If you haven’t noticed, people are different.  They have different tastes in clothing, food, and music.  You say tomato, I say ‘mater.
So it follows that designers will have different modeling methodologies.  Sometimes, even circumstances or desired design intent dictate how you model something.
Take for instance this simple part with an o-ring groove in it:

I had a new SolidWorks user approach me a while back with the question, “How do I create something like this?”
I responded by showing them several different methods to achieve the same result.
One approach would be to …

I received an email earlier today informing me that registration is now open for SolidWorks World 2010!  SolidWorks World 2010 will be held January 31-February 3, 2010 in Anaheim, California.
To register, simply point your web browser of choice to http://www.solidworks.com/swworld/.  The first early bird deadline is October 9, 2009.  If you register on or before that date, you can save $200 off the regular conference admission.

After hearing of SolidWorks’ new sustainable product tool, code-named “Sage”, at this year’s SolidWorks World conference, I decided to learn a little more about it.  So I contacted Mr. Rich Chin, Director of Product Innovation at SolidWorks.
After a few rounds of email tag over the last few weeks, I am pleased to bring you this dialogue on the day that SolidWorks Labs has released SustainabilityXpress.  I hope you find it informative!
CADFanatic:  Hi Rick, thanks for agreeing to do this interview. Before we begin, could you please tell us a …

The free Xpress version of the Sage add-in mentioned at the Wednesday General Session of SolidWorks World 2009 is now available at SolidWorks Labs.
The add-in enables users to perform an environmental impact study of designs by means of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).  The LCA considers all aspects of a products life cycle from drawing board to end-of-life.
The Environmental Dashboard enables tracking of four data points: Carbon Footprint, Total Energy Consumed, Effect on Air, and Effect on Water.  As changes are made to the design, the user can see …

Last November, I posted a tip on how to more easily mate components using an Alt-Drag technique.  A reader had a question about it, so I thought I would create a video demonstrating it.  I hope it helps.  (Tip: switch to full screen or view in HD on Vimeo)
This is my first attempt at video in quite a while, and I was impressed with the results!  Sorry about the audio, but I don’t think it’s too bad.
Like it/hate it?  Let me know what you think in the comments!
…

Mike Puckett has posted that the upcoming SolidWorks 2010 Beta test will be starting up within the next two weeks.  To participate, simply go to the SolidWorks Beta Program page and follow the directions.
Please note that you will need to have access to the SolidWorks Customer Portal in order to participate.  This is your chance to see what’s new in the upcoming version, get a jump start on any migration issues, and to help SolidWorks by reporting any issues that you may have.
Are you going to be participating in …

Now thru 5:00PM EST Friday, June 5, 2009, TechSmith is offering a free license of their screen capturing and image editing program SnagIt.  Now this offer is for an older version (7.2.5) that will not work under Windows Vista, but by taking advantage of this offering and becoming a registered user, you can secure upgrade pricing to the current version, 9.1.  After installation, you can upgrade to version 9.1 for $24.95 USD, half-off the regular price of $49.95 USD.
To take advantage of this offer, please visit this page.  For …

How do you recreate an identical sketch on another face/plane? Convert edges is fine if you want to project a sketch to a parallel face or plane, but what if the face in question is not parallel? You could copy a sketch and then mess around with linking all the dimensions, but what if you want the sketch in a different orientation? Enter the Derived Sketch command.
The Derived Sketch is a cool tool; it creates a copy of a sketch that is tied back to the original. After deriving a …