News & Events

Top Stories

• SolidWorks World 2011
  Thousands of SolidWorks users, trainers, employees resellers and developers converged on the great city of San Antonio Texas to learn, share and network earlier this year. It was a great event that both inspires and humbles.  I am lucky enough to work for a great company that understands the benefits of continueing education.  I hope you do too.
• Award Winning Design
  April, 2010 - SolidWorks Sustainability wins the Golden Mousetrap Award for Best Software in a CAD Category
• Award Winning Marketing
  2010 - The “3 Dudes Gone 3D” marketing program, created by Boston marketing firm Small Army, won for marketing effectiveness in the “Computer Software” category
• SolidWorks Piping Job Trends
  "SimplyHired.com" has a neat way of tracking the job searches people make on their site. They have released their 2009-2011 SolidWorks Routed Systems Trends.  While the 3rd quarter of 2009 was the highest recorded period for SolidWorks Piping Jobs, there have been signifigant increases in companies looking to hire drafters/designers and engineers for positions using SolidWorks Routed Systems.  This is a strong indicator that the economy is on an upswing in the oil and gas industry and process piping systems in energy plants, refineries, and many other fields.  Check out SimplyHired.com for more information.  While you're there, enter SolidWorks Routing and SolidWorks Routed Systems into the search field to see trends using those keywords.

• Hardware Review: (my own system)
  I get asked quite often what type of hardware I use.  Well, here is my own review of my own system...

Office Workstation:

Brand: Custom built by ARRC Technology in Bakersfield California
Windows 7 Enterprise
Windows Experience Index: 6.7
ACPI x64-Based PC (server board)
Processor: (8) Dual Processor Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5530 @ 2.40 GHz (yes, that's a total of 16 processors)
RAM: 24.0 GB
System type: 64-bit Operating System
Drive: Dual 500GB Intel MegaSR SCSI Disk Raid Array

SolidWorks Performance Benchmark Test:
Graphics: 38.6 sec
PRocessor: 149.7 sec
I/O: 432.9 sec
Overall: 621.2 sec
Rendering: 39.4 sec

MY SCORE: 7 out of 10 (very quick to boot & start programs etc.. but it just seems sluggish at times)

Monitors:
Dual Samsung 19" Monitors
MYSCORE: 8 out of 10 (low refresh rate for the resolution I'm running and pixel contrast could be a little higher)

Video:
(1) NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700
Resolution: 3200x1200 @ 60Hz
MY SCORE: 8 out of 10 (great mid-range card)


3D Controller:
3D Connexion SpacePilot (about 5 years old and still looks & works like new!)
MY SCORE: 9 out of 10 (over 5 years old and still looks & works like new!)

Keyboard/Mouse:
Logitech MK300 wireless mouse/keyboard combo.
MY SCORE: 8 out of 10 (Keyboard has a great low profile design, but the mouse batteries only last me about 2 weeks. Receiver has short range when batteries get low)

My home office system is just a little different.  It's an x64 Win XP quad core duo system with dul NVIDIA Quadro graphic cards linked using SLI.  This is primarily because I use the system for renderings, animations and simulations. This way I can set up simulations at home, then let them run overnight without losing productivity at work. Sure I could do this before I leave work, but then I wouldn't be able to check up on it while it's running to see if I need to make any last minute alterations.  I'll post the specs on that system later.

My personal laptop is a Toshiba Satellite x64 Win 7 machine that I absolutely love.

What's New?

 

Recommended Sites:

• www.Lortz.com (the company I work for)
• www.gabijack.com (Gabi Jack's Blog)
• www.SolidWorks.com
• www.InspirTech.com (great SolidWorks Training)
• BASWUG (Bakersfield Area SW User Group)