Free Webinar - How to Re-Use 3D CAD Data for Technical Documentation

Are you a technical publication professional looking for a way to use 3D CAD data to create documentation like assembly manuals, or catalogs for your website, or maybe you need animations for the shop floor? Are you faced with tight deadlines to get your publications completed on time? Do you need to get 3D CAD data from engineering departments, but need to find a better way to get what you need without taking them away from their own demanding schedules?

As a technical documentation expert, you may be working with manufacturing companies and following some of these existing processes. Are you creating document layout using software such as Adobe Illustrator, PageMaker, etc.? Are you tasked with getting images from CAD engineers in the form of screen‐captured low resolution JPEGs? Do you have to recreate isometric images using non‐3D software to suit the documentation needs? When the designs change, do you have to "redo" most of the images, adjusting balloons, part numbers, adding/removing components from step‐by‐step procedures, etc? Are you finding that this is time‐consuming and frustrating?

Join Next Level for an informative and free webinar about how you can use 3DVIA Composer to revolutionize the way you create your technical documentation.

Next Level's 3DVIA Webinar will be held

Friday, April 17th from 10am - 11am PST.

Click here to register for this webcast now.

or use this registration link

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/248936897

Benefits of using this software tool:

3DVIA Composer allows non-CAD users to create associative 2D and 3D product documentation directly from CAD file programs without ever having to run a CAD program yourself.
Some of the CAD Formats used with 3DVIA are SolidWorks, Pro/E, CATIA, STEP, and IGES.

3DVIA Composer fits in the existing process between design and documentation to convert 3D data into usable images for documents. 3DVIA Composer allows others to access 3D CAD data without risking accidental change to critical 3D CAD data.

Manufacturing and service departments can now replace the text contents with pictures to represent step‐by‐step procedures with exploded and rendered views.

The return on investment is realized in terms of time savings in updating these pictures in legacy documents and work instruction sheets as design changes.

3DVIA Composer helps controlled or automated updates of all the geometry and metadata changes from CAD to published documents. If your company wants to go paperless, this tool helps you to do just that, as your procedures can be communicated in a CD or over the web by using 3DVIA Player and animations.

Update on the SolidWorks Economic Stimulus Package

If you have been trying to find the link to download the SolidWorks Student Design Kit, here it is! Starting on Monday, April 6th, you can click here and the software is yours for 90 days. You must be in the US or Canada to take advantage of this offer. In addition to the software, this economic stimulus package also includes:

• Videos and tutorials


• Online forum


• Discounts on SolidWorks certifications

We'll be adding some supplemental support in our US and Canadian territories (Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Alberta). Call for details at 866-445-6537 ext 109.

Free Webcast this Friday - Sharpen Your SolidWorks Skills

Join us for Next Level Tech Talk this Friday!

This week, Mike Mason will be hosting our Friday webcast, Next Level Tech Talk-Design Library. These webcasts cover different topics, are held every other Friday, and are led by our fully certified SolidWorks instructors, just one of the benefits you are entitled to with your SolidWorks subscription.

If you have found the the design library in your task pane, but are not sure about how to use this feature, you should join us to get a more complete understanding and to learn how save time by re-using data. I checked in with Mike to get a preview on what you'll get out of this week's webcast, “I plan to start off with some review of how the Design Library works. I’ll go over how you can organize your data, the benefits of storing common parts, assemblies, features, annotations, blocks in the library, and then I’ll show the type of folders you can work with.”

The main part of this webcast will focus on how to save out library features and annotations and also on how to build a custom library feature. “This area is not well covered in training, and I thought it was a good topic to go over,” adds Mike, “ I plan to cover all aspects of making a library feature, so the user can see just what is possible to customize, things like configurations, hidden dimensions, references, using design tables.”

To register for Next Level Tech Talk-Using the Design Library, click here