In house Training 8

[J-C]

Guess what!!! I'm now in charge of training in Solidworks for our company. Question is what material (books) to use and provide for the class? Of course it will be customized for our type of work.

I thought at one time you could buy the manuals from your VAR (haven't asked yet), not sure if that's still the case. Perhaps some other books out there are a better choice, there are several on Amazon.

This will be from basic to advanced. My first class will probably consist of Autocad users mostly as we try to bring their departments on board with Solidworks. Then I may train them on advanced stuff with our current users.

So, does anyone else train their company's users?

Jason

SolidWorks 2007 SP3.1 on WinXP SP2

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

How about Matt Lombards Bible?

 

[J-C]

I plan to buy it for reference here but it may be a bit to much for new users. I think even Matt says its not written for new users as there are enough of those books out there already.

Jason

SolidWorks 2007 SP3.1 on WinXP SP2

 

[Theophilus]

Get his Cliff's notes then.

If I were teaching ACAD users, I'd have them learn MANUALLY first (sort of like when I learned drafting on a board with a T-square).

So, give them paper and a blue crayon. Ask them to draw a circle on the page. Give no other instructions (no dimensions, coordinates, etc.). Only after they complete that little exercise should you let them play with the software. This will reinforce the simplicity of starting sketching within SolidWorks and you can refer back to this for the remainder of the training. (I'm actually serious here--save yourself some headache when you hear how much SolidWorks isn't like ACAD.)



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[MadMango]

I use to train co-workers. I tried during lunch with company paid soda and pizza, and staying after work one day a week. I think I only had a handful of classes though, life just seemed to get in the way.

Everything basic users need is in the Help files. This is a point I always try to drive home with new users. Normally I would say go through the turoials, but in this case I think it would be better to use existing parts that exist in your company.

SolidWorks for Dummies may be a good place to start, by Greg Jankowski.

A good exercise I use to do was give people a simple part, maybe a shoulder bolt or similar, and have them model it. Share the models in the next class, pointing out the Pros and Cons on how everyone approached it. Try to hammer "design intent".

Doing stuff in a conference room with a single computer and projector wasn't too effective, even with handouts. People loose their attention quickly when not actually doing something. I found that it was best to have groups no larger than 4, so they could crowd around a computer and feel more involved.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[ctopher]

I used to do weekly training, then biweekly, then monthly. I wrote down everything I showed them and what we talked about. When finished, I wrote a manual for training for the company based on our experiences and the formal training I had. Unfortunately I can't share the manual outside the company.

Chris
SolidWorks 07 3.0/PDMWorks 07
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 04-21-07)

 

[JMirisola]

I agree with MadMango and the help files. Using the help files is how I learned, followed by making models/assemblies from drawings. While I would have loved to have had formal training, the help files were a great tool.
You might want to look at i.get.it as well, at least for the AutoCAD converts.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
CAD Administrator
SW '07 SP2.0, Dell M90, Intel 2 Duo Core, 2GB RAM, nVidia 2500M

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

 

[Stugots]

Last I heard the user manuals from a VAR ran about $100. Kinda pricey for not much more than what is in the Help files.

 

[cadman1997]

One of our New Designers went for training at Maverick Solutions. They gave him a copy of "SolidWorks for Designers Release 2005" by Sham Tickoo. I got this book and it is good. I also got Matt's book which is very good.
Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Ralph Wright, CSWP
SolidWorks 2005, SP5.0
Intel Pentium D, 3.2Ghz
2.0Gb RAM
nVidia Quadro Fx 1300 Card
Microsoft Windows XP Pro

 

[SBaugh]

I think they are pricer then that If you can buy them at all[\b], because they want customers to take the training, but in your case Jason they might make and exception. I would call your VAR and tell them your situation and they might help you out... they should if they want their support people to stop getting training calls... nothing worse when sitting there!

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"
faq731-376

 

[TateJ]

We use SolidWorks for Designers at NTC.edu. It's a good text... but I'm not crazy about the order of the contents. Tickoo typically saves drawings for the last few chapters. I'd slip in basic drawings much earlier.

I've never bought the text... since I teach the class & get a freebie.

Windows XP / Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse 5000 / SolidWorks 2007 SP2.2 / SpaceBall 5000

http://www.Tate3d.com

"Right-click. It's friggin' magic!"... Jack L. Tate
FAQ376 I'm famous.

 

[J-C]

No dice on getting the manuals from the VAR....guess I'll get a couple of the books from Amazon and see whats best for beginners and maybe a different book for advanced users.

Jason

SolidWorks 2007 SP3.1 on WinXP SP2

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Jason ... Have you considered getting the i.get.it or SolidProfessor courses?

 

[J-C]

Yeah.....but I can't trust that the engineers and designers will use it. Signing them up for a class they have to attend eliminates that concern. Plus I will customize the class for our products. I may still consider the online training options for other training I don't cover or as an option to users to refresh their memories.

Still, I want to have a good book that the user will get to keep from training for their reference, basic & advanced.

Jason

SolidWorks 2007 SP3.1 on WinXP SP2

 

[VeEdAwG]

Hey Jason-

I currently teach SW at a local trade school, and I myself am having the same problem looking for a good book to teach advanced modeling techniques. Up until now, the Advanced training manual from SolidWorks seems to be the most comprehensive and best fit for teaching advanced techniques - I'm finding that most of the books online are too wordy or too complex for a newbie SW user to follow, or too slow for a user with some experience.

If you find a good advanced book that is a cliff notes version of "the SW bible" let me know. I'm probably going to make my own reader. Teaching advanced concepts should be easy, not a lot of reading. My 2 cents...

vis

 

[J-C]

Well, I just ordered 4 different books from Amazon to evaluate for basic and advanced training.

[ul]
[li]SolidWorks 2007: The Basics with Multimedia CD[/li]
[li]Engineering Design with SolidWorks 2007 & MultiMedia CD[/li]
[li]SolidWorks 2007 for Designers[/li]
[li]SolidWorks 2007 Bible[/li]
[/ul]



Jason

SolidWorks 2007 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2

 

[KenMandu]

Jason, have you come to any conclusions?

Ken

 

[pdybeck]

Jason,

I just purchased i get it for SolidWorks Premium. It was $90. Extremely hard to beat in terms of price. SolidProfessor could not even come close. While the content is not incredibly detailed, for $90 I think it would benefit a lot of users. Premium contains all the SolidWorks core content, all the Professional content, and the premimum items (routing, Cosmos Motion, Cosmos Designer). There are also update modules to go over the new features for new vesions of the software. Best thing is that it can be set up so that you can track progress and their assesments. You could always do something like give a deadline for a certain module of learning to be completed and a certain score on their assessment. Might not well for some users, but has the potential for those that would embrace it.

Pete

 

[J-C]

Pete,
That might work for the basics but I need to be able to tailor the training for more of the advanced course. Solidprofessor tried to get us some demos but I can't see how they can compete with their current pricing versus I.get.it.

Ken, I'm still evaluating.....just been busy with a lot of other stuff.



Jason

SolidWorks 2007 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2

 

[JMirisola]

Jason,
If I'm not mistaken, you can tailor i.get.it to the individual user. Look at i get it team. Going off of what I remember from a presentation a couple of weeks ago, you'd be the administrator and be able to set up each user with an account. You'd then be able to set up each user's learning path. You'd also be able to monitor their progress as they go through each module.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
CAD Administrator
SW '07 SP2.0, Dell M90, Intel 2 Duo Core, 2GB RAM, nVidia 2500M

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog