DesignPoint Blog

FroYo and Filaments

Posted on by Adrian Pastore
A Tasty Guide to How 3D Printing Works One of my family’s favorite outings is a trip to the self-serve frozen yogurt shop.  “FroYo” is always a tasty treat, but eating the yogurt is just part of the experience.  The real fun lies in pulling the yogurt machine’s lever and watching with delight as the [...] Read more...

How does SOLIDWORKS PDM Work?

Posted on by Lorenza Jerez
SOLIDWORKS Product Data Management (PDM) Solution helps you better manage your data and substantially improve the way your teams collaborate on product development. Today, we’re digging into how SOLIDWORKS PDM works. Let's Start with the Platform When it comes to PDM, there are three important components: the SQL Server, the Archive Server, and your local [...] Read more...

The 3 Dimensions of 3D Printing

Posted on by Adrian Pastore
Three Benefits of Additive Strategy We’ve been educating you about exactly WHAT is 3D Printing but are you wondering WHY 3D Printing is the right choice for your manufacturing needs?  Additive manufacturing is literally changing the way in which we make objects, adding new dimensions of possibilities that save time and money while creating superior [...] Read more...

Dinner and a 3D Printer?

Posted on by Adrian Pastore
A Date with Additive Manufacturing Trying to determine the best manufacturing method to advance your product design and engineering business needs is a lot like dating. There are plenty of “fish in the sea,” so how do you determine which one is Mr. or Mrs. Right? Now more than ever 3D Printing scores a perfect [...] Read more...

What is Design Automation?

Posted on by Lorenza Jerez
Achieve More with Design AutomationCreat and Configure Custom Products, Fast. Offering customized products is a great competitive differentiator. It often leads to more sales, higher revenues, and happy customers. However, with more and more companies offering customization, you need to work smarter than your competitors. Design automation enables you to turn around proposals quickly, design and [...] Read more...

3 Ways the Manufacturing Industry is Changing

Posted on by Lorenza Jerez
Times are a-changing. It seems where ever we turn in our daily lives innovations are changing the way we work, play, and collaborate. Especially within our industries. One of the major industries that is evolving at rapid speed is manufacturing. Here’s how: Automation You might be thinking, the whole concept of manufacturing is to automate, [...] Read more...

SOLIDWORKS World 2019 – Day 1 Recap

Posted on by Lorenza Jerez
SOLIDWORKS World 2019 (SWW19) has officially begun and our team has completed their first day. As always, SOLIDWORKS does not disappoint. The conference was kicked off with an amazing amount of energy, enthusiasms, and announcements. For those who would like to follow along live, you can actually stream SWW19 right here. ANNOUNCEMENTS STRATEGY - 3DEXPERIENCE.WORKS [...] Read more...

Celebrating Women in Science – Colleen Moore

Posted on by Lorenza Jerez
Today is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, established by the United Nations to “recognize the critical role women and girls play in science and technology.” We thought this would be a perfect opportunity to celebrate DesignPoint’s Application Engineer, Colleen Moore. We sat down recently to learn a little bit more about [...] Read more...

DesignPoint and BigRep Announce 3D Printing Partnership

Posted on by Lorenza Jerez
CLARK, N.J. | February 06, 2019 DesignPoint is proud to announce their partnership with BigRep, a German tech start-up making waves with their Large-Scale 3D printers.  With one of the largest FDM 3D printers on the market, BigRep believes “it’s time to change how we produce things.” Striving to make the world of manufacturing more individual, [...] Read more...

Using Defeature in 2019 to Speed Up Assemblies

Posted on by Robert Maldonado
If you have been following the blog you may know that we are preparing to renovate our training room and have been using SOLIDWORKS to assist with the task! Last time, I used 2019’s new Large Design Review to add components and mate them in place with magnetic mates functionality. It worked well for me, [...] Read more...

EpiGrid – On Cloud Solutions

Posted on by Lorenza Jerez
DesignPoint is passionate about providing clients with holistic solutions. It's the reason why we partnered with EpiGrid, a comprehensive IT solution provider specifically focused on the mechanical and design engineering industries. EpiGrid has expertise in server hosting, network architecture optimization and implementation, as well as system administration and consultation. Recently, we've been taking our Product Data [...] Read more...

H13 Tool Steel Now Available for Markforged

Posted on by Lorenza Jerez
H13 for your additive machine--you read that correctly. Today Markforged launched the latest material for the Metal X. Here's what you need to know. What is H13 Metal? H13 is a hot-work tool steel, meaning that it exhibits high strength even at elevated temperatures and is traditionally used for tooling and molds in processes like [...] Read more...

The Difference Between Markforged’s Desktop and Industrial Lines

Posted on by Lorenza Jerez
Remember when we first introduced you to the complete Markforged Industrial Line? It was a game changer for the way we do business and the way our clients managed their shop floors. However, to this day, we still get a multitude of clients that ask... "Yeah, the Industrial Series looks awesome,but what's the difference between [...] Read more...

What is the Cloud?

Posted on by Lorenza Jerez
We’re so happy you asked.  You might have already heard that DesignPoint has an exclusive partnership with EpiGrid. They are pioneers for CAD in the Cloud and provide a multitude of solutions for our customers. Still, it is only with a full understanding of what the cloud is that you can you decide for yourself [...] Read more...

How to Activate DriveWorksXpress

Posted on by Lorenza Jerez
Design Automation for SOLIDWORKS DriveWorksXpress is the time-saving Design Automation tool, free inside every licence of SOLIDWORKS. It’s ideal for configuring designs that are the same but different. Configuring and automating your designs with DriveWorksXpress is easy: Set up your project to capture your design knowledge. Fill out your input form. Create new SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD parts, assemblies [...] Read more...

Guided Selling with DriveWorks CPQ

Posted on by Lorenza Jerez
“Guided Selling” helps vendors of products actively guide their customers to a buying decision. In doing so, it increases their inquiry to sale conversion rate. In today’s competitive market, manufacturing companies should consider building guided selling into their digital strategy. This approach is often described as a Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) solution. CPQ software enables companies to develop customization strategies that [...] Read more...

Large Design Review for Large Design Changes: Planning our New Training Room in SOLIDWORKS

Posted on by Robert Maldonado
If you’ve been around the SOLIDWORKS community at all, you know that not only is SOLIDWORKS 2019 out, but it came with some game changing features!  One of my favorites is the new enhancements in Large Design Review (LDR). The feature initially came out in SOLIDWORKS 2012 and revolutionized the way large assemblies could be [...] Read more...

Accelerate Your Online Configurator with Your Marketing Team

Posted on by Lorenza Jerez
What is DriveWorks Pro? Use DriveWorks Pro to create a custom design automation and online 3D configurator solution. Save time, reduce errors and win more orders. Enable anyone to configure custom products and see the results in 3D on any device. Quotes and follow up emails are sent automatically, quickly, professionally and in line with [...] Read more...

URB- E Workflow Pro Tips

Posted on by Lorenza Jerez
Our 2018 More Is Possible® event was a success. We were honored to have Jordan Tadic, SOLIDWORKS Technical Manager, attend and speak on behalf of URB- E. For those who don't know, URB- E is the world’s most compact, foldable electric vehicle and the focus of this year's Creation in Motion | Concept to Consumer Tour. [...] Read more...

What is the DriveWorks CPQ Template?

Posted on by Lorenza Jerez
Digital selling and the ability to Configure, Price and Quote easily has fast become a vital part of “doing business” for manufacturing companies of all sizes and in most sectors. Online customization tools are becoming increasingly popular and they’re now used by many companies as a way to offer customization products cost-effectively. We’ve all seen, and probably used, one of [...] Read more...

What is Configure, Price and Quote (CPQ) Software?

Posted on by Lorenza Jerez
Online customization tools are becoming increasingly popular and they’re used by many companies as a way to cost-effectively offer customization products. This type of software is often referred to as Configure, Price and Quote (CPQ) software. We’ve all seen, and probably used, one of the sales configurators that so many recognized brands are using. If [...] Read more...

Using SOLIDWORKS and 3D Printing to Breathe New Life Into Broken Toys

Posted on by Robert Maldonado
1. Uncovering a childhood memory at the thrift store! I love thrift stores. There’s something magical about walking into one of these places and uncovering a treasure or seeing something from your childhood resurface. The latter is what happened to me when I went to my local thrift store last weekend. The thing that caught [...] Read more...

EpiGrid and DesignPoint Announce Exclusive Technology Partnership

Posted on by Lorenza Jerez
DesignPoint is the first reseller of EpiGrid Cloud-hosted services with exclusivity in their SOLIDWORKS territory. CLARK, N.J. | August 30, 2018 Today EpiGrid and DesignPoint announced a strategic exclusive partnership to provide CAD and PDM in the Cloud. DesignPoint is the first reseller of EpiGrid Cloud-hosted services with exclusivity in their SOLIDWORKS® territory. Despite EpiGrid’s [...] Read more...

Favoritism With Your Engineers

Posted on by Lorenza Jerez
Here at DesignPoint we believe in the No Engineer Left Behind Act. Jokes aside, we’re noticing that engineering departments may be showing favoritism, unintentionally. While its easy to justify SOLIDWORKS for the Mechanical Team, many are neglecting to recognize that the Electrical Team is being left behind. It doesn’t make any sense--there is room for [...] Read more...

How to Model: Self-Packing Scutoid in SOLIDWORKS

Posted on by Robert Maldonado
Some exciting news has broken out in the scientific and mathematical community. In July 2018, a paper was published by P Gómez-Gálvez: Scutoids are a geometrical solution to three-dimensional packing of epithelia. So the first question you may have is: What is a scutoid? That is the exciting news! A scutoid is a 3D shape [...] Read more...

How 3D Printing Crushes The Competition At Robotics Tournaments

Posted on by Andrew Garchik
Recently I was speaking with a teacher who runs a robotics program in North Jersey and I was inspired to address how 3D printing brings a competitive edge to the industry. Here are a few reasons why anyone competing in robotics needs to check out the latest 3D printing technology. Time – One of the [...] Read more...

Sheet Metal Simplified with SOLIDWORKS [Webinar]

Posted on by Andrés Lesmes
Request a Demo Let’s explore together how easy it is to create sheet metal parts in SOLIDWORKS without compromising manufacturability. In less than 30 minutes, you’ll learn: How to efficiently model sheet metal parts in SOLIDWORKS How to add Industry standard features How to clearly communicate our designs for manufacturing Request a Demo Below! Read more...

How to Prepare for Industry 4.0: A Practical Guide [Webinar]

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
Learn what Industry 4.0 means for your company, the business benefits offered by Industrial IoT, and how your business should prepare for it. Request a Demo Hear from Dr. Ching Au, CEO of Durabrite, a leading manufacturer of industrial lighting solutions, about how the company has adopted and integrated IIoT into their product line. This [...] Read more...

One ‘STEP’ Beyond [Webinar]

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
Introducing the latest design technology for a seamless integration between your electrical and mechanical design teams. Request a Demo For the past decade, the STEP format has been instrumental in assisting in the collaboration between the MCAD and ECAD tools. But, STEP has its limitations. Those who have imported STEPs from ECAD tools know that [...] Read more...

Bridging the Gap between Plastic Part Design and Manufacturing

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
Live Town Hall Webcast : Bridging The Gap Between Plastic Part Design and Manufacturing Join SOLIDWORKS panel of experts, from plastic injecting molding industry, as they discuss plastic part design and manufacturing best practices and share ideas on how to avoid costly errors and rework. Register Now Bridging the Gap between Plastic Part Design and [...] Read more...

Get Your Plastic Part Designs Tested

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
Have your plastic part designs ever suffered the embarrassment of short shot, shrinkage, uneven cooling or deformation? If your designs are having difficulty performing during the injection molding process, it’s time to get tested. SOLIDWORKS Plastics gives you the tools to easily assess your designs for manufacturability by simulating the plastic injection process. By using [...] Read more...

Best Practices for Optimizing Plastic Part Designs [Webinar]

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
SOLIDWORKS Plastics gives you the tools to easily assess your designs for manufacturability by simulating the plastic injection process. By using SOLIDWORKS Plastics, you can catch potential defects in the early stages of your design, gain the insight to make smarter decisions earlier, save money by avoiding costly late-stage design changes, and get to market [...] Read more...

DesignPoint Announcement of Winning Customer Satisfaction Award by SOLIDWORKS

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
SOLIDWORKS awards DesignPoint “#1 in Customer Satisfaction in North America” for its second consecutive year. Recognized for the personal touch and value DesignPoint adds to every client interaction, More is Possible rings true. CLARK, N.J. | MARCH 16, 2018 DesignPoint, experts in 3D design software and 3D printers for engineering and manufacturing companies in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic [...] Read more...

How Much Is Your Current CAD System Costing You? [Webinar]

Posted on by Brett Dunn
Learn More Don't let cost hold you back from enhancing your design productivity and innovation. Discover how it's possible for you to cut 3D design software costs AND boost innovation during this 30-minute must-see webinar! You'll learn: Why companies using SOLIDWORKS have a lower cost of ownership and higher productivity The benefits of a customer-friendly [...] Read more...

Identify Plastic Part Deformations Before Manufacturing [Short Video]

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
SOLIDWORKS Plastics gives you the tools to easily assess your designs for manufacturability by simulating the plastic injection process. By using SOLIDWORKS Plastics, you can catch potential defects in the early stages of your design, gain the insight to make smarter decisions earlier, save money by avoiding costly late-stage design changes, and get to market [...] Read more...

Design Better Parts with SOLIDWORKS Plastics [Short Video]

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
SOLIDWORKS Plastics gives you the tools to easily assess your designs for manufacturability by simulating the plastic injection process. By using SOLIDWORKS Plastics, you can catch potential defects in the early stages of your design, gain the insight to make smarter decisions earlier, save money by avoiding costly late-stage design changes, and get to market [...] Read more...

Why You Don’t Need to Be a Genius to Run CFD Analyses

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis doesn’t have to be hard, and it certainly doesn’t have to be expensive. Let’s uncover why. I’m going to pull that wool away from your eyes and demystify the industry misconceptions of robust 3D CAD analysis software so that you, the everyday mechanical engineer or product designer, can innovate more [...] Read more...

Is 3D Printing on the Production Line Actually Feasible?

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
Implementing a realistic 3D printing strategy may seem like a distant, formidable plan for the future, but we promise, it's easier to get started than you might think. In fact, many of the largest cost saving additive manufacturing (AM) opportunities in manufacturing are produced in low volumes when compared to the number of parts they [...] Read more...

Why 3D Print Manufacturing Cradles?

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
Parts like this UHMW cradle for manufacturing industrial vehicle frames can be slow and costly to produce for many manufacturing departments. These types of tools and materials are excellent opportunities for additive manufacturing on production lines. A high strength 3D printer, like one from Markforged’s Industrial Series line, can make quick work of such a [...] Read more...

Winter Challenge: Create a Snowflake Using all of the SOLIDWORKS Patterns!

Posted on by Robert Maldonado
There’s no better way to end 2017 than with a SOLIDWORKS challenge! I’ve tasked myself to design a snowflake using all of the feature patterns available in SOLIDWORKS. Do you think I can do it? The patterns I will use for this challenge include: Variable Curve Driven Mirror Linear Sketch Driven Circular Table Driven Fill [...] Read more...

5 Ways Automation Can Make Your Job Easier [Electrical Schematic Webinar]

Posted on by Loretta Stiurca
Learn More Overcome the bottlenecks slowing down electrical design! Level up your electrical schematic designs by: Effectively planning your projects Reusing work instead of redoing work Automating intelligent, data-rich design documentation Propagating design changes instantaneously Improving communication between users simultaneously working on projects Ready to achieve more with your designs? Fill out the form below [...] Read more...

Stop Wrestling With Your Design Data – The Fundamentals of SOLIDWORKS PDM

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
Watch this 2-minute video to learn how you can focus more on design and spend less time wrestling with your design data! Learn More With SOLIDWORKS PDM, you can: Minimize redundant data and save time when searching for files Work with intelligent file versioning and revisioning controls Share and sync data that can be accessed [...] Read more...

Creating a Sound Design Part 4: Will It Fill? Fixing Our Headphones Using SOLIDWORKS Plastics [Webinar]

Posted on by Roy Mutalik
Learn how you can better understand real-world mold flow behavior and detect problems in molding earlier with SOLIDWORKS Plastics. Watch this webinar with Application Engineering Manager at DesignPoint, Roy Mutalik, for the details! Learn More Here View the Full Series In part four of this webinar series, you will learn how to set up and run [...] Read more...

Your Engineering Team’s Transformation [Webinar]

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
You no longer need to accept that "good" is "good enough" within your engineering department – More is Possible®! Learn More Learn how to solve these three common industry challenges: There is tremendous time pressure to get things done. Tedious, manual processes are slowing the team down. The team isn’t using their tools as effectively [...] Read more...

Turn Your Engineering Status Quo Into a 3D Mastery Machine

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
Your Engineering Transformation – Make It Happen! Accelerate your engineering efforts for maximum impact. Watch the webinar to learn how! Watch It Here Formalize your vision for your engineering team by flipping internal inefficiencies into productivity-boosting strategies. How much time have you spent over or under analyzing a design concept? Having a second set of [...] Read more...

Driving Efficiency in Engineering [Webinar]

Posted on by Roy Mutalik
Learn about the correlation between engineering and product data management (PDM) systems. Application Engineering Manager at DesignPoint, Roy Mutalik, will walk you through how PDM can save you time with tasks such as searching for parts and helping with standardization. Learn More In less than 20 minutes, you’ll learn about: Standardization of file and folder [...] Read more...

Creating a Sound Design Part 3: Simulating a Plastic Part With SOLIDWORKS Simulation [Webinar]

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
Prevent future design failures by knowing exactly when and how your products will fail using SOLIDWORKS Simulation. Watch this webinar for the details! Learn More In part three of this webinar series, you will learn how to run studies on a broken plastic part from a set of headphones in SOLIDWORKS Simulation to prevent it from [...] Read more...

Creating a Sound Design Part 2: Reverse Engineering With Geomagic for SOLIDWORKS [Webinar]

Posted on by Andrés Lesmes
See how easy it is to manipulate 3D scanned data within SOLIDWORKS. Learn how to reverse engineer a plastic part for production in this webinar with Andrés Lesmes, an applications engineer, at DesignPoint. Learn More In part two of this webinar series, you will learn how to reverse engineer a plastic component from a set of [...] Read more...

Introducing the World’s First Mini Workstation Designed for CAD Users

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
Get a FREE HP Z2 Mini with Your SOLIDWORKS Premium Purchase! Learn More Out of 7 billion people, 5 million designers imagine, engineer, and shape our world. You are 0.1% of the population. And now, there’s something designed specifically for you. Introducing the world’s first mini workstation designed for CAD users – the HP Z2 [...] Read more...

Creating a Sound Design Part 1: Reverse Engineering With the Geomagic Capture Scanner [Webinar]

Posted on by Andrés Lesmes
Welcome to DesignPoint’s Reverse Engineering Video Series! This series will walk you through how to reverse engineer a plastic component from a set of broken headphones. Join us as we prepare this part for manufacturing or 3D printing without the hassle of using calipers, micrometers, calculators and other antiquated tools. For each major step in [...] Read more...

SOLIDWORKS 2018: Powerful Model Based Definition

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
Learn More Model Based Definition in SOLIDWORKS 2018 is more powerful than ever allowing you to more accurately define all the manufacturing information needed within the 3D model. You can now apply datum features to patterns more accurately representing real life designs like the three mounting holes in this cover. Model Based Definition helps companies [...] Read more...

3 Ways Collaboration Enhances Electrical Design

Posted on by Loretta Stiurca
We live in a world where collaboration is the key to success. Without it, projects often aren’t completed on time and mistakes are much more likely to go unnoticed. Because of this, we need tools that enable a highly collaborative environment. You’ve probably used tools like Skype, Dropbox, Asana, Slack, and One Drive, but when [...] Read more...

4 Ways to Get the Most From Your SOLIDWORKS License

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
Many necessary evils live within the product development cycle. They can appear as design rework, hardware order mishaps, a chaotic quoting system or too many slow and manual processes just to name a few. But becoming more efficient with the capabilities already inside SOLIDWORKS can save you significant time on grueling, manual labor while monitoring the [...] Read more...

The Holy Grail of 3D Printing: The Markforged Industrial Series [Webinar]

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
Watch this quick webinar to learn how industrial strength 3D printing is now financially attainable for every manufacturing business! Request a Demo In this webinar, we introduce a variant on an established 3D printer line! Learn how the new Industrial Series 3D printers from Markforged are the go-to solution for manufacturing tooling such as jigs, [...] Read more...

The Holy Grail of 3D Printing Has Arrived!

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
You no longer need to accept the trade-offs between strength, part-quality, and affordability when selecting a 3D printer. We are pleased to introduce the Markforged Industrial Series line of composite 3D printers! With this introduction, Markforged has made industrial strength printing financially attainable for EVERY manufacturing business, allowing them to compete on a global stage. [...] Read more...

Markforged and SOLIDWORKS Join Forces

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
Watch the video to see how these two companies are bringing carbon fiber and metal 3D printers into the mainstream. Request a Demo Aerospace engineer, innovator and three-time entrepreneur, Greg Mark, went from creating wings for race cars made of carbon fiber to redefining the way engineers are building parts made with carbon fiber. By merging [...] Read more...

Stop Guesstimating and Start Validating Your Designs [Webinar]

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
Watch this 23-minute webinar to learn how you can solve common design challenges that disrupt product development before it's too late. Request a Demo Product designers and engineers face many of these obstacles throughout development: Material costs are too high Product warranties get in the way Project delays Product failures in the field Long prototyping [...] Read more...

Production Quality 3D Printing Software for the Everyday Engineer

Posted on by Danielle Harrison
Whether you are brand new to 3D printing, use it for tooling and fixtures, prototyping, end-use parts, educational purposes or any combination of these applications -- adding materials for strength and calculating that cost has never been easier. You can leave your manual calculations in the 80s along with Microsoft Paint, and step into the [...] Read more...