SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 470 - 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 alerts and other industry tech news. Topics covered:  

SolidWorks Tech Blog:

- The Future Generation of SolidWorks Engineers
- SolidWorks Composer Data Paths for Multip-User Environment
- ELECTRICAL TECH TIP: Adding Part Numbers to Electrical Components
- CircuitWorks and Flow Simulation Working Together 
- Communicate globally with SolidWorks Composer - Intelligent Views 
- New SolidWorks 2014 Weldment Profiles
- SolidWorks Buried Treasure
- SolidWorks: Replace Components Without Mate Errors
- Working with SolidWorks Files On A Network
- The ABC's of FEA as simple as 1-2-3

Tech Alerts:

- Presentations for SolidWorks World 2014 are now available 

Support Monthly News:

- Spotlight on Features - Sheet metal: why are those cutouts stretched in the folded body?
- Spotlight on Features - Save auto-recover info after meshing and after running a simulation study.
- Noteworthy Solutions from the SW KB.

Industry News:

- Microsoft OneDrive launches with Dropbox-like bonus storage and a new Android App.
- Google I/O is back June 25-26 ...but you need to win a lottery to attend
- 5TB hard drives are here - From LaCie
- Windows 8.1 Update 1 hits RTM
- Dassault Systems invests $14.4M in NuoDB
- Google Drops Storage Prices to Amazing Lows 

The tech landscape is alive and kicking and I feel like the tech is maturing at an even rate.  Products are getting updates, patches and improvements but no crazy new technology breaks yet.  As we head into the end of the first quarter of 2014, I am interested to see what the summer product announcements and developer's conferences will bring.

SolidWorks World 2014 proceedings site is up and all the presentations and videos are available for download and viewing.  Whether you attended an just couldn't go to certain sessions or was not even in San Diego that week, you have a resource to go in search of nuggets!

The SolidWorks Blog is covered with many marketing pieces on Mechanical Conceptual but nothing is yet out for the public as far as licenses or access as of yet.  A better part of the VAR channel is just getting a few fingers into it but no mass access yet either.  Hope to have more news as it's availability becomes more accessible. ~Lou

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SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 462 - November Tech News

November Tech News:

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

SolidWorks Blogs:
Tips:
- Solutions to your top 7 fluid flow challenges
- Take the Pain out of Complex Patterns
- SolidWorks Composer: Animations in a Snap!
- Using Library Features to Speed up Design
- Initializing Contact with Simulation
- Flip and Rotate Flat Pattern Drawing View
- Electrical Component Library
- Creating Sweeps using Guide Curves
- In Mold Residual Stress & Displacement (SW2014) 
- The Importance of Design Intent for SolidWorks Files 
- Using Virtual Components with Imported Assemblies

News:
- New interactive SolidWorks workstation selection guide
- Ocean Renewable Power Company...generate power underwater?
- Dudley the duck is getting a 3D printed foot
- @SolidWorksCare on Twitter launches with a stream of daily tips
- SolidWorks World 2014 Top Ten List: Now Open For Idea Submission
- My.SolidWorks November Update 
- It was all sort of an accident, really.... 

Tech Alerts: 
- SolidWorks World Top Ten List open for submissions
- Entitlement ID Issue (Impacting some 2014 customers)
- SolidWorks 2014 SP1 Early Visibility is available for download.

SolidWorks Support Monthly News: 
- Service Pack News
- Noteworthy Solutions from the SWKB

Industry News: 
- Google Ships the Nexus 5 for $350 Unlocked (16GB)
- NASA video captures "Canyon of Fire" on the sun 
- Arizona getting Apple MFG plant run by solar 
- Autodesk Provides 3D Design in a browser 
- SolidWorks and nVidia launch the GRID 
- Android 4.4 KitKat comes to Nexus 7, Nexus 10 and MotoX
- Southwest and other airlines now allow gate to gate WiFi and device use.

Over the past month it has been incredibly busy for SolidWorks resellers as they hold events all over the world to rollout SolidWorks 2014 and show off all the goodies to customers.  "2014 RoadShow" this year was 7 cities for DDi so travel for the past month has been busy.

SolidWorks 2014 seems to be a huge refocus on SolidWork core, bringing enhancements and refinements to the core CAD platform.  Obviously the entire product line was refreshed but customers seems to be stoked about the core updates.

It also appears that many manufactures like Google, Microsoft and Apple now have their updated products in the channel in time for the Holiday season shopping spree.  Google's Nexus 5 has shipped, Surface 2 is out and it is iPad-palooza over at Apple.  Happy Techsgiving! ~Lou

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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 414 - October Tech News

October Tech News:

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

SolidWorks Blog:​
- A ton of What's New videos
- Registration for SWW13 is now open
- Assuming Small Displacement: The Large Displacement Flag
- Remembering our friend Wayne Tiffany 
- Set Document Property for SW EPDM 
- Increasing Performance in SW Patterns
- SW library features to "Die" for (video tutorial)
- Rho, Rho, Rho YourBoat: Conics in SW 2013
- Maximize your punkin' chunkin' catapult with SW Simulation
- Change Your Tree: See the Mates First!
- The Stratos Project: One Gial Freefall for Mankind
- Customizing SolidWorks Flyout Toolbars
- SolidWorks Enterprise Licensing Made Simple

Tech Alerts:
-​ SolidWorks EPDM 2013 SP0 is available for download
- Would you like to help define the future of SW? (survey)
- SolidWorks 2013 SP0 is available for download
- Creation of Inspection Documentation and Related Data (survey)

Industry News/Misc:
- SolidWorks to support Windows 8 on SolidWorks 2013 products (64 bit)

SolidWorks Beta is over, pre-release has now come to a close and SolidWorks 2013 SP0 has shipped! Now that the newest release is available to the general public, we can all get started really getting serious about moving to the latest and greatest.​

One of the pieces of news that came out last week was that SolidWorks 2013 will ship with full Windows 8 support right out of the gate at service pack 0.  With many of the Microsoft legacy products coming to retirement (Windows XP, Server 2003, Windows Vista) it is great to see support even before the official launch on October 26th!  I have been running Windows 8 since it's first debut in the developer preview and now that RTM has shipped (release to manufacturing), it is my primary OS.​

After 11 years of presenting and talking to customers about the newest release of software, it is great to see some genuine excitement to upgrade immediately since SolidWorks 2013 seems to have some focus on a lot of core features.​  Time will tell but so far the SP0 build seems to be pretty solid.  ~Lou

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SolidWorks:HEARD! - Episode 405 - September Tech News

September Tech News:

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

SolidWorks Blog:​

- ​Bolt Connector Tips

- High Quality Animations from Composer​

- Hidden Doc Props (default prefs)​

- Save As Copy (missing manual?)​

- Mastering Fill Pattern​

- Five Free Tools for Engineering (some SW, some not)​

- ​Dual Dimension Discussion

- eDrawings Pro for iPad announced​

- Wonders of Weldments​

- SolidWorks unveils 2013 product line​

- Cutting All Ties (Best Practices for Removing External References)​

- Seven Simple Tips for Modeling Springs​

Tech Alerts:​

- SolidWorks Featured Author Blog - Ed Eaton​

- Featured content updated for September​

- SolidWorks 2013 PR1 available for download​

Support Monthly FAQ​:

- Top Questions and Issues

- New KB articles​

Industry News/Misc:​

- What's New Series layout​

Well SolidWorks lifted the embargo of the 2013 beta program allowing everyone to say whatever they like about the new product.  SolidWorks also has continued to push out a number of updates and "Sneak Peaks" of the next major release of the SolidWorks product line.  2013 looks good and we are going to be starting the What's New Series here soon.​

About this time every year right after SolidWorks makes a pre-release version of the next build of SolidWorks available to the public, a number of in-depth posts start to surface about the product.  This is when you can really get a feel of what users impressions of the product is.  This release is about small upgrades and necessary enhancements to much of the core product.​

As we begin next week to break down the entire What's New manual, you will also get a sense of what the real goals were with this release.  The product that seems to have gotten a large UI and functionality update is Enterprise PDM, especially on the administrative side of the product.  What are your thoughts thus far? ~Lou

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SolidWorks:Heard! - Episode 400 - August Tech News

August Tech News:

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

SolidWorks Blog:​

- Maximize SolidWorks Performance​

- Demystifying the Color Setting in the SolidWorks Parts and Assemblies​

- Assembly Visualization - the search for the missing file properties​

- Customizing SolidWorks Spell Checker​

- Present at SWWC and get a free ride ​

- ​nVidia sharing the graphics FORCE for SolidWorks

- Intro to SolidWorks Electrical​

- Great SolidWorks Routing tech overview​

- ​Exploring the SolidWorks Property Tap Builder

- Interesting uses for SolidWorks.... in game design​

- Editing the SolidWorks Custom Property Name List​

Tech Alerts:​

​​- 3DVIA Composer V6R2013 SP1 is available for download

- SolidWorks & EPDM 2013 Beta 2 available for download​

- Step up your skills in SolidWorks challenge​

- New featured content for August​

Another month has passed and since we are in full beta season, I am surprised by how much news we had this month! With the launch of SolidWorks Electrical, the launch of 2013 Beta 2 and tons of great technical posts on the SW Blog, there was no shortage of topics to discuss.​

Here at SolidWorks HEARD! I recently moved the site over to a new platform that supports "responsive design", which will scale all assets (graphics and pictures) as well as change the layout based on the size of the device you visit with.  In conjunction with this being the 400th show, I wanted to take the opportunity to refresh the show layout and branding as well.  ​

As soon as the embargo on 2013 beta is lifted, we will be breaking down all the changes and new editions that are coming and give you an easy way to parse what enhancement or changes matter to your workflow.  ​Thanks again for listening and look forward to your feedback. ~Lou

Check out the SolidWorks:Heard! Blog and follow us on Google+, Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!

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SolidWorks:Heard! - Episode 396 - 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:

- Aldebaran Robotics designing the next gen robots in SolidWorks

- Using Auto-arrange to clean up drawings (from 3D Vision by Chris Snider)

- Increase performance with Defeature (from CATI by Josh Altergott)

- Simulation, linear vs. nonlinear (from DASI Solutions by Shaun Bentley)

- Sheetmetal design and documentation (video)

- Improving mouse performance 

- Dissolving sub-assys for BOMS (from Javelin Technologies by Scott Durksen)

- How to enhance rollback with part review (from Fisher/Unitech by Brian VanderPloeg)

- Olympic flare on event-based motion (from TMS CAD Centre by Gordon Stewart)

- How to run simultaneous simulations (from CAPINC by Al Zullo)

- Inspecting curvature with combs (from Graphics Systems by John Setzer)

- Adding custom color silhouettes in Composer 

Tech Alerts:

- Enterprise PDM 2012 SP4 available for download (Toolbox issue finally resolved!)

- SolidWorks 2013 Beta 1 available for download

- Enterprise PDM 2013 Beta 1 available for download

- Feature content blog updated with new content

- Mark Biasotti featured blog post on Fill Feature (must read)

- XP users reminded once again about SolidWorks 2013 not even installing. (an anology of beating a dead horse comes to mind!!!)

Support Monthly FAQ:

- SolidWorks 2013 Beta has begun!

- XP USERS! No SolidWorks 2013 for YOU!

- Various new knowledge base articles

Industry News:

- SSD prices are falling (from Engadget by Steve Dent)

- Nest thermostat reviewed (from GigaOM by Kevin C. Tofel)

- Google I/O brings Android up a huge notch, hardware launched

- Sunglass.io launches an API and plugins for SolidWorks (coming soon) (from SolidSmack by Josh Mings)

- Meetings.io Adds screensharing and file sharing (from Lifehacker by Kevin Purdy)

What a monster month for tech news around SolidWorks!  With the launch of Beta and a number of other things going on in the tech industry, July is starting off awesome.  Another patch launched for both SolidWorks and EPDM (SP4) which finally puts the Toolbox issue to rest.  This was a major setback for many customers and I am glad to report this fix is here!

The SolidWorks blog continues to post awesome content for users, populating 90% of it with posts from application engineers around the world with fresh, useful tech tips.  Not only is the content fresh and detailed, it also seems to cover a number of products from Simulation to Drawings.  Keep up the great work guys!

This past month Google had it's big developer event, Google I/O, which has always been a time where new builds of Android are detailed as well as the announcement of new hardware. This year Google finally has entered the tablet market with the Nexus 7 (yes mine is on order) which is a 7" form factor and comes at half the cost of the cheapest iPad.  I am looking forward to reviewing this device soon! ~Lou

Check out the SolidWorks:Heard! Blog and follow us on Google+, Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD! 

SolidWorks:Heard! - Episode 392 - 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:

- Making $$ Sense of EPDM (Eric van Essen at Javelin Technologies)

- Exporting DXF for MFG (Art Woodbury at CAPINC)

- Every trick in Hide vs. Suppressed (Darin Grosser at DASI Solutions)

- Why materials matter in Simulation (Bill Reuss at 3DVision Technologies)

- Zoom to fit no more! (Matt Lorano at SolidWorks)

- Pushing Configuration Publisher (Josh Altergott at CATI)

- Job Board Forum launches

- Complex mating (Duncan Crofts at TMS CAD Centre)

- Sketches, Design Intent and Proportion (Keith Pedersen at CAPINC)

- Angled holes with ease (Jeff Setzer at Graphics Systems)

- Building Library features with Reference Axes (Brian VanderPloeg at Fisher/Unitech)

- eDrawings for iPad gets an UPDATE! 

Tech Alerts:

- 3DVIA Composer V6R2013 SP0 ships

- SolidWorks APIs are now easy to find on the web!

- 2012 SolidWorks customer satisfaction survey is out!

- SolidWorks 2012 SP4 Early Visibility is available for download

SolidWorks Support Monthly FAQs:

- Not out for over a month (bummer!)

- Did get a notice about SolidWorks Beta coming soon!  Make sure your registered...

Industry News:

- To3D briefly launches web-based CAD (from WorldCAD Access by Ralph Grabowski)

- How SSDs really work (from Ars Technica by Lee Hutchison) (long but awesome)

- Google Blockly - Graphical programming

- Apple launches 2880x1800 resolution MacBook Pro (That's a lot of pixels!)

With SolidWorks bringing on more and more guest bloggers from the application engineers across the world, the quality of content has boomed and the posts are deep!  It is a welcome change to see so many posts that are beneficial to customers and real users of the software.  From someone who has been critical of the marketing fluff, hats off to SolidWorks for responding BIG!

We are starting to move into Beta season so it will not be a surprise if we start to see more activity building to the release of Beta 1.  There are also more rumblings with cad in a browser, obviously early stages and viewers but steps in that direction non the less.  I am interested to see what will transpire over the coming 12 months and what advancements will be available to the general public.  There are a lot of concepts and ideas but no products that make me want to drop what I use today.

Local hardware still is very appealing especailly with the speeds of SSD and high resolutions screens that are hitting the market.  As much as I love my 17" notebook, I don't really enjoy carrying it around.  Apple introducing a 15" notebok at 4.5lb with the resolution of a 30" high resolution monitor is interesting.  Wonder how that will work for CAD and the horsepower needed on the graphics card! Time will tell.  ~Lou

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SolidWorks:Heard! - Episode 387 - May Tech News

May Tech News:

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

SolidWorks Blog:

- Hats off to the most innovate SW users

- More interesting Simulation applications

- Tons of guest posts from SW AEs from around the world (awesome!)

- Indent tool tips (Josh Altergott, Support Manager CATI)

- New SW Freeze tips (Jerald Staley, Elite AE, CSWE at DASI Solutions)

- LABEL IT in EPDM (Jeff Sweeney, Data Geek, 3DVision Technologies)

- Gems in Templates (Brian VanderPloeg, AE at Fisher/Unitech)

- Cool Medical Simulation (Gordon Stewart, Elite AD , CSWE at TMS CAD Centre)

- Direct Edit/Move Face (Jeff Setzer, Training Coordinator at Graphics Systems)

- eDrawing for iPad ships

Tech Alerts:

- Enterprise PDM 2012 SP3 is available for Download

- Windows XP reminder that 2012 is the last supported version

- New Part Reviewer sample parts available

Support Monthly FAQ:

- XP Retirement & license entitlement server woes

- EPDM tips for title blocks and Toolbox

- SolidWorks Plastics Pro vs. Premium

- New Knowledge base articles 

Industry News:

- Google Drive launches

- 3D Search engine launched by Fujitsu ( I have seen this before with ShapeSpace ) - (source by SolidSmack)

- 3 Great articles on Cloud CAD ( 3D CAD Tips | Graphic Speak | to3Dnow )

The past month has been a great month for tech news in the CAD industry.  SolidWorks is bringing the content to their blog that users want by reaching out to the application engineer network across their reseller network.  These are the people in the trenches with users and use the software daily and have endless tips, trick and other great view on these tools.

With the launch of eDrawings for iPad, SolidWorks is going to get an influx of user response, both positive and negative about how they want to use their 3D CAD data via mobile.  The application has been patched since it's release but still is lacking the big features and device support that a vast majority of user that have responded are asking for.  Good start but long road ahead to awesome!

This month's SWSMFAQ is awesome, packed full of goodies for users across a number of products and aspects.  SolidWorks KB has improved so much over the past 4 or so years and is still a place I start when trying to solve issues.  Sometimes it has great examples, downloads and sample code snippets to help is almost every aspect of the SolidWorks product line.  This is a packed show, buckle up! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD! 

SolidWorks:Heard! - Episode 383 - 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:

- Multiple posts on Simulation products

- Announcing the launch of SolidWorks Plastics

- More posts from the new Demo Library

- More technical content posted via VARS!

Tech Alerts:

- Suggest more learning content to SW

- SolidWorks 2012 SP3 ships

- Activation server issue after SP3 launch (resolved)

- SolidWorks 2012 SP3 Release notes overview

- EPDM/Toolbox issue with Copy Part on

Industry Tech News:

- iPad/tablet market update

- Chromebook changes (web as a platform)

- Windows 8 Metro and CAD

Tax Day!... Ugg.  Here is the US the dreaded April 15th rolls around and for those of us who had to pay...a moment of silence.  Anyway, tech news can be a little thin during this time of year right before the hot beta season kicks off but still a ton going on.

SolidWorks has made some great strides to get more technical content into the SolidWorks blog by inviting some guest bloggers from their reseller (VAR) channel.  This has already brought some great posts into the fold and I hope to see more of it continue over the coming months.

With the release of SolidWorks Plastics, 2012 SP3 and more technical content, tech news is easier to come by these days.  I should get some time on SWPL over the coming weeks and recap the thoughts so far.  We did get it installed yesterday and the interface is really nice and workflow is simple with a lot of configuration options so stayed tuned! ~Lou

Remember to check out the SolidWorks: Heard! Blog and to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and THE HEaRD!