Hi, Was hoping to get some advice on what you folks feel is good Solidworks training materials. I mean other than actual training class time. Things like recommended books or other training materials. Thanks for any and all opinions.
You will be well served to get the SW training materials. They will be the most current information source on SW and will fill in what is not in the documentation or other sources. Unfortunately they are expensive, the information appears piecemeal throughout (sometimes across several books, and they go obsolete every year when a new release comes out. But they do capture the way SW thinks you should be using the software.
Chris wrote:
"Chris" wrote in news:Q%_Hc.21407$r3.17590 @okepread03:
I understand that people are always trying to save a buck. Still, most people would benefit from taking the formal classes with a real instructor.
Instructors vary a lot. Being a good "instructor" and knowing how to use SolidWorks and apply it to design and manufacturing processes are not at all the same thing.
Some beginning SW users, let's say less than 5%, can learn SW more efficiently on their own. These are people who have an instinct for software workflow and using processes to define geometry. These folks will need some sort of source of information, and a mentor. The source of information could be the SW Reference Guide, and the mentor could be someone from a local user group or even this newsgroup.
Probably the two leading published books are the Planchard and the David Murray. The Planchard books are written I think as college texts, and get a lot of support here in the newsgroup because Marie Planchard is active here from time to time to collect real world examples and is a genuinely nice person. The David Murray book gets a lot of recognition because it has been around for a long time.
Anyway, trying to take the cheap route will probably cost you a lot of time, unless you are part of that 5%.
Good luck,
matt
I took the course for a week 4 years ago, it was a waste of my time The instructor didnt know jack about surfaces and that is really where I needed help.
instructor.
"jj" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.supernews.com:
In all fairness, 4 years ago there wasn't any class material that covered surfaces. Still, in order to make surfaces, you have to know what's in the basic class. Why did you take a class that didn't cover what you really needed? You can't always blame content problems on the instructor, it sounds like you might have made some incorrect assumptions.
You might have been better served by hiring a specialist or a consultant. It would have been more expensive than training, but also more to the point.
Even now, the material on surfaces is pretty limited, and it's not part of the basic class. It's in a class called "Advanced Part" which really should be named "Intermediate Part" because there is nothing advanced about it. It only has a superficial overview of a few of the complex shape tools.
I developed my own 2 day class for complex shapes and surfacing, which I see as two separate subjects. I don't teach it a lot, maybe 4-5 times a year, but it definitely covers things that the regular material from SW doesn't cover.
Anyway, it's not the instructor's fault that surfacing isn't in the basic class.
matt
I'll second what Matt said. We took a surfaces class from our VAR about 7 months ago and found it very enlightening. Going to SW World and taking all the surfaces sessions would probably be a good idea as well.
Jerry Steiger Tripod Data Systems "take the garbage out, dear"
This, or virtually any, book is not a good substitute for an "Essentials" Training Class from your SolidWorks Reseller. Unless of course you don't have a reseller because you found the software, umm, lying on your doorstep one day....
Books like this are good to have as a reference to re-familiarize youreslf with some techniques, or to get you further than your training class did. Well, books and alot of these smart folks on here.
Mr. Pickles
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