November 9th - MASWUG Meeting Notes
Host:
Johnson Health Tech – Cottage Grove, WI
Topic(s): Tour,
Rhino software, and “New in 2007”
Presenter(s): Robert Burke/ Marco Fenster from JHT, and Jeff
Setzer from Graphics Systems
Business:
27 Madison area Solidworks users in
attendance.
A sign-up sheet was passed
around. You should be contacted by
e-mail and asked to
make sure you sign up at maswug.org
and receive future meeting notices.
Mike Allex announced that David
Hurst and Shawn Fogel will be the group’s new co-presidents.
Thank you was given to Mikka
Roessler for bringing the website back up to speed.
We closed with Pizza and soda
provided by Johnson Health Tech. Thank
You JHT!
Mtg Agenda:
- The Tour-
Robert Burke from JHT gave the maswug group a guided tour of their facility,
and showed us how they develop, design, inspect, test, warehouse, etc.
their full line of health and fitness equipment. The tour started in a small showroom of
consumer (personal) equipment including home treadmills, stationary bikes,
etc… and ended in a large, fully equipped “health club” style room
(actually doubles as their company fitness room) which included very high
end (commercial quality) stair climbers, treadmills, bikes, free weight
stations, etc.
- New in
2007 – Jeff Setzer from Graphics Systems quickly went through a much
condensed demonstration of some of the most notable software enhancements
provided with the 2007 version of SolidWorks. Of course time limited us, but Jeff did
an excellent job of touching on a variety of different design features
including:
- automated
chain/pulley/traction belts and rack & pinion gears.
- Blocks
and relations capabilities now in drawings.
- Auto
dim significantly cleaned up and improved.
- Split
balloons can now include custom properties
- Selective
center line insertion (ex. Axis only) into drawings.
- Freeform
surfacing.
- Mating
multiple items (or groups of mates) in assemblies.
- “SWIFT
design expert” technology – handles fillets more orderly.
- “Mate
expert” – can force a mate and see what constraints it affects.
- “Dim
expert”
- Rhino
– Marco Fenster from JHT gave us a demonstration how an “Industrial
Designer”
uses this cut-and-paste graphics
package to convey design intent both to marketing and engineering. He stressed the ease of use, and accuracy of
a visual representation as a tool. The
comparison between the Rhino rendering, SolidWorks model, and actual photograph
of finished product was interesting how closely they all matched.
Thank you Robert, Marco, and Jeff for taking time out of
your busy schedules to prepare for and share with the Maswug group.
MASWUG