Link via WSJ.com
Wall Street Journal article mentions the use of more affordable 3-D tools for small business from SolidWorks, SketchUp and Autodesk:
Historically, small businesses that used 3-D technology were predominantly in the engineering, industrial design and architecture fields. But now, as software costs have dropped, more consumer-product companies like Mr. David’s are finding it cost-effective to purchase sophisticated modeling tools, rather than outsource product development or use rudimentary in-house methods.
SolidWorks, SketchUp Pro, and Autodesk products are available at an educational discount price from Creation Engine.
Link via Shapeways.com
Shapeways already offered you the opportunity to create a model with SolidWorks, upload it to shapeways.com, choose the most suitable material and order your own 3D model! 10 working days later hold your own model in your hand!
Now you can also directly upload your 3D designs to your Shapeways account by using the new free Add-in Beta for SolidWorks developed by Design Solutions!
SolidWorks Student Edition 2010-2011 is available at an education discount price of $99.95.
Northern California schools can contact info@creationengine.com for low-cost network license pricing starting at only $1,000 for a 10-user network perpetual license.
SolidWorks Education Edition 2010-2011 is now available from Creation Engine to Northern California schools in San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, and Sonoma counties.
SolidWorks Education Edition is the complete CAD teaching tool. Featuring software plus a full curriculum and interactive courseware, SolidWorks Education Edition is your all-inclusive resource for teaching 3D mechanical CAD, design validation, and data management.
SolidWorks educational products are utilized at over 80% of the world’s top engineering schools. There’s a reason for such a broad level of adoption at these demanding institutions: SolidWorks has the breadth and depth of functionality needed for the most complex design tasks, but its interface is so easy to learn that students and researchers become productive almost immediately. SolidWorks is currently used by over 3.4 million engineers and designers at more than 100,000 companies worldwide.
Please contact info@creationengine.com for low-cost network license pricing starting at only $1,000 for a 10-user network perpetual license.
Link via SolidWorks
CONCORD, Mass., USA, May 10, 2010 – An excellent education can also be a blast.
That’s a bedrock principle at Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering, where students use SolidWorks® software in a wide range of activities that are always academically serious, and occasionally outrageous.
Take twist carts. These are low-riding vehicles powered by wiggling the hands, feet, and hips and raced throughout the hallways for bragging rights (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adx3Tu7gzTY). Students design and build them, and every cart must exhibit innovation beyond the current state-of-the-art technology.
“Dartmouth engineering students are already ravenous learners, and we strive to cultivate that passion,” says Assistant Professor Solomon G. Diamond, PhD. “Standardizing on SolidWorks has been a big part of that. Students can produce substantial designs from day one, when the tutorials get them hooked. Then we’re off to the races.”
SolidWorks Student Edition 2010-2011 is available at an education discount price of $99.95.
SolidWorks Student Edition 2010-2011
Save $19 when you purchase the SolidWorks Student Edition 2010-11 with the Inspirtech Training DVD together for only $149.95!
Develop the abilities you’ll need for a successful career. By learning SolidWorks®, you’ll gain vital mechanical CAD, design validation, and data management skills that today’s employers demand. With a SolidWorks® background, you’ll have a clear advantage in the engineering or industrial design job markets. The easy-to-use SolidWorks Student Edition lets you sharpen your skills outside the classroom as you learn to design better products. This package also includes one free Certified SolidWorks Associate (CSWA) exam code. It allows you to take the certification exam and stand out in today’s competitive job market.
SolidWorks Student Edition 2010-2011 is available at an educational discount price of $99.95 from Creation Engine.
Link via Wired
In the Wired article “In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits” Solidworks is mentioned as the 3D tool used by the creator of BrickArms.
For a final example of that, swing to the Seattle suburbs to meet Will Chapman of BrickArms. Out of a small industrial space, BrickArms fills gaps in the Lego product line, going where the Danish toy giant fears to tread: hardcore weaponry, from Lego-scale AK-47s to frag grenades that look like they came straight out of Halo 3. The parts are more complex than the average Lego component, but they’re manufactured to an equal quality and sold online to thousands of Lego fans, kids and adults, who want to create cooler scenes than the standard kits allow.
Lego operates on an industrial scale, with a team of designers working in a highly secure campus in Billund, Denmark. Engineers model prototypes and have them fabricated in dedicated machine shops. Then, once they meet approval, they’re manufactured in large injection molding plants. Parts are created for kits, and those kits have to be play-tested, priced for mass retail, and shipped and inventoried months in advance of their sale at Target or Walmart. The only parts that make it out of this process are those that will sell in the millions.
Chapman works at a different scale. He designs parts using SolidWorks 3-D software, which can create a reverse image that’s used to produce a mold. He sends the file to his desktop CNC router, a Taig 2018 mill that costs less than $1,000, which grinds the mold halves out of aircraft-grade aluminum blocks. Then he puts them in his hand-pressed injection molding machine, melts some resin beads, and pumps them through. A few minutes later, he’s got a prototype to show to fans. If they like it, he gets a local toolmaker to reproduce the mold out of steel and a US-based injection molding company to make batches of a few thousand.
SolidWorks Student Edition 2009-2010 is available at a student discount price of $129.
1. SolidWorks EDU products 2010-2011 academic year (Education Edition, Student Edition, and Student Design Kit) will officially support the Microsoft® Windows 7 operating system. This new release is planned in the spring of 2010.
2. SolidWorks EDU products 2009-2010 are officially supported on Windows XP 32 and 64 bit and Vista 32 and 64 bit . While the SolidWorks EDU products 2009-2010 installation is not prevented on Windows 7, the products are not officially supported. This means that they have not been fully validated by QA and therefore the full scope of potential issues is not known. There will not be any SolidWorks product updates available for any Windows 7 specific issues. For an optimal experience with the SolidWorks EDU products 2009-2010, it is recommended that a user install on Windows XP or Vista.
3. Below is some general information of running SolidWorks EDU products 2009-2010 on Windows 7.
Since the graphics drivers included with Windows 7 do not support accelerated OpenGL, many SolidWorks features are not available. Running SolidWorks on Windows 7 requires a supported graphics driver for RealView graphics.
- Since the graphics drivers included with Windows 7 do not support accelerated OpenGL, many SolidWorks features are not available. Running SolidWorks on Windows 7 requires a supported graphics driver for RealView graphics.
- Running the 64-bit version of SolidWorks on the 64-bit version of Windows 7 requires Microsoft Office 2007 for full support of tables.
- The 64-bit version of SolidWorks on the 64-bit version of Windows 7 does not display tables for SolidWorks files containing Microsoft Office 2003 components.
- Certain SolidWorks dialogs may have missing information or buttons
- Running SolidWorks in Windows 7 Compatibility Mode might help with some stability issues
Note: Running SolidWorks in Windows 7 Compatibility Mode:
- Right mouse click on the SLDWORKS.exe file in the installation folder
- Choose the Compatibility Tab and select “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” Windows Vista or XP
SolidWorks Student Edition 2009-2010 is available at a student discount price of $129.
Link via Control Engineering
“The simpler it is to make, the less likely it is to break,” Easton said. “We used SolidWorks to design a simply constructed and aesthetically pleasing turbine that can fit into a residential or small business area.” The MicroWind turbine produces around 50 to 75 percent of the electricity an average home uses in a year.
Scottish residential turbine developer Windsave, another SolidWorks user, is developing a similar small turbine that homeowners can bolt onto their house. Like MicroWind’s, the Windsave turbine is designed for efficient, quiet, and vibration-free operation.
Magenn approaches the issue of fickle winds from a different angle. Instead of waiting for wind to come to it, Magenn’s MARS (Magenn Air Rotor System) turbine goes to the wind. It is a 50-x-120-foot lighter-than-air device that floats 600 to 1,000 feet above the ground to catch the jet stream currents present almost everywhere. MARS rotates to generate up to 100 kilowatts per hour, then feeds it down a tether to a grid or a battery array.
“Traditional fixed turbines work in 15 percent of the world. We’re the solution for the other 85 percent,” said Mac Brown, Magenn’s chief operating officer. “SolidWorks helps us experiment with different turbine configurations, compare their power outputs, and save thousands that we used to spend on outsourced simulation work.”
In addition to its popularity with emerging wind power companies, SolidWorks has a strong presence with established wind technology companies. Dutch offshore turbine developer Darwind is using SolidWorks to design offshore wind turbines with a patented magnet configuration that reduces up-front and maintenance costs. The British division of Ramboll Oil & Gas has used SolidWorks to design the foundations that support half of the world’s offshore wind power capacity.
SolidWorks Student Edition 2009-2010 is available at a student discount price of $129.
Link via Creation Engine
Develop the abilities you’ll need for a successful career. By learning SolidWorks, you’ll gain vital mechanical CAD, design validation, and data management skills that today’s employers demand. With a SolidWorks background, you’ll have a clear advantage in the engineering or industrial design job markets. The easy-to-use SolidWorks Student Edition lets you sharpen your skills outside the classroom as you learn to design better products. This package also includes one free Certified SolidWorks Associate (CSWA) exam code. It allows you to take the certification exam and stand out in today’s competitive job market.
SolidWorks Student Edition 2009-2010 includes 2 DVD’s [32-bit WinXP/Vista & 64-bit WinXP/Vista]
SolidWorks Student Edition 2009-2010 is available at an education discount price of $129.