GabiJack.com

Posts Tagged ‘students’

Hi everyone! I’ve been keeping a close eye on the site statistics, to try and figure out if my latest “experiment” had any future at all. I’m happy to see that several people  have already downloaded the pdf file and examples on easy surfacing techniques that I put up  a few days ago. I haven’t heard any feedback from those that downloaded, but I  hope they did find the information useful! 

In the past, several readers had already asked me if I could provide more detail than that allowed by a blog post’s size and format. Many people have been asking for step-by-step procedures and formal tutorials with example files included. I had shied away from attempting that approach, however, because I didn’t want to seem pompous, you know, like I was pretending to be what I’m not: and expert telling others what to do or how to do it right.  I am no expert! Then again, if you think about it, nobody can really claim to be an expert in anything. We are all learning here and whoever thinks he/she knows everything there is to know is foolishly wasting away a great opportunity for growth.

Anyway, philosophical views aside, last Tuesday, while I was at the SWUGN Summit, getting ready to do my presentation and talking with other SolidWorks users, I realized that most people are actually very open to the idea of other users sharing useful information with them. They don’t see you as pompous if you do. If you have anything useful to contribute, they’ll be happy to take it. And a lot of users, especially those that are in great need of learning fast,  really dig tutorials and step by step examples. So, with that in mind, I added a page called Downloads and uploaded thee  my first tutorial in pdf format. I hope to add more tutorials and files with time, always free, of course, and the best thing is that they can be about just pretty much anything that comes to mind, even if it’s not something I’m learning right at this moment, and they can be as short or long as needed. This, of course, doesn’t mean that I won’t continue to blog about what I’m doing or learning right now. I always blog as I go, you know that.

So, what do you think of that? I would like to see some comments. Do you think it’s a good idea? What kind of things would you like to see there?  Where are you, people? How come lately I get more comments from my regular spammers than I do from my regular readers? LOL

There’s also a couple more things I wanted to mention for those of you looking for more information and learning resources right now.   First of all… For the very beginners, my fellow blogger and friend, Alex Ruiz, has just come up with a really nice book  “SolidWorks 2010: No Experience Required“.  I actually had the pleasure to work with him and help him complete three of the chapters for the book. It was a great experience, but no, I don’t get comissions or royalties, so don’t think I have a secret agenda.  This is a very nice book for the beginner user and student and Alex put his heart and soul into this volume; he even prepared materials for teachers and a companion website to provide the readers with help and more content. Check it out!

This is also the time of the year when all sorts of learning resources become available. If you are going to buy, take advantage of the offers. For instance, with the coupon code SWFUND10launch you can receive a $20 off  your purchase of the SolidWorks 2010 training from Inspirtech. I checked out what’s new and improved in their materials and I must say I was very impressed. Among other things you’ll find that now you can access the training from the Task Pane, plus  plenty of review exercises and questions to test your knowledge. Again, I’m not getting any commission or payment for passing this info to you.

For those looking into learning more complex stuff, such as surfacing, for instance, IGetIt  has just released some new courses. I’m just telling you this because I got a newsletter from them not so long ago.  I don’t have a coupon code for this one, though, but I’m sure they may be having some sort of offer going on, so why not ask?  Also check out the video lessons offered by Solid Professor and Matt Lombard’s series of books on SolidWorks.

There’s actually so much out there about SolidWorks, I could never list it all here. Please, feel free to add to the list if you know any other good books, websites, videos, etc. And, please, keep those comments coming!

This is the hard part for me. I really wish I had more coupons to give to each one of you that entered the giveaway, but sadly I don’t.  Five winners were chosen randomly from all the comments and emails received and they are:

David Walker

Mahir Abrahim

Mark (It didn’t say much more than Mark, but it’s the only Mark that entered, so, yes, it’s you Mark)

SteveF

Prasad (same here, no other Prasad)

The winners will be contacted shortly and we’ll get the ball rolling. Congratulations to those that won and thanks to all that entered for participating! And also thank you to DS SolidWorks certification team for making this possible!

That’s right! I’m giving away ten coupons for a free SolidWorks certification test. Five will be given to readers of this blog and the other five to readers of SolidWorks para Todos, my blog in Spanish.  Now the really neat thing is that once you win one of these coupons you can actually choose which of the five certification tests available you want to take:

• CSWP-Core Modeling Specialist: (8,329 certified professionals worldwide)
• CSWP-Advanced Sheet Metal: (457 certified worldwide so far)
• CSWP-Advanced Surfacing: (61 certified worldwide so far)
• CSWP-FEA (Simulation): (35 certified worldwide so far)
• CSWA (Education): (8,086 certified worldwide and growing every minute)

Usually, you would have to pay up to $100 dollars to take a certification test, but today ten lucky readers will have it for free!

You can find more information about each of these tests and what you need to know in order to pass by visiting the SolidWorks Certification Homepage.  

Let me tell you, I’ve taken and passed both the CSWA and CSWP-core exams, and I’m currently preparing for the Advanced Sheet Metal test.  I see obtaining that certification as an important milestone in my learning process, as a way to have something to show for all the effort I’ve put in training myself, and as a “secret weapon” that can even open a few doors when it comes to job search. Last year, for instance, when a local reseller called me about a job as an Applications Engineer, they told me that one of the things that made my resume stand out from a list of possible matches for that position was precisely that I was a CSWP. I didn’t apply for that position because it wasn’t a good match for my own crazy life back then, but see? Right there, there was a job and all because I was a CSWP!

And I’ve heard that the certification process has been greatly improved ever since I took those two tests. Now it’s even easier than ever to access the certification center to take the exam and also to access information about your results and other certifications previously obtained. And if you manage a team of users, you can set up certification tests for all of them and even track their progress.

OK, so this is how you can get the free test… First I thought about making you guys design the perfect pet door for me. See, I have this little Chihuahua mutt that keeps soiling my carpet, and I bought a pet door that was supposed to work fine with my sliding glass door to the backyard… Err… Never mind that! All you have to do is leave a comment here saying, in your own words, why you want to get certified. That’s it! Very simple! The winners will be chosen at random from all the entries. Hurry up! Winners will be announced by Tuesday 21^st at 11:00 am PT.  You can also send an email or use the contact form, just remember to use a valid email address so I can contact you back and give you information about how to redeem your coupon for the free test!

Good luck!

OK, I confess, I am a faithful subscriber of Elise Moss’ weekly CADzette, a newsletter that offers tips and tricks for AutoCAD and other Autodesk’s products, and even some good advice for SolidWorks users, at least every now and then.   It’s a really good reading, because Elise has tons of experience and is always willing to share with the rest of us. Anyway, this fragment was taken from this week’s CADzette. It just seemed interesting to me and wanted to share with you here, to see what you think about it. Just so you know what she’s talking about, Elise teaches in college. She’s recently begun teaching SolidWorks and is talking about the class that just started.

My SolidWorks class at Laney College in Oakland started this week and it was standing room only with a packed room of students and more students hoping to get in.

 I contrast this with the past two Inventor classes I was supposed to teach over at SFSU – both cancelled due to lack of interest.

 How did SolidWorks beat out Inventor?  I think they used Autodesk’s reputation as a 2D CAD software against them.  The programs are certainly close in features and capabilities.  Hands down SolidWorks emerged the winner and is now the standard in the mechanical world.  But will SolidWorks be able to crack the architectural world?  That may prove to be a harder nut to crack.”

Interesting trend, isn’t it?