Jeff's Tool Shed

So, I figure if I’m going to be posting reviews about software and hardware mainly for SolidWorks users, you should know a little about me. That way you won’t think I’m just some uniformed hack.

My name is Jeff Mirisola. I’m a Certified SolidWorks Professional and, hopefully after next Thursday, a CmfgT. I’ve been using SolidWorks for about 7 years now. Presently, I’m a CAD Administrator for HySecurity Gate Operators in Kent, Washington. I spend my days converting our old AutoCAD drawings over to SolidWorks, redesigning for cost down and converting our "smart" part numbering system over to our new "dumb" part numbering system (I could go off on a tangent here about how much I hate "smart" part numbers, but I’ll refrain…for now). I manage the four seats of SolidWorks that we have and help teach the other users here. I also manage most of our controlled documents.

While our assemblies here are small (under 150 parts for most), my former position had me creating assemblies that regularly exceeded 1000 parts. For some, that’s not much, but it’s a far cry from where I am right now. It was at my previous job that I taught myself SolidWorks. I worked for Genie Industries as a production worker. An injury forced me into an office job for the materials department, which was followed up with a request from the, then, head of our plant’s engineering department to move over to Technical Manuals. At the time, all of the illustrations were simple 2D graphics. I’d seen the engineers working with SolidWorks and, through a bit of finagling, I was able to talk my boss into letting me experiment with it to see if it wouldn’t work well for the parts manuals. From there, I was off and running. OK, running might be a bit of an exaggeration. I stumbled a lot. I didn’t receive any formal training; rather, I relied on the help files, picking the brains of the engineers (not that there was much to pick), and our VAR. By the time I left Genie, I was one of the "go to" people for SolidWorks questions. The first manual produced using SolidWorks was for Genie’s Z-20/8. As it was my first real foray into all things SolidWorks, I’m quite proud of what I was able to accomplish in that manual. I believe that all of Genie’s parts manuals now rely on SolidWorks illustrations.

Outside of work, I’m a divorced dad of 3 rambunctious sons who are my world. I enjoy spending working with my hands (working on cars, landscaping, construction projects), playing Texas Hold ‘em, and just enjoying life.

I don’t know that this has been of any use to anyone, but I thought I’d just share a little about me with you. Below is a picture of me at a HySecurity event wearing my Genie gear, much to my boss’s chagrin.

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