Newbie needs advice 2

[AlbatrosDVa]

Hi All,

I am brand new to SW2007 with only a bit of 2D CAD experience. I have the SW2007 Bible by Matt Lombard and it is giving me fits! They say that it is for beginners, but I have my doubts. I'm reading along and doing the tutorials, but it seems to want you to do things with no previous explaination as how to do it. I would say it is written for users with at least some experience with SW.

Can anyone offer advice as to how I can best learn the program? For example, if I come to a stumbling block in the book, would this be a good forum for posting a beginners question as to how to do something? If not, is there a better forum for me??

Thanks,
Phil

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

If you cannot attend a beginers course with a SW VAR, start with the SolidWorks Tutorials in the Help files, then continue with Matt's book.

Some very basic but detailed tutorials can be viewed at

http://www.tech-faq.com/solidworks-tutorials.shtml

You can download a set of free video tutorial samples from

http://solidprofessor.com/downloadlms.asp

http://www.myigetit.com/

has sets of video courses starting from $25 and is well worth the money.

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=solidworks&search=Search

also has lots of video tutorials but the quality of some is poor.

More can be had from

http://www.caddigest.com/subjects/solidworks/tutorials.htm

You can also use the Search functions here, although the one in the horizontal tabs bar is currently not working.
See thread559-191539

BTW ... Welcome to Eng-Tips and this forum.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Almost forgot to mention faq559-520

 

[4zengineering]

In Matt's defense, and by his own admission, the bible is definitely not for beginners (Unfortunately, "They" told you wrong).

See

http://dezignstuff.com/blog/2007/06/10/damn-the-torpedoes/

Also see

http://dezignstuff.com/blog/solidworks-2007-bible/

third paragraph down.

A better beginner book might be

http://www.amazon.com/SolidWorks-Du...191133?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187894378&sr=8-1,

but keep your bible because you will use it/love it later.

 

[JMirisola]

Like 4zengineering said, the Bible is definitely not for beginners. Beyond that, CBL hit it on the head. Do the tutorials and get some training.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

"If not, is there a better forum for me??"
There is no better forum!

However there are other forums;

http://forum.solidworks.com/

is the official SW forum.

 

[jesusman]

I feel for you. I am nearly in the same boat. I did take the level 1 class and it was very helpful to get me started, however, my downfall was not being able to impliment what I learned for some months later. I hope you find what you're looking for, but my advice is to take that class.

J.D.

 

[AlbatrosDVa]

Thanks guys for your input. I am looking into a class in my area. Don't get me wrong on the Bible, it is very good and once I get up to speed I think it will be very valuable. It is just trying to go from 0 to 60 is not achievable with Matt's book alone. I read he is an RIT grad just like me.

Regards,
Phil

 

[Ripper2009]

First: I agree with Blimey: No better forum exhists!
The experts are nice, they even put up with me!!

Second: Yeah, take a coupla classes from yer VAR. Matts SW Bible is a great book...I love the thing....
Classes are good, too.

Best o' luck to you!!

Thanks,

Rip


SolidWorks 2007
SP 4.0

 

[dezignstuff]

Albatros,

Sorry I'm a little late to the party here. I don't come around these parts much any more.

Thanks for your comments on the book. Unfortunately, there actually are a couple of places where you might get the idea that the book is for beginners. Working with a big corporate publisher, there are things that simply slip through the cracks. I have done my best to characterize the book properly, but I still find beginners who expect it to read like a novel and spoon feed like a video tutorial. Its a reference book, so some of the material is out of order. Like a dictionary, it is not chronological.

Its really aimed at higher end users, intermediate at least, probably. Everybody has a different idea of what that means, but what it means to me is that I'm always gonna get some flak.

Anyway, I think its still a good book, a great book if you're looking for a lot of detail about stuff. You can go to my blog, and find the Bible Errata page and leave a comment about problems or read about the problems I've already found with it.

http://www.dezignstuff.com/blog

Thanks again

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

"I don't come around these parts much any more."
Well, now that you book is published and you are living in the lap of luxury from the royalties, I hope we will be seeing you here more often.

 

[dezignstuff]

Well, believe me, nobody's getting rich writing CAD books, and you don't really see any money until almost a year after you've done the work. It is nice working at home, though, without the weight of corporate life pressing down.

If I were making a lot of money, I'd be on a beach in Belize betting on the next hurricane to flatten my hut.

After the craziness at c.c.sw, I'll be here more often.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Are Cliff and Jon and the Cliff-and-Jon-wannabes acting up again? I visited that "forum" a couple of times and couldn't believe the level of stupidity of some of the posts. I will only return there if I have an overwhelming and uncontrollable surge of masochism ... which, because I don't like pain, is very unlikely.

 

[AnnaWood]

Yes, the Cliff and Jon cirkus is back in full force. Worst it has ever been. Jon is using SolidWorks now, for a couple of weeks, and is the new expert on the forum.

To bad... c.c.sw used to be a not half bad place to hang out and get info. I learned a lot from the denzians there.

Cheers,

Anna Wood
SW 2007 SP4.0, WinXP
Dell Precision 380, Pentium D940, 4 Gigs RAM, FX3450

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/solidmuse

http://www.phxswug.com

 

[fcsuper]

I third the "There is no better forum!" comment. I dislike solidworks own forum because of their reliance on very buggy java. Yuk! Feel free to ask anything you want here!!!

Matt
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
sw.fcsuper.com
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group

 

[JMirisola]

CBL - Jon actually complimented you and, strangely enough, me, in some post. My girlfriend "googled" me the other night and was like "Oh, isn't this nice. This man thinks you're helpful." I looked over her shoulder, rolled my eyes and had to explain to her who Jon was. I'd hoped my name would never be associated with his...

Sorry to hijack.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

Dell M90, Core2 Duo
4GB RAM
Nvidia 3500M

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Jeff ... Really? I don't know whether to be happy or sad!

Damn it, now my curiosity is getting the better of me. I'm beginning to feel one of those masochistic urges coming on.

No ... ... must resist the dark side.

Please put me out of my misery and post the URL to the relevant page. I really don't want to have to go searching through all that crap just to satisfy my ego. I've only just again started to feel good about humanity after my last visit there.

[Gasp] ... Does this mean "they" also frequent Eng-Tips????? Noooooooooooooooo! Quick someone change the locks.

 

[JMirisola]

CBL -
I was in the same boat as you are. I was going to send the link to a couple of people yesterday to get their take on it, but now I can't find it. I'll look again and post it if I can find it.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

Dell M90, Core2 Duo
4GB RAM
Nvidia 3500M

 

[JMirisola]

Aha! Found it...it was in response to something else. The text:

Newsgroups: comp.cad.solidworks
From: jon_banquer <jon_banq...@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 17:12:33 -0700
Local: Wed, Sep 12 2007 5:12 pm
Subject: Re: Where's the Moderator???
Reply | Reply to author | Forward | Print | Individual message | Show original | Report this message | Find messages by this author

>Lots of great SW experts dying to tackle your latest SW problem.


CorBlimeyLimey is just awesome. Needs to grow a set and start posting
here!

Jeff Mirisola is pretty good and likes the right baseball team.


You and Scott Baugh leave a hell of a lot to be desired.


Who did I miss?


Jon Banquer
San Diego, CA

http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/2007/07/spend-a-littleo.html#c...

Click here to view the entire post. I like how he has a link to his interview...

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

Dell M90, Core2 Duo
4GB RAM
Nvidia 3500M

 

[dgowans]

That post prompts the only question that matters this time of year:

Which baseball team?