Why are we still shy of Synchronous?

After coming back from SEU12, excited for the launch of ST5, meeting new friends and connecting with old friends, I had one thing on my mind that still kind of shocked me. The adoption of current users to using Synchronous Technology.

With the type of crowd at SEU12, I was sure it wasn’t shyness when the small amount of hands went up when the question was asked “Who uses Synchronous Technology?”

So with this I created 2 polls for my own peace of mine to find out what is it that is missing and if Siemens could do anything to accelerate the adoption in current license user base.

and the second poll…

Let me know in your comments if there is something I missed in the questions and I’ll see if I can add them quickly.

Solid Edge ST4 for Designers Book

After looking for books (with no joy) on Solid Edge ST 3 and above online and in Barnes and Nobles, I came across a tweet from Sham Tickoo about the new book release “Solid Edge ST4 for Designers”. Obviously there being a lack of books for the product and an obvious lack of people who want to write for it, I sent in my order to Amazon for a whopping $65 (plus shipping). Apart from the price tag, I was excited to get the book and work through it. This is about the only book I have come across that deals with an up to date release of Solid Edge (all others deal with V18 and V20).

After working through the book I found it great for those who are new to SE and are wondering when to use ordered mode and synchronous and how to deal with the mixed environment. The book takes the reader through the following:

• Sketches for solid models
• Adding relationships and dimensions to sketches
• Editing, extruding and revolving the sketches
• Working with additional referenced geometries
• Advanced modeling tools – 1
• Editing features
• Advanced modeling tools – 2
• Advanced modeling tools – 3
• Assembly modeling – 1
• Assembly modeling – 2
• Generating, editing and dimensioning the drawing views
• Surface modeling
• Sheet metal design
• Student projects

Throughout the book there are exercises and questions based on the chapter.

I did catch a few errors in the book when the text was referring to certain drawings but apart from that, a great learning resource for students and those learning SE. For those wondering when to use ordered and when to use synchronous, Sham takes you through a few scenarios on this but by no means covers all scenarios.

I did find a couple of things missing that I thought the book could have. 1 is an explanation on how to use and orient the steering wheel. Who knows, perhaps we could be looking at a regular release here and an early update to ST5. There is always something to learn from books like this but the price tag is a little steep for students and does require a few edits before release to get rid of the print errors.

For those that want to look up the book, the ISBN is 978-1-936646-16-6 or go to http://www.cadcim.com or http://www.cadcimtech.com