The Javelin Technologies Blog

Long, long time ago (in January this year), a very smart SolidWorks user was fishing at the Javelin Blog for tips and tricks when he caught the Golden Fish. The fish promised granting one wish (the biggest tech tip of the year, of course). The conversation continued:

The Smart User: “I want to go to SolidWorks World in San Diego, so I can attend all those amazing training sessions. I heard that they will have over 200 presentations to choose from.”

The Golden Fish: “I can send you to San Diego, but be aware that you will be able to attend maximum five presentations every day. You will not have time for more.

The Smart User: “That’s too bad, but I still want to go. I want to see the amazing Partner’s Pavilion and to go to the CSWP party and to see the dancing snake and to attend Eric’s presentation on Piping Design using E3 Wireworks.

The Golden Fish:“But are you aware that they scheduled the conference during Valentine’s Day? Are you sure your loved one will allow you to go?”

The Smart User: “Oh, noooooo. I cannot go away on Valentine’s! My loved one would never forgive me. What can you do for me then? I still want to see all the presentations!

The Golden Fish: “That I can do. And you know what? Because you are such an amazing SolidWorks user, I will open for you my treasure box containing all the sessions from 2010 in Anaheim, 2011 in San Antonio and 2012 in San Diego. Just click on one of the images on this page and you can watch any presentation you want.

And this, my friends, is the best tech tip you can receive in 2012 – the link to a million tech tips from some of the best SolidWorks users in the World. Enjoy!

San Diego February 12th-15th – What do you get when you have almost 6000 people, hundreds of great SolidWorks technical sessions and hundreds of exhibitors in a partner pavilion to satisfy every technical SolidWorks requirement? SolidWorks World 2012! Check out the video below for highlights of Solidworks World 2012 from Javelin’s perspective:

Javelin attended this year and captured all the excitement. Watch the highlights as we step into the partner pavilion exploring the vendors showcasing their SolidWorks related gear and technology! See how CSWP’s were treated to amazing event on the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier. One morning SolidWorks even gave everyone attending a sneak peek at the SolidWorks 2013, it looks awesome! All this and a great block party for more than 4000 people (thanks to HP and SolidWorks).

For one evening a few blocks of the historical Gaslamps district was closed off for great food, beverages and entertainment on every corner. Javelin attended, busy learning more about the great technology we support. Some of the Javelin folks were even showcasing technical information in the breakout sessions. Next year SolidWorks World is off to Orlando, Florida!

Did you attend? How was your experience at SolidWorks World 2012? Will you be attending the 15th SolidWorks World in Orlando at the Swan and Dolphin on January 20th-23rd 2013? Please let us know.

Ralph Wright, CSWP

Ralph Wright has just posted a very useful tech tip on the Javelin blog, including a detailed step by step guide about how to add new hole sizes in the Hole Wizard.

I know Ralph very well from meetings at the Ontario SolidWorks User Group and from having him in my SolidWorks classes. We discovered we have a common hobby – both of us like to brag about our expertise in SolidWorks. As a result, we entered in a friendly competition to see who can get the most SolidWorks certificates.

When he sent us the article, he also agreed to tell our readers a few things about his background as a designer in general and a SolidWorks user in particular. Here is the full interview:

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Improving Large Assembly Design Step-by-Step Guide

I finished reading over the Labour Day weekend the latest edition to the Step-by-Step Guide series that SolidWorks has been publishing over the last couple of years. Their newest book is titled “Improving Large Assembly Design using SolidWorks” and was released just a couple of weeks ago. When I received the notice from my good friend at SolidWorks, Michel Cloutier, I immediately ordered a couple for our support team to review and to have as a resource, and I just had to read this!

I’ve since read it cover to cover, and I’m impressed. The authors of this guide did a fantastic job hitting on all the key topics from the impact of hardware setup to how different mate types can impact rebuild times. Coming from a design background involving the design of very large and frequently complex assemblies, I know very well the best practices of large assembly design to maximize performance and usability as the design evolves. I am frequently consulted on this topic. Now I can say, “I know a book you have to read!” Kudos to the training department at SolidWorks – nice work on this guide.

SolidWorks end users have been waiting for a guide like this for many years and I will be recommending to any customer that does anything with assembly designs large or small, as many of the concepts and practices are applicable to everyone.

It’s a $70 investment well spent.

To review the topics covered, the table of contents can be reviewed and copies of the guide can be purchased via our web store.

Instead of arguing, I showed them a few quick examples of hybrid modeling (surfaces affecting solids). I just wanted them to remember what they saw if they ever found themselves in situations where standard solid modeling workflows were not good enough or fast enough.

Last week I received a phone call from one of these students, who remembered the demonstration. He wanted to emboss a text to his curved face in such a way that the letters would seem to radiate from the original face; something similar to the model shown in fig. 1.

Fig 1. Design Intent

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I recently went to a customer and began showing off all the wildly jaw-dropping giga-advanced features that I personally think are the cat’s meow. The customer proceeded to tell me they had no use for any advanced features, flashy animations, or add-ons: they simply wanted a fast, easy, 3D CAD software to make block-shaped parts in minutes.

This got me to thinking that we sometimes think of 3D CAD as an uber high-tech software that is too complex for the average human to do anything quickly on. So today I’m going to step back a little and show just how simple SolidWorks is at its core, so simple in fact, that you can create one with just 3 keyboard key presses! – I call it: The 1-2-3 Keypress Part (cue dun-dun-dun music..)

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I wrote this article first as a comment to my colleague Matt’s article: Solid Professor and CSWP: Preparing for Success! The problem was that I started by congratulating Matt and 5 minutes later I found out that I wrote a full article myself. So here it is:

Congratulations Matt, being a CSWP is a proof that you know what you are doing inside SolidWorks! You also proved that getting formal training in SolidWorks (Essentials and Assemblies at the minimum) channeled you on the quickest path to certification.

One thing I would like to point out. As Matt stated, SolidProfessor is a good tool to give you an idea about how the test looks like, but cannot replace real life experience you gain by modeling and modeling and, after that, modeling some more.

Once you finished your SolidWorks training at Javelin, go back to work and apply what you learnt. You will find out that the tools and the best practices we teach in those training courses give you access to an extensive arsenal of weapons to rely on when fighting real-world design problems. We give you a grenade, a machine gun, a sniper rifle and a side arm and show you how they work. You even get to do a  lot of  target practice in our state of the art firing range.

How you use them in the real life is up to you and to your enemy – the design challenges. You can wipe most of these out by throwing the best practices at them at the start of the project. You can mow down the survivors with your knowledge of the modeling flow techniques. When you can barely see the enemies in the distance you can pick them one by one through the scope of your design intent. And, of course, at close quarters you will draw your revolver loaded with checking tools.

If you want to be a real SolidWorks Professional do not rush in getting certified just to get a piece of paper. Graduate from the boot camp at Javelin, go and fight in the design trenches for your company and, after you survived a few hard fought design battles as a private, you can take the test to become a SolidWorks Officer, a CSWP.

What’s next? Tout soldat porte dans sa giberne le bâton de maréchal! There is nothing stopping you to learn some more (Weldments, Sheet Metal, Surfacing, Mold Design, Simulation, Advance Part Modeling), fight some more and get your marshal’s baton - the CSWE (Certified SolidWorks Expert) title.

And since we are talking about SolidWorks Marshals, allow me to finish the same way I started this article by offering a new set of congratulations to our newest Certified SolidWorks Expert at Javelin - my colleague and your Certified SolidWorks Instructor and Support Technician, Andrew Lindstone!

Marshal Andrew testing a machine gun at SolidWorks World 2011

Andrew completed an amazing feast of becoming a Certified Expert in less than 9 months from getting his Professional certification. For him the certification was just a validation of being a 10 year veteran in the design wars and the advanced skills he got as a SolidWorks Sharpshooter in the past 3 years.

You probably have already read his articles on best practices in modeling in general and SolidWorks in special. If not, please find them here: http://www.javelin-tech.com/blog/author/andrewl/. They are a must read for any SolidWorks user. I know, that I am using them a lot as reference to my support cases. A lot of times, the answers to my customer’s problems can be found in Andrew’s posts.

Why should you obtain a Certified SolidWorks Professional (CSWP) designation?

The CSWP is a designation that SolidWorks offers for users to prove that their skills are at a certain level, by completing a skills exam. This designation has been around since 1998 and some employers are starting to recognize it as a requirement for employment. There are over 10,000 Certified SolidWorks Professionals worldwide, and although this is a large number it correlates to about 1% of the total seats of SolidWorks that have been sold (Over 1 Million). If you are interested in learning more about the exam go to www.solidworks.com/cswp for more details.

I recently obtained my CSWP designation, and I can tell you that it was not easy. The first time I attempted the exam I thought I was ready because I had taken Essentials and Assemblies training, but I was wrong. The course had given me the skills I needed, but the exam still presented challenges.  Most of the questions for the exam require mass properties for the answer; which means your models need to be perfect, and that any small error can result in a fail.

After this defeat I decided I needed to fine tune my skills so that I could reattempt the exam again. I studied using Solid Professor.  Solid Professor as training tool, lets you access up to 818 lessons in video format. Most of the lessons are under three minutes, so it is not time consuming to learn about a tool.  If you would like more information about Solid Professor, please follow this link: http://www.solidprofessor.com/. Read More »

Chris is the only CSWP in the Thunder Bay area

At the age of 15 most teenage boys are thinking about video games, skateboards and being with friends. Chris Rudnicki is an exception to that stereotype. Chris may think about those things as well, but he is also now the only Certified SolidWorks Professional in Thunder Bay and most probably the youngest CSWP in Canada.

Chris’ interest came when he spent the summer of 2010 working in his father, Mike Rudnicki’s, machine shop. Rudnicki Industrial designed and built machinery used in the forestry industry and later changed course and started to build equipment for mining.  Chris stepped in and started converting drawings from Pro Engineer to SolidWorks. This project for his father, although Chris claims it was not difficult, turned into a machine used to unload crates from float planes so that this task would not have to be done manually.

After working with SolidWorks, Chris was encouraged by his father to take the 4 day SolidWorks Essentials course offered by Javelin. Mike recruited not only his son but other potential SolidWorks users in the Thunder Bay area, so our Elite Applications’ Engineer, Alin Vargatu, packed a bag and headed north.

Alin is no stranger to certifications as he is one of a handful of SolidWorks Elite Applications’ Engineers, worldwide. Alin encouraged Chris to write the CSWP exam and sure enough, Chris achieved certification.

As a high school student, one would think that Chris would be shouting his news from the rooftops, but this very calm and mature young man said “I didn’t say anything, because no one would know what I was talking about.”

In terms of his future, Chris would like to get into some sort of Engineering or Design Program, however, his real interest lies in innovation. Whether it be changing existing products and making them better or software development.

We wish Chris all the best for his future endeavours and are very proud of his achievement.

Click here to learn more about getting your CSWP certification.

One of the most underutilized feature sets of PhotoView 360 is the appearance surface finish tab.  Why is it underutilized?  For a couple of reasons I think, those being:

• It’s found in the appearance advanced settings that some users may never activate.
• Most users don’t fully understand the settings and controls found there or how they can be used.

I could explain surface finish with text and pictures here in the post but I thought the best way to show the controls was to create a short video so you could see them in action.

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