How does one go about reviewing a book, without bias, when said book was written by friends? Well, if you’re me, you just do it. I’ve never had a problem separating business and pleasure and, in this case, this is all business. Alex Ruiz, with help from Gabi Jack, has written a SolidWorks book for [...]
Jul
30
Creaform – Scan your way to success
A couple of weeks ago, I was visited by Daniel Brown of Creaform. He flew in to demo one of their scanners for me. While I was familiar with them somewhat, it was good to have another up close and personal viewing. Daniel took some time to go over Creaform’s 3D Laser scanner product line, [...]
May
11
SpacePilot Pro – New Drivers, New Look, New Review
When 3DConnexions’s SpacePilot PRO came out, I, like so many others, jumped on the bandwagon and regurgitated the info from 3DConnexion’s marketing people. I then received a physical specimen to try out and ended up writing an open letter to SolidWorks and 3DConnexion because the drivers were messed up. My settings weren’t being saved, preset [...]
Apr
16
3Dconnexion’s Newest offering
3Dconnexion has a new controller, one that makes my SpacePilot™ seem like last year’s technology (actually, it’s about 4 years old). The SpacePilot™ PRO is, basically, a SpacePilot on steroids. 3Dconnexion took input from their customer base and have squeezed all sorts of new goodies into the SpacePilot™ PRO. The main features they’re touting: Larger [...]
Apr
09
ATI FirePro V5700
About two weeks ago I came home to find a large box addressed to me. Inside was a test computer from ATI loaded with their FirePro V5700 graphics card. ATI asked that some of us bloggers test out this card some time ago and I got to be one of the first. I haven’t touched [...]
Aug
24
Dell M4300
For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know how much I’ve enjoyed the Dell M90′s I’ve used in the past. Both of them were provided by my employer at the time and I really didn’t have many issues with them. My new employer, being a complete tightwad, opted [...]
Jul
17
Scanner – You Misunderstood
I’ve received a couple of emails from people asking me if I like NextEngine’s scanner. It became apparent to me that, one, they didn’t read the whole post and, two, that I didn’t do a very good job of saying what I meant. So, before there is anymore confusion…Yes, I like the scanner. Very much [...]
Jul
16
Scanning – Is it me or the scanner?
I’ve been messing around with the scanner that NextEngine sent me and, I have to admit, I’m getting frustrated. The demos I saw at SWW ’06 & ’07 made it all look so simple and yet I, a veritable genius, just can’t seem to get the hang of it. Ok, ok, so the genius thing [...]
Jul
03
NextEngine – Devon, Ricky, Matt & Me
Ok, so now there’s a run on the 3D scanner from NextEngine. I mean, seriously, my blog is supposed to be about hardware and software for SolidWorks! You other three goombahs actually are engineers and are supposed to write intelligent pieces about the wonders of SolidWorks itself! But, nooooo, you three have to jump on [...]