Two Book Announcements
With the SolidWorks 2013 bible getting closer to production every day (all the edits are finally done), it is time to turn my attention to other things. I’ve got a video tutorial project taking me through the end of the year, so any new project will start after the new year.
Based on requests that have come in and gaps in the general documentation pool, I’m looking at creating two new books by spring:
Plastics Design and Processes
This will be aimed at people using SolidWorks to design plastic parts, and will have some background information on mold processes and tooling design. It won’t be a beginner’s book, you should already have basic skills. I hope to do something that is useful beyond just SolidWorks, but it will be based on SW2013. It will have a glossary for all the wonky terminology that comes with plastics and mold design. It will talk about the SolidWorks features, but also about things like rib thickness, shrinkage, press fits, ultrasonic welds, heat stake, live hinge, and other design methods. This book may also be useful for mold designers. For whatever reason, I have several friends who are mold designers, who I may be able to coax into selling some of their secrets. To me, mold design is probably the most difficult work there is. Again, this book will be mainly aimed toward modeling rather than design, and professionals rather than beginners.
I’m also looking at a hybrid format. I like physical books, but an electronic format may give me the option to do a lot more with mixing text, images, and video. I’m still investigating this.
Swoops
With the surfacing bible out of print, and people selling used ones for outrageous money, I think its time for a new book. Wiley has declined to publish a new edition of the original that was published in 2008, probably because they won’t sell 10,000 of them in a year (about 7000 of these have been sold), so I’m on my own with this. That means all new material, new examples, new models, new format, new ideas, new everything. In truth, there haven’t been that many significant changes to that area of the software, but doing everything new brings new opportunities. Not a week goes by when someone doesn’t ask me if I can dip into my private stash and find them one of these books.
While I think the SolidWorks Bibles are decent books, they are immense, and I have to research a lot of topics I frankly have no interest in. And the publisher’s format for them is rather restrictive. With this new book, I can focus on stuff I know, which in the end makes a better book.
The target audience for this book will be a combination of industrial designers, mechanical designers, and engineers who have to model swoopy stuff. It’s not a book about design, or about art, it’s about making manufacturable, attractive, complex CAD models. It will have a range of examples from product design, stuff you might think is impossible, and technical complex shapes, like boat hulls, propeller, aircraft, and so on. All the models will be original by me, however some may be inspired by other models I’ve seen. There will be a combination of life-like and abstract models to demonstrate workflow and technique.
For both of these books, I hope that people who are interested will submit ideas for material. Either submit topics that you’d like to see discussed, such as living hinges for the Plastics book, or suggest cool models or examples, like a Dyson Vacuum.
Why write new books on software that isn’t going to be around much longer? Books really don’t have much of a shelf life, so the motto is “make hay while the sun shines”. People are still using the software, and will use it until Dassault is successful at running them off, whenever that may be. Plus, I will include info in these books that will be valuable beyond just SolidWorks.
Even though I’m a few months late, I’m glad to hear this! I will surely be buying the plastics and surfacing books.
I’m delighted to hear that a new Surfacing Bible is in the works. The 2008(?) edition probably improved my modeling skills more than any other other purchase I ever made.
Consider me standing in line for a copy the new one…
Matt, looking forward to your new 2013 bible and these books!
@Dave Ault
Dave, I’ve been trying to update the blog, but I just couldn’t get a theme that did what I needed it to do. So I’m just gonna continue hacking this one. I’m not much of a CSS or PHP guy, but I’m slowly figuring it out.
@Eric
Thanks for the comments! Makes it easier to work when I know I’m not wasting my time.
@Charles
@Matt
Yeah, wish I had a truckload of those right now.
Blog design of the day Matt? 🙂
I am anxiously awaiting all 3 of these publications. I am really glad to hear you are going to do something new on surfacing, even if it hasn’t changed that much. At least the format will be new. The plastics design piece sounds very interesting and one that I had not thought of looking for.
Just thought you should know you have another customer waiting for your products.
That’s a good chunk of change for your book. I bought it a few years ago on amazon for just under $30. I like the book but since I can pretty much do everything in it I decided to sell it myself I had no idea it was going for that much.
Guess it’s time to sell my Surfacing Bible on Amazon!
Matt,
Perhaps you could include a short chapter on the surfacing features of GW3D. Nobody seems to know about this add in. I have some cool airplane shapes that you can use as examples. I have found that the conic surfaces are wonderful. It is easy to create surfaces that have smooth bends even going from convex to concave. The surfaces do not consume the defining curves, so they may be used again by mating surfaces. The blend surface works better than Solidworks boundary surface. The user interface is a bit clunky but the shapes are worth it.
At least you can ask cadcamcomponents.com for a sample copy.
I own some of your books and have referenced some of the others and I thank you for your work. I look forward to getting your new books as I’ve definitely run into issues with those topics. Also, look into breadpig for publishing (either for new books or potentially reselling out of print books if you happen to have the rights to do so?) A lot of the techie, kickstarter type books have been published through them so they must have something going on compared to more standard publishing companies.
I have the following three SWX bible books I want to get rid of – for free to anyone willing to pick them up. I live in Melbourne, Australia. The books are the surfacing book, the administration book and the 2011 parts book. After having a nervous breakdown caused by the myriad of bugs in SWX I left my job as a draftsman and no longer need them. They are free to anyone who wants them and can pick them up. No I will not mail them. I am easy to find on the net so contact me through my e-mail if you are interested.
Onto another issue – Matt have you thought of self-publishing thru Createspace?
[img]http://www.dezignstuff.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/112_1954.jpg[/img]
Awesome news Matt
@Josh
Not sure. Plastics analysis is extra-cost software. I usually stay away from add-ons.
Matt
Are you going to use SW Plastics to show an analysis of some of the plastic parts? Might be beneficial to people so they can see how a design is iterated through to a final production ready model.
Josh
@solidworm
Solidworm, thanks, that’s the format I’m looking at. I bought Creative Suite 6 recently with the idea of learning it for that project. Glad to hear that it handles both iOS and Android. I might also publish physical books for an extra charge, but printing and binding is expensive.
That was an exciting news! especially the new plastics design book announcement. as for the digital format of the book, I’ve read that epub3 format supports both audio and video, InDesign CS6 could be used to create that type of file.there’s at least one android app that supports epub3 and the new ibooks for iOS. it would be enjoyable to read the book and interact with it on a tablet!
@Ryan
I have included sketches from ID guys in the past, as well as photos of actual objects. I’ll probably do it again. In fact, I might try to get the images from readers. Get your name and sketch in the book.
Matt-
Will you be including importing artwork from the Industrial Designers, building splines based on the artwork and then overbuilding and triming surfaces in your new Swoops publication?
I put together a short blended workshop on this workflow (4-5 years back) for NX that might be useful to you. I had built some e-learning modules with narration and video discussing the functions needed in the project and then the course was dedicated to working thru the actaul building of the surfaces/solids in class.
Ryan