CAD Atomic Blog

The Early Bird Discount #2 expires tomorrow 6/7.  It allows you to save $50 on one admission and $100 on three admissions (buy 2 get the 3rd FREE!!!). http://www.solidedgeu.com/ Now if you are dragging your feet or your boss is dragging his and and the decision has not yet been made, don’t worry… As far as conference fees and content go, Solid Edge University is still a bargain at the regular price of $550 considering there are 2 days of content spread over 9 tracks with 3 of those tracks being HANDS ON EXPERIENCES!  Let me repeat:  3 TRACKS OF HANDS ON EXPERIENCES!  If you have ever priced getting training from a VAR, it is many times the admission price of Solid Edge University and does not cover the breadth of topics and/or the niche areas of Solid Edge that will be covered by the Solid Edge University’s Hands on Experiences.  Add to that the additional 6 tracks of content covered by experts including Solid Edge product planners, application engineers, ...

Within the last few weeks, Siemens PLM opened a new ‘Community” site for several products including Solid Edge. Unlike their previous discussion groups which for the most part where closed to everyone except customers who were current on their annual maintenance, the Community site is open to all.  Anyone can read the site, and by registering, you can also post to the site. Check out the Solid Edge Community here: http://community.plm.automation.siemens.com/t5/Solid-Edge/ct-p/solid-edge

As you may know, Solid Edge University 2013 is coming up in about 3 weeks ( http://www.solidedgeu.com/ ) and that the official announcement about Solid Edge ST6 will come on day 1 of that event (June 25th).  Dan Staples, director Solid Edge Development will provide the Solid Edge ST6 keynote. Well, I have a couple of early treats for you about ST6 that I can share!  Please keep in mind that these are no more than a tiny teaser of ST6, and as a BETA tester I can assure you there is so much more… There has been this rumor going around that ST6 would put some focus on surfacing.  Well, here are two new tools that should convince you it’s more than just a rumor… Reflective Plane  - The typical use case of symmetric molded parts is to model one half and mirror the body of the second half when complete… But how do you know what the whole part looks like prior to being finished with the part?  The answer is the Reflective Plane. It allows display of the second half...

You have 2 more weeks to get the early bird discount #2 of $500 for 1 admission or $1000 for 3 admissions for Solid Edge University 2013... After that the regular price of $550 and $1100 respectively kicks in.  Either way you will get your moneys worth.and then some with 9 tracks of sessions.  Details can be found here:  http://www.solidedgeu.com Design Better.  Solid Edge University.

The Solid Edge University 2013 early bird #1 discount price has expired, but there is still plenty of time to get in on the second tier early bird discount (till June 7th) that still saves you $50 off of the regular individual price of $550.  Sign up 3 people together and you can save $650 of the regular single price with the 3 for 2 deal. Check it out here: http://solidedgeu.com/registration-fees-and-travel Hope to see you at Solid Edge University 2013 so we can all Design Better!

Solid Edge University 2013’s ( http://www.solidedgeu.com/ ) first Early Bird Discount is about to expire on 3/29/2013.  If you are planning on going, this is your chance to save $100.  Details:  http://www.solidedgeu.com/registration-fees-and-travel If you are having trouble convincing someone that the benefits of attending SEU far outweigh the costs, check out the following page: http://www.solidedgeu.com/benefits-of-attending The main event that covers Solid Edge is complemented by a pre-event that covers customization using Solid Edge’s programming API and two post-events covering FEMAP and the SharePoint based data management solutions: http://www.solidedgeu.com/event-details A partial list of events have been posted that give a taste of some of the sessions that will be available, but this isn’t all so please check back for more later: http://www.solidedgeu.com/courses If you would have something to share and would like FREE admission to the conference, think abo...

Solid Edge ST6 is not publicly available yet, but will be in the next few months.  No doubt the big announcement will be made at Solid Edge University 2013 at the end of June ( http://www.solidedgeu.com/ ). While it is still under the cover of secrecy, I thought we might have some fun and see how creative you are with trying to guess what might be in ST6 when it releases.  Submit a comment as to your best guess, but be respectful or your comment won’t see the light of day. I’m sure that when ST6 releases, whatever is in it will help us all Design Better!

Solid Edge ST5 has a couple of offers that allow you to use it for free. If you are a commercial user, there is a 45 day trial ( http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/velocity/solidedge/free-solid-edge.shtml ) that gives you full featured access in a time limited fashion and it’s intended purpose is for evaluation towards a purchase.  If this is something you are interested in, don’t hesitate to talk to a reseller and if you are a current SolidWorks user, there are some trade-in deals at this time that seem pretty good ( https://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/campaigns/solid-edge-promo/index.cfm? ) If you are a student, there is a student version ( https://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/about_us/goplm/arc/se-academic/solid-edge-student.cfm? ) that gives you full featured access with one exception… All files saved in this version are marked as being authored in a student version and cannot be opened in a commercial version and the drawings have a water m...

I’m sure you have all heard the phrase “Jack of all trades, master of none”.  I think of this phrase when some entity tries to serve too many purposes that it really doesn’t focus too well on any of them. This happened a few years ago with UGS in regards to the Solid Edge annual international user group meeting.  Due to what I imagine was a concern with costs and economy of scale, someone decided that the independent Solid Edge Summit should be wrapped into the annual PLM World event with all the other UGS products.  What happened is we lost that Solid Edge only focus and it became watered down and generalized. Needless to say, it was giant flop, and in just a few years Solid Edge had lost most of it’s annual conference attendees. Under the new management of Karsten Newbury, he and his team decided in 2011 to hold a Solid Edge only international event and it was a big success! Because it was such a hit, it was repeated in 2012… And it was an even bigger success!  S...

PDM is known as a necessary evil in most engineering worlds.  Why it’s labeled “evil”, I’ll explain in a bit.  It’s necessary because of 2 reasons: Engineering and related disciplines create a huge amount of data and that data is related to parts which are related to a product structure and that may also be related to tooling and equipment.  PDM excels at storing all this data securely and managing the relationships between it and the changes that happen to it. The use of 3D compound document design systems pretty much require PDM after a couple years of use with more than a half dozen authors.  Compound document design systems build assemblies from parts and subassemblies that are all independent files.  When you open an assembly, the design system actually must find and open each and every component file that makes up that assembly, so on an assembly comprised of 350 unique components, your opening 350 files.  Couple this with cross assembly use of com...

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...

So Solid Edge ST3 has been revealed today.  Between all the “professional” bloggers out there, it has been dissected quite a bit, so I’m not going to attempt it.  Instead, here is a list of links at which you can find out information: Official Siemen's site on ST3 - http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/velocity/solidedge/solidedge-st3/index.shtml Post one of Deelip's 11 part Post - http://www.deelip.com/?p=3618 Matt Lombard's post on ST3 - http://www.dezignstuff.com/blog/?p=4035 Jon Sutcliffe's post on ST3 - http://www.synchronoustechnology.net/blog/679/solid-edge-st3-bares-all/ Al Dean's post on DEVELOP3D - http://develop3d.com/reviews/solid-edge-st3 Kathleen Maher on ST3 - http://gfxspeak.com/2010/10/14/solid-edge-st3-arrives/ I’ll add more as I find them.

Siemens PLM will formally announce Solid Edge ST3 on October 13th.  There are a number of events being held across North America starting on that day and through the month of December in a variety of cities.  2 of them are Siemens PLM hosted “National” events which the agenda shows will have a little more content in them, and the rest are Partner hosted events.  If interested in attending one of these events, you can sign up on the Register link at the following page: http://am.siemensplmevents.com/?elqPURLPage=4232 Now seeing that we have around 2-1/2 weeks before the formal announcement and there has been much speculation about what’s new with ST3 in regards to Synchronous Technology, I thought it would be interesting to invite your comments about what you think is new with Synchronous Technology in ST3.  Ground rules are that you must be polite and on topic.  This BLOG is mine and is not bound by your right to free speech, therefore comments are moderated an...

As promised, this is the last in a series of posts about what has been publicly released about Solid Edge ST3.  It’s been a while between posts, and if you scour the web you may have found this information already, but I thought I would post it anyways as ST3 media activity has slowed a bit and it has not yet been released (tentatively October from what I’ve seen posted). Drafting is one of those areas where there is still such a big dependence.  It’s the final piece of the product development assembly line and is highly utilized by downstream departments.  With ST3, there were a large number of  enhancements in this area but unfortunately I can only share a very select few of the user requested enhancements. Parts List’s have been enhanced and one of the enhancements (there’s others) is an option to create a fully exploded and indented list. Unicode character support has been added so you can now mix & match languages in a single draft file as well as use th...

As Promised, here is my 3 rd post on Solid Edge ST3’s customer driven enhancements. This time, the topic is Piping, Framing, and Weld enhancements. Let’s start with Frames. Frames are made up of 3 items for each frame member: The sketch defining the path, the cross section defining the shape, and the resulting member as a solid model. With ST3, some work was done with the cross sections to add additional attachment points which are used to attach the cross sections to the paths. In addition to the prior default of the geometry Range Box showing the 8 points defining the rectangular extents boundary around the shape and the center point, you can now define the cross section’s path attachment point by using key points (end/mid/center/etc.) on the cross section’s defining sketch (including reference elements) or the cross section’s area centroid. In addition to the new locating methods, cross sections are now associative to the members that they have defined (so changes to the cross ...

As promised, I'm back with some additional information about the upcoming release of Solid Edge ST3 (later this year).  This post will hit on some of the customer driven enhancements in the Part, Sheet Metal, and Assembly design environments.  As a reminder, this is in no way a complete list of enhancements in these areas. New to ST3 Sheet Metal is the Etch feature.  It allows text or other sketch elements to be created on sheet metal faces which will then be transformed with the model when flattened.  When the Flat Pattern is saved to DXF, text is translated to a "stick" font engraving ready! New Closed Corner types have been added to Sheet Metal such as U & V shaped, Square and Mitred. Tabs and PMI can now be added to the flattened Sheet Metal model and they will not display in the folded model.  This flattened model can then be saved to JT. Interpart relations are now shown in Part & Sheet Metal Pathfinder allow...

Well, things in the Solid Edge world are certainly active these days, and Siemens PLM is being very serious about increasing user oppurtunities.  The first big evidence of this is that the folks at Siemens PLM responsible for the Solid Edge product are hosting 17 regional events around North America for users to attend for FREE! The current agenda posted on Siemens site (http://img.en25.com/Web/Siemens/Solid%20Edge%20Productivity%20Summit%20agenda_6188a.pdf) looks like this:   Solid Edge Productivity Summit Preliminary Agenda – Times and sessions subject to change by location  8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Check in and registration Solid Edge Vision and Direction Solid Edge Customer Success Presentation Modeling in Solid Edge with synchronous technology Patterning in Solid Edge Networking Lunch Synchronous Sheet Metal Modeling Best Practices in Solid Edge Drafting Regional Tips and Tricks in Solid Edge Synchronous Assembly Modeling Using Both Trad...