Learning CAD

I want/need to learn a CAD package. How easily is it to come up to
speed in PROE or Solidworks if I make a serious attempt to teach
myself? What books would you recommend? How did you learn? Thanks for
the advice.

 

I expect you're going to find it easier to come up to speed on
SolidWorks than on Pro/E. There are good 3rd party books on it by both
David Murray and David & Marie Planchard and it would not be a real
problem to teach yourself. There is no learning like the learning you
do from a project, however. If you don't have time to actually create
something more than simple then you're probably going to be fairly
limited on how much you can pick up. Creating an Assembly of a number
of parts, actually doing dimensioned engineering Drawings of the parts
and also a Drawing of the Assembly (with Bill Of Materials) will teach
you a lot about how the software works. Tip: pay special attention to
Sketching. There's more to it than you think. Try modifying elements
of Sketches while some of the elements are still blue (not completely
constrained) as opposed to black (completely defined). Then when the
Sketches do unexpected things try to figure out why and get them back
under control. You'll learn reams that way and those lessons will be
very important later.

'Sporky'

 

Go here to see good books by the Planchards.
http://www.schroff.com/cgi-bin/Soft....htm?L+scstore+ffgj7658+1092422294#solidworks

What I've seen & heard of ProE, SW is MUCH faster to be productive.

WT

 

Well, I don't know if I'd capitalize "much". In fact, I'm not even sure I'd use
the adjective at all and just suffice it to say; For most applications SW is
going to be easier to learn. Some major subjectivity here, I'll admit, but....
What's the last version you've had "hands on" experience with?

Philip, do you have any CAD experience at all? What plans do you have for
procuring a / getting access to a system to work with?

 

My reply was MOSTLY based on hands-on ProE several years ago. Hearsay on
ProE has been much more prevalent & recent. Therefore, my response really
wasn't worth a whole lot.

WT

 

The Planchards do indeed put out good material. I have seen more than a few
people use their books to come up to speed with the software. Mainly people
that have had exposure to another cad program and find themselves in a
situation where they need to come up to speed quickly on Solidworks or ProE
as the case may be. I know that Marie actually prepares and teaches Design
courses with CAD at the college level.
This gives her a special insight on how to reach a learner.

-Larry Z

 

I have taken the 1 week training course three years ago but did have
opportunity to use it. I am now looking for employment but my lack of
CAD experience is killing me. I have a Master in Mechanical
Engineering and over 15 tears of experience in product design and
development.

For training, I will use a student version of the software and my own
PC. I looked at taking courses but have not found much available
expect for PTC which is excellent but expensive and a little too
compressed time wise.

 

"Philip" ...

Ok. None of the local colleges or tech schools teaching either? Is there
an active local users group for either?

I was going to suggest one of the $1K parametric solid modelers available
if you wanted something to get your feet wet and use for less demanding
professional use. I don't think many will argue that SW isn't the easier
to pick up on from scratch and reach a reasonable level of proficiency.
The only other consideration may be if there's a notable disparity in the
number of people in your area and field using one software or the other.
A knowledge of either should be an asset and once you've come to grips
with the basics concepts the next one will come easier.

Good luck with it.

 

I've used many of the text books from schroff.com and they're very
useful for learning new software or new versions of old software.

Some of the books come with C-D media that have video clips of each of
the lessions (step-by-step). This method works well for people who learn
by watching(seeing).

 

If you already have 2D or 3D experience on another package, see if you
can borrow a seat from a SolidWorks custome or at a VAR near you, and
just sit down with the small Tutorial manual and follow through the
step by step constructions. I see my VARs room full of computers
sitting idle many times when I drop in for something. SolidWorks VARs
usually also hold open introductions every week or so and usually post
a calendar of these sessions. Don't be afraid to ask the VARs,
because they want your business.

Once you go through the tutorial steps, the basics of SolidWorks
construction methods will be obvious very quickly. I can't say how it
would go for ProE, as I've never tried it.

At that point you will know enough to peruse other books the VARs or
other users might have. I have a suspicion, based on learning 2D CAD
and then 3D on SolidWorks, with a smattering of practice on other 3D
packages, that you might find that practice hours is one of the most
important factors. Then you can more easily decide if a book makes
"sense" to you.

We tend to learn the features and tools and options that pertain to
our work and the jobs at hand (unless you want to be a SWCP trainer).
I don't use sheet metal and surfacing constructions, so I am rather
ignorant on those as I just don't have time for them right now, though
I have tried a few things.

If I want to find out how to do something 'unusual' like a 3D sculpted
shape, or a standard Twist drill, I have often gone to the SolidWorks
Model Library on their website and downloaded a demo part and then
rolled back the construction to the start and stepped through the
whole construction to see how someone else "did it". That has been a
big help, though you have to be a SolidWorks customer to get to the
Model Library.

There are usually a couple ways to get to the same "solid result", so
practice in the type of work I do has led me to pick one method or
another based on seeing which works best for me. In general, you can
start from a big block and remove material, or start with a small
feature and keep adding to it. As is often said, "It just depends.".
Sometimes you construct things in a certain way to make assembly files
easier to put together and maintain, other times you do constructions
so you can easily make different configurations or a family of parts.

I may be unusual, but I tend to view books as reference manuals &
problem solving aids.

Just my 2 cents, because I know there are different types of minds out
there and it is sometimes tough to recognize yourself when experience
is slight.

Bo

 

Practice and practice and practice, play and play and play.
Learn the terminology used by the help files.
Give yourself small goals at first, then expand.
Try every command and see what happens.
If in doubt, you can always ask here, there are lots of clever "helpers",
lol

The first most important thing I have learnt, is to walk away and get a
coffee, (or a beer, if at home ), when stuck.

The second most important thing, is to take breaks, at least 5 mins every
hour.
Look out of the window, at something far away, or go for a walk, this will
give your eyes a break.

Solidworks is like life, infuriating and full of challenges, with a great
feeling of satisfaction, when something you do, works.

You will never know everything about SW, so you will always find something
new.

Hmm, no I do not sell SW, but I use it,

 

Wow! How did you manage to work the last 15 years without getting any CAD
experience? I think my last drafting board experience was 19 years ago. Did
you work for companies where the engineers did sketches and analyses and
drafters/designers did the actual part design?

I'm just curious. If you think I'm being impertinent or poking my nose where
it doesn't belong, feel free to ignore me or tell me where I can stick my
nose.


Jerry Steiger
Tripod Data Systems
"take the garbage out, dear"

 

Thanks for the ideas.

The local colleges and tech schools seem to focus on AutoCAD. Outside
of PTC, there is very little traing for PROE in NJ that I found.

Philip

 

Eek, negative modeling is typically bad practice.

Regards,

 

It is easy to look at one's own work and miss what happens elsewhere.

Machinery designers and mold and die designers often start with
rectangular or round solid shapes and subtract material. Just the
nature of how the parts are made, and makes the most sense.

Bo

 

Machinery designers and mold and die designers often start with

I refer to this the "virtual machining" modeling method, which can be
eminently useful if one has to program a part in many operations
downstream in CAM software and the part is configured properly. When
used correctly this is very powerful, but when not needed and used
anyways, it is often a big MCF (first word mongolian).

To our friend seeking learning advice:

- Set aside at least 40 hours in which to be completely frustrated
- Try to find a good user who can show you something
- Get a book
- Use the help system
- Do the tutorials
- Devise a project that you are interested in
- Generally SolidWorks is easy to use and do productive things with,
but takes (I think) a few hundred hours (200-700) before one is
proficient and a couple to a few thousand before one is "masterful",
of course based on ones "natural" talent and so on . . .

Also remember: the engineering is the hard part (you already have
that) and the CAD can be mastered with some effort. Knowing the
reason why you are designing something a certain way is the hard part
(you already got it)- modeling parts eventually becomes the easy part
after the initial discomfort and groping with CAD.

Regards,

SMA

 

Easy. Unfortunately, I work at Bell Laboratories where we had a
dedicated CAD group. My role was more conceptual design, analysis and
overall project management. Enjoyed at the time but regretting now.

 

Thanks for all the replies.

Still looking for recommendations for training facilities. Anybody
have recommendations about PROE?

Did everybody here learn from books and on the job training?

Philip

 

This won't help you much, but may provide some perspective. When I
purchased Pro/E I purchased a maintenance contract which allows access to
PTC's knowledge base which has "Suggested technique..." articles that cover
most of the basics as well as some advanced topics. It took me about a
month of long days (I was still trying to make deadlines which wouldn't
have been at all pressing were it not for the jump into the deep end) to
get up to speed using those, the various tutorials available on the net,
etc. I'm not especially swift, but I did have a background in 3D solid and
surface modeling, parametric relationships, top down design techniques, CAD
drafting, etc. It is a "do-able" deal, but starting off cold you will find
it frustrating and time consuming, especially if working in a vacuum. You
will need someone to help with the usual dumb questions we all ask.

You might want to check out proecentral.com. I believe they sell SE and
will give you a membership (normally fifteen bucks or so) which will open
up their forum (another potential resource) for your questions. Their
forum allows binary attachments which will help (a model's worth a thousand
pictures) I don't know if you'd forfeit anything buying from them. They
probably will have some links to books as well. A note on books: get
something on the version you are going to be using. The interface and
procedural differences between 2001, Wildfire, Wildfire2 will present a
very unpleasant if not insurmountable hurdle for someone working without a
frame of reference.

 

.... Their forum allows binary attachments which will

Sorry, this is probably misleading. I believe that file can be exchanged
between SE users only (?) so users of the commercial version won't be able
to offer any help based on your models. If this is incorrect, hope someone
will correct me.