I use solidworks a lot and I often feel like most parts of it written by someone who has never designed a mechanical part in their life. I've submitted plenty of improvements to solidworks but...
On the other hand I can't quite justify paying for custom programming for little things in a small company with 3 engineers sharing 1 seat of solidworks.
Here's something I'd like to see. Any criticism is welcome.
A website devoted to collecting small solidworks helper program ideas and connecting programmers with customers. It would work somewhat like this:
I post a helper program idea: I do a lot of dual units work so let's say I request "A measure program that will automatically display in the status bar the shortest distance between two selected entities in millimeters and inches (or if the single selected item is an arc, display the diameter and radius in both units)"
Each person visiting the site browses through the project ideas and if they see one that looks good, they "vote" with what price they would be willing to pay, # of seats, and an email address.
A programmer browsing through the site would see what projects had the most support by the cumulative dollars offered for the program. If they decide to write the program (or already have written it), they can post an offering (a link to their website).
The programs with the most support would more likely get made. Programmers would get a better feel for what was needed.
This leaves a lot of unanswered questions.
On a more complicated program the specifications will be more in number and detail. Which makes it less likely a large group of people will agree that this is what exactly is needed. How do you mediate the process of refining the specifications?
Just because you *say* you'd buy something doesn't mean you will at the price the programmer offers. It's a free market after all. But part of the idea is to spread the costs for the "customers" and spread the risks for the programmers.
I'm sure the rest of you can poke more holes in this...
What do you think?
-Traveler Hauptman Mechanical Engineer Barrett Technology