CATI's Facebook Page

For those of you who are into Facebook, and those thinking about jumping on the bandwagon, CATI has established a FaceBook page with the very original name of Computer Aided Technology, Inc. That's what happens when a ME from Purdue is in charge of marketing, you get accuracy, but not a lot of flash.

The page contains information and discussion for CATI's customers and others who are interested in SolidWorks, Product Development and Design.
 
I have been a dabbler with Facebook for quite awhile, mostly to monitor my teenagers to make sure they aren't getting into cyber trouble. I have enough gray hairs on my head to make me a bit wary about the concept of telling the world everything about myself, but the benefits of social networking are starting to grow on me.

There is definitely a place for building communities of people that share common interest and can share experience and knowledge. Facebook is a very nice medium for this.

So far, on the site you will find, a feed from this blog where you can comment  and contribute to the discussion, links to interesting content. The page has fans from the CATI and SolidWorks tech groups, SmarTeam and ... my kids. That is the nature of Facebook.

Join in and make sure to tell us what you think.

Using Simulation 2009 not able to mesh parts ?

If you recently
upgraded to Simulation 2009 and cannot mesh parts that were created using
SolidWorks 2008, irrespective if they are simple or have complex geometry, we
have a solution for you. This problem is typically seen in x64 bit environment.

You may need to clean out your Windows temp folder because
of the presence of a corrupt temporary meshing file that is leftover from
failed meshing in earlier service packs of 2009 Simulation.



Please clean out your temp folder using the following procedure:



- Close SolidWorks and open SolidWorks RX by going through the Start menu. Go
to the System Maintenance tab and enable the first three checkboxes (clean
backup directory, temp directories, Windows temp directory) and uncheck
everything else.

- Click on "Start Maintenance"



If this still does not resolve the issue, try searching your local hard drive
for files with the name "fmesh.boiteb8" and
"fmesh.noboiteb8". If you find any, you may safely delete them since
they are temporary files used for meshing. These files may become corrupt and
their presence can hinder meshing other models.

 

NOTE: This
does not happen for every install of Simulation 2009. It only occurs if the
previous installation was corrupted, or from left over files from previous
service packs.

Rajat Trehan

Product
Manager – Design Validation

Computer
Aided Technology Inc.

SolidWorks World is a geek fest for all interested in design.

SolidWorks
World is a geek fest for all interested in design. This year 4300 people showed
up in sunny Florida to up their design skills. Sir Richard Branson interviewed
live on stage explaining how design needs to be user friendly rather than
simply meet functional requirement.  John
Hirschtick (co-founder of SolidWorks) showcased his travels to New Balance shoe
manufacturer and Sony Ericsson design centers. Using these two examples, he
explained the uses of rapid prototyping and simulation to improve design
processes.

One
of the sessions I attended was on the Disney Excellence Model. People at Disney
are extremely courteous, that explains why they can charge three times the
normal cost for their services. The idea is to keep guests engaged and show an
instant value for money. What Disney hopes for: “guests book their next
vacation before leaving town”. In a time when everyone is trying to squeeze
their budgets, here is a company that charges you more, and wants you to pay
for the next vacation well in advance. 
Talk about aiming high! This tells us companies that create value and
are committed to the customer experience will prosper in the new age.

Presenting
at SolidWorks World is an experience to cherish. People from all walks of
engineering try to ask questions relative to their environment. To me that
means one needs to be on his toes to make sure they understand the nitty-gritty
while not losing out on the big picture. The environment created by SolidWorks
is filled with enthusiasm to learn and the focus always remains on improvement.

SolidWorks
has always shown deep understanding and solidarity towards the current market
scenario. In their endeavor to help, they will be giving out free software to
people who want to learn and get back on the job scene. They called this their
own stimulus package. This shows SolidWorks’ commitment to improving skills
through design centers all over the world.

 

Notes on SWW 2009

General Sessions this year focused on a variety of different
customers and their successes with SolidWorks. Folks also spent a lot of time
talking about rapid prototyping and how it improves the design process

The General session
on Wednesday focused on SW2010. Some of the highlights included:

·       
Heads-Up dimension edit tool for changing all
aspects of a dimension including tolerances, notes, & precision.

·       
New Interface for creating Reference Planes that
make them easier to create.

·       
Improvements in Assembly Mirroring with better
mate control and positioning

·       
Ability to show a list of components in an
assembly based upon cost and then sort those components by that property and
also the ability to hide components that do not fall into a specified range.

·       
New balloon utility in drawings that gives you
more options and control over balloon text and size

·       
Drawings have the ability to drag and drop one
note onto another and the 2 notes will join together if there is any numbering,
or bullets will continue.

·       
Multi-body sheet metal parts so you can have
more than 1 sheet metal feature in a single part file and the ability to add
welds between those bodies

·       
Sheet metal parts also have the ability to do a
quick preview of the flat part

Presentations were
well received

Backdoor/Redneck Work Arounds had 200-300 people in
attendance one of the attendees was from the SW Blog Site SolidSmack and he was
posting to his blog while we were presenting

Blog Posting of Backdoor Work Arounds

http://www.solidsmack.com/solidworks-world-tech-session-common-solidworks-issue-and-how-to-fix-them/2009-02-09/

CATI Link to SWW presentations

http://www.cati.com/sww09.htm

Design Tables the
Complete Story had about the same number of people in it as Back Door Work Arounds and I spent a
lot of time after the presentation talking with different users about their
different situations and even learned some new things to add to my presentation
for later.

Sketching – The Good,
The Bad & The Ugly was a hands on presentation and this was my first
year of doing a hand on presentation and while it did not go 100% as planned I did
have all 32 computers filled along with the 10 additional seats filled and had
people sitting in the aisles watching the presentation and talked with some of
the attendees later on and they were happy with what they learned in the
presentation.

3DVIA Hands-On Session: My First Experience at SolidWorks World.

This was my first experience attending SolidWorks World in
the 5+ years I have worked for CATI so it was a highly anticipated event for
me.  I had heard from past attendees what
it was like and what to expect but I was excited to find out for myself.

 The main reason for
my attendance was to deliver a hands-on session for 3DVIA Composer.  It is something I am very comfortable
presenting in our normal 3 hour time slot with around 4-5 users but presenting
at SolidWorks World provides some unique challenges.  The time slot allotted was only an hour and a
half so I had to remove some of the content I usually deliver so I didn’t
overwhelm the attendees with too much information or rush through everything I
usually cover.  The main challenge was
the amount of attendees in the hands on sessions at SolidWorks World.  Due to the amount of interest in the hands on
sessions and the limited amount of resources, they place about 30 people in
each session.  This makes it much more
difficult to pay attention to each attendee and ensure they are moving along at
a good pace.  It was an excellent
experience showing so many people 3DVIA Composer and I hope this is my first of
many more presentations at SolidWorks World. 

What stuck out in my mind from the whole experience was the
size of the event.  There were around
4300 people in attendance which was amazing to see each morning in the general
session and during lunch each afternoon. 
It seemed that every room in the two hotels was constantly filled with
presentations about any one of SolidWorks products and that every person in the
hotel was a SWW attendee.  It really hit
home on the day after the event when it appeared that the entire hotel seemed
empty. 

SolidWorks World is Exhausting...In a Good Way.

I am always excited about going to SolidWorks
World and I am always exhausted when I return; both for the same reason.  There are so many wonderful opportunities to
learn something new that there is no possibility of exploring all of them.

 

With over 100 different Vendors in the
partner pavilion it was easy to get lost in there just roaming around asking
questions.  Some of my favorites were 3D
QuickPress and 3D QuickForm from 3D QuickTools Limited.  These tools are spectacular for Progressive
die design.  Objet, known for high
quality rapid prototyping now has a smaller version called the Alaris30 that is
a more affordable “desktop” printer to round out their family of high quality
rapid prototyping solutions.  SolidProfessor
is a wonderful tool for those of us that would like to continue our SolidWorks
education at our own pace with online video training. 

 

All of the presentations that I got to see
were very informative and I learned something from each of them.  Topics ranging from SolidWorks installation
all the way to Advanced Surface Modeling were covered with more than 170
different presentations.  The toughest
part generally was deciding which of the up to 15 presentations you would see
in a given time slot.

 

However, I don’t believe that anything was as
effective as generally speaking with SolidWorks personnel, other vendors, and resellers
and customers from all over the world.  I
talked to countless users that were asking questions and sharing personal
experiences that I found to be informative, interesting, and sometimes even
funny.  These conversations do wonders
for broadening your perspective and understanding how Engineers and Designers
use SolidWorks to get things done.

 

This year, as in years past, CATI has also
had the honor of presenting at the event. 
8 of the presentations at the user conference were done by members of
the CATI technical team.  Each of these
presentations was very well received. 
The presentations themselves and supporting files can be downloaded at www.cati.com/sww09.htm.

Adrian Fanjoy

 

CATI TechLink Newsletter Celebrates 10th Anniversary

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the CATI TechLink Newsletter.  The newsletter features articles from CATI Experts in SolidWorks, PDM, Simulation, 3D Printing, and much more.  You can also watch product demos and catch-up on industry news!

Click here to check out the latest issue!

Want to get the newsletter every month?  Click here to subscribe.

CATI Named Top SolidWorks Reseller for Subscription Services 2008

Tonight, Computer Aided Technology  was named the Top SolidWorks Reseller in North American for Subscription and Renewal at SolidWorks World.

This recognition is a measure of how our customers value our support and customer service. It is
considered the most prestigious award given to companies in our industry.

This award is important to us because it shows the commitment of each member of our team to earning our customers business.

Thank you to the entire CATI team. It is your extra effort and determination that won this award.

Thank you to our customers who push us to be the best we can be.

SolidWorks World Presentations

Several of my counterparts in the CATI Technical Services group and I are spending the majority of this week at SolidWorks World.  It has proven once again to be an amazing event allowing us all to learn so many exciting things about different aspects of the software.  We have had many opportunities to learn and grow with the SolidWorks product line throughout the week.  More about what we have learned will follow in later posts to this blog.

As in years past we have also had the honor of presenting at the conference.  This year our group was responsible for the following:   

Presentation	Presenter
Hot Topics in SolidWorks Simulation - Modeling Temperature Change	Rajat Trehan
Backdoor Workaround: The SolidWorks Equivalent to Duct Tape and Bailing Wire	Adrian Fanjoy     Josh Altergott
Using the Options File to Control Your SolidWorks Network License	Keith Schaefer
Sketching: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly	Josh Altergott
Design Tables: The Complete Story	Josh Altergott
3DVIA Composer Hands On Test Drive	Jake Smith
Administrative Images - Simply Deploying SolidWorks	Adrian Fanjoy
Design Automation Options within SolidWorks	Keith Schaefer

In total there were approximately 170 different presentations and we know that people at the conference had some tough decisions to make regarding what presentations would serve them best.  We have made this files available to allow conference attendees and users around the world that were unable to attend these events would have the opportunity to at least view the material.

The presentation PowerPoint files along with any sample file that were mentioned in our presentations are available by going to http://www.cati.com/sww09.htm.

We will be providing opportunities to see our presentations live and on the Web after SolidWorks World. Please watch this blog and the CATI website (www.cati.com) for times and locations.

Adrian Fanjoy

Technical Services Manager

Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

Simple but Powerful

The world is
plastic: If you look around, the majority of components are plastic in nature.
If you design these parts you need to worry about the mold; whether the part
will come out okay and how much warpage will occur when the part is cooled.
There is no easy way to guess on what the outcome would be. The only sure way
to know is to test it. This is both a time consuming and an expensive process.
In today’s world, terms such as six sigma and Total Quality Management have become
ubiquitous to the manufacturing industry. Old adage ….”When in doubt, make it
stout” usually does not run well. 

SIMPOE
analysis software simulates the behavior of plastic resin during the injection
process of plastic molded parts. This help in mold design validation, and a
reduction in product development cost. Simpoe software simulates filling,
packing, cooling and warpage of plastic injected parts. Simpoe offers an all in
one solution which deals with any type of geometry (solids, surfaces, etc.)

SimpoeWorks
being a Solidworks Gold Partner has their solution completely embedded in the
Solidworks environment. So users can simulate manufacturing process of their
plastic parts without leaving the familiar SolidWorks graphic window. The
seamless integration of SimpoeWorks with SolidWorks closes the loop of plastic
part design and manufacturing optimization, whatever the complexity and
geometry of such parts.

 

The software
is offered in 3 modules

SimpoeWorks FILL includes pre and post treatment
functionalities. FILL has a built-in material library, with visualization of
melt front, weld lines, air traps, temperature and pressure distributions,
shear rate, and clamping forces.

SimpoeWorks PACK simulates packing phase of the mold.

SimpoeWorks COOL simulates thermal regulation during
injection process, helping with optimizing process time.

SimpoeWorks WARP simulates part deformation after mould
opening. This helps to account for residual constraints, material shrinkages.

Computer
Aided Technology, Inc. has been bringing the best technology to our customers
for 17 years. We have partnered with SimpoeWorks, Inc., a French company, to
leverage the advantage of using SolidWorks. We will be supporting this product
using our technical teams spread over our multiple offices in nine states.

 If you need to know more about the product
please feel free to get in touch with us.

Rajat Trehan

Product Manager – Design Validation

Computer Aided Technology Inc.

www.cati.com

SolidWorks Locks Up the First Time You Launch

Does your SolidWorks lock up the first time you launch it every morning
after you start your machine?  This issue occurs when HP Printer drivers are installed on
a computer and will only occur during the first session of SolidWorks after a
reboot and when the first tooltip in the User Interface is invoked.  All other sessions of SolidWorks will run
fine until the computer is rebooted again.



To fix this, right mouse button click on your desktop, choose Properties.  Select the Appearance tab and then select the
Effects button. 

 

Uncheck the box next to "Hide underlined letters for
keyboard navigation until I press the Alt key". 

Reboot your machine and when you start up SolidWorks, it
shouldn’t lock up that first time anymore.

 

Leslie Lougheed