Welcome to A Very Swell Idea, Inc.

Welcome to A very Swell Idea, Inc. We are a CAD services and software support company. Before you move on because you think you don’t need “CAD Services“, please explore our site to learn more about how we can help you. You may be pleasantly surprised at the unique range of our expertise. We are adding new content every day, so check back again soon. Have a very swell day!

Custom Application Development with FileMaker Pro

All of the posts on this website to date have been related to product design or development.  A recent project has highlighted a whole facet of our business that hasn’t been represented, custom database software development with FileMaker Pro. A very Swell Idea, Inc. (AVSI) offers a unique perspective to the sale and development of custom software. Having designed software tools since 1997 for small businesses to manage their daily operations, AVSI has an excellent track record of making practical software tools that match and enhance existing business practices. Having […]

SolidWorks Composer User Group Meeting

The third meeting of Minnesota SolidWorks Composer User Group, formerly known as the Minnesota 3DVIA Composer User Group, was held on 3/6/13 at the Mounds View Community Center in Mounds View, MN just north of Minneapolis. The meeting opened with coffee and refreshments followed by introductions. I counted 15 in attendance with backgrounds ranging from engineering to sales to technical publications with titles ranging from managers to designers. There were at least 4 in attendance (including myself) who do not yet use Composer in their work (but want to). Chris […]

Southern Minnesota SolidWorks User Group Feb Meeting

I’m a note taker and thought I’d share what I gathered this last meeting 02/19/2013. Richard Doyle, the User Community Manager (his title is really long but I didn’t write it down) for SolidWorks gave a presentation about little known features of SolidWorks 2013. Some highlights of interest included: A user can now install both SolidWorks 2012 and 2013 on the same workstation.  Double-clicking a file causes the system to prompt the user for which version of SolidWorks to open. The file interaction dialog boxes (Open, Save, Insert, etc.) have […]