I'm now a CSWA!

This is a special blog for me…CHECK IT OUT!

I know it’s only the associate exam but I’m still proud of it. I said a quick prayer before I started the test and I told God that if I passed I’d be sure to let everyone know that He is getting the glory. Thank you God for helping me remember, stay calm and stay awake.

If you have a free voucher to take the test remember that it expires tomorrow. Go ahead and take the test, yes it’s is a bit difficult and if I can do it you can too. A couple of pointers:

1. Two computers or at least a dual display, one for the exam and one for SolidWorks.

2. There might be questions on ComosXpress, but if you can build the models and assemblies fairly quickly you do have time to run an analysis and refer to the help to get the answers you need.

3. Note that some questions may require you to build a part or assembly and the part origin is given or it’s arbitrary. Pay attention or you won’t find your answer in the choices given.

That’s about all I can legally tell you about the test.

New Computer is now running but...

I'm posting from the old machine now. It has been an interesting week which is why there have been no new posts. But to let everyone know how it's going here is an update.

The new Dell Precision T3400 is sitting on my desk right next to the old machine it will be replacing. Both computers are currently hooked up to the beautiful new 24" monitor. I can switch back and forth between the two computers with just a push of a button. But I do keep getting confused and moving the wrong mouse or typing on the wrong keyboard. I've been getting everything running on both new machines as I get time. SolidWorks is installed on both and I have a service pack 4.0 download queued up for 10PM tonight. Printer and plotter drivers are installed as well as Foxit PDF editor and Acrobat. Email is working but there are some issues with the wiring in the building which has my machine falling back to 10mb network speeds. Come to find out the new gigabyte switches won't fall back to 100 mb on CAT5 correctly. We verified this by running a 81' CAT6 cable on the floor from the switch to my machine this morning.

There you go, we are up and running but mostly still on the old hardware. At this rate we should be ready to go completely to the new machines by Tuesday...I hope!

Logitech MX Revolution…first impressions

Logitech MX Revolution…first impressions

I have a new workstation so I decided that it was time to upgrade my trusty Trackman Wheel. Remembering what Philip Thomas said in a recent presentation, I looked for the mouse with the most buttons. The only self implied limitation was that it would have to be a Logitech mouse or trackball. Looking at the Logitech website I see that there are only 3 trackball styles available now. I’ve tried the cordless Trackman Optical before and found that it just doesn’t feel comfy in my hand. My daughter has a Trackman Marble and even thought I don’t cuss out loud I do write it down and sign my name to it every time I have to use it. So I’m left with the choice of going with another Trackman Wheel or switching over to a mouse. I decided to go with the latter.
The MX revolution arrived today and even though I’m not running on the new workstation yet I thought it might be good to start getting used to a mouse again so I hooked it up. It came with enough of a charge to start using it right out of the box. I installed the SetPoint software and I’m off to the races.
The mouse feels good in my hand, the buttons are placed in positions that are easy to locate and press. The wheels (yes wheels) roll very smoothly or with a ratcheting movement. The wheel on the top is your standard scroll up and down and side to side. I sacrificed the ratcheting movement so that a press of the wheel is now the middle button. There is a button behind the top wheel that by default initiates an internet search with the search engine of your choice. There are 2 more buttons above the thumb rest that are set as forward and back. The wheel that is controlled by your thumb is set by default to task switch between applications. The description of this button in the supplied help and instructions is incorrect, IMHO. It is described as a means to switch between documents (Ctrl-Tab) when in actuality it switches between applications (Alt-Tab). All of the buttons are customizable overall or per application. I added Solidworks.exe to the application list and went to work.
Right now I have the FORWARD button defined as ‘S’, the BACK button set as ‘Ctrl-Tab’. The thumb wheel can be defined as three functions as you can roll it forward, roll it back and press it. In SolidWorks I roll it forward for a fit to screen, press it for an Isometric view and roll it back for a normal to view. I’m trying to think of what I want the left and right tilt of the top wheel to do in SolidWorks. Anyone care to share how they have their mouse buttons programmed?
So far based on my limited use of the MX Revolution I can say that you might want to consider this. Even if you’re an old trackball man like me you can learn new tricks and enjoy the process.

New Dells, CSWA/CSWP and my garden?

All the new computer equipment is here from Dell now...$70,000 worth. We set up one of the workstations and the 24” monitor is awesome. The installer will be here next week to get everything up and running. Note to myself: Don’t forget to do the SolidWorks license transfers.

My brother is a professional IT person. I spent last night helping (mostly watching) him fix a slew of problems at the company that my wife works at. What a mess! I just thought the network problems at Byers were bad. One of their servers is running Windows NT4 and only has a 6 GB hard drive.

If you have any thought of taking advantage of the free CSWP or CSWA test you need to be reminded that this offer ends on the 30^th. SolidProfessor has a course to help you prepare for it. See Matt’s blog on this subject for more info and the way to get 50% off the price.

I did my first harvest from the garden last night: 3 grape tomatoes, 4 zucchini and 2 crooked neck squash. I’ve been cutting basil and lettuce for weeks but this was the first real veggies to come from the garden. I believe I’m going to have a good crop this year. The squash and zucchini are loaded with blooms and I have little green tomatoes coming out of my ears. Another note to self: Don’t waste the garden space on strawberries; you must need an acre or more planted to get any amount at all.

What am I?

Design or Modeling

I’m often asked if I’m a designer. My answer is always the same, NO! Just this morning the new estimator here at Byers’s asked me that question and I in turn asked him if he had read the quality manual yet. In which you will find my job description:

Identification of organizational structure and acquisition of resources which are necessary to achieve objectives. Meeting established goals for value and quality. Experienced in currently utilized CAD/CAM software and knowledgeable in current PC software and operating systems. Interacts with engineering staff. Duties include: generating necessary documents to meet the objectives. Responsible for documentation of prototypes, new designs, and technologies. Assists Sales with providing applications to assure customer satisfaction.

In other words my job is to document new designs…not generate new designs. But then I ask myself, do I design anything? I am usually given a drawing of a sheet metal part or assembly supplied by our customer. The design as far as function has already been done. But when I model the sheet metal parts that will be fabricated into the customer’s design I have to make decisions as far as how many pieces will be welded or fastened together to end up with the final product. I tend to make these parts self fixturing by using tabs and slots or Cleko clamp holes, does this qualify as design? Maybe it’s manufacturing design?

What about when the welder comes in and asks for a weld fixture to hold the parts in tolerance while he welds them together? I guess that is design, maybe not of a product but the tool used to make the product.

When you have been doing sheet metal for so many years you can generally look at a customer’s drawing and immediately see the individual parts that will be required to fabricate his design. Other times I will pull out my sketch pad and do a dirty sketch in an isometric view of how I picture the fabrication, there will usually be many eraser marks on this sketch as I refine the way I will end up modeling the parts. When I’m happy with the sketch I then fire up SolidWorks and start modeling the parts. Sometimes as individual parts brought together in an assembly file and other times only the main ‘wrapper’ will be drawn and located in an assembly file and then I will go into top-down mode to model the remaining parts. During this stage of the process is where my initial thoughts and sketches are further refined.

The final step is the documentation. I lay out the drawing views just like the customer’s drawing and dimension in the same manner also. This makes it easy to check my model against his design.

I guess my job does include some design elements but the final outcome of my work is a fabrication of someone else’s design.

Help! I’ve fallen down a hole wizard hole and I can’t get up!

Help! I’ve fallen down a hole wizard hole and I can’t get up!

What is going on all of a sudden with my hole wizard holes? We first discovered this problem a few weeks ago. Here is the situation: We use the legacy hole option with in the wizard, why? Because it seems (based on our limited knowledge) that it is the easiest way to make a hole of a certain known diameter. We have been using the legacy hole for all types of holes such as c’bore, c’sink, etc. The only time we venture from the legacy hole is for threaded holes and if we need to know the proper clearance diameter for a given bolt. No fooling around with number or letter sizes; just type in the diameter you want and BAM! You have a hole. We have used the Hole Wizard in this manner almost since B.S. (Before SolidWorks) and it has worked great except the annotation will sometime include the quantity of hole but most times not. Then the problem started, my co-worker would make a change to the hole diameter and the flat pattern would not update correctly. Move the hole and the flat updated, change the diameter and nothing. We tried everything we could think of to no avail. The only work around was to edit the hole in the flat pattern configuration as well as the default configuration. One hole…two edits!

I posted to the SolidWorks Corp. user forum and got some suggestions from who I would consider a SolidWorks expert but none of the solutions worked. When I uploaded the files in question he was baffled as well. I finally emailed my VAR for some tech support and although very understanding he wasn’t able to pin point the problem either. We met up and discussed the situation some more at the SESWUW. The tech support guy told me that the ‘Legacy’hole was just that…there for legacy purposes and ‘maybe’ not fully supported. This actually made sense to me but now that I think about it, it doesn’t explain why we were just experiencing this all of a sudden. Since that time I’ve ran into the same problem on my install of SolidWorks also. It is true that I can change the hole to another type as a work around but should I have to?

Okay I typed all that to get to this: If I can’t depend on the legacy hole, can someone please advice the best way to model a hole, up to next, of a pre-determined diameter, that might or might not be a ‘standard’ size? And oh by the way I do know that I can check the ‘custom sizing’ box to enter the size but then the hole feature is named something that has nothing to do with the hole I want. I’m thinking that I must have fallen asleep during this portion of my SolidWorks training. Tell me what I'm doing wrong...Please.

Here is the link to the SolidWorks Forum from which you can grab the files to take a look at if you want: Hole Wizard Question

PIctures from SouthEastern SolidWorks User Workshop

Here are the low quality pictures I took at the SouthEastern SolidWorks User Workshop. I didn't get permission so if I didn't catch your best side just let me know and I will remove the picture.

Here is Tony Cantrell the event organizer.

Here is Richard Doyle the SWUGN leader talking to Tony.

This is Darren Henry doing his Weldment Session

This is Matt Lombard showing us how to conduct a session while waiting on a SolidWorks update to install.

This is Philip Thomas the dumb solid expert!

Rodney Hall impressing the ladies!

Matt watching Rodney impress the ladies...

I promise this is the last time I will post cell phone pictures.