After an exhausting but enjoyable trip to San Diego for SolidWorks World I spent the weekend working on the notes I took during the sessions. It's always interesting to look back at your notes and try to make some sense from them. I'll be publishing the notes over the next few blogs. Here is the first set.
Following are the notes I took during the CAD Manager's Boot Camp that was presented by Greg Jankowski. You probably won't be able to make much sense from them so feel free to ask questions...but ask someone who knows. Not me...
CAD Managers Boot Camp
Sunday 12-Feb-2012
Important issues:
system requirements
graphic cards
anti-virus
SolidWorks Forums – ask questions
Check graphic card drivers each time you update the SW software
If you experience issues it is rare that the anti-virus is the culprit
Benchmarking – built into Rx now – useful for finding bottlenecks and comparison between machines.
Order of importance:
Operating system-win7 64
RAM-speed & stability check with slightly larger than typical model. Check with resource manager.
CPU – very important – hard to compare
GTAs vr GHz
I7 vr Xeon
Graphic cards – turn off edges + 50% faster
Disk Drives things to consider
File I/O
Size
Speed
MTBF
Raid
SSD
Policies:
Setup policies for software
Hardware
Common Practices – music, outlook
Backups, get familiar, how are they made. Onsite, offsite
Hardware Planning: lifecycle, interchangeable parts: memory, video, power supplies
Best practices, swap, contiguous space. Defrag.
Get it like you want it: imaging software…
Application delivery-options advantage
Anti-virus – performance,
turn-off during installs NOT,
Exclude SolidWorks files from virus scanning – documents will open faster?
Network- access, server, test & measure (metrics)
System Maintenance
Reliability
Stability
Performance
How
Disk defrag
Clean-up
SolidWorks Rx
System mechanic
Ace logic
BREAK------
Installation
Online help
Administration guide
Windows installer
Minor patching
Update service patches
Download
Installation
Before you start – make a list
Communicate
Backup setting
Decide on a deployment plan
Setup software
Licensing
3rd party apps
Printing/plotting
Macros
Get to know the release
Best practices installations
use logical installation path naming scheme
partner with IT
provide your users with update information, what’s new, update class, user group info
administration image – installation manager,
push on 1st install only
update the server only – clients update automatically
option editor – check it out
changing options
how to start-control panel/uninstall/SolidWorks
note: repair is faster than uninstall – re-install
multiple major versions okay on one computer, multiple service packs of same major release not allowed.
Log files
Administering SolidWorks:
Minimize bad practices
Consistency
Easier to manage
How to create
Standardize on:
Hardware & software
Deployment
Admin controls – settings – file locations, templates, custom properties
User controls – toolbars, custom keys.
Custom properties –templates – check out Robocop
Default settings:
GOOD CAD manager:
Listen to your customers (users)
Find out what the pain points are,
Communicate.
Identify non-value added tasks (don’t make a macro to do a stupid task)
Define & measure
Get help
Training – important
Productivity
Take advantage of all that SW offers
Evaluation
Each user is different
New vs. current employee
Training plan:
Fit the needs of the individual user
Use all training resources
API
PDM – absolutely should be using
“we should be controlling the data, not the other way around”
Troubleshooting
Report issues
Report to reseller
Give as much detail as you can…
Business impact
Workflow, files, etc
Rx
Rx Video
Remote support
Collect,
Simplify,
Eliminate unknowns
Rx safe mode
Ask: is there a system level operation failing?
Machine:
Frequency
Reproducible
What changed?
How long has it been going on?
OS specific
Installation
Rx – what/why
Check out all the tabs/features
System maintenance
Recreate? Records?
Benchmarks
Tools & resources
Performance monitor
Event monitor
System internals
Process monitor
Process explorer
Knowledgebase
SPRs
PDM – Challenges
SWW
Usergroups
Where to go for answers
Be proactive
Communicate
Metrics – measure
Where to go from here..
Following are the notes I took during the CAD Manager's Boot Camp that was presented by Greg Jankowski. You probably won't be able to make much sense from them so feel free to ask questions...but ask someone who knows. Not me...
CAD Managers Boot Camp
Sunday 12-Feb-2012
- Technical Resources: You won’t always know the answer but you should know where to get the answer.
- Windows Desktop Search (WDS) – network drives, index network drives.
- Google – time limits and custom search? Explore.
- help.solidworks.com login is suppose to be active for 12 hours now
- knowledgebase – common tech support questions.
- SolidWorks Rx – has links to learning resources
Important issues:
- Performance
- Stability
- maintainability
system requirements
graphic cards
anti-virus
SolidWorks Forums – ask questions
Check graphic card drivers each time you update the SW software
If you experience issues it is rare that the anti-virus is the culprit
Benchmarking – built into Rx now – useful for finding bottlenecks and comparison between machines.
Order of importance:
Operating system-win7 64
RAM-speed & stability check with slightly larger than typical model. Check with resource manager.
CPU – very important – hard to compare
GTAs vr GHz
I7 vr Xeon
Graphic cards – turn off edges + 50% faster
Disk Drives things to consider
File I/O
Size
Speed
MTBF
Raid
SSD
Policies:
Setup policies for software
Hardware
Common Practices – music, outlook
Backups, get familiar, how are they made. Onsite, offsite
Hardware Planning: lifecycle, interchangeable parts: memory, video, power supplies
Best practices, swap, contiguous space. Defrag.
Get it like you want it: imaging software…
Application delivery-options advantage
Anti-virus – performance,
turn-off during installs NOT,
Exclude SolidWorks files from virus scanning – documents will open faster?
Network- access, server, test & measure (metrics)
System Maintenance
Reliability
Stability
Performance
How
Disk defrag
Clean-up
SolidWorks Rx
System mechanic
Ace logic
BREAK------
Installation
Online help
Administration guide
Windows installer
Minor patching
Update service patches
Download
Installation
Before you start – make a list
Communicate
Backup setting
Decide on a deployment plan
Setup software
Licensing
3rd party apps
Printing/plotting
Macros
Get to know the release
Best practices installations
- customer data/files on a networked drive
- default values should be reviewed/shared each release
- use of anti-virus application
- test installation – 3 setups, production, last good, testing
use logical installation path naming scheme
partner with IT
provide your users with update information, what’s new, update class, user group info
administration image – installation manager,
push on 1st install only
update the server only – clients update automatically
option editor – check it out
changing options
how to start-control panel/uninstall/SolidWorks
note: repair is faster than uninstall – re-install
multiple major versions okay on one computer, multiple service packs of same major release not allowed.
Log files
Administering SolidWorks:
Minimize bad practices
Consistency
Easier to manage
How to create
Standardize on:
Hardware & software
Deployment
Admin controls – settings – file locations, templates, custom properties
User controls – toolbars, custom keys.
Custom properties –templates – check out Robocop
Default settings:
GOOD CAD manager:
Listen to your customers (users)
Find out what the pain points are,
Communicate.
Identify non-value added tasks (don’t make a macro to do a stupid task)
Define & measure
Get help
Training – important
Productivity
Take advantage of all that SW offers
Evaluation
Each user is different
New vs. current employee
Training plan:
Fit the needs of the individual user
Use all training resources
API
PDM – absolutely should be using
“we should be controlling the data, not the other way around”
Troubleshooting
Report issues
Report to reseller
Give as much detail as you can…
Business impact
Workflow, files, etc
Rx
Rx Video
Remote support
Collect,
Simplify,
Eliminate unknowns
Rx safe mode
Ask: is there a system level operation failing?
Machine:
Frequency
Reproducible
What changed?
How long has it been going on?
OS specific
Installation
Rx – what/why
Check out all the tabs/features
System maintenance
Recreate? Records?
Benchmarks
Tools & resources
Performance monitor
Event monitor
System internals
Process monitor
Process explorer
Knowledgebase
SPRs
PDM – Challenges
SWW
Usergroups
Where to go for answers
Be proactive
Communicate
Metrics – measure
Where to go from here..