I know that International Women’s Day was last week, but in honesty should it not be a week? I also feel the same sentiment about Mother’s Day, but perhaps I digress. It most certainly is National Women’s Month so today’s topic is timely in myriad ways. At our recent user event, we had a speaker who represents the power and potential of women better than most.
in-tech GmbH develops innovative electronic systems that support automation and connectivity for the automotive, industrial, and transportation sectors. The company employs around 1,500 engineers, software developers, and technicians in eight countries. The company’s products include electronic systems that make testing of automotive systems more efficient, accurate, and reliable. Its orangeSwitch, for example, enables automated switching between tests of electronic control units (ECUs).
NETVIBES Sourcing & Standardization Intelligence enables manufacturers to reduce costs and optimize procurement by defining part standards, reducing duplicate parts, and driving part reuse across an organization. With a Standardization Intelligence dashboard, procurement leaders are equipped to make sourcing decisions and monitor project execution. Manufacturers must respond efficiently to changing supply needs, especially as the global pandemic disrupts supply chains. To remain competitive,
As a kid watching the animated sitcom The Jetsons, Ryan Okelberry found the idea of robots and other whimsical devices doing pretty much everything, including combing hair and brushing teeth, very cool. These days, as COO of one of the fastest-growing tech companies in the country, he and fellow mechanical engineer and CEO Shane Dittrich enable robots that lower capital, labor, and production costs within the big picture of bringing manufacturing back to the USA. Okelberry and Dittrich started
Società Gomma Antivibrante SRL (S.G.A.) is a leading manufacturer of anti-vibration components, including pivots (flexible joints), resilient inserts, bushings, bumpers, guiding components, and suspensions. Because the company’s products are found worldwide in railway, tram, and subway cars that carry passengers, safety is a priority at S.G.A. The behavior and vibration-damping characteristics of the rubber and elastomers used in S.G.A.’s wide range of products are thoroughly analyzed by S.G.A.
Mass customization is the classic oxymoron. And the idea sounds silly right? Large-volume production of made-to-order products. That’s what “mass customization” implies.
As we near the end of the year 2019, I find myself reflecting on my favorite pieces of wisdom captured during this calendar year. One of my favorites, undoubtedly, is this snippet taken from A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy: “Most of us are ‘living the dream’ – living, that is, the dream we once had for ourselves.” For those of us so fortunate as to have achieved a dream we had for ourselves, only to realize it may no longer qualify as a ‘dream’ in the sense we’d originally
Engineering Hires With the economy picking up in the Gulf Coast region as well as in other parts of the country, we’ve received many questions from companies that use SOLIDWORKS, wanting to know how to find and hire the right engineers and designers to feed their growing demand. SOLIDWORKS, like any other tool, is only as good as the person using it. So, how do you know the engineer standing in front of you, resume in hand, is the right person to maximize the return on your SOLIDWORKS investment
Are you a CAD manager? It’s a tough job. We know. That’s why we will be bringing together the most experienced SOLIDWORKS Technical Support Engineers for the CAD Manager’s Boot Camp on Sunday, February 10th, 2019.
The SOLIDWORKS Simulation Premium: Nonlinear eCourse is now available at MySolidWorks. When significant structural deformations, high stresses or complex contacts exist in applications, limitations of the static linear study are likely going to be reached. In such situations nonlinear computational algorithms need to be utilized. In this eCourse, you will learn about the basic types of nonlinearities, and how to approach their solutions.
Before I begin the real topic of this blog, I like to comment on my journey through CAD technology and what I’ve experienced over the last 40+ years in my career. CAD has come a long, long way in my lifetime. Back in the late 1970’s at Xerox, I was introduced to Computer Graphics or CG as we called it back then. CG ran on terminals hooked up to VAX’s to do 3D design using wireframe techniques.
Normally, I’m a Technical Manager at SOLIDWORKS, but this summer, I’ll be spending my days playing the role of an obnoxious CAD know-it-all on the URB-E design team. I’ll be getting on the nerves of my teammates by constantly demanding them to up their game, forcing them to adopt new and efficient CAD features, and pushing them to output the best looking and functioning designs possible – anything but the status quo. Hilariously, my co-workers claim this new role will not be far off from the
The Summer of eLearning begins! Starting June 21st through September 21st, 2018 SOLIDWORKS eCourses are free* for customers on active SOLIDWORKS CAD Subscription. Don’t miss this opportunity to get your CAD skills sharpened by summer’s end. Now you can experience the convenience to learn what you want, where you want, when you want with access to a library of self-paced, high quality, interactive eCourses – giving you with the opportunity to learn on your terms.
The SOLIDWORKS xDesign development team take pride in listening to customer feedback and keeping our promise of continuous improvements and innovation. SOLIDWORKS xDesign is a cloud solution so every time we update the cloud all our users see all the new features become available to you on all your devices immediately. No more manual installs and updates or scheduling downtime to do this tedious task. Combined with enhancements made to core platform capabilities, the latest update of xDesign is
Manufacturing in the Asia-Pacific region is about to be gifted an extraordinary tool: Magnetic Mates, one of the newest features coming out in SOLIDWORKS 2017. As people around the globe are talking about the innovative features in the latest edition of the software, Magnetic Mates is set to play a strong role in helping improve productivity in industrial settings. Given the importance of manufacturing in the region – as well as its competitiveness – Magnetic Mates will be a major asset in
Once regarded as a dream of science fiction, cinema and fantasy, virtual reality is becoming an increasingly common part of our lives. The general public is slowly adopting the technology in their homes, using VR for interactive entertainment and design applications. In the larger world of design, however, VR is poised to accelerate the market for CAD beyond 2020 – with the military and defence sectors set for extraordinary development. Virtual design takes to the sky A study by
Not every advancement in 3-D printing has to be a major revolution. Although there are firms attempting to change the world with technology, there are also subtler developments with real-world applications for a range of people in different industries. Emerging technology can help Australian businesses innovate. Innovation is essential to the growth of businesses in any economy, but according to the Australian Council of Learned Academies, the country is struggling in this regard.
SOLIDWORKS 2016 is comprised of a range of enhancements that can increase a business’s productivity and efficiency. The design process can be difficult to manage, and relies on teams of people, or just an individual, working seamlessly with CAD software. Combined with the Costing feature, Inspection greatly improves efficiency for manufacturers. In particular, the manufacturing sector is set to benefit significantly from this year’s update to SOLIDWORKS.
My favorite quote from Confucius is: One must have good tools in order to do a good job. As a mechanical design engineer with 20 years' experience, I strongly believe that SOLIDWORKS is a great tool to help engineers create great products. Every release of SOLIDWORKS comes with hundreds of new features and enhancements that help engineers deliver their designs in shorter timeframes and of better quality. After doing my own research of SOLIDWORKS 2016 since the Beta 1 version, I've identified my
The limit to what can be designed through CAD software has yet to be reached, with people finding new and inventive uses for SOLIDWORKS almost every day. With the 2016 update of SOLIDWORKS set to release soon, these examples are the perfect advertisement for the technology that’s changing the way people create things. A recent example has illustrated the potential for CAD software to provide new opportunities for success in athletics, a high-pressure world where designs are put to the ultimate
3-D printing is the essential link between the digital world of CAD software and the physical realm these creations will eventually inhabit. The technology has been labelled a revolution in many circles, especially as the devices have now reached a price point that’s affordable for consumers. The 3-D printing industry could be worth more than US$16 billion by the end of 2018. As more people gain access to these manufacturing methods, experts can push the technology in new directions, creating an
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration – or NASA as its better known – has long been pushing the boundaries in the aerospace sector. After all, it took a huge amount of manufacturing and design excellence to put a man on the moon, develop the Space Shuttle etc and so on. While the organisation may not be as involved in the space race as it once was, that hasn’t stopped it innovating. In fact, in yet another example of how 3-D printing could soon be the manufacturing norm, NASA has
Technology has changed myriad sectors over the last few years. Strings of complex code have replaced hammer and nail, with more people’s careers dictated by how handy they are not with tools, but computers. Naturally, the world of engineering and design has been at the cutting edge. After all, 3-D computer-aided design (CAD) environments are the place where a plethora of concepts are first dreamt up.
The consumer items that are most used by today’s society didn’t come off the drawing board in their final form. The smartphone, tablet or even laptop computer were, at first, ungainly items that most people wouldn’t even consider buying. Naturally, there were limitations in the technology (there’s a reason mobile phones from the 1980s look like bricks) but part of their unsightliness was down to the design process. This isn’t to say that the designers of the products lacked talent, more that
