Joseph Richter can often be found in the classroom hammering on design intent to create future Certified SolidWorks Professionals. His passion for design is infectious, and when his 8 to 5 job is over, he can still be found tinkering away in SolidWorks working on his hobby projects. Find out how Joe uses these projects to keep learning about SolidWorks and improving his skills.
What are you working on now in SolidWorks?
One of my personal projects is a model of a Galaxy Class Starship from Star Trek: The Next Generation, originally designed by Andrew Probert (who also designed the AirWolf Helicopter). Its organic geometry presents a lot of challenges that really push my surfacing skills. Although it has been a constant work in progress over the years, it is by far my favorite design seen in the Star Trek Universe. The one question people always ask me about it is “Are you planning on making the layout of interior decks?” I exclaim, “Yes, that is the plan, time permitting!”
Assembly in action: from 3D printed parts to finished product. Click to enlarge.
Any other favorite projects?
A few years ago, I made a model of the Ghostbusters Proton Pack which helped me learn SolidWorks Routing. In the end, not only did I have a cool 3D model but also the data necessary for rapid prototyping so I 3D printed some parts and built a Proton Pack for Halloween.
Enrique [a fellow tech] also wanted to build a Proton Pack so we could walk around downtown for Halloween. During that phase of the project [fellow tech] Michael suggested adding lights. He took us under his wing to teach us some basic wiring and electronics and came up with the brilliant idea of taking Dollar Store electronics – LED’s from miscellaneous toys and flashlights, and circuits from safety bike lights for chasing, blinking, and strobe effects – to wire into the Proton Packs.
Finished Proton Pack
After the smoke from the soldering iron cleared and the hot glue finally hardened, you could see three grins across the tech team as we had five complete Proton Packs ready for Halloween; one for me, my wife, son, Enrique, and Enrique’s sister. There were no more ghosts left after that Halloween outing, I can tell you.
Go team! Sounds like a great way to practice those advanced tools. But what about the new features that are released every year? Do you keep up to date on them and try to incorporate them into the classes and your everyday usage?
SolidWorks is always improving their software and require all Application Engineers to take yearly updated Tech Support Certification exams. So the short answer is yes, I need to learn the new features inside and out. However, there is so much information packed into the training classes already that there is not much extra time to deviate from the core training material. However, I do usually find a few favorite enhancements that I think are major in terms of workflow or performance and choose to cover in class and use daily regardless.
Speaking of favorite features, what are some hidden gems in SolidWorks that you make sure to tell everyone about in class?
First, the design binder. People miss this because it’s not available by default. It’s a folder in the design tree that allows people to store additional documents or information about a part or assembly, like material spec sheets, pictures, hyperlinks, or other non-CAD items. If you spend a little time doing this up front it really saves you time in the long run. When you email your part or assembly, all those supporting documents will be included so you don’t have to find and attach each one to the email.
Comments don’t get used often either. These are like putting yellow sticky notes onto the feature tree. They can help communicate design intent (check out Joe’s tech post on how to use Comments!).
Another thing to mention here is the SolidWorks Customer Portal which allows you to become actively involved with the future development of SolidWorks. These are called Enhancement Request which everyone should be using. I send in suggestions all the time for enhancements that I hope to see in the next release.
Thanks for your time, Joe, one last question: What’s the best part about your job?
I love teaching. I love to help people by sharing my knowledge with them as I strive to make a difference. As it is said, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”
By effectively teaching designers and engineers how to unlock the power of SolidWorks and to use it efficiently allows them to focus on their designs instead of the software. As a result they can make a difference in their respective industries with their inventions. In the end we all benefit by getting superiorly designed products which can impact us all by simply making daily life easier or as important as saving lives.
The Ghostbusters Gang. From left to right: Mayra Garcia, Nigel Richter, Barbara Richter, Joe Richter, Enrique Garcia
