Disqus - Latest Comments for rdo

Re: Luxology Bashes Hell out of Modeling with New modo Bashing Kit

rdo — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:34:17 -0000

Very nice--the new associated training looks good too. Am I correct in interpreting that the videos that come with the kit are only a small subset of the larger spaceship training set?

Re: New Kickstarter Project Promises Desktop CNC Fun for $300

rdo — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 13:16:29 -0000

Very cool. I'm in!

Re: The Ease of Architecture in SolidWorks: Project Frog

rdo — Wed, 25 May 2011 19:07:21 -0000

Hey Angelo

One of the big advantages for us of doing everything in SolidWorks is definitely the ease with which we can generate shop drawings. Our structural steel fabricators appreciate the level of detail that we're able to provide in the steel shops, and we're also able to generate full panel framing and finishing drawings for those fabricators, instead of relying on less detailed elevations and generic detail callouts. Plus, I can send 3d geometry exports to some fabricators, which they can then pull in to their own systems (for example, our main steel shop uses Tekla). I think it really cuts down on mistakes, reduces the fabricators' need to interpret vagaries, and adds a whole new level of QA before any physical materials are cut. (Sometimes it feels like our more traditional fabricators' heads might explode at first, but I can also see them coming around and recognizing the advantages of a 3D process).

- rdo

Re: Cue Your Arduinos. Google Opens Up Android Accessory Standards

rdo — Wed, 11 May 2011 18:49:56 -0000

Very cool! Maybe now I'll get past just making my Arduino blink some LEDs...

Re: Polygon Topology Techniques

rdo — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 20:15:26 -0000

Good stuff Wes, thanks for sharing

Re: CADFaster. The Faster Way to Collaborate on SolidWorks and Revit Models

rdo — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 20:21:45 -0000

Looks like this could be great for online design reviews or walking through a model with a supplier/fabricator. I'd label it more as a group review tool than true collaboration, seeing as it's a read-only model viewer (you're not going to be making live changes in a collaborative way using this, unless I'm missing something). Definitely something we'll take a look at when released.

Re: 5 Unconventional Ways to Promote SolidWorks Mastery (and Avoid Being Stabbed)

rdo — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 17:48:39 -0000

Hey, thanks for reminding me that I still needed to finish the CSWP. Just wrapped it up!

Re: How to Edit Dumb Solids from SolidWorks with KeyCreator 3D

rdo — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:45:09 -0000

Yo dude that's the sixth post in which you've mentioned "lard" (yeah, I checked). Is there something you're not telling us?

Re: SolidWorks Brings on the BIM. 3 New Architecture Features in SolidWorks 2011

rdo — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:27:23 -0000

Do you know whether the grid system feature is limited to part files, or does it work as an assembly feature as well? Based on our workflow here doing modular building design, we'd definitely want it as the latter. The way we do it now is to keep all the skeleton sketches in their own part file, which is then inserted as the top component in each assembly. However, that causes problems when you want to do a guide sketch in that assembly, since it's going to show up at the bottom of the feature tree below all the components (assuming it references the skeleton sketch part). That, in turn, sets up a scenario for easy circular reference mistakes. So having the grid system as an actual feature, hopefully staying at the top of the feature tree in an assembly, would be really helpful.

Re: SolidWorks Brings on the BIM. 3 New Architecture Features in SolidWorks 2011

rdo — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 14:31:09 -0000

Interesting, this is the first I've seen of these new features for 2011 (haven't had time to play with the betas myself). I wonder whether the grid system feature will give us a better way of working with master guide sketches when doing architectural layouts, maybe eliminating some of the potential for circular references in our current methodology.

Re: Start Your Printing. Shapeways 3D Print Plugin for SolidWorks.

rdo — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:29:38 -0000

Looking forward to trying this out. I'd also had a lot of trouble trying to upload anything but the simplest STL out of SolidWorks to this service.

Re: Upcoming Project: Ninja Head Tutorial – Work in Progress

rdo — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:31:13 -0000

That reminds me, I was going to suggest that you expand on the tiki bar visualization project mentioned in your book, possibly as a ninja-level tutorial. I was definitely left wanting more for that one, particularly regarding how to match the photo's lighting, and the finer points of creating a compelling composite shot in Photoshop (I don't do video so I haven't really looked at the dedicated compositing packages). Just an idea. Thanks

Re: Upcoming Project: Ninja Head Tutorial – Work in Progress

rdo — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:05:13 -0000

Looking forward to it Wes. Just got your book, which has been a good read so far. I'm more into architectural and product visualization than character stuff, but this looks interesting nonetheless.

Re: Rock Your Model. The Seven Step SolidWorks to modo Workflow

rdo — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 13:58:19 -0000

Just heard on the latest modcast that they realize SolidWorks assemblies come in as kind of a mess (I assume they're referring to all the replicators and loss of hierarchy), and that they've got some major changes to this in store. I only hope that those come as an addition/SP to 401 (since I just paid for my license) instead of the future 501 release.

Re: Rock Your Model. The Seven Step SolidWorks to modo Workflow

rdo — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:12:57 -0000

Great article. I've been doing a lot of SolidWorks -> modo lately, for file conversion as well as rendering. One thing that's helped a lot is a script written by one of the Luxology folks, which converts replicator items to instances. This is really useful if you need to do anything but the most basic editing of the mesh after it comes in to modo (including exporting to other poly formats). Information on the script can be found at http://forums.luxology.com/....

Re: My Top 5 Enhancements in SolidWorks 2009

rdo — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 16:39:20 -0000

Wow, I've been waiting so long to be able to use negative sketch dimensions in order to be able to mirror sketches for configurations. This is going to save us a lot of time!

Re: SolidWorks Video Tip: 2009 BOM Restructure

rdo — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:36:56 -0000

Thanks so much for this information. We were trying to do this in 2008 but couldn't, so this is reason enough for us to upgrade.

Re: Standards Wednesday – Location of Features

rdo — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:56:58 -0000

Great post (been keeping up with the previous posts in this series as well). One question... when you say "In SolidWorks the ‘X’ will be placed outside of the box when you specify a repetitive dimension as basic", are you saying that SWx has some built-in mechanism for identifying and handling repetitive dimensions? I've always just manually typed in the 4X or whatever preceding the dimension under Dimension Text in the properties. Is there a better way? Thanks