The latest version of 3D ContentCentral is now in Beta.  You can check it out here.  Similar to the SolidWorks Beta program, there will be three Beta periods over 8 weeks.  The Beta 1 period runs from October 23rd through November 6th.
There are several new features in the 2009 version of 3D ContentCentral, including social-networking community features.  One very interesting new feature is "collaborative content authoring" that will enable users to "submit improvements to existing models".  That way, people can add to (or correct) models that others have posted.
The …

In part 1 of this series, I laid out the steps for creating a SolidWorks administrative image.  In this article, I will describe how to apply a service pack to create a new image that will automatically roll out to your users.  Again, the SolidWorks version shown in this series is Solidworks 2008, but based on my experience, the procedures for creating a SolidWorks 2009 Administrative Image is similar.
First off, prepare your file folders.  In this case, I am upgrading from SolidWorks 2008 Service Pack 3.1 to 4.0.  So I …

The free sheet metal certification exam offer ends this coming Tuesday, September 30.  The code to get the free exam was originally emailed out to all Certified SolidWorks Professionals (CSWP’s), but it was also posted in the last (September 23) issue of SolidWorks Express (under NEWS and EVENTS).
Don’t think you have what it takes?  Work through the tutorials and take the sample exam.  I don’t really do much sheet metal, a part here or there, but I ran through the sample exam before taking the exam, and I just passed …