Mechanical Engineering Position in Bridgeport, MI

Amigo Mobility International is hiring a Mechanical Engineer for its Bridgeport, Michigan, location.  The selected candidate will create new product concepts, provide product documentation and bill of materials, design, prototype and test new products. AutoCAD and Solid Works experience required.

This is a full-time, regular employee position located in Bridgeport, MI.
This position requires a Bachelor's degree.
Benefits include medical, dental and life insurance, paid sick leave, paid vacation and 401K.

If interested, please apply by mail, fax or email to:

Lori Lunger
800-334-7274 fax
hrresume@myamigo.com

6693 Dixie Highway
Bridgeport, MI 48722

Ecoinvent Cuts Part-Production Costs 62%

Ecoinvent develops and produces a wide variety of industrial training equipment, ranging from hydraulic pumps to robotic devices for mine clearance, which it supplies to 300 industrial vocational schools and institutions throughout Russia. To save costs and speed production, Ecoinvent purchased a Fortus 3D Production System and began creating machine parts in-house. The company is now saving more than $100 on each part it produces and has more freedom to design and create new machines, thanks to the flexibility of Stratasys FDM Technology.

Read the full case study

Top-Rated Comedian Uses a Dimension 3D Printer. Seriously.

There’s no disputing that lifelong ventriloquist Jeff Dunham has found success with a few jokes and a cast of dolls. He stars in Comedy Central’s highest-rated series in history, and concert-industry magazine Pollstar named him the top-grossing comedy act in the world in 2009 and 2010.

With an empire to uphold, Dunham is under pressure to continually refresh his act. A new BioChannel documentary shows one way he rises to that challenge: a Dimension 3D Printer, which Dunham used to create his newest character.

“Usually I would take the clay head, make a silicone mold or a plaster of Paris mold, then put some sort of material in there to make the actual shell,” Dunham says in the film. “Now all I have to do is hit print.”

A passionate tinkerer who builds and flies his own helicopters, Dunham embraced 3D Printing for end-use parts as a way to get his ideas onstage faster. “It’s almost science fiction, it’s so cool,” he says in the documentary.

Dunham has that child-like twinkle in his eye that we see a lot around this office when folks experience our printers for the first time. System owners: Do you get this, too?

FISHER/UNITECH Acquires SolidVision

FISHER/UNITECH has just announced its third acquisition in 12 months, that of Boston-based SolidWorks reseller, SolidVision.  SolidVision's Littleton, MA, office will become the third branch location of FISHER/UNITECH in New England, joining our Milford, CT, and North Kingstown, RI offices.  SolidVision customers will be pleased to know the entire SolidVision staff remains intact and our joint efforts over the coming months will be to ensure that service and support are seamless and uninterrupted.

Here's what the co-owners of SolidVision had to say about the acquisition.
“Joining forces with FISHER/UNITECH is an important step in SolidVision’s history of continually finding better ways to serve the SolidWorks and broader engineering community in New England,” said Tim Sheehan, co-owner of SolidVision.

“We can now offer our customers a wider product range and deeper technical and training capabilities,” said Mark Sears, co-owner of SolidVision. “Our mission remains the same, to help our customers increase their productivity and decrease their engineering cycle times.”

As a result of this acquisition, SolidVision customers will benefit from immediate access to new technical support options, training, products and services from FISHER/UNITECH.

With nearly 100 employees and a technical staff of over 30 product specialists, consultants, and engineers, we have the infrastructure to ensure our customers are getting the most out of their technology investment.

Since 1993, FISHER/UNITECH has grown to support a customer base of over 8,000 companies in 16 states.  

• SolidVision Customer Letter
• SolidVision Acquisition Q&A Document
• Read the Press Release

Update To: SolidWorks TECH ALERT - Antivirus

Several internet security software programs have been causing installation failures or stability issues once installed with SolidWorks 2012.

"Bitdefender Internet Security 2012" appears to cause SolidWorks 2011\2012 to fail to run. SolidWorks will launch but when you select "New Part", SolidWorks will just hang.

"ESET Smart Security 4" with anti-virus and firewall blocked the installation altogether.

We do not use these internet security programs, nor do we test them. There may be a setting in them to allow SolidWorks to run. During testing on customer PC's, we were unsuccessful in getting SolidWorks to run\install. It was only successful when the anti-virus programs were completely disabled.

Please be aware of this if you run these products.

As always, when installing SolidWorks, please DISABLE any anti-virus.

It is also good practice to disable "User Account Control (UAC)" during installation in the Windows 7 and Vista operating systems.

I Cannot Find a Command!

Do you ever have trouble remembering where commands are in SolidWorks? You cannot find the command in the pull downs, it is not on your Command Manager, and you do not even want to start on the tool bars?!

Now there is help in SolidWorks 2012! The search bar that was once forgotten about now gives more help than users know what to do with. Not only can it take you to the SolidWorks Help, but by clicking the down arrow you now have quick access to the knowledge base, community forum, files and models, AND most importantly COMMANDS. The only thing you have to remember is the name. Just start typing in the name of the command and SolidWorks starts filtering. Once you have typed enough letters to filter to the desired command you can click on it in the list and start working away. No more time wasted searching, just start typing and start using commands!

New: uPrint SE 3D Print Pack from Stratasys

 

Building 3D models at your desk is as easy as clicking "print".

 

uPrint SE 3D Printers were made for you - they're professional, produce functional models and are more affordable than ever.

And, with the new uPrint SE 3D Print Pack you don't have to worry about purchasing extra equipment, additional accessories or hidden post-processing costs. You get everything you need to start printing models right away - the printer, the support removal tank and even start-up supplies.

Questions?
Contact our Rapid Technology Group at rtsgroup@funtech.com.

New SR-100 Soluble Support for Polycarbonate

Stratasys Corporation recently announced a new soluble support for polycarbonate called SR-100.  SR-100 will be available during the first quarter of 2012.

 

Updated front-end and back-end software as well as unique tips are required to use SR-100 soluble support material on Fortus 3D Production Systems. Customers under warranty or maintenance contract will receive the updated software at no charge.

SR-100 Key Benefits:

• Enhanced ease of use and convenience
  • Hands-free support removal
  • Little support removal labor required to obtain final part
• Increased throughput
  • Support removal is up to 25% faster than with SR-30
  • Most supports can be washed away in a few hours
• Expanded geometries
  • Support removal from deep internal cavities dramatically easier
  • Feature-detailed parts support removal significantly improved
• Improved feature detail and surface finish
  
  • Able to produce parts in 0.005 inch / 0.127 mm layers (on all machines stated above except Fortus 900mc 3D Production System)
  • Small geometry and surface optimized
• Advanced applications
  • Robust mechanical properties of PC allow advanced applications
  • Soluble cores for composites with cure temps up to 250-300°C

Questions?
Contact our Rapid Technology Team at rtsgroup@funtech.com.

Lights, Camera, Print!

Ever wonder how Chipotle made the popular
'Back to the Start' video?

With more than two million views on YouTube, this popular short has gained a lot of attention. Using a Dimension 3D Printer, the film's visual effects production company, Artem, Ltd., created the iconic farmer. In just a matter of hours, this small animated character came directly out of a 3D printer.

Watch 'Back to the Start' and learn more about Dimension 3D Printers.

FDM Boosts Rocket-Fuel Safety

Stratasys has just released a new case study on how Rocket Crafters, developers of aerospace products, built fuel grains with a Fortus system, saving 50% on production costs over traditional manual casting methods.

Hybrid rocket engines combine a solid fuel with a liquid oxidizer to offer the immediate-launch capabilities of solid-fuel rockets and the throttle and restart capabilities of liquid bipropellant rockets. Potentially attractive for commercial space flight, they're also significantly safer than either solid or liquid rocket engines. But hybrid motors have seen little use, due partly to high development costs and inability to scale up production.

So Rocket Crafters' Direct-Digital Advanced Rocket Technology turned to its Fortus Fused Deposition Modeling system to create high-performance hybrid-fuel grains. Unit production costs are estimated at 50 percent lower and delivery times are 60 percent better than competing hybrid-rocket motors made using manual casting methods.

"Additive manufacturing technology has been the key to producing fuel grains with higher consistency at a lower cost and shorter lead times than was possible in the past," said Ron Jones, president and chief technology officer of Rocket Crafters. 

Read the Whole Story

St. Louis SolidWorks User Group Meeting Announced

Date:  December 14th, 2011
Time:  4:45 pm - 7:10 pm CT

Conference Room: Pneumatic Scale (6th Floor)
Barry-Wehmiller Companies, Inc.
8020 Forsyth Blvd.
Clayton, MO 63105

Agenda

• 4:45 pm - 5:00 pm:  Welcome and introductions
• 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm:  “What’s New in SolidWorks 2012,” Jeremy Stadtmueller, Global Account - Technical Manager from SolidWorks Corporation
• 6:00 pm - 6:10 pm:  Break
• 6:10 pm - 7:10 pm:  “Configurator and Guided Selling Solutions,” Dale Hays, Chief Application Officer and Vice President of Development from TDCI

Food will be served.

“What’s new in SolidWorks 2012”
This presentation will be done by Jeremy Stadtmueller from SolidWorks Corporation. Jeremy is a Global Account Technical Manager at DS SolidWorks Corporation. He has been in the CAD industry for more than 15 years including the last eight with SolidWorks, working with large global customers to help them address their needs in a complex engineering environment.

“Configurator and Guided Selling Solutions"
TDCI is a technology partner for SolidWorks Corporation in providing product configuration solutions to manufacturers and distributors of customizable products and services. Their flagship product “BuyDesign” is one of the industry leading Product Configuration and Guided Selling solutions for the engineering community.

Dale Hays will present on how BuyDesign solutions help the SolidWorks users to create a product configuration within SolidWorks solutions. As Chief Application Officer (CAO) and Vice President of Development, Dale Hays is responsible for development of core products as well as custom solutions in TDCI. Prior to TDCI, Dale was Co-Founder and Vice President of Development for Agility Corporation where he helped pioneer engineering automation technologies that now provide many of BuyDesign’s visualization and generation capabilities. Prior to Agility, in 1981 Dale co-founded ACS Software, Inc., a California-based corporation, focused on solutions for management, workflow and distribution of technical documents, drawings and images.

To RSVP for this meeting, please send an email to:  ragu@bwir.com.

Parking and Arrival: Underground parking is available in the basement of the building. The entrance ramp is on Forsyth Blvd. Please take the elevator to the 6th floor. You will receive a parking token when you arrive which you will need to exit the building. The parking garage will be open until 5:30 pm.  If you arrive after 5:30 pm, please make use of street parking on Forsyth Blvd. Street parking is free after 5:00 pm on business days.

"Feet & Inch" Unit Display Defined in SolidWorks

The following is intended to provide a more detailed outline of what your dimensions will look like if you use “Feet & Inches” for your units.  You can change your display units by going to "Tools\Options\Document Properties\Units\Custom - Feet & Inches." 

 

Here is a default "IPS (inch, pound, second)" display.  SolidWorks is using the values from columns A and B.

We now want our UNITS to display as "Feet and Inches".  

First, we must set "Unit System" to "Custom" then column A to "feet & Inches".

As you can see, 13.2150 changes to a feet\decimal format.... 1' 1.2150."

COLUMN C:

Column C is a Denominator or number of total pieces a whole is divided into. IE, Cut a pie in 4 slices, the denominator is 4.  The decimal equivalent would be 0.250.

If we set column C - Fractions to a value (i.e., 4), the 13.2150 does not change to a fraction.  That is because the decimal value is not a divisible fractional value of 1/C value.  Because C = 4, the decimal would need to be 13.25, 13.50 or 13.75.  Then it would switch to 1' 1-1/4", 1' 1- 1/2" or 1' 1-3/4" respectively.

COLUMN D:

If you ALWAYS want a decimal value to display as a fraction, (excluding whole numbers), you need to set column D to "Round to nearest fraction."

** Important to note, if you input a value of say 1.200", it will display as 1 1/4." This is only graphical.  The TRUE length of it is still 1.200."  It's just rounding the display value.

In this case, C = 4 => 1/4 => 0.2500

With our initial length being 13.215 and C evaluating every .25", the evaluation range is  13.25 -- 13.215 --13.00.

Thus 13.215 is within .035 of 13.25 so it rounds up to 1/4".

This results in the 1' 1- 1/4" Value.  The larger C is, the closer the fractional display will be to the actual\true line length.

Boston Area SolidWorks User Group Meeting Announced

The next BASWUG meeting will be held:

Date: Thursday, December 8th, 2011
Time:  5:30 pm - 6:30 pm

Dresser Masoneilan
85 Bodwell Street
Avon, MA 02322

Agenda:

• 5:30 pm - 6:00 pm:  Food and networking
• 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm:  Presentations

Committee Elections for both the North and South 2012 committees will be held at this meeting. If you are interested in being on one of the committees, please send an email to:  committee@baswug.com.   

Presentations:

• Reverse Manufacturing, Creative Ways to Use SolidWorks for Tooling & More
• File Management/Relations, How to Manage SolidWorks Files and the Associations Between Them 

Further details are available on the BASWUG website. 
Please RSVP to:  rsvp@baswug.com.

Next SKYSWUG Meeting Announced

The next SKYSWUG meeting is starting to materialize!

Date: Thursday, January 19th, 2012

Logan Aluminum Meeting Room
Engineering and Biological Science Building, WKU
Bowling Green, KY

If you plan on attending, please visit the group website online and complete the sign up form.

The theme of this meeting will be "Show Off Your Stuff."
Bring a SolidWorks assembly, part, macro, drawing, tip or trick... or anything that you think would be interesting to the group. There will be food, swag, and of course, giveaways!

SolidWorks TECH ALERT - Antivirus

Internet security software "Bitdefender Internet security 2012" appears to cause SolidWorks 2011 \ 2012 to fail to run.  SolidWorks will launch but when you select "New part", SolidWorks will just hang.

We do not have this internet security program, nor have we tested it.  There may be a setting in it to allow SolidWorks to run.  During testing on a customer PC, we were unsuccessful in getting SolidWorks to run.  It was only successful when BitDefender was completely disabled.

Please be aware of this if you run this product.

As always, when installing SolidWorks, please DISABLE any anti-virus.  

It is also good practice to disable "User Account Control (UAC)" during installation in the Windows 7 and Vista operating systems.

Link Values Makes a Comeback in SolidWorks 2012 SP1.0!

While the new filters, automatic solve order, and full list of model dimensions in Equations are great, some folks were missing their good ole right-click menu with the Link Values and Driven functions right there by their side in 2012 SP0.

So, in SolidWorks 2012 SP1.0, the right-click menu has seen a comeback of the entire Dimension category when right-clicking on a dimension, including Link Value and Driven, along with Reverse Direction, Configure Dimension and all.

What are Collaboration Settings?

If you use SolidWorks in a multi-user environment without Enterprise PDM, you will benefit from knowing the System Options called Collaboration settings. These settings help users to more quickly navigate the read/write status of their open files.

So picture this: you're working on an assembly that is on a shared network location (that is a whole other subject right there, but I know you do it, so we'll just go with it.) Your neighbor is still working on some of the components, also stored on the network (again, later.) Because you already opened the assembly while he was getting his morning coffee, when he tries to open the files they say that they're read-only, and he can't save his changes.
 

This is where collaboration settings come in handy. They consist of the following tools:

• Enable multi-user environment - enables the other options (don't ask) 
• Add shortcut menu items for multi-user environment - Menu items
• Make Read-Only and Get Write Access are available on the File menu for assembly and part documents and when you right-click assembly components in the FeatureManager design tree or in the graphics area. (This saves a few clicks each time from getting all the way into the Reload dialog box to switch read/write access.)

So when you opened that top level assembly and all of its components for write access, you can select one, right-click on it, and 'make read only.' Now your buddy can 'get write access' to the part he needs to change, without either of you closing the files.

• Check if files opened read-only have been modified by other users - Checks files you have opened as read-only at the interval specified in Check files every (20 by default) minutes to see if the files have been modified in one of the following ways:

• Another user saves a file that you have open in SolidWorks, making your file out of date.
• Another user relinquishes write access to a file that you have open in SolidWorks by making the file read-only, allowing you to take write access. (Lightweight components are not checked.)
• If the system detects a change, a tooltip in the lower right of the graphics area points to an icon on the status bar. Click the icon to access the Reload dialog box.

• Don't prompt to save read-only top level documents (discard changes) - When selected, if you save a top level document you have open in read-only mode, you are not prompted to save changes.

• Don't prompt to save read-only referenced documents (discard changes)

When selected, if you save a referenced document you have open in read-only mode, you are not prompted to save changes.
(These last two options are available only when you are running Workgroup PDM and are connected to a Workgroup PDM vault.)

These Collaboration settings also go very nicely with the External Reference settings:

• Open referenced documents with read-only access - (that way when you open the assembly, you don't get write access the parts in the first place.)

• Don't prompt to save referenced read-only documents (discard changes) - caution... understand the discard changes part well first, but then it's a good one. This means that you don't have to say 'no' a million times just because you rotated a bunch of stuff around and then closed the parts while the assembly was open. It also means that if you ignored the five other ways that SolidWorks has reminded you 'don't start editing this, it's read-only,' but you did it anyways, it's gonna scrap that on you when you close. (Hey, that reminds me of another blog for another day... what are the five ways?)

7 Ways to Take Advantage of Additive Manufacturing

Back By Popular Demand!

Watch this webinar to learn how your plastics processing business can save time and money with additive manufacturing. Listen as Thogus Products Engineering Manager, Patrick Gannon, reveals how they have used it to gain factory efficiencies, automate production, increase safety and serve their customers better.

Date*:  Thurs. December 15, 2011

Time*:  1:00 pm Central, Find my local time

Register Here

Presented by:  Patrick Gannon, Engineering Manager, Thogus Products

*Note: If you cannot attend the live date, please register and you will be sent information after the live date to view the webinar on-demand.

What You Will Learn:

• How manufacturers are using additive manufacturing to gain a competitive advantage
• How to streamline for higher quality and faster output
• How to increase employee safety in your factory with FDM
• How additive manufacturing naturally sparks innovation

Who Should Attend?

• Presidents and CEOs
• Manufacturing Engineers
• Operations Managers
• Research and Development Managers

About Thogus:

Thogus Products is a 61-year-old manufacturing company based in Cleveland, Ohio. Seeking new sources of revenue, the company decided to invest in additive manufacturing technology that could differentiate its capabilities. It was a move that proved to be a game-changer for Thogus.

Greater Evansville Area User Group Meeting

The fourth and final GEASWUG meeting of 2011 will take place next week.

Date:  Thursday, December 8th, 2011
Time:  5:00 pm - 9:30 pm

**New Location**
Berry Plastics Corporation
101 Oakley St.
Evansville, IN  47710

Dinner will be available upon arrival, granted you RSVP for the event.

Agenda

• 5:00 pm - Doors open
• 5:30 pm - 5:45 pm - Opening remarks
• 5:45 pm - 7:30 pm - Presentation, "What's New in SolidWorks 2012"
• 7:30 pm - 7:45 pm - Q&A
• 7:45 pm - 8:00 pm - Break
• 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm - Second Presentation
• 9:00 pm - 9:30 pm - Christmas is coming early to GEASWUG users this year.  Door prizes will be provided by SolidWorks, DriveWorks, 3Dconnexion and SolidProfessor.

Please RSVP if you plan on attending this event.  RSVP by sending an email to:  scottbaugh@berryplastics.com.

PLEASE NOTE:  Due to Berry Plastics security on many of the entrance doors, it is important that attendees arrive between 5:00 pm and 5:30 pm, no later.  If you are going to be later than 5:30 pm, please contact Scott at 812-484-6358.

SmartMate Sensitivity Has Been Voted Off the Island

You remember the part in the SolidWorks 2012 What's New presentation about:

"The sensitivity in SmartMates mode has been adjusted to prevent the part you are dragging from jumping excessively as you drag it across an assembly that contains multiple possible mating solutions. It now takes a few seconds for the SmartMates preview to appear when you hover the pointer over a potential mate partner?"

And remember how maybe at the launch event you heard something along the lines of "long time users will take a little while to get used to this?"

Yeah, well... let's just pretend that never happened shall we? Because SmartMate Sensitivity has been voted off the island!! In 2012 SP1.0, this feature is no longer there.

Maybe it will come back better later. Who knows. It would be just fine if one end of the sliding scale was just as fast as it had been before.

And if you have no idea what I'm talking about... that's a good thing this time, just keep on working!