Hello! I'm new to SW and hopelessly confused!

[AlphaCharlie1987]

Hi everyone, due to an on-the-job injury I can no longer live the blue collar life and had to go back to school. I decided that drafting was the best way for me to make a living while sitting down. I'm in my last semester, which focuses on SOLIDWORKS, and unfortunately the book I have (Engineering Graphics with SOLIDWORKS 2018) is less than useless and the instructor never dealt with anything besides AutoDesk products before he started teaching. I'm the only person in my class who's made it to SOLIDWORKS because I tore through the 2D and 3D AutoCAD material like nobody's business. So there's nobody I can here I can turn to for help. Are there any online tutorials that are comprehensive enough to actually teach me how to use this software? As it stands now I've spent two weeks trying to get halfway through the second chapter and NOTHING works the way the book tells me to do things. I've tried looking and YouTube has a lot of videos, but they all seem either too advanced for a raw beginner or in languages I can't understand.

I mean, I can't even draw a freaking line where I need it to be. I know SW can't be this broken, but I'm getting absolutely nowhere.

 

[Cad2homebuild]

Could you share what specifically you are wanting to learn? I bet there are plenty of people who can help

 

[Jackk]

Good choice on learning SolidWorks!

I taught myself how to use SolidWorks by following a couple YouTube videos; at least enough to get a contract job as a Draftsman. Once I got in the door, the folks I worked with showed me how they used SolidWorks as wells as some advanced topics like weldments and exploded assemblies.

They also showed me the Help files that are accessible from the top menu in SolidWorks. Lots of good tutorials from the SolidWorks folks themselves. Plus a very active and helpful discussion forum, with other users that your questions.

You do have access to SolidWorks?