DISQUS

Tried and true tips taken straight from any time management course. HOWEVER, they'll say the same thing about phone calls. DON'T answer every time it rings. If it's that important, they'll leave a voicemail.

So now, they'll text you, or come over and slap your face.

The huge advantage that email has over phone is DOCUMENTATION. In a dispute, you have a record of it. Verbal agreements always get you in trouble. However, it is a better medium of communication when time is of the essence.

The a trade off with everything. Some things simply need to be addressed quickly. Choose the medium that works for you, and pick your battles.

All great ideas, many of them I've used and they helped tremendously. All I would add is structure your model design based on your manufacturing processes. So castings, extrusions, injection molded parts, sheetmetal, weldments, softgoods/fabrics, would all have their own set of rules/procedures on how to setup and structure the model, based on the needs of your particular company.

The next would be DOCUMENTATION!!!! You need to DOCUMENT everything that you've outlined above, so that ANYONE or any new employee can refer to it and see exactly what they're supposed to do.

You're absolutely right about a passionate employee, but unfortunately not everyone is as pumped up as the rabid CAD-masters roaming the office. So on TOP of having documentation, you need to have periodic meetings with EVERYONE involved with the systems. Get their feedback, give training, adjust your procedures/structure as necessary. Many times, as you go along, you'll find that what you thought was a great idea in the beginning, it turning out to be a nightmare and hurt productivity, so you may need to regroup, rethink and adjust your plan of attack to get thing moving along. And even then, you're going to have people who just won't follow the rules and do their own thing. Best you can do is try to work with them, accommodate them, or just send Josh to come whoop them into shape! :)

Bummer about no print copy. PDF just doesn't do it for me.

So, is the portable version available or not? Same here, I'm using portable version most of the time.

That beamer sure is interesting. The headlights and how they open is downright wicked.

My favorites. "F" to zoom fit, Spacebar to get the views box, and "M" to open the Measure tool. Have to program some of these, but worth it.

LOFTS GONE WILD!! Get your copy today!

I agree, what's more interesting is the machining aspect of this project and the fixturing/building of it.

Josh, these are spot on! EXCELLENT tips that have help save my hide for years. Everyone, print this one out and tape it to your cubicle wall! Most people I encounter freak out and crawl under their desk. Follow these tips, and you'll show those errors who's boss.

One other technique, though, that could help with large assemblies that seem to "explode" and have thousands of mate errors. It's the Patented SHOVE technique. Josh, if you'll email me to remind me, I'll try to get a video of this to illustrate this useful and effective technique.

Wow, it's been THAT long? Time sure flies when you have a fro and stars coming out of your head.

And the growth charts, WOW! Congratulations indeed, Josh. I only wish I could do the same. Looks like the hard work is paying off.

I say keep doing what you're doing; you have a unique style and unique content. That's what keeps me coming :)

I'm not sure how it will affect how I work (although now with my new job, I don't even use CAD anymore) :( but I think more and more CAD will be spill into the consumer side of things for DIY projects. They already have DIY rapid prototype machines. It's only a matter of time before it becomes then new ink-jet printer. Buy one at Wal-mart or Best Buy, go home, design a cool new watch band or cup holder or pipe fitting, hit the print button, and away you go!

Can you elaborate a bit on the first one? I'm still not getting it.

As far as same views, that's a good one. Also, try to model the components in the same orientations and reference points. That way if you have to replace the component with a different one, you will decrease or eliminate the amount of mates that you will have to fix. I try to model each component the way it is going to be oriented in the final product.

Also, for drawings, don't forget to leverage the power of Configurations and Display States to eliminate the number of Drawings/Assemblies you need to manage.

Wow, sounds cush!

"No, I'm sorry, ma'am, I can't model that complex shape or fix all those errors in that assembly file, but I CAN visualize it. I can see it, all right here in my noggin'"

Sign me up!

I'm assuming that's $60/month regardless of the your store's revenue?

Ha! yeah, I must have done the Parkour thing in high school without knowing it, now what do I have to thank for it? Bad knee joints, a herniated disc, and dislocated shoulder that pops back out every once in awhile.

LOL! That's hilarious Devon. My daughter did almost the same thing except into the corner of the entertainment center. No fainting, but a HUGE goose-egg on her forehead. Lately both her and my son have been trying to Parkour themselves across the 3 foot gap between the sofa chair and the couch. Not all attempts are succesful.

Josh, you have GOT to post VIDEO of yourself in action. That would be hilarious! I'd pay to see that!

Yeah, you could wear it on your head, like one of those head-umbrellas. Just watch out for the light poles.

I found the original few the funniest, which I am guilty of, of course.

"...organizing other people’s features, “accidentally” fixing someone else’s sketches..."

Can't help myself.

The tough part with girls is they'll have you pulling your hair out one minute, then will give you a smile that's so sweet it will melt your heart and you'll cave. It's a bitter/sweet thing. And it's true about adoring your daughter. Mine's not even 2 yet and I'm already crying that my baby girl is growing up too fast. Sheez. I need to get a grip.

Congrats, again.

Congrats, indeed. Don't forget your words of inspiration for Maggie,

"Push 'em out, shove 'em out, WAYYYYY OUT!" (Bill Cosby)

I'm usually not a big open-source fan, but the ONE thing that has been great, is Firefox.

My main favorites, autocomplete suggestions in the search engine box, IE Tab add-on (switch rendering engines, great for working on my website), spell-check in form boxes. Awesome stuff.

Some things, though, I'm still quite not ready for making the switch. OpenOffice not ready for primetime for me. Tried Thunderbird, but I'm not ready to give up Outlook just yet (although Thunderbird Portable is great for checking email while at work or traveling). Still torn between Windows Media Player and iTunes.

Doh! Future version! Guess I need an upgrade.

Yes, muy interesante indeed (photosynth). Wonder what industry it would affect the most? Scanning/reverse engineering?

Um, sorry, but I couldn't help but laugh, as I have been guilty of #1 and #6.

Sorry, but just like SOME people shouldn't be allowed to have kids, or drive a car, SOME people should never be allowed to get behind a keyboard/mouse of a CAD system.

I would have worded it this way..."We shouldn’t let SOME employees load settings because they might royally **** something up and destroy all the hard work the competent SW users have put into building a good, robust CAD/PDM system for the company to make money with by getting products out the door on time..."

For #6, the employee had been fired from the company almost a year prior, so it was not a direct embarrassment to him, but served well to help other see what not to do.

Ok Josh, let me have it. I have my ear-muffs in place. Punch away.

Hmm, cool. The only issue I had was trying to go back to a previous menu/screen.

I was a deprived child, and therefore never had a Lego set of my own. I do remember though my mom babysat this one kid that did have some. I was bigger than him, so I'd beat him up and play with his Legos.

Now if they could just make it do all my work for me...