SWX Add-in

"John Layne"

Reply to
Jerry Steiger
Loading thread data ...

It has been my experience in the past that if you are versed in assembly managment and external refernces you should not need this add-in. I have yet to find an assembly, part, etc that I could not resolve the issue within 5-10 minutes.

The only way I could see this as a need is if I recieved a lot of poorly created assemblies from other companies and had to fix them all the time.

Reply to
Jeff

Reply to
ed1701

If I did that to some of my clients, they'd look me in the eye and say WTF is this for?

I do agree it is potentially a very useful tool, however it would be a very hard sell for most of my current and past clients. Perhaps I should just get better clients?

John Layne

formatting link

Tack on a $200 premium for a printout

Reply to
John Layne

It would depend on the client and how they value their designers time. Some are savvy enough to know that all it takes is one innocent mistake with a SWx dataset and you lose half a day picking up the pieces - but you are correct, others would absolutely say WTF???, to thier peril. Its like any sort of insurance - some folks just like to roll the dice.

Disclaimer: Again, NOT HAVING SEEN THIS PRODUCT - don't know if this will even do that well.

The same economical quandry applies for all sorts of add-in analysis to a job - for instance, I advised one customer earlier this year to do a moldflow anlaysis because they really wanted their parts flat. I gave them a vendor for that (we don't do it but highly recommend someone who does), they rolled the dice without moldflow, and a quarter later we got a call asking us for advice on why we thought that the final molded parts weren't flat!. Now they have to pay for modlfow AND a new tool, and deal with the lost revenue from NOT selling the product while they are fixing the issue.

Prototypes, FEA, all sorts of things can be hard to sell a client on. All I do is let them know about the options I would do if it were my money involved in this product. Each job and client is different and has different needs, but its easy when I start with the question 'how can these guys make the most money?' ... And then its their business if they accept or reject my advice. Ironically, most of the stuff (like prototypes or moldflow) that I might recommend I don't make a penny on. Its just the best thing to do, and my job is to present the best things to do.

When talking to clients about options, we always focus on basic business ethics - my job is to make my client as much money as possible and present designs and recomendations that I think will do that (case in point - I turned down a $300,000 job once in the first few minutes of going over it because I knew they could do it better in a different way, then coached them on what I would do in their shoes for a quarter of the price. Though I would not profit on that one, you bet they came back for other jobs because they know we are not out to milk anybody. Win-win).

And if I were handing off a complex SWx database for someone else to work on, communcating the relationships in the database for $200 or so could be part of saving them all sorts of time=money as they work on it. If they didn't 'get' that, it would be a shame - they lose money if things go south, and strangely, after they rejected my advice I could probably end up making more money as I am brought back in to bail them out. At least I would be on record for trying. Ed

Reply to
ed1701

Having read your post, and if it gets good reviews, I may end up purchasing it even though $750 US is a fair chunk of change to a Kiwi contractor. If it adds to the clarity and adds a higher degree of professionalism, when handing over to a client, it may well justify the cost. Though I doubt very much if I would actually charge a client anymore for doing so, justifying the extra cost to a client (with some exceptions) is not a conversation I would look forward to.

There are many ifs in the above and as you point out, we haven't actually seen the product as yet. We, or just I, may well be imagining it to be far more useful than it actually is.

In addition, as I tried to point out in other posts even if a plug-in is great value and useful it will not necessarily make the writer any money. It may well go unsupported after the first release if there isn't sufficient profit for the company.

Anyway - time to go to sleep here, looking forward to your review and hopefully the reviews of others attending SolidWorks World.

John Layne

formatting link

P.S. Hopefully SolidWorks World will eventually be sited next to a Ski resort, that way I can justify the cost of attending to my partner, She could Ski all day whilst I attend seminars :). I'm sure I couldn't justify visiting the States in winter if she couln't Ski.

Reply to
John Layne

I'd second these last comments.

I-DEAS has a graphical representation of assembly relationships (i.e. mates), including in-context ones (called "associative copies" in I-DEAS) which allows you to step through the assembly structure in a similar fashion to the Solidmap product. Having experienced it, I find Solidworks' tools very poor in comparison. and I'd LOVE to use Solidmap

....BUT......$750 is a non-starter.

John H

Reply to
John H

On 15 Dec 2006 23:56:02 -0600, "John Layne" is this for?

charge it as photocoping - just had an architect pull that one on me.

You're not fooling anyone John - we all know "clients" is a euphamism for your better half and that she holds the purse strings. :-)

So whats this talk of getting new clients ? :-)

Jonathan

Reply to
jjs

Ok--- I'm obviously spending too much time in this forum you know me too well. I would no doubt have to consult "She who must be obeyed" and putting a convincing business case forward to spend US$750 would be an issue, it was hard enough to get her approval to purchase Maxwell Render!

An example of one of my recent business proposals, put forward for the approval of "She who must be obeyed"

"Honey, I'd like to buy an A3 Photo Printer" I said

"What for?" She said

"Well, for printing photos and I could use it for business as well. I know it's cheaper to get them done in bureau but it would be kinda handy to have" I said, groveling with head bowed.

"No" She said

Looks like I'll be printing my photos at the bureau for sometime to come

John Layne

formatting link

P.S. that's not a bald spot on my head, it's my girlfriend' thumb print.

Reply to
John Layne

Great line! Though I would rather blame the bald spot on someone... prior... As it stands, my girlfriend is very cool. Talk about trading up... BTW - enjoy the longest day of the year on the 21st. I am jealous - it was dark when left the house this morning, and dark when I came home. But the Xmas lights look nice.

I'll let you know what the product looks like if I am able to test it on my files... Ed

Reply to
ed1701

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.