Did you know?

by Adam Baker

When blogging, I try to reach back into the mind of the blog reader to determine what they yearn to read. If you are reading this blog it may be for a variety of reasons including (but not limited to)

• mental break from work
• gain insight via social media
• accidental search engine mishap
• Curiosity as to what the big "B" was on the bottom of the TriMech website.

At any rate, I'm going to give you a random series of "Did you Knows" this morning. Some deal with products and solutions we sell, some with our company. I'm hoping at least one of these is something you didn't know before but you wish you did. Hopefully, this will be entertaining and enlightening....but no promises.

So, without further ado, Did you know....

1. TriMech Solutions has over 3000 Clients it services? That's right. Our offices from Pittsburgh to Atlanta work with over 3000 companies. The cool thing about being involved with so many companies as an Engineer here is that you get to see a lot of different processes and products. After working for TriMech as an Engineer for over 7 years, I never take for granted the products I interact with on a daily basis as EVERYTHING has some rhyme or reason as to why it was designed the way it is.

Look around you right now and pick just one object-maybe a tape dispenser or hole punch. How was it created? Were there manufacturing reasons the design was made the way it is, or does the design have more of an influence from aesthetics? (or is it a cheap as we can build it model?)

2. SolidWorks 2011 was the 19th release of the software ? SolidWorks began in 1995 with the release of SolidWorks 1995. For those of us that were around for the first few releases, there have been significant changes to the product over the years. My first experience with SolidWorks began with SolidWorks 97 plus. I remember having to be very deliberate about the way you created sketches and features. Now the software is much more forgiving. These young whippersnappers have it so much easier today, I can remember having to design in the snow uphill both ways barefooted…..but I digress.

3. TriMech employs over 50 people, and 40% are engineers? The owners of TriMech always felt strongly about having a technical team to support the products and solutions they offered. 5 dedicated Engineers on staff focus 100% on answering tech support calls. The rest of us are there to

• Help with local client support
• Train classes
• Demonstrate products to prospective prospects and existing clients
• Assist clients with project-based Service Work

So, just a few “Did you Knows” on a Monday morning. Come back soon for our next exciting blog entry and as always feel free to reach out to us via email at info@trimech.com with any specific questions we can assist you with.

SolidWorks World Recap

by Evan Fader

Less than one week from SolidWorks World and I am already excited for SWW12.

As a VAR participant at SW World I was previewed to a bit more than the average user, but only by a day or two. There are a few things coming down the pipe that we can get excited about; one will be here very soon.

No, Dassault Systems did NOT announce SolidWorks running on a Mac, though I did notice that SolidWorks employees all had iPhones and many had an additional iPad to match. There was, however, the continued talk of running SW in the "cloud", which means that for you Mac users, there may be light at the end of the tunnel. Running SW in the "cloud" does cause for concern for many users, but don't worry, SolidWorks made sure we all are aware of the fact that users will NEVER lose the ablity to have SW run locally.

Speaking of running in the "cloud", SolidWorks announce their first cloud base product will be available for purchase later this year. What product is this you ask.... formerly called SolidWorks Product Data Sharing, then later SolidWorks Connect, and now, finally n!Fuse.

Based on the previous names I am sure that you can guess what the product does. You guess it....PDM. A web based PDM meant to collaborate with suppliers, manufactures, customers, colleagues, or who don't have access to company files. n!Fuse plugs right into SolidWorks so you can upload your file right inside SW. You can attach comments and see the entire comment chain. No more sorting through old emails looking for the history of your design. You can access n!Fuse outside of SolidWorks in most internet browsers, to preview and download files. Though unlike Enterprise, previewing files will only give you a 2D image. Creating workspaces for people you want to have access to the files looks to be easy to set up and manage.

How much you ask..... well I am not that SW has set the price firm yet but lets just say it is so low that I am unsure that SolidWorks can even make a profit. Maybe that is not the point though.

My first thought when I heard about n!Fuse was that it was going to replace Enterprise or that it was going to be very much like Enterprise only web based. No, that is not the case. n!Fuse is a very basic PDM tool, but I still am very excited to help our clients with this very affordable product.

As I said before this is going to be released later this year, which you can be a beta tester by contacting nFuzeBeta@solidworks.com. Just send your name, company name, and contact information, and when the beta program is ready to start, they will contact you with program details and instructions.

I just sent mine in, you should too.

Oh, if you’re wondering where SolidWorks World 2012 will be.....
drum roll please…..

…San Diego, CA.

Free is for ME!

by Ryan Zeck

PART 2 OF 2 BY RYAN ZECK
I’m back for the second round of free programs to make your life easier! This go ‘round we will explore a few pieces of software that will impress your friends and co-workers. Last time we talked about Synergy, Search Commands, and Speed Launch. Today I would like to expose programs named Duplicate Cleaner, Chrome, and Google Voice. All of which are FREE!

Let’s get it started by taking a look at Duplicate Cleaner. From time to time you might create some back up files in a different location, say on the server or on an external hard drive. Then later you might modify (on accident, of course) the backup copy and not the original. So how do you tell which one is which? That’s easy right?

Of course it is for one file, it’s a simple RIGHT CLICK, properties or look at the details of the files and compare them. However what happens if you have thousands of files and you don’t remember which one you have change and which you haven’t? Now what? Well that’s where Duplicate cleaner can help out.

The interface is straight forward and easy to understand. Tell it where you want to look for duplicates and it will go and find pairs of files. How does it know which is a duplicate? You must tell it the kind of search criteria to use. You have several options: content, file name, size, or date. You also can use a file type filter (see image). You can find the download here:

Duplicate Cleaner

Do you ever browse the internet? Ok, dumb question since you are reading this on the internet, but what program are you using? Internet Explorer? Safari? Firefox? How about Chrome? Everyone should know about the browser Microsoft offers called Internet Explorer, but have you ever heard of Google Chrome? Now I must admit I haven’t used Internet Explorer for several years now but only recently, made the switch to Chrome.

During the transition period between IE to Chrome I used Mozilla Firefox. Firefox has a ton of great features and even more add-ins, but it had several drawbacks that pushed me to look elsewhere. One of the problems was how slowly it loaded every time I wanted to start it. It wasn’t something I ever realized until I started using Chrome. Chrome loads almost instantaneously. You can find the download here: Google Chrome

Another issue I had with Firefox was the inability for it to handle my Google Voice add-in. Google Voice you ask? Well that is the next program I would recommend.

Google now offers phone numbers to whoever wants one for FREE. The phone number is yours after you get to choose what number you want. The best thing about Google Voice (along with Chrome) is an add-in (which is also free) that turns every phone number in your browser into a hyperlink. When you select the hyperlink a couple things happen. One thing is it calls the phone of your choice (i.e. your office phone, cell phone, or your computer through Gtalk) and then it dials the phone number that you clicked! It’s like having a secretary to get someone on the phone for you!

There are several other benefits from using Google Voice, like being able to forward your calls to different numbers based off the caller ID. Get it here: Google Voice
Thanks for taking the time to read about these three programs. I hope you enjoy Duplicate Cleaner, Google Chrome, and Google Voice.

Feel free to email me at rzeck@trimech.com or find me on Linked In at http://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanzeck

Inalienable Rights

Uselful Tech Support Tips from Tech Support Lead, Lisa Hughey

Appropriate user privileges are essential to a successful SolidWorks product installation. Although the Help files do not cover this topic well (as they are geared towards functionality), the Installation and Administration Guide as well as the SolidWorks Knowledge base discuss these requirements in detail. Both are accessible within the SolidWorks Customer Portal.

https://customerportal.solidworks.com/

Below are the 5 most missed permissions resulting in tech support cases, in no particular order…
1. SolidWorks installation without local admin rights
2. SolidWorks installation with UAC (User Account Control on Windows 7 and Vista operation systems) fully enabled
3. Toolbox installation without write access to the database (swbrowser.mdb)
4. Administrative Image without write access to the image folder and network share
5. SolidWorks Workgroup PDM installation without administrative Log On permissions specified for the Workgroup service

As always, TriMech Tech Support wants to assist you with any technical issues you may have so please feel free to reach us at support@trimech.com or 1-888-TRIMECH.