Now the first thing you need to know is that there are 2 different types of POINTS in SolidWorks.
There are the ones that you can make when you are IN a sketch and then the ones you can make when you are NOT in a sketch !
For this little known POINT functionality, we are talking about the one when you are OUTSIDE of a Sketch.
i.e. INSERT–REFERENCE GEOMERTY–POINT.

Pick ANY face on ANY model (planar or non planar), hit the Insert–Reference Geometry–Point tool and BAM! you get a POINT right at the “center” of the face !

By the way, while you are there, take a look at the “Reference Point” property manager at all the other cool stuff you can do with it !!
Arc Centers, Intersections, Projected Points, Spaced Along a Curve ! Oh my !!
I’m SURE you can find some uses for those…

Stay tuned for my next blog on points, where I’ll show you some little known things about the point tool INSIDE a sketch !

A simple RIGHT-mouse button click/hold/drag on the component to be rotated will leave you as happy as a tornado in a trailer park.

Join us next time when Shortcut Alert! helps you route the super-secret back way to your favorite lunch establishment.

Well, well Aunt Eleanor! What do you think of me now?

In this episode Lou and I talk about some of the basic functions of SolidWorks Enterprise PDM and some advantages a company might experience if they adopted a PDM system in their workplace. I am pretty proud of it, swing over and listen!

I was pretty nervous before we started recording, but it turned out to be a lot of fun to record the episode. I was hoping to meet the opening band, but Lou explained to me they were just “bumper music” and he would add them in during the post process. <drat>

They rock.

As my friends at Infocom used to say. “Time passes…”.

Now most companies have some sort of  “Green initiative” going on now. I bet your company has one….but is it really much more than this?

Here is my tip to help you get a big promotion. Show your CEO how easy it is to use SustainabilityXpress inside of SolidWorks. Quick, easy reports showing your company is going the extra mile to save the planet -proof your designs are as green as they can be. (Just don’t print the reports on paper!)

Your CEO can now show you are doing more than putting up signs around the office. New stockholders will flock to your company, you get the corner office and you’ll have me to thank.

Thanks Engineering Data Specialist Man!

ping -t -l 1500 <archive server name>


I knew the machines were connecting with each other, so I had not even thought to use ping. I first tried ping without the option, all packets came back. When I tried with the option none returned!

The -l option allows packet size to be defined.  A normal ping packet is only 8 bytes which is not a good test of actual TCP packets.  A typical TCP packet is usually 1500 which is why SolidWorks suggests using this value. Any dropped packets indicate you may see a loss of performance.

This is a very quick, cheap way to get better feeling for the quality of your Intranet connection.

Date: 8-25-2010
Time: 5:30-8:30pm
Location: Gander Mountain, Huber Heights Ohio

Agenda:

5:30-6:15pm – Registration, Networking, and Food
6:15-6:30pm – Opening Remarks
6:30-7:30pm – Jeff Moore Presenting on Workflow Tips & Tricks
7:30-7:45pm – Break
7:45-8:15pm – Open Mic
8:15-8:30pm – Discuss Next Meeting, SWUGN Technical Summit 9/21, Wrap Up and Prizes

RSVP to ovapres@yahoo.com if you plan on coming!

To prevent this, you have 2 options. The first is to change your System Options and they will never appear again for another drawing. (System Options > Drawings > ‘Disable note/dimension inference’)

The second (which I think is preferred) is to hold the ALT key down when placing the note/dimension. It will prevent those pesky inference lines from appearing for that particular note/dimension and you will be able to place the note/dimension anywhere you like with respect to other notes/dimensions.

If you ever have a question to post, consider this Engineering Data Specialist Man’s super secret advice: “Be as clear and concise as you can in your question.”

I’ve seen some posts that are twenty paragraphs long, then the authors are always surprised [angry!] when their questions aren’t answered correctly or perhaps not at all.

The shorter the question the better. I can’t speak for everyone, but if a question reads like a text book, I either catch myself napping half way through -or skip the question all together.

Pictures and screen shots are also helpful.

Go from this: To this:

For all of you Windows 7 users out there, I think I have a nice solution for you. As long as you have Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate you are entitled to run Windows XP mode for free. Windows XP mode is really a specialized version of Windows Virtual PC that is really easy to set up. Once you have it, you have a little virtual XP machine running in a window. This little machine has no idea it isn’t a real machine -it works just like a stand alone computer thus changes you make have no affect on your production machine. It is a great little sandbox for experimenting.

I just created a virtual machine, installed SolidWorks 2011 and SolidWorks Enterprise PDM on it and all is good. The only tweak I made was to increase the amount if virtual memory up to a GB, it was too slow at the default size of 500MB.

When I am done, I can simply delete the virtual machine and make another.