Thursday January 5, 2012 at 12:25pm
Each release SolidWorks adds hundreds of new enhancements. Most of these (over 85%) are those requested by the customer base. In preparation for the SolidWorks World event next month in San Diego, ideas have been proposed to the SolidWorks developers and voting has now commenced. Have your say on what should be added to future releases by voting now (link).
Adam Hartles
Training Manager....
Tuesday December 13, 2011 at 10:33pm
We now have the SolidWorks 2012 training schedules online and available for bookings. We start teaching from the 2012 release straight after the Christmas break so book now to ensure you have your place during January which is a busy time for the training team.
Next year we are running more courses than ever to meet the growing demands of our customer base. To gain the full benefit of training enquire about our SolidWorks Training Passport- this gives you access to almost all of our course off....
Tuesday December 13, 2011 at 11:41am
I was teaching the SolidWorks Motion course recently and was surprised by a comment made by a trainee. He said he had not appreciated beforehand how sophisticated Motion was as a tool for solving engineering problems. Other trainees agreed. It seems that many customers regard Motion as a means of creating animations. This may be true for the 'Animation' and 'Basic Motion' options but certainly not for the full 'Motion Analysis' tool (available for all SolidWorks Premium users).
The Motion tool....
Monday December 5, 2011 at 4:47pm
If you missed our launch events across the country, this Wednesday there will be a live Webcast going through the highlights of the 20th release of SolidWorks.
To register for this webcast, go to http://www.solidsolutions.co.uk/SolidWorks-Training/Webcasts.aspx
At the launch days, we also launched a new website, exclusively for Solid Solutions Subscription customers www.solidsolutions.tv As the URL suggests, it is mainly video tutorials, video tips and tricks, as well as archived Webca....
Saturday November 5, 2011 at 4:41pm
Have you reserved your seat to see SolidWorks 2012?
The two midlands events at the Heritage Motor Museum, were attended by over 250 of Solid Solutions' customers#
As well as seeing all of the new features in SolidWorks 2012, many engineers took part in the hands on challenges and four winners took home some excellent prizes#
The "Model Mania" competition was a test of modelling speed and accuracy and the winning times were very impressive, both....
Tuesday October 4, 2011 at 10:14am
SolidWorks 2012 is now available to download from the SolidWorks Customer portal (http://customerportal.solidworks.com)
Want to see what's new? Register for a Solid Solutions Launch Event by clicking the banner above or if you can't wait until then... take a look here
SolidWorks 2012 DVDs have not been produced yet. As soon as we receive the shipment from SolidWorks Corp, you will receive them automatically as part of your SolidWorks subscription with us.
Not on subscriptio....
Friday September 30, 2011 at 12:53pm
The Solid Solutions SolidWorks 2012 launch events are just over a month away, but I'm sure that is too long to wait for many keen SolidWorkers out there!
So, if you want to take a look at some of the new functionality why not take a look at the SolidWorks 2012 Launch site? Click here to go straight there. You can also register here for the launch events themselves but if you just want to register you can go to www.solidsolutions.co.uk/SW2012 ....
Friday September 23, 2011 at 6:07pm
Unlike our usual customer only Webcasts, this one is open to anyone. So feel free to register through this link and join us next Wednesday.
Look forward to presenting it to you,
Oliver Duncan - Presales ManagerSolid Solutions Management....
Wednesday September 14, 2011 at 4:39pm
Over the last year or so I have been asked more and more about "apps" for viewing SolidWorks files. Now, there are many options available. There are two which I would recommend looking at.
The first one, is a partner product of SolidWorks, called CADFASTER. It doesnt make your machine run any quicker unfortunately but does allow you to show off your designs on your ipad (not your iphone though).
The app itself is free and you have 100mb of space on "the cloud" where you c....
Wednesday September 7, 2011 at 12:28am
Registration for the SolidWorks 2012 Launch events are now open!
Here at Solid Solutions, we are proud to announce registration for the SolidWorks 2012 Launch events is now open. This year we are pulling out all the stops to make the events for the 20th release of the 3D MCAD package our best yet.
Click the image below to register now!
Want to be a part of our customer showcase? Email mrushton@solidsolutions.co.uk....
Thursday September 1, 2011 at 5:21pm
As more and more SolidWorks products are developed to meet the design world's needs, have you ever thought, can't someone just give me an overview of what it's all about, in, say, 10 minutes?
We thought so, so I did just that:
Enjoy,
Oliver Duncan - Elite Applications Engineer Solid Solutions Management
....
Tuesday August 23, 2011 at 5:43pm
I've just uploaded a more detailed version of our head office in Leamington Spa. Click on the link below to take a virtual walk around. If someone else clicks the link on their computer, they will be in the office with you! Try it out!http://www.solidsolutions.co.uk/Products/Scenes.aspx The technology behind this is 3DVIA Scenes, which will be incorporated into a new product coming soon to the SolidWorks suite - Post3D. http://www.post3d.com/http://www.3dvia.com/products/3dvia-scenes/
Oliver ....
Wednesday August 17, 2011 at 5:13pm
Did you know that you can advertise your job vacancies for free on our website? Simply select the "Products" page and then "Advertise Yor Vacancy" on the left hand side, which will allow you to enter your details!
....
Friday August 12, 2011 at 2:41pm
It's Friday, have a new background on us.
Download here
This was modeled in SolidWorks by Daniel Herzberg. You can download the model for free from GrabCAD.com. It's worth taking a look at the design tree to see how it was put together (or rapid prototype it for an instant R8).
Of course, rendered in PhotoView 360 in SolidWorks 2011.
Enjoy,
Oliver Duncan - Elite Applications EngineerSolid Solutions Management....
Monday August 8, 2011 at 9:34am
We are always looking at ways to share our experiences with using SolidWorks. Our Webcast Wednesday initiative has been a massive success with nearly 150 sessions hosted and over 3500 attendees. We have just launched our new schedule for the second half of the year and this months can be seen here.
Taking this a step further we are currently working on creating a brand new media driven website to allow our customer base full access to the whole archive of Webcasts as well as....
Thursday July 14, 2011 at 9:29am
The Launch of SolidWorks 2012 is fast approaching, and we are already planning our best ever launch events around the country. However, we need your help. We would not be able to put on these enjoyable and informative results if it wasn't for you, so we want to know what you would like to get out of a launch event. What we want to know is what sort of things would you like to see? What have you thought of our previous launch events? If you have 2 minutes to spare, we would really appreciate it i....
Thursday June 2, 2011 at 10:56am
Dassault Systèmes is proud to present the Made in 3D Challenge, a 3D print ready design contest opened to the global designer community!Announced today at the Cumulus Conference “Crossing Talents” in France, the Made in 3D Challenge invites designers to submit their best 3D models in one of three categories: Mechanical Design, Architectural and Ergonomic Function. The challenge is open to all 170 design, architectural and art colleges from around the world, as well as any memb....
Wednesday March 23, 2011 at 4:04pm
Since the video content on the Solid Solutions Website was looking a little tired and messy, I decided to have a spring clean and tidy up the demonstration videos. I have broken down the videos into 3 separate sections, demos for people who have not seen SolidWorks before and want a quick intro to see what it's all about, Tips and Tricks Videos for existing users and What's New videos from 2010 and 2011. Take a look and see what you think here...http://www.solidsolutions.co.uk/SolidWorks-Demo-Vi....
Thursday September 23, 2010 at 9:20am
Solid Solutions Management Ltd has outgrown the offices at the Innovation Centre on Warwick Technology Park and has now moved, less than a mile down the road, to Olympus House in Leamington Spa.
The new offices have given us 3 new training rooms and a purpose built webcast room for the popular Webcast Wednesday.
The new Headquarters is also equipped with a new phone system allowing technical support to be delivered in an even more streamlined manner linking all of our offices together. As a r....
Tuesday August 17, 2010 at 7:00pm
Here at Solid Solutions, we pride ourselves on giving you, our customers, the best value for your subscription of any reseller, of any CAD vendor as possible. Our Launch days for new major releases of SolidWorks have become one of the largest events of its kind in the UK. This year is no different. There will be the similar, much enjoyed format of previous years. The morning will be filled to the brim with presentations and demonstrations of the highlights of the new functionality in all the pro....
Tuesday August 17, 2010 at 6:38pm
Angelic Bulldog is the unlikely name for a world record breaking project. The aim, to break the outright motorcycle land speed record.
The team is made up of volunteers and sponsors, one of which being SolidWorks.
Recently, part of the team attended SolidWorks training at Solid Solutions' Sheffield Office and were so impressed, chose to write about it on their blog!
For more details of this typical SolidWorks customer go to www.angelicbulldog.org.uk
To see what the team had to say about t....
Monday August 16, 2010 at 2:27pm
Elite Reseller Status: What does it mean?SolidWorks Corporation sets standards of excellence to ensure technical competencies within their support, sales and training functions. These standards measure the competencies through formal and rigorous examinations covering ten certifications. An engineer that attains seven key passes qualifies with 'Elite' status. The Elite status is highly coveted and requires extensive theoretical and in-depth practical knowledge.At Solid Solutions we have over ....
Tuesday May 11, 2010 at 2:43pm
The Solid Solutions SolidWorks Tips and Tricks page has been updated!It has been redesigned to load faster to get you to the tips and tricks you want to see as quickly as possible. There are currently 4 pages full of useful hints, tips, tricks and techniques you can use with SolidWorks to become a more productive user.http://www.solidsolutions.co.uk/SolidWorks-Demo-Videos/Tips-and-Tricks.aspxThese are all also on the Solid Solutions Management Ltd YouTube channel. If you are a registered user of....
Monday April 19, 2010 at 3:53pm
New Solution Helps Designers Calculate and Reduce the Environmental Impact of Their Materials and Production MethodsA top design industry publication has named SolidWorks® Sustainability software as one of the most innovative products of 2010. The editors of Design News magazine chose SolidWorks Sustainability as a Golden Mousetrap Award Best Product winner based on its ability to help designers create more environmentally-friendly products. SolidWorks Sustainability helps users determine th....
Monday March 29, 2010 at 5:43pm
SolidWorks has been driven predominantly by user enhancement requests for many years. This is not set to change and in addition to what is being included in SolidWorks® there are a number of other products and services SolidWorks® are looking into providing to assist you with your work on a day to day basis. In order to focus the development, a short survey is currently online to find out what you think. This could make a real difference to you so is well worth the short time to fill i....
Thursday March 25, 2010 at 5:37pm
Beginning with SolidWorks 2010 SP3, the 2D editor formerly known as DWGeditor will be re-named to SolidWorks 2D Editor. In addition to the re-naming, this product will no longer ship as part of the standard SolidWorks installation. SolidWorks 2D Editor will now be available to most SolidWorks customers via a quick and easy download from the SolidWorks customer portal. Click LINKS at the top of the page to access the Customer Portal. The license entitlement to this 2D editor capability for exi....
Tuesday March 16, 2010 at 12:38pm
All of the Solid Solutions Demonstrations, What's New and Tips and Tricks videos are hosted by YouTube. New videos are added regularly onto www.solidsolutions.co.uk and many can be found on the Demo Videos page (see the link at the top of the page). However, Solid Solutions has a YouTube channel! If you register with YouTube, you can Subscribe to the Solid Solutions YouTube channel all for free, and you get an email every time a new video is uploaded. This could be a new tip for any of the Solid....
Tuesday March 16, 2010 at 10:50am
Technical Support from Solid Solutions has been recognised by SolidWorks as being a very proactive, comprehensive service. By calling the support line (01926 623160), you are straight through to one of the dedicated Technical Support engineers. By using email and technologies such as GotoMeeting and GotoAssist, we can be on site, virtually, seeing your screen in a matter of minutes. We can even take control of your PC with your permission. All of these services will continue, but as of October 2....
Monday March 1, 2010 at 6:54pm
SolidWorks CAD software, with over 1.2millions licenses sold to date, is without a doubt the most used 3D CAD software in the world. You only need to search on job websites, Google Trends or even YouTube to see how much it is being used. However, over the last few years, SolidWorks Corporation has a lot more strings to its bow. SolidWorks Simulation (formerly known as CosmosWorks) has been around a long time now, and is a well established, well proven suite of tools. It really add value to a lot....
Monday February 22, 2010 at 5:20pm
2010 CAD COMPETITIONFebruary saw the launch of a CAD modelling competition to find the best Student SolidWorks modeller. The competition is split into 4 categories; • Automotive and Transportation• Consumer Products• Electronics• General, and the brief, is simply to submit an excellent SolidWorks model (part or assembly), ideally, based on an existing product (since the competition is about modelling, not design). The competition is open to any age of University student in th....
Thursday December 3, 2009 at 9:21pm
Following the Solid Solutions’ SolidWorks 2010 Launch days, there has been huge interest in 3DVIA Composer. This is the tool which allows you to create graphical content for all of your Technical and Marketing Documentation directly from your 3D CAD data and when the design changes, the graphical content updates accordingly. This link to the original CAD means that the technical documentation (used for anything from assembly instructions to user manuals to marketing) can be started at a mu....
Friday November 27, 2009 at 12:13am
It's the busiest time of the year at Solid Solutions right now, so not a lot of time for blog updates! After some very successful SolidWorks 2010 launch days around the country, there has been a real spike in interest in 3DVIA Composer. As a result, a demostration video has been added to the 3DVIA Composer page on our website. (Here). This provoked a thought. Some of our videos on the website have text callouts instead of a voice narration. This is so that they can be watched in an office ....
Friday October 30, 2009 at 2:59pm
This week is has been announced that SolidWorks 3D CAD design and engineering package was extensively used to help develop the squeezy bottles now used for Marmite and Colman's Mustard. Key to the designer’s choice to use SolidWorks for this project is SolidWork’s capablity of assembling and also testing the design in a virtual environment, enabling engineers to analyse in detail the design and perfect it prior to releasing the product into production.
SolidWorks photo-realist....
Sunday October 25, 2009 at 8:19pm
You may have seen the video on the news of the Maldives Government holding a meeting six metres under water. The reason they did this was to show what would happen to the Maldives should sea levels continue to rise. We all need to be doing whatever we can to reduce carbon emissions. As Designers and Engineers, we have a much greater impact on this than many of us are probably aware. A small change at the Design stage can have a huge impact across the full life of a product. Its recyclability, ho....
Tuesday October 20, 2009 at 8:31pm
SolidWorks 2010, the 18th version of the MCAD software was released today. It is a slight change of focus from what has been seen in the past. Previous versions of SolidWorks have seen unprecedented levels of new tools and features which have grown into the vast and comprehensive set available today. Earlier this year, SolidWorks reached a major milestone of 1,000,000 licenses sold. With such a large customer base, with a very large percentage of these users actively engaged in the SolidWo....
Friday October 9, 2009 at 12:33pm
Over the last few years, SolidWorks has become a very powerful Industrial Design tool capable of creating some very complex geometry. A few years ago, if someone had asked you to design a car in SolidWorks, you may have struggled with the few surfacing tools that were available in 2006 and earlier versions. But the power and robustness of these tools has come along way and with new additions like the boundary surface, much more is possible. Take a look at http://www.solidworksaudir8.com/ for a ....
Wednesday October 7, 2009 at 12:38am
It's very nearly that time of year again already. It seems to get faster every year! The next version of SolidWorks is almost upon us.
For the first time, have a sneak preview of some of the new features and enhancements directly on the Solid Solutions website. Click on the Demo Videos link at the top of the screen and then choose the What's New link.
Also, registration for the Solid Solutions 2010 Main Launch Event is open. This year, Jeff Ray, CEO of Dassault Systemes SolidWorks Corpo....
Wednesday September 30, 2009 at 5:28pm
CAD files can get to quite a size. Sending them to other people can be a nightmare. There are a number of ways they can be sent to view and review but sometimes you just need to send the actual native files. There are a number of options. You could use a tool like Skype or Windows Live Messenger to send the files over but this is not very convenient if the recipient is not online at the time you need to send them. FTP sites are a useful alternative but they are not always that simple to use. The....
Thursday September 10, 2009 at 3:31pm
The End of PhotoWorksSolidWorks 2010 will be the last release to include PhotoWorks. PhotoView 360 will be its replacement and the photorealistic solution for SolidWorks software. There are many more features to PhotoView360 in 2010 and by 2011 I expect there will be a full suite and be at least as rich as PhotoWorks is today without the depth of knowledge required to use it. Will you miss it? Let us know. What else would you like to see in PhotoView360? Leave a comment below.SolidWorks Vi....
Friday August 28, 2009 at 12:21pm
Being able to transfer your activation of SolidWorks to your home computer is a really useful way of getting that last bit of work done or honing those CAD skills in some more comfortable surroundings. However, I was reading an article on another CAD blog and got me thinking what this home activation may have been used for. SolidWorks is a very versatile products used in all kinds of industries from Consumer Product Design to Architecture, Furniture to Aerospace, Marine to Machine....
Friday August 28, 2009 at 9:33am
Here at Solid Solutions we're starting to get a lot of interest from our customers to find out what the new features are going to consist of. We could have written a review ourselves, but you might think it was a little biased. Enhancement requests, logged by users through the SolidWorks Customer Portal have always been the main source for the new features and functionality in the new versions of SolidWorks and this year is no exception. For the 2010 release, more development time than ever....
Monday August 17, 2009 at 9:43pm
With more and more SolidWorks users everyday, you want to be able to stand out from the crowd.
There is no better way to do this than with the CSWP exam. "SolidWorks certifications can be used as a benchmark to measure your knowledge and competency with SolidWorks software. Exams focus on the fundamental skills necessary to ensure your company’s overall success using SolidWorks."
Great for your CV, great for your employer to show they hire the best people. Usually, this exam c....
Friday August 14, 2009 at 4:25pm
One of the questions I get asked most on Technical Support is "Do I have to download GotoMeeting again??!!" and the answer is usually yes. However, it is possible to have it installed fully so that you do not need to even open a web browser to join a meeting hosted by our Support guys. To do this, go to www.gotomeeting.com and click on Host a Meeting.Then download the software and install it. You will be asked to Log in but at this point simply hit the "X" to Cancel. You will....
Thursday August 13, 2009 at 2:14pm
One of the most innovative new features to be included in SolidWorks 2010 is the ability to conduct Product Life Cycle Analysis. This basically tells you how "green" your design is before you have produced a single drop of Carbon Dioxide (apart from getting to work, and turning your PC on). The feature is called SustainabilityXpress and will ensure that you have the most sustainable, environmentally-friendly design possible. However, you probably will not want to wait to save the plane....
Wednesday August 12, 2009 at 5:48pm
Following the launch of our new FREE* Training program in April, we are pleased to announce the addition of 2 new courses "Use SolidWorks to help Generate New Sales” and “Improve your Document Management Process”. So if you’re interested in finding out how to create stunning sales and marketing documents and/or improve the way you manage your engineering data these two courses are just the ticket!Contact nsibly@solidsolutions.co.uk for further information*The FREE tr....
Thursday July 23, 2009 at 4:02pm
Solid Solutions has just completed a major upgrade of its website http://www.solidsolutions.co.uk/.
Our new website is a much improved resource for all of our valued customers and will be a backbone of many more improvements in the months to come.....