Archive for the ‘DriveWorks’ Category

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3DVision’s DriveWorks Technical Expert

Wednesday, April 10th, 2013

So, you receive an email or phone call from our excellent DriveWorks support team answering your questions, but unless you’ve been able to attend DriveWorks World events you don’t really know the person you are talking to. Well, here is a way to get to know a little more about the person behind the email:

Jeff Sweeney

Name:

Jeff Sweeney

Job Title:

Engineering Data Specialist

What is your favorite new feature in DriveWorks 10?

Easy the “Control Tree”. It saves me tons of time building forms, I used to always bounce from form to form, now it is so much easier!

What is your favorite overall DriveWorks feature?

3D Preview it makes the forms so much more professional.

What is the most exciting/surprising thing you have used DriveWorks for?

I think one of the most clever uses I have seen is exporting dxf files directly into CNC machines.

Which team do you follow in Formula 1?

Only the front runners, I keep the seat warm on the bandwagon.

Who is your favorite Formula 1 driver?

Danica Patrick ..okay she’s not Formula 1, but she’s my favorite competitor in all sports.

What car do you drive currently?

’74 green Pinto station wagon. AM radio still works!

What would be your dream car to own?

The first car to run with only water for fuel.

Posted in DriveWorks, General | No Comments »

Why Automate?

Friday, March 15th, 2013

DriveWorks is proven technology that reduces the time and money consumed on custom product design and support. DriveWorks lets you automate repetitive tasks and generates all the design and manufacturing output required.

There are several good reasons why companies want to automate what they do:

  • Reduce the cost of custom designs
  • Respond quickly to sales enquirie
  • Enhance product quality
  • Reduce repetitive tasks

    • The Benefits of DriveWorks

  • DriveWorks lets you capture and re-use knowledge and rules to specify, design and engineer to order
  • It allows you to respond quickly to sales enquiries
  • DriveWorks can capture and protect individual’s knowledge
  • It reduces cost of custom design repetitive tasks
  • DriveWorks can enhance the product quality/audit trail by eliminating human error
  • It bridges the gap between the engineering and sales departments
  • DriveWorks offers a scalable solution all the way to 3D configuration on the web!

    • To learn more about DriveWorks click here.

    Posted in 3DVision Technologies Announcements, DriveWorks | No Comments »

    Form Design

    Friday, March 15th, 2013

    In the old days, the perfect DriveWorks  input form was small and compact. Mouse travel was an important consideration. A good “mouse surgeon” could completely specify his project by barely moving his wrist.

    Now we live in a world with touch devices. The pointing device is the user’s fingers -their fat pudgy fingers. Users like to make large sweeping, fast motions. I’ve learned to give Great Aunt Eleanor a 10 foot radius when she is using her touch devices because her elbows fly!

    The nice tight, compact interfaces of yesteryear maybe a thing of the past. You cannot expect Eleanor to be able to pick the correct radio button from a tight cluster.

    Interface

    Example DriveWorks Interface

    DriveWorks does give you the ability to “read” what sort of device your users are connecting to your system with, so you could design two different interfaces – one form for touch users, another for mouse users or make a compromise and design all forms for both interfaces.

    Designing two interfaces is “twice” as much work.  Now days I lean more towards designing the input forms for both interfaces. If you use pictures as buttons (i.e. in the image above, the user can click on the picture of the trailer style instead of a traditional radio button.)  the interface doesn’t feel like or look an old DOS application when using a mouse yet it is easy for touch devices as well.

     

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    Posted in DriveWorks | No Comments »

    Guided Selling

    Monday, March 11th, 2013

    During the first day of DriveWorks World we had a special guest speaker, Paul Gimbel. I’ve been a big fan of Paul’s work since we first met in Cincinnati six+ years ago. He’s what I like to call a “nugget” speaker. –While the overall message of his talks are good, his talks are packed with little nuggets of gold that can always be applied to make things better.

    Here’s a little nugget he shared with us, [so I’ll assume it is okay to share with you]. He spoke of “Guided Selling”. As your users navigate through your DriveWorks forms, try to present them with additional options that they could also get with your product. Hopefully they’ll learn more about your product and buy more than they originally planned to…i.e. ”Hey I didn’t know I could get that option in this product!”

    You think Amazon.com does this because they are just nice guys? With a well designed DriveWorks form, you could be a “nice guy” too -by helping people buy more products from you.

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    Posted in DriveWorks | No Comments »

    DriveWorks World 2013

    Sunday, March 10th, 2013

    DriveWorks World 2013 is over.

    Traditionally, DriveWorks World’s first day is the day after SolidWorks World. Though it makes for a long week, the benefits of having the two conferences back to back are a good time/money saver.

    All good things must come to an end. Given:

    • As attendance for DriveWorks World has grown; the requested topics have also grown and as such there are too many things to accomplish in one day.
    • A [or as I say: “The”] highlight of DriveWorks World is the introduction of the next major release of the DriveWorks. SolidWorks World was early this year –only eleven months between SolidWorks World 2012 & 2013. Eleven months is a tight development cycle for a product as big as DriveWorks.

    …it was logical to hold DriveWorks World in March. In Chicago. During one of the worst winter storms over the past two winters. Thankfully, none of the seminars were held outside.

    This was a fantastic two day event. The first day was kicked off by Glen Smith, our keynote speaker giving us a “state of the application” speech. Glen is an entertaining speaker and crazy smart guy. He certainly conveyed his message that the future of design automation is bright and that DriveWorks is investing in the technologies necessary to keep it [and its customers] one step ahead of it competition. “Customers are beginning to expect their suppliers to customize their products to meet their exact specifications.”

    The rest of the day was devoted to the new release – DriveWorks 10. DriveWorks 9 introduced several new tools that had a huge “WOW” factor and felt like a show pony. DriveWorks 10 is a workhorse release. Not as flashy, but many great tools to help you get your job done. I love the enhancements they have done on the administrator side. Many of them leading to good productivity, form design and data manipulation. Look for the What’s New on the documentation site [http://docs.driveworkspro.com]

    The second day started off with Maria Sarkar showing several customer case studies. I always enjoy these, it is fun to see the number of different ways people use SolidWorks and DriveWorks together to solve their design issues. The rest of the day, attendees were able to attend several breakout sessions.

    I do enjoy the programs on the agenda, but where I get the most value from attending DriveWorks World, is the one-on-one time you get to spend with the DriveWorks team. No other time do you get to be in the same room with the owners, lead developers, programmers, marketing and support staff. If you have a question about anything DriveWorks related, you can go straight to THE person who would know. [Though don't bother asking what is going to be in DriveWorks 11 -a topic on which they act like you are asking for the secrets to the Manhattan project]

    I have to question the logic of choosing Chicago over  Orlando, but it was a great educational experience. Maybe we can talk them into someplace warmer next year?

    Tags: ,
    Posted in DriveWorks | No Comments »

    DriveWorks Webinar Schedule for March 2013

    Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

    DriveWorks webinars are proven to help greatly reduce the learning curve for SolidWorks. Join a few webinars in March to become more efficient with your automations and save countless hours of your time in the future.

     

    DriveWorks Xpress Head Start Webinar

    You will learn…

  • How to capture the parameters you want to control
  • How to create a simple form to specify your products
  • How to build rules that link the form inputs to the captured parameters that control your designs

    • You will see how you can start automating YOUR designs straight away.

    Register here for the March 5th webinar from 11:00am – 12:00pm

     

    DriveWorks Solo Head Start Webinars

    DriveWorks Solo Headstart Webinars are led by Certified DriveWorks Solo Application Engineers and are a great way to demonstrate how to Get Started with the Software! You will be taken through the quick and easy steps involved in automating your design process with DriveWorks Solo.

    You will learn:

  • How to capture the parameters you want to control
  • How to create a good looking and intelligent user interface to specify your products
  • How to build rules that link the form inputs to the captured parameters that control your designs

    • 1 hour of your time today learning how to set up the software will save you countless more in the future!

    Register here for the March 6th webinar from 11:00am – 12:00pm

    Register here for the March 20th webinar from 11:00am – 12:00pm

     

    DriveWorks Solo Training Part 1

    In this session we will be going over the start of the DriveWorks Solo Training.

    This will include:

  • Model Capture
  • Creating Forms
  • Building Rules
  • Running your Project
  • New File Names and Locations

    • Register here for the March 25th webinar from 11:00am – 12:00pm

     

    DriveWorks Solo Training Part 2

    In this session we will be going over the middle section of the DriveWorks Solo Training.

    This will include:

  • Replacing Files
  • Tables
  • Form Navigation
  • Improving Your Forms
  • Driving Replacement Files
  • Controlling Custom Properties

    • Register here for the March 26th webinar from 11:00am – 12:00pm

     

    DriveWorks Solo Training Part 3

    In this session we will be going over the end of the DriveWorks Solo Training.

    This will include:

  • Documents and Contolling Drawings

    • Register here for the March 27th webinar from 11:00am – 12:00pm

    Posted in 3DVision Technologies Announcements, DriveWorks, SolidWorks, Webinars | No Comments »

    Workflow and Specification Flow

    Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

    A little more than a year ago, with DriveWorks 7, DriveWorks introduced Specification Flow. Many people rejoiced, many were confused. I had several people ask why they would need specification flow when they already had workflow through their PDM.

    At first glance, many Enterprise PDM users assume the two functionalities overlap…their interfaces look rather similar and they both have similar sounding names, but actually they [can] have completely different functions because they fit in different areas of your company’s order timeline.

    DriveWorks’ specification flow is oftentimes the flow of a potential order…before any files are even generated.

    SpecificationFlow

    The specifications of the order can be stored within DriveWorks, you can make changes, generate approval drawings, even have people approve the acceptance of an order without any files having to be generated.

    Once you and the customer agree it is time to start, DriveWorks can create the files (CAD, BOMs, acceptance letters, spare parts lists, ERP information, etc.) place them into the PDM system where they can then have their own workflow independent of the DriveWorks system.

    Learn more?

    You may have a quoting process which involves generating a general-assembly drawing – all before releasing to manufacture and before the full manufacturing information is generated.
    You may have additional requirements during the specification process such as copying a document to another machine which otherwise would involve complicated macros.
    You may simply want to change the text that is displayed on the “Finish” button to something like “Quote”
    You may want to set rules that determine that a Sales Manager can see all specifications generated by your distributors, but only let each distributor see their own specifications.

     

    Tags: , , ,
    Posted in DriveWorks, SolidWorks PDM | 1 Comment »

    Better SolidWorks Templates

    Friday, November 9th, 2012

    I cannot count the number of times I have watched a designer work on a fresh new design, he’ll start with a blank part, create a rectangular sketch, extrude it…. then when he starts another part, he’ll start with a blank part, create a rectangular sketch, extrude it…. then when he starts another part, he’ll start with a blank part, create a rectangular sketch, extrude it…. then when he starts another part, create a rectangular sketch, extrude it…

    At this point blood is running down my cheek and I’d have to ask him why he doesn’t at least use basic solid shapes for his templates -every time he starts with a cube (or cylinder, or…) instead of a blank file. Saves a minute+ for every part. Crazy fast and easy ROI.

    Here is a way to make starting your parts even more efficient – start your parts with DriveWorksXpress. Now, not only can start with basic shapes, but they can start at the correct size and maybe even have some additional common features too! Starting your part when it is already 10% complete beats the guy who starts at 0%.

    Bonus, have DriveWorksXpress make the part’s drawing too. So now you don’t have to start with a blank drawing, navigate to the part file, create your views, then when you start another drawing you don’t have to start with a blank drawing, navigate to the part file, create your views, then when you start another drawing you don’t have to start with a blank drawing, navigate to the part file, create your views…

    Be lazy, automate, and get more done.

    Tags: , ,
    Posted in DriveWorks | No Comments »

    DriveWorks works with SolidWorks 2013

    Tuesday, November 6th, 2012

    Don’t let DriveWorks be an excuse from upgrading to SolidWorks 2013. Both DriveWorks Solo and Pro service pack two have been cleared for take off!

    Tags:
    Posted in DriveWorks | No Comments »

    New Machine? How To: Return Your DriveWorks License Key

    Tuesday, September 25th, 2012

    It happens to everyone, you buy a brand new computer, then have to put all your programmes on to the new machine and make sure they’re all licensed to that new machine. At DriveWorks we want you to be able to get back into action using your DriveWorks Software on your new machine as quickly and easily as possible.

    So… simply return your license from your OLD machine via the internet to our license server, and then whether that means you’re lucky enough to be getting a brand new machine or just reformatting and existing one, then the license is available for you to use again when you’re ready!

    Here’s a simple guide to show you How To Return Your DriveWorks Solo License Key:

    • Go to the Windows Start Button
    • Click through All Programs > DriveWorks Solo > DriveWorks Solo License Manager
    • Click Return License
    • Click Finish on the License Management wizard once it is complete

    And to return your DriveWorks Pro License Key:

    • Go to the Windows Start Button
    • Click through All programs > DriveWorks (program group)
    • Select the license that is to be returned and click View
    • Click Return License
    • Click Finish on the License management Wizard once it is complete

    Then just do all your changes to your machine and activate the same code again which you can access through the DriveWorks Solo/DriveWorks Pro websites. Then you are back in action!
    The key thing with this is making sure you return the license BEFORE you make the changes to your machine, or BEFORE you need to activate it on your new machine!
    This procedure is really quick and easy, but if you do come across any difficulties, then just send an email DriveWorks Licensing: licensing@driveworks.co.uk

    Posted in DriveWorks | No Comments »

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