The wife of one of our employees is a diabetic and recently started using an insulin pump which uses disposable 2cc cartridges and are filled by the user with the required type of insulin. These can be prefilled to save time and trouble for an extended trip from home. The problem with prefilling is there is nothing to prevent the plunger on the cartridge from depressing, which wastes the insulin and makes a mess in her diabetic kit.

To solve this problem our Dimension Support Specialist, Dave Tupper, decided to design a holder which would protect the cartridge and be small enough to fit in his wife’s purse without taking up much room.

The first design simply went around the cartridge with a shoulder preventing the plunger from being depressed. Unfortunately, there was nothing to prevent the center of the cartridge from swinging out, as it was being held in only by the o-ring.

The second iteration added a ring in one end to receive the plunger, slightly larger than the plunger itself. Dave also added a second shoulder to prevent the cartridge from shifting in the other direction; however this time there was a measurement mistake and the second shoulder was too far from the first.

The third iteration moved the shoulder to the correct position but shortened the overall length, which prevented the cartridge from snapping into place with the cap on it to keep it sterile.

The fourth design extended the length too much and allowed excess space at the top near the cap. This design would work but was larger than it needed to be, wasting material and space in the already full diabetic kit.

Design 1

Design 2

Design 3

Design 4

The fifth and final design brought the overall and internal length down to the minimum needed to safely protect the cartridge and still fit in the diabetic kit.

Design 5

The total time for designing and prototyping his wife’s insulin pump holder, including his very basic SolidWorks skills, was about 2 hours design time and less than 4 hours of build time (for all 5 models) in the uPrint 3D Printer. This doesn’t include time in the clean station, but there is no human interaction needed for that phase.

Dave’s story shows how ingenuity and persistence pay off when designing new products. He identified a problem that his wife faced, which many others may also encounter, and chose to take action to alleviate the stress of carrying an insulin pump. He was able to design a relatively simple object in SolidWorks, print a prototype and make revisions within hours, not days or weeks. SolidWorks and a 3D printer made this possible.

For more information, please contact us.

To quickly make an Offset Plane, or a “copy” of a reference plane, you can use the standard Windows paradigm for creating a copy: Hold down Ctrl and drag/drop!

Select or show an existing reference plane. Hold down your Ctrl key and click/drag on the edge of the plane. Ta-dah! You’re automatically entered into the PropertyManager for defining an Offset Plane. If you like, you can change your mind to a different plane definition before hitting the green OK checkmark.

I looked through my library of vintage training manuals and What’s New guides, consulted an inside source, and confirmed that this was new in SolidWorks 97Plus. Incidentally, NBC’s “It’s New To You” promotion also dates to 1997. Am I that old?

In this video, we’ll cover 6 more tips for transforming Excel from basic spreadsheet software into a powerful engineering application.

1. Customizable Lists
2. Match Function
3. Index + Match
4. Conditional Formatting
5. Protect Sheet
6. Excel Solver

Click here to watch the video!

Here’s a part with some sculpted faces and a recessed pocket. The task is to remove the blue pocket while preserving the contour of the red and green faces. Filling the pocket with a solid extrude still requires trimming features to restore those faces. How can you define those cuts when parts of the original surfaces are missing?

We want to fill in the missing areas, but how can we define those areas? Easy, the information is already in the model although it isn’t being displayed yet. Surfaces in SolidWorks are defined by a set of equations to form the contour, and they start life typically as a four-sided, contoured face. Then another set of equations defines trimming curves to remove unwanted parts of the surface. In this case, the intersection of the blue faces defined the trimming curves for the red and green faces. The picture below shows the faces trimmed to final size.

We will briefly look at how to  solve this problem manually using traditional surfacing tools, and then look at the speed and power of direct editing using Delete Face.

There’s a surfacing command called Untrim. This is what the surfaces look like after being untrimmed. Notice that they extend into the area of the pocket and cover it.

Next we use the Trim surfacing command to let the surfaces trim to each other instead of the edges of the pocket, as shown below.

We could go through the model to manually delete unwanted faces, then un-trim and re-trim the faces to keep. That’s a lot of work. Fortunately Delete Face will do it all in a few seconds. The command is found at Insert>Face>Delete Face and its dialogue is below. The 5 faces selected are the blue ones in the pocket. The option to Delete and Patch is checked, and this is where the magic happens. After the blue faces are deleted, the red and green faces are untrimmed from the original trimming curves, and then they are re-trimmed to each other.  Although this is a surfacing command, you start and end with a solid model.

Let’s end with a more realistic challenge. The picture below shows a cast manifold. Your customer wants to order more, but without the red port on the top of the part.

Simply selecting the red faces in Delete and Patch finishes the job in a few keystrokes:

The use of direct editing isn’t limited to imported models. It is just as helpful when editing a SolidWorks model. How often have you wanted to change or delete an upstream feature and get warnings that it will delete or damage a downstream feature? You could spend a lot of time trying to re-arrange parent-child relations between features to solve this, and maybe still not succeed. This is a limitation of history-based editing. Delete Face and Patch allows the geometry of the unwanted feature to be removed or changed at a downstream location in the Feature Manager, while leaving the original feature intact. The end result is the same as removing the feature itself, but without all resulting problems.

Some people say they “don’t do surfacing”, but surfacing tools as powerful and simple as this one deserve a second look.

The best way to do this in SolidWorks is to make use of Weldments.  However, there is some grunt work involved before we can get creative.  SolidWorks Weldments has many standard profiles available to you, everything from ANSI Tube (Square) to Unistrut Aluminum.  All of these can be added to your library by going to the Design Library tab-> SolidWorks Content->Weldments and CTRL + Click the items you want to download.  Unfortunately there is no existing library for Wood members. So, below will be the steps to take to create your own custom Weldment profile.

1. Folder Structure is important.

a. Check the location of your Weldment profiles at Tools->Options->System Options-> File Locations->Weldment Profiles.  Mine was found in C:\Program Files\SolidWorks Corp 2011\SolidWorks\data\weldment profiles.

b. Open a Windows Explorer window and browse to the location.  There is a folder for each Standard that you have previously installed.  Whatever the folder is called is what the Standard in SolidWorks is listed as.

c. Create two new folders, the first one I called “Custom”.  Open “Custom” and create a second folder called “Wood”.  Any profiles you create for this project will be saved in the “Wood” folder.

2. Create the profile.

a. Create a new part and start a sketch.

b. I started with a 2X4 (which is actually 1.5” x 3.5”)

c. You might also want to add in some extra points in your sketch.  This will give you more control of the placement of your profile when adding in the Structural Member.

d. Then go to File->Save As and save the part as a “Lib Feat Part”.  Make sure my location is pointed to the “Wood” folder we created in step 1c.  The file name should reflect the size, in this case “2X4”.

e. Repeat Steps 2a – 2c for other sizes of wood.

3. Now it is time to create.

a. You will notice when you add your first Structural Member that you now have a Standard option of “Custom” and a “Type” selection of “Wood” and all of your profiles are listed in the “Size” drop down box.

Here is an example of the deck I created in a matter of minutes using my custom Weldment profiles.

InspectionXpert takes your dimensioned SolidWorks drawings and automatically creates a PDF and Excel table for your QA person to use during first article inspections.  A numbered balloon is added for each dimension or geometric tolerance in the drawing, an entry is made in the table for each balloon, and the allowable tolerance for each entry is entered into the table, just waiting for the QA person to measure it in real life.  And it’s done fast.  Like, within seconds.

Here’s a real time screen capture from my SolidWorks screen, showing the balloons being added next to every dimension:

And here’s a picture of the resulting Excel file, which I got with one click after the video:

What’s really cool is that, for SolidWorks dimensions which had a plus/minus or some other tolerance applied to them by the designer, InspectionXpert captures that, automatically calculating an “Upper Limit” and “Lower Limit” (Columns 8b and 8c) so your QA person doesn’t have to!

Customers have told us that having InspectionXpert do those two steps, ballooning the drawing and creating a fully formatted table, have sometimes saved them up to 6 hours per first article inspection!  That’s more than half a day your QA person can now spend doing their real job: making sure your parts are being manufactured the way you designed them.

Many settings and templates are customizable in InspectionXpert; if you’d like a more detailed demo, contact us- we’re showing this great product to anyone who does inspections!

P.S.:  If your drawings aren’t in SolidWorks, but are PDFs or Tiff files printed from some other software long ago, InspectionXpert can still help you out somewhat.  There is a manual, standalone version of the software which lets you use Optical Character Recognition to select around dimensions in a PDF and capture them one by one, even if they were hand drawn.

I didn’t have any hand-drawn engineering drawings lying around, so I went to the U.S. Patent Office website and pulled down this figure, from an approved patent for keeping dog’s ears out of their food bowls:

Patent figures don’t have dimensions usually, but I couldn’t pass up that picture.  Here’s the video of me capturing each number, let’s just pretend each one is an inspection dimension:

So first, notice how I used SolidWorks Rx to capture a screen video of something outside of SolidWorks (we learned about that by accident!).

But more importantly, notice in InspectionXpert how most of the numbers came through optical character recognition just fine, one I had to recapture after the first click (15), one I couldn’t capture no matter what I tried (11), and one came in wrong, but a recapture fixed it (13 came in as .13 originally, because I caught a little of the leader line).

And that’s what you’re getting with the standalone InspectionXpert- it will be manual, but still faster than entering all that data into your first article sheet by hand.  So your QA person will still thank you.  Give us a call if you’d like to try it!

And yes, that’s a real U.S. Patent, number 4233942.

Auto recover helps you if there is a crash or other system failure. The next time you open SolidWorks, you will be prompted to recover documents that you had changed but you were unable to save.

Backup Copies keep a history of saved documents in case you want to open a document as it existed prior to your most recent save(s). This is good if you accidentally save changes that you don’t want.

Auto Recover

If “Save auto recover info every # changes” is set to 1 or greater, then as you work in SolidWorks, temporary files are created in\swxauto. In a part or assembly, a change is a rebuild or an action that requires a rebuild, such as the addition of a feature. In a drawing, a change is any action; for example, changing a dimension, creating a new view, or inserting an annotation.

These temporary files are deleted if the original documents are saved or when SolidWorks closes normally. Whenever you open SolidWorks, if there are documents in this folder, then the software knows it did not close normally, and you are prompted if you want to “open the backup versions” to recover the temporary files.

You only have one chance to say “Yes”!

You then need to Rebuild each recovered part in order to see it properly (Rebuild recreates data that is not stored in the temporary files). You will then need to Rebuild any recovered assemblies or drawings to update with the recovered parts.

Finally, when you save recovered documents, you will be prompted to ensure you are comfortable overwriting the original documents on disk.

With large drawings and assemblies, especially over a network connection, CAPINC recommends disabling Auto Recover as it can slow down your work as temporary files are updated. Further, the compound-document nature of assemblies and drawings make some recoveries difficult or partial, diminishing the value of this function. To turn off Auto Recover, set the number of changes to zero (0).

Backup Copies

If you set the “Number of backup copies per document” to 1 or greater, then every time you save a document in SolidWorks, a backup copy of each saved file is created as it existed before you saved. You then have two files: filename and Backup of filename.

The backup copies are either stored in the same folder as the original files, or you can specify a backup folder. CAPINC recommends using a designated backup folder so you can easily delete the backup files to free up disk space as needed. That also will simplify interactions with shared drives and PDM caches.

If you have the number of backup copies set to 2 or greater, then when you save a document, the original filename is copied to Backup (1) of filename, also Backup (1) of filename is copied to Backup (2) of filename, and so on.

To turn off Backup Copies, set the “Number of backup copies per document” to zero (0). Backup copies can slow normal work as the amount of disk activity increases the time required to save documents.

1. Hard work
2. Passion
3. Always remembering the reason for why the love started in the first place.

At CAPINC, our Sales and Engineering teams love our customers! We always remember that YOU and your success are why we are at CAPINC! We have a passion for all the products we support, and we work hard for you!

Love, hard work, and passion run rampant at CAPINC.  But no one at CAPINC feels this like two of our Applications Engineers: Michael LaFleche and his bride, Elba-Gloria LaFleche-Erazo.  Their love thrives on their common interests:
SolidWorks, Enterprise PDM, and music.

Here’s their story:

Elba-Gloria and Mike at their wedding reception

“After the June 1^st tornado stole our home just a month before our wedding reception, Mike and I definitely need a break…. but our calendars were already filled with training, consulting, and implementations at various customers all around New England.  As much fun as that all is to us, we were spending too many days apart.  We decided to take a vacation… of sorts. We booked a week’s stay at a cozy hotel in Concord, MA, and signed up for some fun: a 4-day class called “SolidWorks Enterprise PDM Advanced Admin Training and Project Management Workshop”.  Very much like a scuba diving class, this class ended with a Certification Exam.  Also like a scuba certification exam, it would be hands-on with a lot of pressure coming in from all around us to pass this exam, because (in our minds), our lives depended on it!

First we had to meet pre-requisites to even take the class: we both had to have completed Basic Enterprise PDM training, we had to have taken and passed the multiple choice-style Certified Enterprise PDM Support Technician exam, and we had to be proficient in delivering an Enterprise PDM demo.  Mike already has every technical certification SolidWorks Corp. offers, and has been successfully demo’ing EPDM to the masses for years.  So: “Check!” , “Check!”, “Check!”

I, (EG) have been working very passionately over the last 4 months to catch up to Mike and to expand the horizons of my knowledge of the Dassault Systems suite of products.  So: “Check!” , “Check!”, “Check!”

Then we had to take the class.  Ever heard the phrase “drinking from the fire-hose of knowledge?”  Well, let me tell you: Joy Garon, our instructor, is quite a remarkable “fire-woman”.  She’s been at SolidWorks Corp. for a long time, is a Sr. Education Specialist, and has hunted and gathered quite a treasure trove of information.

Day 1

Before she started the lessons, she had us all copy “pure gold” from her flash drives to our computers.  Then… gold being so valuable now-a-days, we “Vaulted” it! The class started with “simple” things, such as back-up, restore, move, and upgrade of SQL Database and Archive Database.  We transitioned into Workflows, Revision, Templates, and property mapping into MS Office and XML documents. Then we got to go home and do homework for the evening! This is when we had a chance to calmly chug from the pooled knowledge of the day.

Day 2

The second day consisted of learning how to write Dispatch utilities, which is not only fun, but rather simple! Then we were thrown into the deep end of the pool of knowledge.  Joy taught us how to query the SQL database for information.  This required a map… literally… of the tables stored in the SQL database, as well as a language lesson.  We had to learn the syntax of SQL if we were going to navigate its geography.  We also had to swear to follow the Prime Directive of the “Enterprise PDM”: no human shall contaminate the SQL Database or any table therein.  We may extract information from the SQL Database, but it is a violation of the EULA and terms of Warranty to write to the SQL Database.

Our final destination in day 2: Reports!  SQL-based, Excel-linked, even web-based reports! Oh, the power!!

Let me share with you Mike’s list of his favorite things, or as he puts it:

Top ten reasons why  EPDM makes SolidWorks better

# 10:  Files are copied to a local user cache on your hard drive, rather than working directly over the network.  Studies have shown that working locally on a fast hard drive vs opening files over the network increases performance and reduces system lockups.

# 9:  Sharing files with local and overseas customers, suppliers, and branches is faster with web access to files and replicated vaults.  For example, if you are working with an overseas supply chain partner, you can nominate a certain part of the Vault to be automatically replicated to another local server at their site.  File download time is now removed from the equation with replicated Vaults and everybody always has the latest version of the file, no matter where in the world you are.  Now everyone can have some cake, and eat it too!

# 8:  As good as an ice cream sundae:  the SolidWorks Toolbox data library can be stored inside the EPDM Vault and the files can then be stored in each user’s local data cache, which is faster than storing the Toolbox in a plain network drive, as the file would need to be downloaded over the network.  The whipped cream:  users can also search for files within the Toolbox if stored in the Vault.  The cherry on top:  if you are a global company, the Toolbox is replicated to local data vaults over the Wide Area Network (WAN)!!

# 7:  Searches in EPDM vs Searches in SolidWorks are like the difference between driving a Ferrari and driving a Tercel.  EPDM Searches are indexed and managed by SQL Server, which is architected to handle large data sets.  Custom search cards can be developed specific to your needs.  For example: you can search your Toolbox for all screws that fit a certain hole in the context of the ones that cost the least and are in stock!

# 6:  No more walking down the hall to the part number book.  Automatic part numbers can be assigned to documents in the Vault.  When you open a new SolidWorks part, a new part number is assigned and  EPDM saves the part in the Vault immediately, so if a system crash occurs, the part is still reserved and safe in the Vault.

#5:  SolidWorks Templates can be saved in the Vault and automatically deployed to end users.  So when you start a new design, your company standards are already preset with no intervention from the end user.  Don’t you wish your taxes were that easy?

#4:  ECOs, or Engineering Change Orders, can be completely automated.  When you discover that something needs a design change after it’s been released, all you have to do is right click on the files and start an ECO, which then creates a new ECO document in the format of your choice (Microsoft Word for example).  This automatically forms a bond with the SolidWorks drawings to which the ECO action refers, and the ECO can be approved by the appropriate person or committee.  Like Magic!

#3:  Your task list is ready and waiting for you.  Simply pull up a saved search that shows what you need to work on, and what is overdue (not saying that job could possibly be overdue).  Collaborate with other users in your vault with instant messages on the documents that you are working on together, even if you are an ocean apart.

#2:  File references are no longer lost, ever!  You can rename files and move them to different folders and all is well.  SQL Server is managing files once they are stored inside of EPDM.  This means you’ll retire with significantly more hair.

#1:  Do what you love to do:  design new products.  EPDM lets SolidWorks design engineers work without worrying about process, saving PDF and DXF files every time a design is released or making sure that all revisions of a design are backed up with the correct permissions.  Simply check in and release your files and the automated workflow of your system takes care of the rest.  EPDM let’s SolidWorks be your design tool, and minimizes your mundane tasks!

Day 3

We met Gagan Ahuja, Field Services Manager who flew in from Santa Monica, CA to share his wisdom with us.  He had us take a few steps back so we could see the big picture, (read: immensity) of our task when performing an implementation.   Gagan covered as much Project Management as he could in 8 short hours, and left us with a hands-on exercise to be completed in groups by the next morning. (more homework!)  To our great relief, Gagan shared some very useful tools that SolidWorks provides to us so that we won’t have to re-invent the wheel for every implementation we perform!

Day 4 – Exam Day

We presented our homework to the rest of the class, took a break….. and then…walked the plank! Er… I mean… we took the test!  The test had a 4 hour time-limit, so the instructions for the test were given to us at the end of day 3.  Why?  Because the 12-page set of instructions would consume an hour of time just to read!! It turns out that the exam instructions guide you through a full implementation of an Enterprise PDM vault!

Part I
The first part consisted of setting up users, groups, permissions, revisions, data cards, and mapping variables.  Then we imported a workflow into our vault, and had to “Verify all possible routes for all users by using test files.”  No, I’m not kidding. There goes another hour! Why?  Because not only are we testing that our part of the setup was done correctly – Surprise! the workflow we imported had errors that we had to troubleshoot and fix! After we had tested that the setup was done correctly , we moved on to Part II of the exam: Vault usage.

Part II
We were given very specific instructions that mimicked “a day in the life of the vault”, where we had to log in as different users and perform various tasks.  I love the notes at the beginning of Part II:

• The exercises in Part II are only meaningful if each and every step in Part I have been finalized and proved to work as intended.
• Be sure to follow each step exactly as outlined.
• If all steps are not completed, the examination is considered “not passed”.

Part III
The third part consisted of writing a dispatch utility that would rename SolidWorks files “per the instructions provided”.  Believe it or not, this was the easiest part of the exam!

Once we were done, Joy or Gagan came around to our workstations, logged in to our vault, checked file histories, performed certain tasks, and tested our Dispatch utility.

I am very proud to announce that, not only did Mike and I pass the test – we were two of the few people who did not have ANY mistakes!!!

Mission Rekindle the Romance – COMPLETE

We took turns driving home, stopped by to pick up celebratory food and drinks, and jointly prepared a seafood dinner like the newlyweds we are.

Mmmm

We slow danced while singing Queen’s “We Are the Champions” to each other, reveling in the fact that we are the first married couple in the world to have become Certified Enterprise PDM Professionals.  While enjoying a glass of homemade wine (made by one of CAPINC’s customers), we re-wrote Queen’s song to fit our joy.  Can you guess which song it is?

Crazy little thing called “CERT”

This thing called “Cert”,
we just got a handle on it!
This thing called “Cert”,
we just got around to it

Are you ready?!
Crazy little thing called “Cert”.

This thing called “Cert”
Made us cry, like babies
All day, and all night

Dispatch
Wrong writes
It shook us all over like jellyfish
We kinda liked it!
Crazy little thing called “Cert”

Sitting with my baby
Learning how to write the code,
It drove us crazy
It gave us Admin fever
You’ll love EPDM, I bet!

It’s gonna be cool! Not hard,
You’ll be great with data cards
Don’t take a back seat, don’t fret
And take the long class then the “Cert” test

Then you’ll be ready!
Crazy little thing called “Cert”.

Fortunately, there are times when you can get the smoothness (“curvature continuity”) of splines at a discount. In the example below, the surface sweep is controlled by profile and path sketches that consist of lines and arcs. The sketch entity endpoints make the sweep consist of individual surface faces, 14 in all. The additional unnecessary structure of 14 faces can make some downstream features like fillets and shells more challenging.

In the second example, we modified the sketches using the Fit Spline command (Tools>Spline Tools>Fit Spline) to replace a string of lines and arcs with a single spline in each sketch. The original lines and arcs were converted to construction geometry, and the spline overlays them. Because it’s a spline, it is curvature continuous everywhere. The construction geometry is still controlled by sketch dimensions and relations, so it is easy to edit the sketch and have the spline update. This is where the ‘discount’ comes in: you have the smoothness of a spline with the easy editing of lines and arcs. The effect on the sweep is apparent – now it’s a single face instead of 14.

The dialogue box to control the Fit Spline command is shown below. In this case ‘Closed spline’ was deselected. If it had been selected, the spline would extend back to the starting point, making a complete closed loop. ‘Constrained’ was selected, which forces the spline to update with changes to the underlying construction geometry. ‘Delete geometry’ would delete the original sketch, leaving only the unconstrained spline. The ‘Tolerance’ thumbwheel controls how closely the spline follows the construction geometry, and lets you smooth the transition between lines and arcs. A little experimenting will make all the controls obvious.

Fit Spline can be used to convert an existing part edge into a spline in a new sketch. And it works for 3D as well as 2D sketches.

However, there’s another product out there that can fill the screenshot gap between your CAD system and your document creation in Word or Adobe or Quark or whatever.  I’ve hinted at it before, and it’s called 3DVIA Composer.

The basic idea is to create your geometry in your CAD system, and then use 3DVIA Composer to do all the other manipulations to get the pictures you want for your manuals.  But just talking about all the ways your Tech Pub department can use Composer to make screenshots, or cutaway views, or zoomed in views with helpful arrows and text, or BOMs, would be too long and boring, so we did something else instead.

I went to a toy store and bought “The World’s Most Difficult Take-Apart Puzzle”, the Gordian’s Knot:

As you can see from the picture, it includes this little “solution” guide, which is 69 steps captured in screenshots from some CAD system.  The guide is okay, but like any collection of screenshots, it’s static.  About half the time I found myself wishing I could turn those screenshots around or zoom in, or hide a piece because I couldn’t see what I needed to understand the step.  It’s not like the creator could have included every angle of screenshot I might ever need.  But 3DVIA Composer can.

I reverse engineered the puzzle into SolidWorks, which wasn’t too hard (once I spent an hour fighting with inch fractions before realizing the whole puzzle was built in Metric).  I also used my favorite Master Model technique again because the pieces interlocked so much.  After a few useful interference checks on the final assembly, I left SolidWorks because I would never try to make an entire manual in it.  The tools just aren’t there.

I imported the assembly into 3DVIA Composer and made one separate “view” for each of the 69 disassembly steps.  Views are kind of like slides in PowerPoint, and you can see some of them on the left of this screenshot:

(No comments please, about me using a screenshot in a blog post about how we don’t need screenshots to explain things.)

I made an animation from those views, had the animation pause at each step for human input, then grabbed our touch-screen monitor and the first person walking by to create this:

Pretty cool, huh?  And if it works for “the World’s Most Difficult Take-Apart Puzzle”, it can definitely work for those tough steps putting together your assembly!

**Comments from Melinda**
“Using 3DVIA’s interactive instruction manual was super easy. Showing each step with a 3D model greatly reduces any confusion, especially being able to rotate the model on screen to make sure what you’re doing is actually correct.”

Our 3DVIA customers tell us that new hires to their shop floor get trained and proficient much faster with dynamic 3D manuals than if you just handed them a static 100 page book.  Assemblers can zoom in on the parts they want to see, warnings can pop up at just the right time, hyperlinks can lead people to more information about a part; there’s a lot of potential here.

Speaking of which, if you took some really cool models, spent some time in 3DVIA Composer, and then laid it over a kickin’ rock soundtrack, you’d have this (from another SolidWorks Reseller across the pond):

If you ever want to try driving 3DVIA Composer yourselves, let us know; we have hands-on test drives regularly in each of our offices!  Contact us to schedule one!