Any one care to suggest training materials for a self-teaching newbie? What materials should I start with and end with before going on to receive professional training?
I've been using Autodesk Inventor for quite some time, so I'm pretty familar with basic 3D concepts and commands.
Any tips or suggestions would be most appreciated!
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The SolidWorks help files and tutorials are worth reading. Start there, or pick up the SolidWorks Bible - lot's of good info there, even for those of us that have been around for awhile. The Planchard's book are also well written and very helpful.
The basic training manuals were a nice jump-start (classes just cycle through the manuals).
For me, REALLY learning SWx involved three additional things:
1) Review other peoples models to see how they are structured. 3D content central has many - I would download as many as I could and see the way they are made. There is no guarantee of best practices, but by reviewing other peoples models you can start to see how folks do it, and by comparing them you will start to see patterns for elegent, adaptable designs vs hack and slash. As a short cut, just go through the models Rob uses in his PhotoWorks challenge. 2) Monitor the newsgroups, search their archives, and review any online content relating to SWx. 3) Try to build stuff, on your own time, without compromise. On the first few projects it will take a a long time, but the important thing is to schedule in the 'no compromise' time. This involves critical evaluation as you go. Sure I got the shape, but what are my editing limitations? having the courage to try and really push stuff will let you know what happens with bad SWx design, and come up with ways to avoid future problems.The more you 'geek-out' and make it a passion in your life, the more you will get out of the above. I can't say that the 'geek-out' path is the right one for you. I just saw SWx as my primary design and communication tool and in order to produce what I needed to produce I simply had to work at it and work at it in order to figure out the angles I would need to beat SWx into submission. Sure I used it at work, but I did most of my real learning on my time (lunches, after work) because I knew that was the only way I could get to the level I wanted to be at. Not everyone has that sort of focus, and I don't blame them - its good to have more to your life than work. My former spouse called the user groups 'loser groups', and in a lot of ways I fit that description, but I really wanted to be able to do what I needed to do
I didn't get to go to SWx World until I had gotten through the steep part of my learnig curve, but to a newbie I would highly recommend it (if you can't swing that, regional SolidWorks conferences are even your local user group are reasonable fallbacks). Don't go if you look at it as a cool way to get someplace warm in the winter or a way to get out of work for a few days. That's a waste of resources. Go to 'geek-out' and you will pay for the time multiple times over. I always looked at it as if I was on the job from 7AM to Midnight - take lots of notes at every session, talk to folks extensively about work stuff and problems at breakfast, lunch and other events, and otherwise spend every minute trying to develop information and relationships that will help you when you get back to work. And then, when you get back to work, follow up on everything that interested you and test it for yourself to see how it REALLY works. Its a ton of work, but it pays off (in being good at the software and being the 'go-to' person at your job)
See you finally got it right, it only took you what 6 months.
Look a little closer and the full myigetit SolidWorks package is closer to what you paid for the SolidProfessor course than it is to the $25.00 you kept touting.
Tom
Well its easy to see why you dropped out of high school Jon, never to return, you have problems with reading & comprehension. I never said anything about their content I only commented about the package they offer.
So I am now responsible for a few dead links on a page that isn't mine? Out of the ten links to "tutorials" on that one page there are 2 dead links that's 8 good ones. Should we ignore the good links because there are a couple dead ones?
"Obviously I don't think" - Jon Banquer - May 21, 2006
Obviously
Tom
uhhhh, maybe he installed another net card? I can change my ip address at will with a simple change of a mac address and resetting my net connection. I used to do it all the time when I trolled my azz off...(hint hint)
Come on cliff, spend your energy on something useful, making me smarter!
See your still having trouble with reading and comprehension there JON. It's not "MY" page and there are plenty of good links to helpful information.
Tom
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