Free Virtualization Tools
It’s not uncommon for large organizations to have embraced virtualization, both in the testing environment and for production use. Many vendors have offerings that make it easier for smaller organizations, or individuals, to take advantage of virtualization too. In fact, all the major vendors offer free or personal versions of their flagship products. And you know a software technology has gone mainstream when both Microsoft (with Hyper-V) and Oracle (with VirtualBox) have offerings in the space. Continue Reading
A common problem many companies face is the ability to have deliverable documents, like web images, catalogs, and technical illustrations, mirror their final product. Because of the dynamic nature of design and engineering, it is often a struggle to keep this downstream output up-to-date without utilizing some type of automation. Using 3DVIA Sync ensures changes that have been made in the upstream CAD systems are reflected in the downstream content created in 3DVIA Composer. 
The purpose of Design Automation (DA) is to more quickly and easily generate the vast amount of outputs that are derived from design data like drawings, models, quotes, proposals, calculation sheets, etc. Of course, it should all be managed; preferably in a Product Data Management (PDM) system. However you choose to manage your data, whether with SolidWorks Enterprise PDM, ENOVIA SmarTeam, SolidWorks Workgroup PDM, or Skippy the Intern, you need a plan. And you need your Design Automation implementation to be designed with PDM in mind. 
One of the new tools in SolidWorks Enterprise PDM (EPDM) 2010 is the automated EPDM Task Tool. This tool helps users and system administrators automate a number of things related to Engineering output. With the tool, you can create renditions (alternate format/presentation of content) of SolidWorks Parts, Assemblies, or Drawings. The Task Tool also enables remote printing, and can create these types of output content during EPDM Workflow state changes or from right-click menu options. 
To say that DriveWorks 7 is a radical leap forward for this Design Automation tool is not a stretch in any way. The DriveWorks development team has poured an immense amount of effort into the newest version of their flagship product, but you may not even notice the most significant changes. Two major architectural changes to the product have moved this DriveWorks update from being an automated SolidWorks model generator into the sales configurator market space. 
Whether you’re among the ranks of Engineering or Quality, creating inspection sheets can be a real pain. InspectionXpert is a valuable tool for automating processes around inspection sheets, and worth a look if your industry requires documented inspections. 
With the upcoming releases of SharePoint 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010, a new version of InfoPath will also be released. InfoPath 2007 included some minor enhancements over 2003 but did not get the Office 2007 user interface (UI) or ribbon bar. With InfoPath 2010, Microsoft has fully integrated InfoPath into the Office UI, as well as added relevant new features. 
