On CosmosMotion and Web Standards

So I’ve spend the last 15 minutes or so mostly waiting for CosmosMotion to finish animating an assembly I am testing. I’m at work right now at Solidworks, and will be for much of the rest of the day. CosmosMotion, for those who don’t know, is a software product within Solidworks 3d CAD that helps animate and replicate motion within the 3d CAD program. From Solidworks 2009 it on it has been rebranded as Solidworks Motion or something. In any case, I sent out an email to Olin’s “HelpMe” email list asking if anybody would be willing to lend me sample CAD files from any projects of theirs, having already tested my old projects. While I’ve been waiting for the animation to be compiled I’ve continued to read through Opera’s Web Standards Open Curriculum articles. I’ve only just started, but they look to be the best summary of HTML, CSS, and the internet in general I’ve read before.
I’ll need to know how to actually develop for the web very soon for the LOA business project, so we are all getting a head start now. I for one have had only minimal exposure to software development in general, having used MatLab as a first year at Olin and then nothing else until I decided to learn how to hack my way through HTML and CSS to make my website (which you may be on right now). By now I’ve learned a bit about PHP and more Javascript, but I really know very little. In any case, I figured I‘d write a quick blog post while I’m waiting instead of reading the Opera intro article on HTML and CSS.
As far as Solidworks goes I’ve been going back and forth realizing I forgot to add things like gravity to the model, 20 minutes into the animation. Then I have to start all over. I’m enjoying this much more than CADing gearboxes and escapements from scratch. Those never worked out and were a pain to make robust models of.
That’s all for now,
Marco