Top 10 Dezignstuff posts of 2010
These are the 10 posts that got the most traffic during the year of 2010. They weren’t all written in 2010, but they must have been the most relevant for folks.
10. SolidWorks Crash-Free Edition. 7,207 hits. This was actually a facetious post poking fun at people who can’t maintain their systems. Inspired by a user group presentation.
9. Surfacing. 7,444 hits. This is due to people searching my blog for surfacing information.
8. Catia V6. 7,892 hits. Very interesting, since I know very little about Catia, and don’t actually write about Catia itself, other than about technology SolidWorks borrows or about a translator. I think Catia itself is a bit of a black box for most SolidWorks users. Keep your eye on Anna Woods blog, since she has promised to post about Catia, having received a trial license.
7. Gallery. 8,245 hits. I put up a gallery of renderings of things I’ve modeled.
6. Modeling Challenge. 10,164 hits. This is a category of blog posts. The challenges have been the most constructive things on this blog. They get the most positive interaction, and generally contain the most useful information.
5. Here’s a Rendering Contest. 3 comments and 10,899 hits. This post covered a rendering contest done by Luxology, the maker of the modeling software modo and the rendering engine behind PhotoView 360. The renderings are insane in their detail, and less cartoonish than SolidWorks renderings tend to be. All good renderings start with a great model, and there’s no difference here.
4. 2009 Bible. 21 comments and 11,594 hits. A page covering the update to the big book.
3. Modeling a Propeller. 11 comments and 13,112 hits. It is no surprise this post did so well. Several readers sent in some great models for this post. Users of several different CAD packages came together for this one. Definitely one of my favorites.
2. 2008 November. 16,713 hits. This wasn’t a single post, but a link that has seen a lot of traffic. I’m not sure what it is that makes this link so popular, but this month was responsible for such posts as the Model A posts, How to Design Shoelaces, Greenbuild Boston, the Spline series, and the infamous Do You Love-Hate SolidWorks post, along with Happy Valley user group, reverse compatibility, and the very first CAD in the Cloud post.
1. Surfacing Bible. 52 comments and 19,713 hits. The Surfacing Bible is really the one thing I’ve done that I take pride in. It was the first one of its kind and predates SolidWorks surfacing going mainstream, published in April 2008. Its popularity has actually increased since its original release. This book is getting a makeover this spring.
Author’s choice(s): I get the right to have some favorites, don’t I?
The Cloud. This was not my favorite topic, and it was not my best writing, but there have been a lot of people with a lot to say on this topic this year. I think SolidWorks blundered by prematurely raising a lot of questions without any answers so early in the development. I think it will also turn out to be a mistake to think most users are going to buy into this for their main CAD tool. Overall SolidWorks has handled the PR around this topic badly. This makes my list because collectively, the posts on this topic have consumed a lot of mindshare around here.
Solid Edge ST3. Why do I write so much about software I don’t use to make money? Because I think this stuff is way under rated. If you are doing machine design or sheet metal or anything where you have prismatic parts and you’re not using this stuff, I think you’re missing out on some great tools. I understand some people just follow the jobs, but if you’re in a position to choose what you use, you should at least give SE a try. ST3 combines direct and ordered modeling scenarios in a way that improves both.
Car posts. Between the Cobra, F1,Batmobile, Model A, dump truck, and an automotive modeling challenge, we’ve done some cars around here. Cars are difficult to model and fun to render.
Boundary Surface. I did a series of 6 posts on the boundary surface. I think these were some of my favorites. They got overshadowed by some of the other nonsense going on at the time, but they are some of the posts I enjoy most.
What did I learn from all of this? I guess I learned that I did my best writing two years ago, and that frustration isn’t a very good motivator to write good stuff. If I want to write better articles, I’m going to have to find some good news somewhere.