CAD Atomic Blog

A few days ago Siemens PLM introduced a student edition of Solid Edge ST4 for free ( http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/velocity/forms/solid-edge-student.cfm ). The student edition is the full commercial version with only 2 restrictions: Any file saved in the student edition cannot be opened in the commercial editions. All drawings will have a printing watermark across them stating that it is in a student edition. After you install it, there are quite a few learning aides that can be found under the Help menu and there is also a student forum available as well (instructions when you sign up for a copy). Happy Edgeing!

Six years ago, the last Solid Edge Summit was held in Cincinnati Ohio.  It was a wildly successful event.  The following year, someone made the decision to roll Solid Edge into the PLM World event and dissolve the Summit.  Needless to say it was a very bad decision as the attendance dwindled over the next 5 years to essentially a handful of  individuals which most likely happened due to a variety of reasons such as the poorly handled transition, higher cost for less value, a weakening economy, and a loss of the Solid Edge identity and community at an event that appeared to cater to NX/Teamcenter. This year, the Solid Edge Summit was back!  Disguised as a Solid Edge ST4 Launch Event, it was essentially a 2 day user conference (June 15-16) held in Huntsville, Alabama which happens to be home of the Solid Edge Development office.  Needless to say, we as users have gotten to meet many of the development, certification, support, planning, marketing and the mana...

No doubt you’ve heard of the cloud.  It’s this nebulous new “old” thing that excites people both positively and negatively.  In the realm of CAD, it has been the subject of much controversy.  A few folks have mentioned that if CAD looked to the advances in gaming over the past few years, a cloud based CAD system could work really well. Others point out you are increasing your failure risk as you are involving a whole host of new dependencies to make it work. Technical feasibility is one thing, practicality is totally another. I’d like to point out a recent example based on gaming and the cloud that really exemplifies the risk of this potential new frontier in CAD… The PlayStation Network!  The PlayStation Network (PSN) is a cloud ran by Sony that allows PlayStation gaming consoles to connect to online gaming, stores, and other services.  On April 20th, Sony pulled the plug on the PSN due to a security breach by some hackers.  The hackers also made off with...

For those who may not have heard, Siemens PLM is hosting an Solid Edge specific user conference June 15th-16th in Huntsville, Alabama. ( https://www.seeuthere.com/rsvp/invitation/invitation.asp?id=/m1312dbb-43068LPQEN9MJ ) The event will not only show what’s new with ST4 and how to use it, but will also feature productivity sessions to help you get more done faster with current functionality.  The other key aspect of this event is it is in the Solid Edge Development office’s backyard (not literally, it’s in a local hotels convention center), so you won’t be learning from an Application Engineer who took a training class and is trying to pass on information second hand.  You will be learning directly from the Product Managers who wrote the specs for the software… from the horses mouth so to speak :)  The agenda shows the typical morning keynote and large group welcome and introduction items the first half of day one, but the second half of day one and all of day two are c...