Hello all,

Now that I am overcoming my illness I would like to take a little time to comment on the SolidWorks World User Conference 2008.

To start with I want to mention that I ran into several architectural users of SolidWorks.  Hmmmm.  When I asked why they are not using Revit, AutoCAD, Chief architect many of them commented on ease of use and ability to do more.  I wish they could have provided more detail to these comments but I did find them using the SolidWorks Weldment tool for stick framing and structural design.  Then using those models in the COSMOS analysis package to ensure they were meeting code.  When I sold SolidWorks I worked with many companies that designed glass curtain walls, spiral stair cases, and the structural design of commercial building for much the same reason.

I met with educators from around the world and discovered some very interesting things.  In Finland schooling is very vocational even down to the elementary school level.  The instructor that I met from Finland discussed how by the age of twelve their students were not only proficient in designing/analyzing in SolidWorks but also manufactured everything they designed.  That Is a country that is embracing technology and science to increase their global economic standing.  

For the students here, as you enter your chosen profession you need to work hard to make our country change gears and do more to encourage science and technology in schools.  you can do this many ways; mentor students, meet with government representatives, work with your company and encourage them to join organizations like FIRST http://www.usfirst.org/.  This organization gets companies to donate 6 weeks of their time to adopt a group of students from a school to design and build robots for a Superbowl style competition complete with vendors, sponsors, Presidential visits and prizes.  Last year the competition was so big it had to be held in the Georgia Dome.  Check it out.

I also picked up some great quotes.  I will focus on this one : “There is no partial credit in the machine shop”  translation for architecture students : “There is no partial credit on the job site”.

Lets examine this quote - At the end of the day if you have not put all of your effort into ensuring your design, documentation and communication is not 100% accurate with no chance of being misinterpreted your company will have lost money.  IN manufacturing as soon as the machining tool starts the customer owns that piece of material and the time.  If you did not locate all of your features, size all of your features, apply the appropriate tolerances as required for the design to work correctly, etc… or dimensioned your design in a way that can be interpreted as loosely as government laws, gossip or other prominent books that people follow you did not do your job.  This will reflect poorly when it comes time for review.  So, take a little extra time.  Review your work.  Ask your self over and over again “Why will this not work?”.  Have other review your work.  Ask them “Why will this not work?” When you think you are done get up.  Walk around.  Come Back ask one more time ” Why will this not work? and have I missed anything?”.  Then get it approved.  You are responsible for your own actions and work.  Be the best.

More to come

Chris MacCormack

This past week, students have been participating in real and mock interviews. Interviewers often start with simple questions, then move to tougher questions, like “How much money do you require?” or if you have been in the field a while, they often ask “How much money do you make?”

As an interviewer, I am looking for a straight, no-nonsense answer: “I expect to start at a wage that is comparable to others within your organization who have my education and experience,” is an acceptable first response, as long as the dollar follows: “$36,000 would be acceptable.”

But how do you get to a number? First of all, do your homework. Ask for informational interviews at the companies in which you want to work. Research the occupation. Go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Check out the averages. Then, know the statistics of those graduating from that college (NTI’s are posted on the web site).

Then, you need to know how much money you need. Go to the “Jobs Now Coalition” to do a little calculating. One of the reasons this is a good tool is that it lists things like medical care. This is good because you can use this to calculate the value of benefits a company offers. For example, health care for 1 adult in the 7 county metro area costs that person $134/month on average. This is how much the person pays out of his or her pocket, including deductibles. So if the employer pays 100% of medical deductibles, that is like money in your pocket. (See Carol.com to get an idea of medical costs)

Be aware that some costs are not listed on the above web site, so you’ll need to add some costs…like loan payments!

Let’s start with financial aid. How much did you borrow or are you planning on borrowing? The more you borrow, the more payments you’ll be making. Go to the “Financial Aid Calculator” if you don’t know the amount of your payment. The Federal Stafford Loan has a fixed interest rate of 6.8% and the Federal PLUS loan has a fixed rate of 8.5%. Perkins loans have a fixed interest rate of 5%. The max loan length is 10 years.

Want a new car? I hear that a lot from new graduates. It may not be the wisest decision. The average rate for a new car loan in the twin cities area is 8% for a $20,000 fixed-rate loan (assuming you have “very good” credit, which means making your student loan payments on time). Your payment would be $400 each month for 5 years. Let’s say you don’t have such good credit. See eLoan.com for up to date rates and payment calculations (based on your credit worthiness).

To summarize: don’t sit there like a deer in headlights when someone asks you how much money you want. Research both the pay of that job and your needs. This will help you make an informed decision and look prepared in the eyes of the interviewer.

-Amy

Prospective and Current Students can now earn college credit toward a degree at NTI through Advanced Placement (AP) courses in high school and/or the College-Level Examination Program (CLEP). Both programs are nationally recognized services operated by the College Board that permit students to earn credit for previous learning and general knowledge. There are 2,900 colleges that grant credit and/or advanced standing for CLEP exams. As such, students can easily transfer these credits to other colleges.

Through AP or CLEP testing, students may earn credit toward graduation for courses in general education subjects (communications, humanities, social sciences, mathematical reasoning and natural sciences). To earn credit, students must earn a score equal to or greater than the ACE Recommended Score.

Postsecondary CLEP opportunity

The state of Minnesota will pay the CLEP exam fee for MN public, private and home educated high school students. Students will still need to pay NTI to administer each test. Interested high school students should contact their high school counselor or principal for an authorization form or for more information. Authorization forms and detailed information is available through the State Education Web Site.

For more information

Information for current students
Information for potential students

Wow,

Over the last 24 hours I cannot tell you all how much I have enjoyed the http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/solidworks/! online group. My 2nd semester class was able to get much needed information on how to spec out a helical gear on a CAD print in a matter of minutes (About 78) and Matthew Lorono–one of the fine person’s moderating the group with me–recently launched the SolidWorks Legion blog site. There is currently a post from him about Design with intent and Horizontal Modeling which I found to be fantastic. I will question him on a couple of his points, but his intent in this post is loud and clear. Use best modeling practices to ensure changeability, ease of creation and an overall stable CAD database for all to use.

Chris

COSMOS? What is this COSMOS?

COSMOS is the fully integrated finite elemental analysis tool for SolidWorks.

Finite Elemental Analysis what?

Finite elemental analysis is a numerical analysis system that calculates the Stress/Strain (among other things) on all of the cool designs you come up with here at NTI and as you enter the work force. In other words, will your design live up to the abuse they will receive in everyday use?
This is one of the ways engineering departments validate designs throughout the design process (From beginning to end). As you begin your designs you may have a concept on which you will pursue. With tools like COSMOS you can begin immediately validating these concepts to ensure that when it becomes time to spend $50,000 on a prototype you will have a good idea that your design will work properly and ultimately ensure a quality product.

So you may be asking why I am talking about this. Well, yesterday afternoon, Vince Adams from SolidWorks Corporation stopped by after an eight hour COSMOSWorks User Group Meeting to tour the school and speak with the students. Vince is the product manager for the COSMOS products at SolidWorks Corporation. In this position Vince oversees the ongoing development of COMSOS products. This includes visiting the COSMOS customers worldwide to understand the FEA needs that these people deal with everyday and incorporate those needs into the next generation of COSMOS products.

For NTI a visit like this means we gain some fantastic insight into the SolidWorks/COSMOS customer base future employee needs. As Vince spoke to the students, he mentioned that knowing how to analyze your designs and incorporate analysis into your design process is quickly becoming a necessary skill set for students like you entering the workforce. Tools like COSMOS will help you all to be able to do this with little knowledge of the mathematics behind it. Although Vince was quick to note that understanding the mathematics involved in FEA will make you better at these analyses.

Vince spoke at great length about many topics of which I will blog more about in the weeks to come. I do want to thank Vince very much for this visit and hope he will return in the future. For those of you how are interested in doing some research about FEA Vince Adams has a book published with Abraham Askenazi of Buell motorcycles called “Building Better Products with Finite Element Analysis w/ NEi Nastran Software and Tutorial”. He noted that this book talks more about the analysis process and less about the mathematics. By the way, Nastran is another FEA package I believe was designed by or for NASA. (Not 100% sure on this)

More to come…

All, Today (Oct 16, 2007) NTI began our 1st CSWA exams. So far I am very impressed with the results both in total score and in broken out categories. In speaking with others that have taken the exam and some inside knowledge of the test the anticipated pass rate ranges between 50 - 75%. As of right now, we are within that rate.

After taking the test myself I truly believe that this test could easily be used with any CAD modeling program out there. The test is geared more to the students’ ability to interpret poor sketches and develop accurate models from those interpretations. Those who will be taking this test next week should abide by these recommendations: take your time - you have 3 hours (use them), pay attention - to the entire problem and question, double check your answers, but do not over analyze them, and finally, , it has nothing to do with your GPA and this time around it is free.