Animator and Photoworks training 2

[dogarila]

Are there any courses for SW Animator and Photoworks? Are there any good books for self training? Are VARs offering something like that?

 

[Theophilus]

Nothing I know of, but I'm sort of self-taught in these things. The Animator tutorial built into the "online tutorials" within SolidWorks is a great start (and free). If you're doing more than a standard spin around the part/assembly or exploded view, be prepared to encounter some frustration. Some of the more complex things can be quite time-consuming in trying to guess what Animator will do with the dependent geometry (stuff dragged along by moving another part).

For PhotoWorks, there is definitely more out there. See:

http://robrodriguez.com/

http://www.bxhdesigns.com/

There are also some others if you dig around (and perhaps look through the FAQs of this site).

Each of these modules seem to be off the main track of SW's primary mission, so I don't think they get quite as much attention as heavy users of these modules would like. PhotoWorks, however, has a very powerful rendering engine if you can work with the interface (improved in 2007) long enough to "get" it.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[rockguy]

Your VAR should have both an Animator and PhotoWorks Self Study Guide available. I haven't looked at the Animator guide but the PhotoWorks guide is very good. The 2006 PhotoWorks guide is 450 pages and covers just about everything. The 2007 photoWorks guide will be available soon. You can also purcahse these guides at SolidWorks World. I believe teh cost is about $90 USD

There are some online courses, igetit and solidprofessor both offer classes but I found them to be very basic. I was only looking at the free ones however. The pay courses may be better?

The other option is to fly me to your company and have me teach you in person Just kidding

Rob Rodriguez CSWP

http://www.axiscadsolutions.com

http://www.robrodriguez.com

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/rob_rodriguez/

President:

http://www.nvtswug.com

SW 2007 SP 2.0

 

[Theophilus]

Hey, there's Rob now. Ask him all sorts of questions about PhotoWorks, etc. and see what happens.

I didn't know about the self-study guides from the VARs. Very good to know--I might check into that myself. (May have saved a lot of frustration.)



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[dogarila]

Thank you, Jeff and Rob, for answering.

I contacted my VAR for the self study guides. Javelin sells them for CAD $103 (Photoworks) and CAD $69 (Animator). Plus taxes and shipping.

I've been told that in about two weeks my computer will be replaced with a $5000 Dell workstation and, beside SolidWorks, I will do animations and rendering.

Rob, I visited your website several times so far and I will keep going back. Probably I will bug you with questions in the future.