mickeyw Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 NIge, I started off my Solidworks experience with 2006, and have some official training manuals from the courses I attended. You are welcome to borrow them if you like We have just upgraded to 2013 :-o, things have moved on a bit. Prior to SW I used Autodesk's Mechanical Desktop 2004, which while being a 3D package it's not a patch on SW. And before than I used Visicad in 3D, again very good, but we are going back nearly 13 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybrid_From_Hell Posted January 25, 2013 Author Share Posted January 25, 2013 Love to borrow the training manuals kind sir You have a PM BTW Nige Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandyManLuke Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 The built in tutorials are a pretty good starting point. You can choose from a number of topics and follow step by step guides. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishbosh Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 I am sorry, but i am going to take issue with all of you recommending 3D solid modelling to Nigel. We are talking about Nigel here, you know, the bloke who waxoils cats, drinks brake fluid with scampi and hits his own feet with sledge hammers! Don't you think it is a bit cruel to be putting him through such torment after he has done so well recently with his rehabilitation? I though this was a caring forum, how wrong I was....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spongie Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 I'm a solidworks monkey too (although i've still not managed to work out the wiring section of it!!!) (so please excuse the photoshopped wiring harness) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landroversforever Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 Another vote here for Solidworks. If you do a 2D CAD course, you are going to feel you have wasted your time when you go on to do 3D. Solidworks can do everything AutoCAD can, and more. I think it was Si that mentioned it, but one of my favourite bits about Solidworks (and for me Catia V5) is when you make changes to the model, the drawings update when you next open them! Get yourself a copy and have a play before you go on a course. The inbuilt tutorials in solidworks are quite good. Maybe find someone who lives nearby to give you a run through of the basics. Once you have the basics of creating something (other than pain/blood/injuries ), you will get a lot more out of any course . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonr Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 Bish - how much damage can he do in a virtual environment? Then again......... For any of you wanting to learn SW, I have no training. What you need to do is go throu the tutorials to get a feel for how it thinks then find yourself a project. It needs to be something fairly complicated that you have no chance of just guessing how to draw. Then use Google and YouTube (Solid Professor on You Tube is good!) to show you how. It's amazing how fast you pick it up. I've looked at a few books and thought they were confusing - and I know how to drive it pretty well now! Please feel free to PM me if Google lets you down - I'm sure I can figure it out! The same 'project based learning' has worked for me learning to weld, machine stuff, CNC, Programming..... Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandyManLuke Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 The same 'project based learning' has worked for me learning to weld, machine stuff, CNC, Programming.....Si This works well, currently going through the same sort of learning curve with Linux and a Raspberry Pi, but also applies to MIG, SW, getting an old Bridgeport up and running etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonr Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 Let me know if you need help with Bridgeport - I like them! Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynic-al Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 I feel that autocad is getting a bit of a bad press here, but what people need to get in the mindset of is that autocad is electronic pencil & paper, solidworks is virtual manufacturing. Let me give an example, a kitchen manufacturer around here has designed all their kitchen cupboards on solidworks, they then use another piece of dassult software called drive works to set all the parameters for the cupboards. Anyone who is an agent is given driveworks, they select from drop boxes or through numeric entry what size each cupboard needs to be, what finish, handles etc. It then creates a photo render of the kitchen for the customer, the layout plans for the fitter and sends the order to the factory. At the factory the order and the cnc data for the router is automatically generated, all they need to do is load the wood and post it. Even though the agent has no knowledge of solidworks they have designed and manufactured the kitchen and they cannot design something that cannot be made. Now lets say I'm fitting a kitchen at home, I've been to B&Q picked my kitchen and seen that cupboards come in 450mm, 600mm or 900mm wide. All i need to do is work out the best combination of cupboards to fit my kitchen. To do this in something like solidworks i would have to model the room, each cupboard, create an assembly etc etc and it would probably take half a day. If i do it in autocad i just draw a box that is my kitchen and a box for each cupboard and in half an hour i'm done. Yes solidworks would provide a lot more information but i don't need it so its just costing me time. Then couple it to the real world and once your kitchen arrives you find out that your walls arn't straight or vertical and the time you spen't on SW was immaterial. I still use both every day. The trainers said to me when i was learning solidworks that i would never use autocad again and never do a drawing again. It just doesn't work like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spongie Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 I'm now in the process of getting a hold of autocad so I can see what its like having just had to convert some solidworks files into autocad format for a laser cutter, being conversant with both software packages may be useful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynic-al Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 Just be careful as when you convert it takes it at drawing scale & sets the dim scales in autocad so it appears to be model scale but it isn't. I once had a load of laser cut parts arrive 1/3rd size as they had fed the electronic file into the cutter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spongie Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 Thanks for the warning there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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