Be Active - please...

[matt]

Security on the internet is a big issue, even here. If you want to lurk (read the forum without registering), that's fine, we need that kind of attention. And if you want to register, that's great too, you can post and participate in all of the features this forum has to offer, plus we also need that kind of traffic. But if you do register, we want to ask that you give some sort of way to know that you're here because you're interested in the topic - such as making a post, even if it's just to say "Hi, my favorite CAD is MOI because I like the colors."

We get piles of bogus logins every day. Most of them sign up with generic emails from generic domains with generic names. Do we wind up booting some legitimate logins? Maybe, but we've not heard from anyone we've booted who was legit yet. We can't filter all of this automatically.

So, if you register, and you're not a bot, please make a post or two just to show you're human and interested in the main topic.

*Accounts with no posts and no activity for a month will be deactivated.* If this happens to you, you can reactivate, and you'll be cool. This is really just to eliminate the sleeper accounts that people with less than great intentions set up. We will add a field to each login so that if we know a particular account is legit, we can mark it.

Thanks for your help!

[ddemar5651]

Hello all. My name is David. I had lurked the old forum for several years just never had the need to ask a question. I registered on this Forum during the initial couple days. I continue to lurk here as i have not had the need to ask questions. I do however read the topics that interest and or pertain to me. I have learned many things regarding how to accomplish task in Solidworks by lurking on these forums. I am not the type that will reply to a question posted here as i feel there are others more qualified than myself to answer questions. I only know the in and outs of the software to be able to accomplish work duties.

[DanPihlaja]

Question:

What exactly does "no activity" mean?
Or rather, what does, "activity" include ?
Logging in?
Liking a post?
Replying?
etc...

[AlexLachance]

Question:

What exactly does "no activity" mean?
Or rather, what does, "activity" include ?
Logging in?
Liking a post?
Replying?
etc...

That is a good question, because some might log on on a daily basis without necessarly requiring to reply or ask a question.


Edit: P.S. Welcome @ddemar5651

[matt]

Question:

What exactly does "no activity" mean?
Or rather, what does, "activity" include ?
Logging in?
Liking a post?
Replying?
etc...

I think any activity that links your user name with some sort of action in the board log satisfies it, the lower limit of what defines activity is logging in. Definitely if you post something, that's certainly activity. I think liking something, or participating in a poll or changing your UCP would also qualify. Just something that allows you to be identified as being human, and hopefully interested in our topic.

So anyone who posts to this thread doesn't have to worry. The people I'm talking to are the ones with 0 posts, and who have not logged on in the last 2-4+ weeks. Little things are showing up, and I need to seal the cracks and take out the trash from time to time.

[mattpeneguy]

Question:

What exactly does "no activity" mean?
Or rather, what does, "activity" include ?
Logging in?
Liking a post?
Replying?
etc...

I think the lower limit of what defines activity is logging in. Definitely if you post something, that's certainly activity. I think liking something, or participating in a poll or changing your UCP would also qualify. Just something that allows you to be identified as being human, and hopefully interested in our topic.

So anyone who posts to this thread doesn't have to worry. The people I'm talking to are the ones with 0 posts, and who have not logged on in the last 2-4+ weeks. Little things are showing up, and I need to seal the cracks and take out the trash from time to time.

Got it...So, when I create the Matt Lombard account, I've got to post using that account or the account will be deleted, right?...

[matt]

Got it...So, when I create the Matt Lombard account, I've got to post using that account or the account will be deleted, right?...

That account name probably won't get past the admin's watchful eye. You'd think I'd be flattered by people doing that. But, not so much.

[jcapriotti]

That account name probably won't get past the admin's watchful eye. You'd think I'd be flattered by people doing that. But, not so much.

What about:

Mat Lombard
Matt Lumbard
Matt Lombardi
Mathew Lombardo
Matheus Lombardius

[matt]

What about:

Mat Lombard
Matt Lumbard
Matt Lombardi
Mathew Lombardo
Matheus Lombardius

If you use all of my aliases, what am I going to do when I go to the seedy side of the internet?

[jcapriotti]

@matt I thought this site was already on the seedier side? It's definitely on the saltier side with all the old salty dogs here complaining about a ship that has already sailed.

[matt]

@matt I thought this site was already on the seedier side? It's definitely on the saltier side with all the old salty dogs here complaining about a ship that has already sailed.

Here I am, minding my own business for once in my life, trying to run a respectable establishment, but all I can attract here are cockfights and CADfights.

yeah, we need a color for feigned innocence.

[Roasted By John]

I'll take a "Matte Red Lamborghini"

[AlexLachance]

Mathieu Lombardieux, gotta bring some french around here

[matt]

Mathieu Lombardieux, gotta bring some french around here

Truth is I grew up closer to Montreal than any US city. Lots of French Canadians in my high school, and a lot of those spoon-playin, leg-slappin not-quite-bluegrass, not-quite-creole musicians around too.

[AlexLachance]

Truth is I grew up closer to Montreal than any US city. Lots of French Canadians in my high school, and a lot of those spoon-playin, leg-slappin not-quite-bluegrass, not-quite-creole musicians around too.

À-la "Les Colocs" I'm guessing? Canadian Folklore music is quite it's own kind.

So, how's your french?

[matt]

À-la "Les Colocs" I'm guessing? Canadian Folklore music is quite it's own kind.

So, how's your french?

My father and I ran sound for a NorthCountry Tour of Le Reve du Diable


My French is slightly less than it takes to get your face slapped. I took Spanish in school. 20 miles from the Quebec border. Not that bright. I was obviously looking forward, planning on being invaded from the south rather than the north.

Plus, I worked for a company that was owned by a big company from Quebec City (Exfo). That was a cool place. And most of them made a point of refusing to speak English. I got to the point where I could read a little French, but absolutely can't speak it without a mouthful of hot soup.

[zxys001]

Here I am, minding my own business for once in my life, trying to run a respectable establishment, but all I can attract here are cockfights and CADfights.

yeah, we need a color for feigned innocence.

Well,.. what you are doing is very much appreciated!
If you need any help, please let me know?

[Damo]

Don't delete me, I'm not a Bot..

[Jean LeBlanc]

My father and I ran sound for a NorthCountry Tour of Le Reve du Diable


My French is slightly less than it takes to get your face slapped. I took Spanish in school. 20 miles from the Quebec border. Not that bright. I was obviously looking forward, planning on being invaded from the south rather than the north.

Plus, I worked for a company that was owned by a big company from Quebec City (Exfo). That was a cool place. And most of them made a point of refusing to speak English. I got to the point where I could read a little French, but absolutely can't speak it without a mouthful of hot soup.

Matt don't sweat it. I am Canadian with a French name and my French is about the same as you.
I was born and raised in the English province of British Columbia.
My father was from Nova Scotia. His French was not good either but he could curse real good in English. My mother was also French and she was from Saskatchewan and she could speak, read and write in French or English. Sadly, I regret not being fluent in French.
Now all I can do is wait for Alex to give me a beating.

Cheers,
Jean LeBlanc

[AlexLachance]

You weren't born in a french neighborhood or surrounded by people who spoke french, so it's not as if you avoided learning it, you just didn't have the occasion

I'm actually rather lucky to have had parents who spoke french and english fluently and forced me through learning it in my younger years. I don't think I would have had the dedication to learn it when I was a teenager. Boy was I a bum lol

Edit: The more I think of it, the more I realize I did kind of force myself into learning it too. My parents taught me the speaking part, the school the basics and I got more fluent by going through extensive english courses and also by being a gamer. I learned a lot on games, as stupid as it might sound! Typing on forums and talking on games like Counter-Strike Source. StarCraft also had a great chat system! Ha!

Man, I feel old now..

[SamSpade]

My father and I ran sound for a NorthCountry Tour of Le Reve du Diable


My French is slightly less than it takes to get your face slapped. I took Spanish in school. 20 miles from the Quebec border. Not that bright. I was obviously looking forward, planning on being invaded from the south rather than the north.

Plus, I worked for a company that was owned by a big company from Quebec City (Exfo). That was a cool place. And most of them made a point of refusing to speak English. I got to the point where I could read a little French, but absolutely can't speak it without a mouthful of hot soup.

That music reminds of my youth, and growing up in Montreal during the ‘70s. My grandfather use to love watching 'Soirée Canadienne' every Saturday evening, not that he understood much, or if any of it. He immigrated from Italy in the '50s and his French at the time was pretty much limited to a couple of broken phrases. I guess his fascination had something to do with the show’s audio and visual attributes that he was able to relate to.

Not that I understood much more of it at the time. With my mother tongue being Italian, and not knowing a lick of English, let alone French, until the start of elementary school, here I was having to watch Quebec folk dance and music before I could enjoy Hockey Night in Canada that immediately followed. It’s remarkable how sounds can transport us back to a simpler time.

[HerrTick]

I'd give them more like 3 months. Especially any European users who have the luxury of extended vacations.

[majo]

I think two months without reacting is a good time span.

[Merovingien]

if someone registered, but didn't write anything, found the information he wanted...
and if he doesn't create new topic,
or hesitate to participate to one existing topic.

and if a user simply has to stop some weeks or months, due to medical needs,

"lurker viewers" is acceptable...

so the fact that they log on, is a proof to don't disable their account.

even if they are "bugidworks spys"

the need to force new users, to write somethings, to avoid spam-bot is enough i think.

[jmongi]

There are always trade-offs. I do think a little longer than a month might be a tad better. But, C'est la vie (seemed appropriate...)

I presume your doing something similar anyway @matt but I would just make sure to send a polite e-mail to those being deactivated referencing some possibilities (vacation, illness, etc) and how they can reactivate their account.

[jayar]

My father and I ran sound for a NorthCountry Tour of Le Reve du Diable


My French is slightly less than it takes to get your face slapped. I took Spanish in school. 20 miles from the Quebec border. Not that bright. I was obviously looking forward, planning on being invaded from the south rather than the north.

Plus, I worked for a company that was owned by a big company from Quebec City (Exfo). That was a cool place. And most of them made a point of refusing to speak English. I got to the point where I could read a little French, but absolutely can't speak it without a mouthful of hot soup.

I had 3 years of French (Parisienne) in high school (never learned Québécois, i.e. patuc-talk) and about all I could say is "Mange le port" - roughly, "Eat the door." and obviously I don't get to use that phrase very often.

I could tell you some horror stories of French Canadians who 'pretended' that they didn't understand English but it would turn out to be a long story.

[AlexLachance]

I had 3 years of French (Parisienne) in high school (never learned Québécois, i.e. patuc-talk) and about all I could say is "Mange le port" - roughly, "Eat the door." and obviously I don't get to use that phrase very often.

I could tell you some horror stories of French Canadians who 'pretended' that they didn't understand English but it would turn out to be a long story.

"Mange le porc" would be eat the pork, with the c in porc being silent.
Mange la porte would be eat the door.

Edit: And Mange le port would literally be eat the harbor

[matt]

"Mange le porc" would be eat the pork, with the c in porc being silent.
Mange la porte would be eat the door.

Eat the door. I love translations.

[zxys001]

Security on the internet is a big issue, even here. If you want to lurk (read the forum without registering), that's fine, we need that kind of attention. And if you want to register, that's great too, you can post and participate in all of the features this forum has to offer, plus we also need that kind of traffic. But if you do register, we want to ask that you give some sort of way to know that you're here because you're interested in the topic - such as making a post, even if it's just to say "Hi, my favorite CAD is MOI because I like the colors."

We get piles of bogus logins every day. Most of them sign up with generic emails from generic domains with generic names. Do we wind up booting some legitimate logins? Maybe, but we've not heard from anyone we've booted who was legit yet. We can't filter all of this automatically.

So, if you register, and you're not a bot, please make a post or two just to show you're human and interested in the main topic.

*Accounts with no posts and no activity for a month will be deactivated.* If this happens to you, you can reactivate, and you'll be cool. This is really just to eliminate the sleeper accounts that people with less than great intentions set up. We will add a field to each login so that if we know a particular account is legit, we can mark it.

Thanks for your help!

hmm,.. maybe a social collaboration button... "away from my desk", "out of the office" "I'm sick at home" "out protesting" or "away on vacation"?

[AlexLachance]

hmm,.. maybe a social collaboration button... "away from my desk", "out of the office" "I'm sick at home" "out protesting" or "away on vacation"?

What about "passed out"?

[pmarsman]

some bots are ok though

[AlexLachance]

image.png

some bots are ok though

If he pays his rent, then he's allowed!

[Andy]

FWIW, hello from a SW Forum lurker. I can echo @ddemar5651 pretty much word-for-word. Lurked for years, never needed to post, and regularly read posts that apply to me. I also run two forums myself, so understand the spam/malicious user angle, but personally think deactivating accounts isn't the way to go. But that's just my view on things.

[matt]

FWIW, hello from a SW Forum lurker. I can echo @ddemar5651 pretty much word-for-word. Lurked for years, never needed to post, and regularly read posts that apply to me. I also run two forums myself, so understand the spam/malicious user angle, but personally think deactivating accounts isn't the way to go. But that's just my view on things.

I'm not sure I'd actually deactivate anyone, just want to push people to participate. You can lurk without an account, the only reason to sign up is to participate, unless there's something else going on.

Thanks for posting, though.

[Andy]

I'm not sure I'd actually deactivate anyone, just want to push people to participate. You can lurk without an account, the only reason to sign up is to participate, unless there's something else going on.

Thanks for posting, though.

As I mentioned, I run two forums myself; one as having an interest in the subject matter, the other, I [hate to say it, as it sounds conceited] consider myself an expert on. The latter I answer virtually every post on, but the former there are much more qualified users than I, so I just lurk and keep things in check. It's the same here, and the [old] SW forum... there are others with far more experience to answer posts, so I let them do so. I think my few years on SolidWorks has barely even scratched the surface of what can be done compared to other users capabilities.

I do have a bugbear though, and that's people buying/using/recommending gaming hardware for CAD. You might see me rear my head in those topics, as it really grinds my gears, especially when good used professional hardware [often with transferable warranties remaining] can be bought for very respectable money. I'll probably get myself deactivated for being too opinionated on the subject, thinking about it!

[matt]

@Andy , questions and opinions are totally welcome. You don't have to be an expert to have something interesting to say. I always find examples of people's work to be very interesting as well.

[Andy]

I always find examples of people's work to be very interesting as well.

I work on stuff like this.

[matt]

I work on stuff like this.

Bike stuff is always cool. I look forward to seeing more.

[jcapriotti]

I do have a bugbear though, and that's people buying/using/recommending gaming hardware for CAD. You might see me rear my head in those topics, as it really grinds my gears, especially when good used professional hardware [often with transferable warranties remaining] can be bought for very respectable money. I'll probably get myself deactivated for being too opinionated on the subject, thinking about it!

Depends, on my home PC I have a gaming card...costs $500, and the equivalent "quadro" version costs $2000. However my home PC is just for hobbyist use and the CAD programs I have are education versions. Still, SolidWorks is the only one that balks and limits stuff on my Geforce. Inventor and Solid Edge work fully.

[Andy]

Depends, on my home PC I have a gaming card...costs $500, and the equivalent "quadro" version costs $2000. However my home PC is just for hobbyist use and the CAD programs I have are education versions. Still, SolidWorks is the only one that balks and limits stuff on my Geforce. Inventor and Solid Edge work fully.

I don't play games, as personally I'd rather spend my time learning, but that's just my personal choice. Therefore, I have no use for a gaming card.

As my PCs are for professional use, they have Quadros installed. My laptop was bought new by my employer, which was indeed pretty expensive at the time (circa £3500), but my desktop at home was bought by myself [new] in early 2020 off eBay, and also bought a used Quadro for £300. Both machines are running P4000's. The desktop setup was less than £1000 up and running, plus I sold the Quadro P620 that came with it, and the K4200 that I'd been using previously, which reduced my outlay even further. I only use SolidWorks, as that's what my company pays for, so the machines are specced for it.

My point is professional kit needn't be bleeding edge or insanely expensive for the majority of users, so there's no excuse in my book for not using the correct tool for the job if you're serious. If it is that important, then I expect the company you're working for will pay the premium. But as you say yourself, your PC is "for hobbyist use", so it's not important if you run into issues.

Ironically, at this moment in time, I would say a used Quadro is often actually better value than a gaming card, if you're emphasis is CAD! But each to their own.

[jcapriotti]

@Andy

Yeah, this PC was built primarily for gaming. If I was doing real work with it, I would probably try to snag a used quadro. Ebay has some K6000s in the $500 range.

[Andy]

@Andy

Yeah, this PC was built primarily for gaming. If I was doing real work with it, I would probably try to snag a used quadro. Ebay has some K6000s in the $500 range.

Personally, I wouldn't go older than an M series card now, and for that money I would [and did] go for the P4000.

The K6000 is a bit of a brute, but takes up a lot of internal real estate and has a 225W TDP. The P4000 has a much newer architecture, is single slot, and is rated at just 105W. I ran one (or should I say squeezed one into) in a little Precision T1700 MT at home for 12 months, with absolutely no problems at all. For most people, it's going to be more than enough for the next 4-5 years at least.

Kepler's getting a little long in the tooth now, although still very capable of course, but I also take into consideration potentially how many hours a K card has on it now, given that it could be 7 1/2 years old now.

[raneum]

Hi, I hate the new Solidworks forum, glad to see you have this option going for us Matt, thanks!

[matt]

Hi, I hate the new Solidworks forum, glad to see you have this option going for us Matt, thanks!

We aim to please. most of the time. Except when we aim to maim. Never to kill, though, we're so humane.

Anyway, thanks for coming! You can reference other users with the "@" sign like this @raneum

If you don't see something you think should be here, just ask.

[jayar]

I will be 'off grid' for 3 weeks in July; please don't delete my account. TIA

[matt]

I will be 'off grid' for 3 weeks in July; please don't delete my account. TIA

Don't worry. I'm only worried about accounts that have never posted anything clearly relevant. You're definitely OK.

[Diaval]

I wonder if it would be possible to automate a message to an account after it seems to be inactive or not engaging for a certain period of time where a reply to the message can confirm the account belongs to an actual human. Wouldn't work for accounts who are not logging in but it might for people who come here just to read.

[matt]

I wonder if it would be possible to automate a message to an account after it seems to be inactive or not engaging for a certain period of time where a reply to the message can confirm the account belongs to an actual human. Wouldn't work for accounts who are not logging in but it might for people who come here just to read.

Yes, it is. I'm trying to do two things: encourage people to participate and minimize how much research I have to do to keep out people with bad intent. I've made some recent changes to the registration process that are helping. Don't want to discourage anyone from participating.

[IndianaDave]

Hello everyone...
Long time listener...
First time caller...

Actually I may have posted once or twice, by now.
I'm too busy working to post much, but do come here to search for answers occasionally.
Much easier to find stuff than the official SW3DHorribleEperience site.

[CADNurd]

Hello all.

CADNUrd, reporting for duty

Was a former member of the old SolidWorks Forum for its last 6 months of existence.