So its here...SW08 anounced today

"I think its fair to say Matt gets some exposure for his book by doing
this"

Quite a few forums seem to have no idea that The SolidWorks Bible even
exists! I have no doubt that many who work in small machining job
shops as CADCAM programmers are not being reached. Also don't see a
place where suggestions for the next addition of the SolidWorks Bible
can be made. It's a very good book. It could be even better if the
author really cared about getting feedback from outside his very
limited circle of comfort.

Jon Banquer
San Diego, CA

 

Nice try, Jonathan.

 

SW is a pretty good CAM programming package for the utterly
clueless in "small machining job shops", is it?

 

Bob,
Tools, Customize, Keyboard, Tools, scroll down to 'Check Sketch
for Feature'. Enter a shortcut key (I use 'S'). You are done now.
Saves me a ton of time. I love hot keys.

 

"The blog squad" may be making a mistake by identifying ourselves as a
group rather than a set of independent individuals. I am friends with
most of the other folks who are doing this, but have never met a couple
of the new people. "The blog squad" name came about I think from a
caption of a picture of all of us half lit at SolidWorks World, Anna
Wood getting the credit (the younger folks of course not remembering the
"Mod Squad" series from the late 60s early 70s).

Most of us were asked if we would like to do this, but we don't get any
compensation. We drank a lot of beer together in New Orleans, and will
drink more in San Diego. I was asked to start a blog even though among
some SolidWorks types, I'm seen as a detractor. It's funny that
sometimes on this news group some people label me an shill. I must be
doing something right if I have both sides pissed off at me.

I started out a year ago on the Typepad service, but moved to a blog
service (WordPress) provided with my website space, which I pay for and
administer, and no one reimburses me for it (except for the bit of it
that I can write off on my taxes). Typepad is NOT on a SolidWorks server
(geez). Ben Eadie is the one of us who was doing this first, and he was
not recruited. Thomas Parel also has a blog, but is not usually
identified with the group, and is independent. There are tons of other
CAD blogs out there, mostly Autocad. The initiative to have more SW
blogs was pushed through the SolidWorks Community. Most of the bloggers
are already user group leaders, and get a free pass to SWWorld in that
capacity. I have no idea if a blogger who is not a user group leader
gets admission to SW World or not, and I wouldn't dare to speculate. And
no, the free admission doesn't cover travel and hotel, which is the bulk
of the expense. I didn't get a press pass at New Orleans due to some
clerical foul up, but it gets you admission to some press-only events.
Press and users are two different types. I prefer to hang with the
users. I definitely don't look at myself as press, just as someone with
an opinion.

Anyone who is connected to the internet can write a blog. If you feel a
certain voice is not being heard, you can start your own. If you have
something to say, I'd encourage you to do it. It took me a while to
settle into a groove with mine, I didn't want to do just tech tips, I
wanted to do opinion and commentary, and essays on being an engineer in
general. Mine is a little different than some of the others, it is
certainly a bit long winded. I think mine has a tendency to be the most
critical of SW, which is not surprising. If someone wanted to start an
anti-SolidWorks blog, no one would stop them. People don't want to read
bitterness and anger all the time, though.

There is no conspiracy. SolidWorks does not reprimand anyone for posting
unflattering stuff. In fact we rarely communicate with anyone from SW
about blogging at all. If you read mine, you know that I don't always
paint a rosy picture. Hell, it took SolidWorks a full year to even post
links to our blogs from the remotest corner of the SolidWorks site. We
aren't told what to post or what not to post, aside from the regular
NDAs that we individually enter into with alpha, beta, or whatever. This
was definitely a condition of mine to even start doing it.

Believe it or not, the lack of direction from the SolidWorks corporate
mother ship is so complete that I have actually asked for them to send
me info I can post, mostly in the form of tech tips that people don't
know. Until this SW08 press release, we never had any advanced
notification about anything.

Bloggers as a marketing dream? No way. Marketing is about a polished and
practiced image, and I'm sure the SW marketers are quite horrified at
the idea of a bunch of half-crazy loose cannons out there with links
from the SW site. Blogging is pretty rough around the corners. This is
about *community*. Just a bunch of "normal" everyday people sharing
their experiences with the software and other related design stuff in a
non-commercial, grass roots way. Most of us are already user group
leaders, and we give away a lot of time in that capacity. It's like
people who volunteer for community service.

Am I using my blog to sell my book? Yes, absolutely, there is no shame
in trying to benefit financially from so much work. Still, you don't see
a bunch of spinning flash ads. Do I work as a SW consultant? I have done
some contract work for them, but that was a year ago, not that who my
customers are is any of anybody's business.

Also, someone said I'm not looking for comments on my book. Maybe you
just haven't found the place to do it yet. My blog has a section for SW
Bible Errata (that's as in "error" not "erotic"). I post problems with
the book in this area, and have invited comments as well.

Most of what this neil fellow says which he didn't read either here or
in a blog is complete fabricated rubbish. He is just fishing for some
sort of a scandal, and there is none. Throwing random handfuls of shit
to see if he can get something to stick. SolidWorks is in no way
compensating me for blogging or telling me what to write, which is
obvious if you have ever read my blog. But so what even if they did?

The best reason to read blogs from this group of bloggers is that we
don't post stuff like neil. End of story.

my blog: http://dezignstuff.com/blog

links to the other bloggers from my blog.

SW Community links to blogs:
http://www.swugn.org/pages/resources/SolidWorksBlogs.html

 

I really struggle to believe busy adults have time to do this stuff

I really struggle to believe someone sincerely believes that comment
is an truism worthy of basing further arguements upon. A more actuate
comment is that people will do just about anything.

Matt

 

Oh? Posting with your real name doesn't seem to help you.

Anyway, it's Scheherazade Bullwinkle, not that it matters. It might as
well be Napoleon Dynamite. Now you know why I go by Daisy instead.

Daisy

 

Ummmm NO! I am truly independent. I have hosted paid for made and run my
blog www.Mountain-Wave.blogspot.com and www.SolidMentor.com

To be honest I am insulted you have belittled all my work..... How bout
you do your homework next time?


Again DO YOUR FRIGGIN HOMEWORK!!!!!!

Yes I get a press kit, but I also do interviews and form my own opinion
and then give my honest opinion.

Nope! WRONG AGAIN.... see a trend here?

Ya but because I did 3 presentations. It had nouthing to do with my blog.

THANK YOU FOR THE INSULTS

If you did not gather from this I am really pissed off!

Ben

 

No I do not plan on doing this for free. But currently I am. The
reasoning behind this is that there are other avenues of income that can
be perused but you have to have proof of site traffic before you can go
and start asking for money.

Also I happen to be a nice guy and unlike you will do things for free.
It is called carma, you do something nice and it will eventually come
back to you. Here is my best example, I used to teach High angle rescue
to mountaineering teams here in Calgary for free. One day I got in a bad
climbing accident and needed to be rescued in fact I nearly died 3 times
on the way to the hospital, who came? Do you think it was one of the
teams I trained for free? YES!

Now being nice and helping others pays off in spades. Insulting people
on news groups pissed people off! But I guess maybe I am not like you
and driven only by money, I am driven by being happy and seeing others
do well, what does that say about you????

Ben

 

matt

You know Matt this is so much more eloquent than my nail spitting
episodes on this post. Thank you!

I am not nearly as good with words as you are, I wish I could come up
with stuff like this. WELL PUT!

Thanks again
Ben

 

Ben I dont care who you are and I dont read your blog. Sorry.

 

He is just fishing for some sort of a scandal, and there is none.

I would be very careful about the nature of what I said in the public
domain if I were you Matt.

I'm really not interested in continuing to talk about the 'blog squad'
or the 'group leader network' or whatever it is.
Except for my passing comment you would never know I avoided the 'blog
squad' sites or why would you?
Probably i'm not the only one who made that choice but I certainly
didnt go around broadcasting it

Actually I thought we got over this matter a few posts ago but it
seems to have been freshened up some.
I have my standpoint on what I will or will not do and they may well
be quite a bit different from yours.
As long as people know what the deal is and its um 'transparent' thats
ok by me.
If you guys want to post a 'this site is paid for by SW' (if thats
applicable to you) on your land page that would seem to be enough to
keep hapless visitors informed IMHO.
In these days of info-mercials and so on the boundaries have blurred
somewhat its just nice to know whats what isnt it?

Have a nice day everyone!