faces
  - Get Started with SolidWorks Simulation
  - Why Does M y EPDM Calculated BOM Change?
  - Snapshots of PhotoView 360: Lighting
  - SolidWorks Simulation Tech Tip: Initial Temperatures
  - Rendering Liquids in PhotoView 360
  - SolidWorks Composer: An Easy Way to Rotate Actors
- SWW News
  - SolidWorks World 2013: The CEO's Perspective
  - Overview on My.SolidWorks
  - Overview on SW Mechanical Conceptual
  - SWW13 Day 1 General Session Video
  - SWW13 Day 2 General Session Video
  - The SolidWorks World 2013 Top 10 List
  - SWW13 Day 3 General Session Video
- News
  - Celebrating 15 years of SolidWorks certification
  - Manage 2D Data in EPDM and DraftSight
  - Display your CSWP on LinkedIn
  - SolidWorks wins the 2013 Engineers' Choice Awards

Tech Alerts:
- SolidWorks 2013 SP2 is available for download
- Featured content updated for February
- SolidWorks EPDM 2013 SP2 available for download
- Model Mania 2013 files available for download

Support Monthly FAQ:
-Top Questions and Issues
- New Knowledge Base articles

Industry News:
- Sunglass.io gets notable updates
- eDrawings for iOS Augmented Reality

Typically the weeks following SWW tend to be dry, although littered with opinions and summaries of the news out of the conference.  This month has a few nice highlights and as well as some updates to the 2013 product line.

What seems to be more unbelievable is that in just 4 months we should be getting ready for yet another beta season even though SolidWorks 2013 still feel pretty new.  SolidWorks also rebranded 3DVIA Composer to SolidWorks Composer which seems to make sense and maybe that will come with more integration as well.

There was one thing that was mentioned at SolidWorks World, product wise that did make it in the hands of the masses and that is eDrawings augmented reality feature that was shown on the main stage.  I have had some time to test it out and will talk about that as well.  ~Lou

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SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 426 - January Tech News

January Tech News:

This podcast covers the SolidWorks and CAD-related tech news that broke since mid-December covering the SolidWorks Blog, various tech alerts and other industry tech news. Topics covered:

SolidWorks Blog:
- Tips
   - Creating Drawings for SolidWorks Multi-body Parts
   - Dimension Tangent to an Arc or Circle
   - SW Simulation 2013 - Two of My Favorite Additions
   - How to overline text on a SolidWorks drawing
   - Snapshots of PhotoView 360: Appearances
   - SolidWorks Electrical: What's in the Black Box?
   - How to Add a Custom Hole Size to the Hole Wizard Database in SolidWorks
   - SolidWorks Enterprise PDM - Using the Report Generator

- Partner Profiles:
   - Delcam (CADCAM)
   - Capvidia (3D data translataion, validation, visualization and CFD)
   - Luxion (Rendering... KeyShot)
   - C&G Systems (CADCAM)
   - NVIDIA (graphics cards)

Tech Alerts:
- NEW Installation and Deployment Survey
- SolidWorks 2013 SP2 Early Visibility available for download
- The Featured Content Blog for January is now available

Support Monthly FAQ:
- Top Questions and Issues
- New Knowledge Base articles

Industry News:
- CES is a bust

The week before SolidWorks World Conference is here and typically the news is quiet due to the news that will be streaming out in the next week.  This month, however, seems to be littered with a ton of tips, a new service pack on the horizon and even a Support FAQ!

With CES finishing up last week, and for the most part a bust for innovation, I am looking forward to seeing old friends and wondering if I will be amazed this year at SW World.  It has been a while since SolidWorks World showed the magic it had just a few years back  Don't get me wrong, i still enjoy the event and the community aspect but the revealing on the mainstage has not been at the level is was in years before.

SolidWorks events crew always goes big so I know there will be no disappointment there.  We all hope to see and get a launch date of V6, if it will ship, maybe Live Buildings and how about an Android version of eDrawings?  Maybe?  I will hold my breath... ~Lou

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SolidWorks:Heard! - Episode 424 - 2012 Year In Review

2012 Year in Review:

This podcast covers a summary of 2012 and the specific SolidWorks' most memorable moments from the rise and fall of n!Fuze to eDrawings on the iPhone and everything in between.  Topics covered:

SolidWorks 2012 Highlights:

- SolidWorks hints at SolidWorks V6 in early 2013 (@ sww13)
- SolidWorks early testing on Windows 8 (March 2012)
- Introduction of SolidWorks Plastics (Simpoe agreement in April 2012)
- 3DVIA Composer V6R2013 ships (May 2012)
- eDrawings for iPad (May 2012)
- SolidWorks Electrical hits the scene (August 2012)
- Unveiling SolidWorks 2013 product line (September 2012)
- Debut of eDrawings Pro for iPad (September 2012)
- SolidWorks launches 2013 products with Windows 8 Support on day 1 (September)
- SolidWorks 2013 SP0 Ships (October 2012)
- eDarwings Pro support for iPhone (November 2012)
- SolidWorks 2012 SP5 (giving backwards interoperability to 2013 (November 2012)
- 3DVIA Composer V6R2013x ships (December 2012)

Technology Highlights:

- Apple ships retina iPad and iPad mini
- Google ships Nexus 7 and 10
- Windows 8 goes live
- Amazon launches Kindle Fire HD
- Microsoft launches Surface RT (Arm based tablet)
- The rise of webGL 3D tools emerge with Sunglass, GrabCAD and TeamPlatform

From a technology standpoint, 2012 has been an amazing year!  Consumer electronics were brought to a new level, not only in technology but in adoption.  Tablets have hit the scene in a huge way, brining larger screen mobile devices to a significant portion of the population.  This is changing the way many of us compute on a daily basis.

As far as the CAD scene, the emergence of more mobile tools that extend the workflow of markup and communication is far overdue and I hope becomes more expansive in the coming year.  Web-based collaboration tools for 3D are also growing in capabilities allowing teams to use cloud centric tools to bridge the gap.

2013 should bring many technological surprises, especially since the comfort with the cloud is slowly but surly growing.  We might actually see something from DS SolidWorks at SolidWorks World this year if the hint of Bertrand Sicot stands true.  

I want to take a moment to thank you all for listening/reading for another year and I am excited to see what 2013 brings to us in the engineering and tech world.  Happy New Year!  ~Lou

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SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 422 - December Tech News

December Tech News:

This podcast covers the SolidWorks and CAD-related tech news that broke since mid-November covering the SolidWorks Blog, various tech alerts and other industry tech news. Topics covered:

SolidWorks Blog:
- Tips:
   - Why are some of my dimensions grey and other black?
   - Something Intersecting in SolidWorks 2013: Join Your Parts to Find Volumes
   - Viewing different sheets at the same time
   - Using SolidWorks to Create a Helical Pattern
   - Make A Single Body with Multiple Open Contours in SolidWorks 2013
   - Enterprise PDM: How to Map to Microsoft Office

- SolidWorks World 2013 Partner Profiles:
   - AMD (graphics cards)
   - Software Cradle (CFD software)
   - DriveWorks (design automation)
   - Striker Systems (sheet metal CAD/CAM & nesting software)
   - Hewlet Packard (workstations)
   - Mastercam (CAM software)
   - ATR Soft (Office-EPDM integration and EPDM services)

- Maker Movement Articles:
   - 3D Printers and the Emergence of the Maker Movement
   - Stirring up the Maker Movement with the MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer 

Tech Alerts:
- Participate in defining the future of SolidWorks
- SolidWorks Top Ten list idea creation launches
- SolidWorks 2013 SP1 is available for download
- 3DVIA Composer V6R2013x SP0 is available for download
- Enterprise PDM 2013 SP1 is available for download

Support Monthly FAQ:
- Top Questions and Issues:
- New Knowledge Base articles

Industry News:
- TeamPlatorm free version adds teams and API access

December is always a busy month of news in the weeks before SolidWorks World 2013.  For the past few years SolidWorks has done partner profiles on some of the headliners of the Partner Pavilion since it is one of the event's most untapped resources.  So start making your partner hit list and make a plan to spend your time wisely in this year's partner pavillon.   

SolidWorks was also busy pushing out SolidWorks and EPDM 2013 SP1 in addition to launching the new build of 3DVIA Composer (typically on a 6 month release cycle) V6R2013x SP0.  They also opened up the top 10 list, which always is a big part of the 3rd day at SolidWorks World general session.

The excitement behind the Maker Movement is something I believe is in the hearts of every engineer and watching it soar is encouraging.  Improvements in web-based tools for CAD are also on the rise and one of our new favorite players, TeamPlatform is raising the bar in experience and integration (now with free API access). ~Lou

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