Hey, sorry, I must have been mistaken! (Does Mark always sound this whiney and defensive? BTW, could we at least do the quoting properly, huh people)
David Janes
> Dave, I know that I won't come across as credible because I'm the
> Product Manager for SolidWorks, but I did have 10 years of experience
> with ProE CDRS and ISDX especially in advanced modeling.
>
> David Janes wrote:
> BTW, one other thing I learned while taking the SW course:
> a.. Since this is the "easy, intuitive" design software, there are
> few educational resources for it. SW Corp has saved itself some time,
> trouble and money by developing and updating none
>
> MAB - I'm not sure why you say this - we have extensive courses
> and training available and we update it yearly in the form of printed
> manuals and tutorials that are offered by our VAR's. For instance:
> Essential part modeling and Assemblies, Advance part modeling, Advanced
> Assemblies, Sheetmetal and Weldments only to name a few and updated > yearly.
>
> b.. SW Corp accepts NO responsibility for support; this all devolves
> to resellers, including training. Suffice to say, this makes support
> and training a crap shoot
>
> MAB - Again, I don't know how you can say this since we have a QA
> and Development staff doing this on a daily basis. VAR's are a formal
> channel for submitting issues and they either resolve the issue
> themselves or escalate it to us, and yes, they are quite often
> escalated to us.
>
> c.. There aren't even many books on the subject and the one by the
> Planchards, widely used and highly praised, that this course also used,
> was the most awful, badly written technical training material I've ever
> encountered. So, lacking a discerning user base, there's not much hope
> for it's improvement.
>
> MAB - On the other hand, there is "SolidWorks for Dummies" the
> ONLY 3D MCAD dummies book on the market that can be found at your local
> Barnes and Noble. Also, we have many online tutorials built right into
> our software which are self-guided and easy to understand on a range of
> subjects from Assemblies to Master model approach.
>
> d.. Companies who fall for the "easy, intuitive" crap also refuse to
> support their users by sending them for training; not many companies
> would try that with Pro/e, although, since WF, that same line may be
> undermining Pro/e training. However, even that is mollified by the
> availability of online training like PTC university, CAD Train and
> Cadquest, training resources that get delivered to the users computer
> (or in the case of Cadquest, as a series of books, one on each Pro/e > module).
> e.. These conditions make online help much more important
> Just some stuff to think about, beyond those first couple of tutorials.
> IOW, make fast friends with usenet if you plan on going to SW. Your VAR
> may be able to help, but that's a shot in the dark. Don't call SW Corp,
> they'll just send you back to your VAR; or you could get a book and see
> if that helps. And, as to online resources, beyond newsgroups? haven't
> heard of any, but CAD Train was bought out by PTC, maybe Cadquest has
> expanded into Solidworks training. And some community colleges do offer
> classes. But what about Alibre, SolidEdge, Think 3? What support for
> them? Looks like you'd be jumping out of the hatch without the space > suit, deepspaced.
>
> MAB - again, many colleges are teaching SolidWorks now, we have
> extensive courses offered through our VAR's, and if you check job
> postings on Monster or others sites you will discover that SolidWorks
> experience is in high demand. Comp.cad.solidworks is a very active (as
> well as the official SW forum) because the software is very actively > used.
>
> Regards
>
> Mark Biasotti
> SolidWorks
>