Archive for 2007

SolidSmack 2007 Shoutouts

31 Dec, 2007 by Josh Mings in NEWS

Top Commentators for 2007
Bruce Buck (45)
Devon T. Sowell (27)
Kyle Mason
Albert Whatmough
Rod Uding

Making it Fun
Patrick Cook – Podcast man and Internet Marketing Specialist at SolidWorks.
Tony DeYoung – Acrobat3D and digital marketing guru at the Acrobat Community.
Al Dean – For the great comments and great conversation.
Ben Eadie – For getting us more involved.
Richard Doyle – He’s a pretty nice guy. :)

And to everyone else, thanks for the comments, suggestions, criticism and questions. On to 2008! Happy New Year!

Best of SolidSmack 2007

31 Dec, 2007 by Josh Mings in NEWS

solidsmack_bestof.jpg

Well, it hasn’t been a full years, but it’s been a full 6.5 months of slamming the door open and closed in the SolidWorks scene.

In 251 post with 477 comments, here’s the 10 most popular one’s of 2007.

  1. How to Make your Own Custom Background for SolidWorks
  2. 14 SolidWorks Video Tips to Get You Started
  3. 5 Fresh Backgrounds for SolidWorks
  4. 10 New Backgrounds for SolidWorks 2008 Drawings
  5. 3 Ways to Make a Robust SolidWorks Assembly
  6. Tips to Tame SolidWorks Library Features
  7. 8 Absolutely Odd Facts About SolidWorks 2008
  8. Why Smart Numbers are Dumb: SolidWorks Guidelines for File Names
  9. PTC Goes History-Free, Buys CoCreate
  10. Designing the Engineer

Apparently, some people like posts about backgrounds. Here’s some of my other favorites.

  1. Product Review: Acrobat 3D Version 8
  2. The Vital Key to an Organized SolidWorks Team
  3. What you want to know about SolidWorks 2008: The Interface
  4. The Thumb Wrestling Continues
  5. ‘BoneCrusher’ Is Real Vehicle Developed in SolidWorks

Friday Smackdown: New Year’s Edition

28 Dec, 2007 by Josh Mings in SMACKDOWN

best-of-css-design-2007.jpgDon’t ya just love themed holiday posts? They’re like those themed bathrooms with the puppy shower curtains and the puppy soap pump and the stuffed puppies and that smell.

How to Travel the World With (or Without) Kids in 2008 – It’s possibly, just take care of the concerns. Here’s how.
The History of New Year’s Day – Yeah, it’s started somewhere. You know, days, nights, festivities?
New Years Countdown – a bunch of handy little countdowns to ring in the new year. Even a full-screen version.
Best of Everything 2007 – From the best products and tech to the worst dressed and worst books. hit it.
Best CSS of 2007 – they forgot this in the last link. A list of the best web style out there.
How to Find the Best Place to Celebrate New Year’s Eve – Only a seven step process. Just go to the party for cryin’ out loud.
Champagne Guide – Impress your snooty friends New Year’s Eve with what you should already know about cham-pag-nay.

Best Music To Model and Groove To

27 Dec, 2007 by Josh Mings in CULTURE, ROCKIN'

thomyork.jpgDays and nights of sitting in front of a computer can be very hard on the ol’ melon. The low droning buzz of the fluorescents is enough to make you go completely mad and your ipod just ran out of juice.

Fortunately, the interweb has had little radio babies with endless hours of streaming tunage to help shut out the annoying noise of others people being productive. There’s many out there, but my favorite has to be Pandora. It adapts to what you want to hear and the music quality is excellent.

But what’s the best music to listen to when you’re sitting for hours studying or modeling or writing helpful articles?

It’s all about the groove
Hand’s down, the best music to listen during times of deep concentration are tunes without words. Who needs some singer going on about this or that when you’re trying to get things done. Boot the singer and settle into a nice groove. Here are 10 stations that are bound to help you keep the rhythm going.

Got another one you like? Hit the comments!

Groove 70′s Radio
The Meters, Mighty Imperials, Soul Strokes, etc.

Groove Dixie Jazz Radio
Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Jack Teagarden, Pete Fountain, etc.

Groove Drum n’ Bass Radio
Deiselboy, DJ Zinc, Roni Size, etc.

Groove Flamenco Radio
Paco Pena, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Carlos Montoya & Andres Segovia, etc.

Groove Guitar Radio
Leo Kottke, Bert Jansch, Preston Reed, etc.

Groove Quintette Radio
The New Quintette Du Hot Club De France, The Hot Club, Pearl Django, etc.

Groove Rock Radio
Stevie Ray Vaughan, Chris Duarte, Led Zeppelin, etc.

Groove Smooth Radio
BT, Tosca, Rocket, etc.

Groove Surf Radio
The Tornadoes, The Ventures, The Lively Ones, etc.

Groove Western Radio
Ennio Morricone, Liz Carroll, Jack Nitzsche, etc.

Diesel-Electric Hybrid Kit Car Modeled with SolidWorks

26 Dec, 2007 by Josh Mings in DESIGN

xr3-side-view-2-big.jpg

Well, right after slapping SolidWorks on the wrist for an inaccurate case study about car design, we’ll move on to a car that just might be completely created with SolidWorks. You can at least get SolidWorks models eDrawing Model Files for it… earth-friendly eDrawing model files models.

Hybrid Cars are all the craze with the imminent melting, cooling, melting of the earth, but waiting for the car manufacturers to reap the toils of current mpg and emission standards is expensive and annoying.

However, (more…)

Product Design: Clarifying SolidWorks PR

26 Dec, 2007 by Josh Mings in DESIGN

koenigsegg_body2.jpgI love a good discussion and a recent post brought up a huge point. SolidWorks Case Studies are not always the most accurate.

The discussion hinged around car design and the Koenigsegg automotive case study issued by SolidWorks a while back.

“Koenigsegg used SolidWorks software to design the Koenigsegg CCX…”

You come away thinking everything from the styling to the roll bars was done in SolidWorks and the video makes it even more seemingly true. But what’s really true?
(more…)

Friday Smackdown: Christmas Edition

21 Dec, 2007 by Josh Mings in SMACKDOWN

christmas-icons.jpgAll I’m saying is that it tasted pretty weird and if it actually was a magical reindeer I’d probably be flying right about now.

Christmas Holiday Icons – You can’t get much more festive than printing a bunch of Christmas icons and sticking them all over your friends.
Google Desktop Christmas Gadgets – Decorate your Desktop or your igoogle page with the fancy little gadgets. Kids’ll love it.
My Pandora Christmas Radio Station – With all the great old-timey songs and choral ensembles.
Christmas Meal Menu – A very elegante meal plan for Christmas. You can even get the shopping list.
Vintage Christmas Ads – The start of consumerism for the Christmas season.

John McEleney Elected to Board of Directors at Stratasys

20 Dec, 2007 by Josh Mings in NEWS

john.jpgWondering what John McEleney has been up to since leaving SolidWorks?… Yeah, me neither, really, but it’s kinda interesting that he just got elected to the the BoD at Stratasys.

Beside’s having a cool sounding name that makes you want to keep repeating S’s'ss’ss’ssss, they are the “leading provider of 3D prototyping technology.”

He can probably give them some good guidance, being that he was the CEO and all of SolidWorks. You go John.

Stratasys Press Release

SolidWorks World FREE Exhibitor Hall Passes

20 Dec, 2007 by Josh Mings in ROCKIN'

solidworks world 2008

Ok, so I’m chillin’ over at RockSolid with Jason and he’s like, “Do you need a Free Pass for SolidWorks World 2008 that’ll get you into the general sessions, Sunday and Monday receptions and the Exhibit Hall? Tacton is providing them… for FREE!”

“First,” I said, “Let’s get some burgers, play some Guitar Hero, and let everyone else know about those magic tickets.”

Free Pass here

SolidWorks 2008 EV 2.0 Ready For Ya

20 Dec, 2007 by Josh Mings in ROCKIN'

solidworks 2008 logo9 days ago SP1.1 came out. Fixed a few minor things. I’m in the process of upgrading to EV (Early Visibility) 2.0 and so far things are going well. For one, I’m not having to download the whole install, just a measly 1 GB.

If you’re on the EV list and notice anything hit the comments.