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Wednesday, April 30, 2014

CAMWorks Promotion extended to the end of June 2014




CAMWorks is excited to announce they've extended their March promotion through the end of June   2014.  All seats at multiple seat discount!

To find out more contact an Ally PLM Sales representative at 513.984.0480.

To learn more about CAMWorks view:
CAMWorks Multiaxis Machining
CAMWorks Mill-Turn Multifunction Machining
CAMWorks Wire EDM

Also visit our website http://allyplm.com/camworks/.

Tracy Tijan
Ally PLM Solutions



Material handling equipment maker Action Construction boosts competitive advantage

Action Construction Equipment designs better with Solid Edge. The company implemented Solid Edge and successfully boosted its return on investment through the high value of maintenance, enhancement and support. Success after the CAD purchase included quick answers to questions, internal issues quickly resolved, latest technology easily deployed, building a more productive workforce, greater efficiency across operations and an increased competitive advantage.

Learn how
Try Solid Edge for free
http://allyplm.com/solidedgetrial/

Tracy Tijan
Ally PLM Solutions

Monday, April 28, 2014

Solid Edge Tip of the Week - April 28, 2014

Solid Edge - QuickPick and Radial Menu Timers


QuickPick is a very useful tool that provides the user a list of possible mouse pointer selections in a list window. One trick I really like to use for QuickPick is to turn down the wait time timer, making QuickPick expose faster.

By default the timer is set at 700.  I find setting the timer to 200 makes my use of QuickPick a more intentional and planned aspect of designing in Solid Edge and aids in speeding up my design process:



The Radial Menu also has a timer setting.  To access the Radial Menu setting, go to the Solid Edge Application Button > Solid Edge Options > Helpers Tab:


Scroll down to the Radial Menus options.  From here you can edit the wait time (Show Radial Menu after) and also the Drag Distance it takes to invoke the gesture based activation of the Radial Menu:


We encourage you to “play with” the edit of these settings to find the best values for you. You may find that for you too sensitive of a setting might cause undesired activation but inversely too lengthy of a wait might cause you not to use some of these very helpful features. Find a happy balance to get the most from these tools.

Matt Johnson
Application Engineer at Ally PLM Solutions 

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Catch Ally PLM's Lunch Bytes tomorrow - Solid Edge Select Set Filters

Solid Edge Lunch Bytes: Solid Edge Select Tools and Make Faster Edits




Thursday, April 24, 2014 12:30 PM - 1:00 PM EDT

Ally PLM Free Solid Edge Tutorials Lunch BytesLunch Bytes is a monthly 30-minute web session dedicated to making you a better Solid Edge User.  Join and we'll send you a $5 Subway gift card after your first session.

Power generation equipment maker enhances CAD data sharing and increases productivity


Pomit Co. designs better with Solid Edge. Results also included the creation of new, easy-to-understand animations of assembly and disassembly processes and enhanced information sharing by all employees and departments.






Learn how

Try Solid Edge for free
http://allyplm.com/solidedgetrial/

Tracy Tijan
Ally PLM Solutions 

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Watch Ally PLM's Latest Lunch Byte - What's New in NX 9 CAD, Part 1 of 2


Part 1 of 2, this Lunch Bytes focuses on what's new in NX9 CAD including user interface, sketching, modeling and synchronous modeling.

To register for upcoming lunch bytes or request future topics, please visit
or contact technical support with any questions at

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Power protection systems manufacturer cuts design time in half

Liebert Corp. designs better with Solid Edge. Liebert effectively re-uses 80 to 90 percent of its design data and achieves annual productivity savings of more than $250,000 in one department. Liebert also cut design time in half while earning ISO 9000 certification and numerous awards for quality.



Try Solid Edge for free
http://allyplm.com/solidedgetrial/

Tracy Tijan
Ally PLM Solutions


Thursday, April 10, 2014

FREE 3Dconnection SpaceMouse Pro

FREE 3Dconnection SpaceMouse Pro when you sign up for select training classes* through Ally PLM Solutions - Act now, only available through June 30th! 


  • Full size, soft coated hand rest
  • 5 large, fully programmable function keys for access to application commands, standard views and keyboard modifiers
  • Convenient On-Screen Display provides visual support

Click HERE to learn more about the SpaceMouse promotion and our variety of training classes!



*3Dconnection SpaceMouse Pro promotion available with Solid Edge Fundamentals, Synchronous Technology Update, Solid Edge Advanced Techniques, Essentials for NX Designers, NX CAM Fundamentals, GD&T Training and CAMWorks Fundamentals.

Tracy Tijan 
Ally PLM Solutions

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Climbing/caving gear manufacturer delivers to world’s most demanding technical standards

Lanex PLC designs better with Solid Edge. The company’s competitive advantage soars as Solid Edge delivers continuous technical innovation and helps the company expand into new global markets.



Learn how
http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/about_us/success/case_study.cfm?Component=124150&ComponentTemplate=1481

Try Solid Edge for free

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Have you heard about the great unique features of ST7?

Ally PLM Application Engineer, Matt Johnson, thinks "It’s exciting to see these new features begin to leak out and I’m excited to get my hands on the commercial release version of ST7.

Matt reviewed the new information and said this about the new "Fixed Length Curve" option:

Have you ever been asked to “push a rope”?  Never worked too well, did it? Until now… well, sort of. Truth be told we can only really do this conceptually inside of the new functionality in ST7. Now we can push a rope and do something useful...

One of the sneak peek features in ST7, the forthcoming release of Solid Edgeis the ability to add a dimension to control the length of a curveThe new ‘Fixed Length Curve’ option looks like a great enhancement. It provides a method to pre-define a fixed length to then manipulate it, it’s just like working with a piece of pre-cut rope.

I think customers who sweep profiles but have a need to know the unformed length will really appreciate and find value in this enhancement. There’s no doubt that ‘Fixed Length Curve’  will greatly aid in these sort of processes and design approaches.

I have no way of knowing for sure but I’m hoping this same functionality will carry over to XpresRoute, Frame, and Harness as well.

Find out about the “Fixed Length Curve” here: http://community.plm.automation.siemens.com/t5/Solid-Edge-Community-Blog/ST7-Sneak-Peak-Fixed-Length-Curve/ba-p/25442

If you'd like to learn about other new SE7 features, check these out in the Solid Edge Community Blog:

Join Solid Edge University 2014 to learn even more!
Solid Edge University 2014  May 12-14


Tracy Tijan
Ally PLM Solutions

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Office furniture maker edits CAD assemblies 3 times faster

Kimball Furniture designs better with Solid Edge. Using synchronous technology, Kimball makes design changes in minutes versus hours it would take in a history-based CAD process. Kimball also is able to correct bad features in its legacy I-deas CAD data in a matter of minutes instead of days.




Learn how
http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/about_us/success/case_study.cfm?Component=198073&ComponentTemplate=1481

Try Solid Edge for free
http://allyplm.com/solidedgetrial/

Tracy Tijan
Ally PLM Solutions

Learn about the New Search Service from SharePoint 2010 and Performance Fix for Insight

With the new search service we must use from SharePoint 2010, I wanted to put out some information on it.  This is used by the “where used” functionality in Insight.  Anything like releasing or revising will use the “where used”.  The incremental crawl is not instantaneous it operates on a schedule that you set in central administration.  Anytime the users do anything that uses “where used” and then do another function that uses “where used”, they may have an issue with this incremental indexing not completing.  Simply waiting the duration of the crawl in between the two things they are doing that require “where used” will resolve this.  

1) Keep an eye on your incremental search schedule time (central admin…manage service applications…search service application…crawl log…crawl history – to see how long it is taking). You want it to be long enough that it completes before another starts, but as short as possible to get the new “where used” information index as in the above example.  So, 5  minutes is a pretty typical incremental schedule, but it will need to be adjusted for your db size and amount of users.  Look in the crawl history to see how long it is taking and set it down if you are able – if it is completing during the time when the most users on the system in 3 minutes then set it at 5 or 6 minutes.  If it is taking longer, then set it higher.  Also you need to check as the time to complete will get longer as you get more users and more data.  Adjust as you grow. 

2) Check the crawl history (again central admin…manage service applications…search service application…crawl log…crawl history) to see if you have any errors.  Click on the error and drill down to find the URL for file causing the error.  Very typically, it is a draft file that for some reason caused a failure with the ifilter.  All you need to do is give a Solid Edge user that URL and have them open it, save it, and close it.  This will resolve after the next incremental crawl and you won’t see the error anymore.  If it is a released file, than a user in the Eng_Control group will need to do this.
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Also, there is a performance fix for Insight in MP6 for ST6 and MP11 for ST 5 that is due out in a few weeks.  This will turn off property synching on file open with empty cache.  The only thing we need to remember is that by turning this off – if you go into the SharePoint page to change any properties (open internet explorer and navigate to your server website and navigate to your file and then hover over and get the arrow dropdown and edit properties) – it will not update in the file properties until you open that file and save it.  Most people are not editing properties this way anyway.  Please consider getting this loaded if you are using Insight to see improvement in time to open files on empty cache.

Remember that you need to do the following:

MAINTENANCE PACK
Done each month or every other month (usually I suggest staying one month behind in case of any issues) – Maintenance pack on server, Solid Edge client and viewer-only client must all match levels - So if MP6 is out, you load MP5 unless there is a very good reason and when MP6 comes out, there is a very good reason – performance improvements.  

Since MP5 is available now and MP 6 is not this example is for MP5 – 
then the MP5 for Solid Edge (https://download.industrysoftware.automation.siemens.com/solid_edge/ST6/SolidEdge/) - need to choose whether you are running 32 bit SE or 64 bit SE – if on a 32 bit machine, you will have 32 bit Solid Edge installed.  If on a 64 bit machine and you check to see if the install is in  C:\Program Files\Solid Edge ST5 then it is 64 bit Solid Edge and if it is installed in  C:\Program Files (x86)\Solid Edge ST5 then it is 32 bit), 

On the server, you download the maintenance pack and put it on the desktop.  With all users out of Solid Edge and all checked in, this can be simply double clicked to run.  It takes about 5 minutes to complete if you are moving from maintenance pack 5 to maintenance pack 6.  If you are going from no maintenance pack to maintenance pack  5, then it might take about 15 min as it will load all the fixes for the previous maintenance packs automatically.   

On the client machine (Solid Edge or Solid Edge Viewer machines), you just download the appropriate maintenance pack (there is a separate maintenance pack for the machines just running the viewer as shown above) and put on the desktop.  With Solid Edge or the viewer closed, then you just double click to run.  It takes about 5 minutes to do.

Thanks, 
Madison Rye
Application Engineering Manager at Ally PLM Solutions