Optimizing AutoCAD Performance

AutoCAD is the most popular CAD tool in use today. And despite the high level of performance of many workstations, the creative nature of CAD professionals and enhancements to this key product continue to demand ever higher performance levels. Poor AutoCAD performance levels actually can be quantified in real dollar terms based on the waiting time a CAD professional endures. Read full article »

New CAD Display Technologies to Look Forward to

Visualization of designs and components is the key part of the CAD experience. And the importance of the display technologies that enable this can’t be understated. However, if we look back over the last 15-20 years, there has been precious little disruptive technological change in the displays used for CAD. Sure, we have low cost 3D, and larger screens with incredible resolution. Yet, if you look at the fundamentals, very little has changed.

There are now some very interesting new technologies on the horizon that may change this dynamic and dramatically improve the CAD Experience. There are two that I believe are worth focusing on. Read full article »

Generation Y, The Urge to Design, and the Rise of CAD “Lite”

There is great risk in making sweeping generalities across a huge swath of individuals, yet, it seems that today’s Generation Y harbors an interesting tendency toward innovation and entrepreneurship that is more pronounced than in other population age groups. Perhaps it’s the success of individuals with their smartphone apps they’ve built, or the new businesses like Pinterest.

However, it’s not just the innovation and entrepreneurship that sets them apart. This generation has seen a rate of technology change faster than any other. So they embrace new products and services rapidly and in large numbers. They expect new, breakthrough, and outside the box products every few weeks! And Gen Y conceive of these new ideas across educational, income, and other demographics. Read full article »

SolidWorks 22-Minute Webinars

SolidWorks is taking performance-training webinars down to just 22 minutes in an effort to help today’s time-strapped designers. With a new series of webinars, SolidWorks provides a quick what, why and how for key features.

You can register for the live events, or—if you’re really strapped for time—you can watch the recorded webinars at your convenience. The biggest advantage of the live events is the ability to participate in the QuickPolls they take throughout the presentations. Read full article »

RELATED RESOURCE

An Overview of Common Performance Issues for SolidWorks

Every SolidWorks user wants to do more, faster, with fewer mistakes. Here’s a quick look at the top performance issues SolidWorks users are facing and some advice on what you can do about them.

Attending Valuable NX Webinars Is the “CAM Logical” Thing to Do

Lately I’ve been singing the praises of the educational information you can find through third-party resellers of Siemens NX. The people who work at these companies have to know the software inside and out, so they can be valuable resources for improving your performance. And you never know, you might find someone as inspiring as that one great teacher who got you into the engineering business in the first place. Read full article »