QR Barcode good marketing or just a gimmick?

Having seen these popping up all over the place we decided to have a closer look at what they were. It started by finding the app on the iPad to scan something we saw on TV one evening.

To say we were blown away is an understatement!

The app then went on the phone & we got to thinking whether it was something we should be considering for Catwards.

We went on-line & found a website which generates these QR Barcodes for free.

We are now the proud owner of our very own.

So, here’s the rub, what on earth do we do with it now?

We have put it as our profile picture on our twitter account @catwards.

It is the profile picture on our Facebook page

Is there any point in putting on the website because if you’re there why would you need a link to get there?
Or would it just be worth it for geek value?

OK…over to you, what should/could we do with it?

Inventor User Day @ The Rosebowl, Southampton

Yes it’s that’s time of year again Inventor User Day from Adris Computing Concepts.

We always look forward to this event and it’s for a number of reasons not necessarily connected with finding out what the latest goodies are from Autodesk Inventor. It’s about catching up with old contacts…and believe us it is becoming older and older after 9 years. Adris put on their first User event 9 years ago over the road from their offices & I think there were 11 of us sitting around a table, not really knowing what we were going to do!

Steve very kindly gave us a bottle of something for toughing in out for the last 9 years…thanks Mr Houlder!

What is great is that this event has now grown into something that is really worth going to & adds value to our subs. Not sure what the proportion of the 100+ people who came along were not actually using Inventor, but a good balance was struck between information & selling.

You may have read our last blog about a SolidWorks event we went to…now, not wanting to cause too much controversy, but the biscuits at the RNLI were better……yes ok…we did get lunch at this one and 2 coffee breaks, so I guess that evens it out!

So what is there to report… the biggest change is what has happened with our ‘products’ & what we are now getting for our money.

We have been upgraded from plain old Inventor to Product Design Suite Premium 2012, which gives us lots of new toys to play with.
The guys at Autodesk seem to have made a few really nice tweaks to Inventor like making creating a sweep far easier, also changing the views in the drawing environment has just got better. Just to name a couple. We need to get in there to see the full benefit of what we’ve got…but only after SP1 has been released … company policy…

We’ve got ourselves 3d studio max; mudbox & sketchbook designer, poor Ben had to demonstrate making a model from a sketch & we definitely felt for him….no dimensions, no straight lines…….he did very well with it bearing in mind the limited time available to demonstrate something so complex.
From what we could see though, was that the biggest change is the presentation tools we have now been given within Inventor, rather than have to buy additional product & licences.

*Note to Autodesk* can we have Inventor Publisher next year? It will make using your lovely iPad app much easier…

We really liked the ‘competition’ – far better than boring old raffle tickets..same great prizes, but definitely woke the room up & made people smile…at a user day….

fake or foto Photo

Demir was smiling because he had sorted his wardrobe malfunction & was pleased it was holding up. Interestingly Neither Ben or Stewy are smiling – probably exhausted & in need of a beer…

All did good on their presentations – there was a lot to get through & it must have been difficult to decided what to cover

http://area.autodesk.com/fakeorfoto/challenge if you want to have a go

All in all a good day out at a great venue catching up with new & old acquaintances whilst learning something.

Roll on the 2013 release!

“Get the MOST out of SolidWorks”

Went to a great event with these guys (the Fareham team are ours) last week at the Lifeboat College in Poole.
Entitled “Get the MOST out of SolidWorks” we thought we would trundle along & see what it was all about.
What we went to was a really good event with a good turnout for an event that wasn’t really aimed at a new release or for being a ‘sales’ event. It was just a useful morning spent with some SolidWorks users, some networking & some great Tips & Tricks!
We came away with a couple of pages of notes of stuff we had forgotten SW could do.
Silly things
Obvious things
Also some things we thought it could do but didn’t know how.

We're getting pretty good at this 3d Modelling mallarky

Good to point out at this point – we don’t use SW all the time, we have 2 seats of Inventor & 1 of SolidWorks & that pretty much the ratio of what we use.  
Some things in SolidWorks are great & Inventor really cannot touch them (surfaces, obviously) but also Photoview360. We are working on a little product development project at the moment & it is a great function that is now embedded within SW.

Some of the (stupid) things we wrote down:
• Hold down the ‘control’ key to disable snap when drawing
• How to customise your mouse gestures
• Look at more of the ‘Expert’ options when adding features (Fillet; Features; Draft)
• How to use “pack&go” as a (very) basic document control system if you don’t have PDM (we don’t)

We wrote loads down about Photoview (cos we are using it now) & (if we are honest) switched off when it came to the simulation stuff – do not use it (do not intend to start – we will leave that side of things to the experts). But it was great that they, well Richard, managed to cover such a diverse range of stuff in the 3 hours we had & it was of interest to most people in the room at some level.
We knew about 3D PDF’s, but not about splitting & merging PDF’s by downloading a free product – just gives the ability to add that extra bit of oomph to the things sent to clients.

Overall, it was a nice way to spend a dull (weather not company) Friday morning with a visit to the FAB Lifeboat College, some cups of coffee, brilliant cookies with just a touch of geek thrown in for good measure.
We loved it & hope they consider doing it again! It’s these sorts of things that add a bit of value to our subs.
Well done Greg & Richard for running it & thanks to the Lifeboat College for the venue.

3D Printing

Yesterday we went to TCT Live 2010 at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.
Having returned safely, it is time to reflect on the day.
Before we went, we had a discussion here in the office about what we know about 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing & what the differences were. We decided that actually the technology between the technologies was becoming harder to define.
We have been looking at buying a ‘printer’ for a while now & the biggest thing holding us back is what technology to buy into & how we can best support our clients with the service we will offer.
Initially we looked to the Z-corporation 450 because it prints in colour. It ticked all the boxes for “wow” factor and was an easy machine to talk about to the ‘layman’ who were always suitably impressed. We could sell it to our clients who were looking to get a feel for their product. It was a done deal for us.

z corporation 450

We wanted to wow.
We wanted that piece of kit in our office.
Then we went to TCT last year & looked at what else was available. We pre-arranged to have one of our models printed by Laser Lines who sell the Dimension range of machines. This led us to look at FDM more seriously. The quality of the finished product was the biggest surprise & being fickle, we decided that maybe FDM was the way we should be going.

Dimension Machines

We work with many manufacturing and engineering companies & the ability to provide them with an ABS model of their product was very appealing. However, this then took us over a line that we were not even aware of existed. The possibilities for our clients, by having a plastic model of their product were enormous. They could start putting in brass inserts for threads; they could make jigs, moulds, 1 offs.
However, where does that then leave us? We offer a draughting 3D modelling service. We thought the 3D printing would be a bolt on service for our clients to add value to what we were already doing. However, the FDM steps into ‘rapid prototyping’ territory, which is a completely different beast.
Yesterday we looked at the new z corporation z-builder their new machine for producing plastic prototypes.

We looked at the HP stand featuring The Designjet 3D Personal Printer (actually is the re-branded U-print from Dimension)

We also had a look at the V-Flash by 3D Systems. Not entirely sure how we missed these guys last year. It looks a nice bit of kit & is priced very competitively, with the running costs being similar to its main competitors. The finish of the parts was really quite impressive & again designed to fit in the office environment. This one does use different technology & involve lasers, but will sit in the office & produce good quality models.

We also went to talk to the people at mcor technologies who make the matrix 300 printer that produces its models from paper.
They excited us last year – its paper guys – standard cheap photocopier paper!

The models are robust & very cheap to produce & can be post-processed like the FDM & powder models in that they can be sanded down & painted, sprayed or coated in wax. This hits all the buttons as far as the environment goes – it’s clean, it’s quiet & sits on the desk. The problem? The machine is nearly 3 times more expensive…
But, it’s paper…will it be something our clients would be interested in using?

We dipped our toe in the sintered-lasering pot as well, but do not want to comment until we have been to the seminar with 3TRPD next month, where we are hoping to learn more about the technology & what can be achieved & then we can advise our clients should it be a technology that would suit specific projects.

So rather than making the picture clearer for us, we have come back with almost as many questions as we had when we left.

What to do now?

We are going to get some sample models printed so that we can directly compare the results from the different technologies.

Watch this space – about all we can say – but rest assured 3D printing is the way to go & is a service we will be offering in house in the future.

Good Luck!

With summer fast coming to a close & the new academic year approaching, it is time for us to bid farewell to a valued member of staff.

Tom has been with us for nearly 2 years & has been a great member of the Catwards team. Sadly for us, he has decided to pursue his dream of teaching & will be going to Exeter University to do a PGCE so he can move on to teach Design and Technology at secondary school level.

Whilst he is moving away from draughting, he will still be banging the CAD drum (so to speak) & passing on his skills to the next generation. I think it is fair to say he has learnt loads about how CAD is used in the real world & we hope he can impart some of that knowledge & enthusiasm to the young people he will be teaching.

It has been a huge pleasure & privilege to work with him.

Good Luck Tom!

Project worked on from rough sketches through to final renders

June 2010…where is the year going?

It has been a busy few months at Catwards and now that things have quietened down a bit we are sticking our heads above the parapet to update you on what’s new.

LATEST – STOP PRESS

Apart from the top quality projects & jobs, we have been involved with, the biggest excitement last week has been getting our air conditioning fixed. It has been stupidly hot in the office … it rained the next day – typical!

SERVICES UPDATE

Whilst we love working in our lovely office here, we have been getting an increasing number of enquiries for us to supply a technician on-site, due, in part to the restrictions of checking in/out of data with Inventor & SolidWorks.

No one can accuse us of not listening & so in response to this, we are very excited to announce that we now offer an on-site service.

We will come to you (terms apply) and work in your office,  complimenting (not in the “your hair looks good like that” kind of way) your own in-house team with whatever CAD support we can.

Our skill base is very much with Inventor & SolidWorks, with just a hint of AutoCAD, so if you think we can help you out, please call 01305 340806

2010 THE FIRST 6 MONTHS

We were looking down our jobs list at the projects we have had in the first 6 months of 2010. The most obvious thing we have noticed has been we have quoted for & won 3 times more jobs than this time in 2009. The jobs have tended to be slightly smaller, but over an immensely wide range of disciplines and markets including:

• Marine
• Furniture
• Medical/Beauty
• Airfreight
• Oilfield Instrumentation
• Environmental Instrumentation
• Quarrying Equipment
• Production Plant Equipment

It would be a lie to say we have not been affected by the economic climate, but we have been rumbling along & maximising all opportunities. We have had several new clients join us with some incredibly interesting projects.

We printed the cap for this for evaluation

We have ‘printed’ a number of prototypes, bringing client’s products & ideas to life in ABS plastic. Nothing beats holding the real thing. Modelling in 3D brings the flat sketches to life & the next logical step is the prototype. In our experience, this consolidates the design and the client can instantly see what needs changing. Changing the model is (mostly) quick and easy & of course, all the drawings update automatically.

Bring on the next 6 months.

Let us know how we can help support your team – we are quite good at it – even if we do say so ourselves….

From the Garden to the Granby…….

Catwards is now 8 and we have had another busy, busy year….and what a FAB year we’ve had, working with great people on some fantastic projects. The diversity of the work we get involved with never ceases to amaze (and sometimes amuse) us.
We won the Open4Business Small Business of the Year Award for the second year running, which has given us a great opportunity to show the wider business community what we do & what makes us tick.

'from the garden...'

Cathy Warne founded Catwards in 2002, where she worked from her FAB office in the garden.

The ever-increasing workload enabled us to move to premises – initially onto Portland and now onto the Granby industrial Estate in Weymouth.

'....to the Granby...'

We love the modelling challenges that each new project brings us – let’s see what the next year brings…we can’t wait – watch this space!

Supporting Local Schools – Industrial Link Partners 2010

Catwards has been supporting 3 A level Engineering students from Budmouth Technology College, who have been looking at the ‘The Role of the Engineer’ element of their coursework

The pupils were tasked with investigating engineering activities, the application of technology in engineering and legislation and standards in engineering. Catwards’  history of being involved in a wide and varied range of engineering projects allowed us to provide the students with all the information needed to comprehensively complete their assignment.

The students visited us here at the office to look at Catwards as a company in Engineering. Whilst we are not a true get your hands dirty engineering company – we are a company that supports and works with the engineering community

At the open day to highlight the student’s coursework, we were recognised as one of the Budmouth Technology College Industrial Link Partners for 2010.

It has been a hugely rewarding experience to be able to help the students with their assignment and Catwards is proud to be a recognized partner of one of the local schools.

Catwards is plotting something………………………

 

How many of you know we offer a plotting service? Well we do…………..
We recently undertook what can only be described as a mammoth plotting job. We shipped out 2400 plots, went through over 30 rolls of paper, produced plots from A3 to A0 and all to a very tight deadline!

Every drawing needed looking at to make sure that all the title blocks had been completed correctly and that the correct print styles were being used. this is something that needs to be done by someone who knows the industry and the software. Taking us away from the competitive printing business and into the CAD niche.

 
As you can imagine, this now elevates us to plotting guru status, so please dont hesistate to contact us if you require some plotting. No job is too big!

Catwards supports Fair Trade.

Here at Catwards we consume alot of hot drinks! We therefore thought that it was only right that we become exclusively fair trade. We still consume the same amount of hot drinks but now all the tea bags and coffee we buy are produced to fair trade standards.

Also, continuing our support for local business, we now only buy Clipper tea bags. Clipper Tea ltd is a global tea company based out of Beaminster that are invloved in a number of worthwhile causes. Pop over to their website to find out a bit more! http://www.clipper-teas.com/

Now please excuse us while we head off and polish our halos.