This morning, I started looking around Youtube to see what’s already popped up for SOLIDWORKS 2016 What’s New. There is already several great videos by several resellers. Here’s a few for Mate Controller, Foreshorten Dimensions and DimXpert.
Category: VAR
New in SolidWorks 2013 – Enhanced Section View Interface – Adding offsets
SolidWorks 2013 Rollout in Lancaster, PA
What’s in Lancaster, PA in October? One of the largest SolidWorks new release rollouts in the U.S. At a quaint resort, a large auditorium is nearly filled with SolidWorks customers eagerly watching a half day of presentations about what’s new in SolidWorks in the newest version. They covered a multitude of topics from the What New’s document to a clever parody of Mythbusters, called Featurebusters.
The was even a bit about how to use SolidWorks to improve your golf game.
The event was hosted by DesignPoint. Even though Lancaster, PA seems to be a far-flung place (just try to get a direct flight, or even a reasonable 1-stop flight to there), the area has a lot of enthusiasm for engineering, and SolidWorks.
My adventures didn’t end with this event.
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Need I say more?
“Over 1000 touch points for feedback”
SolidWorks Corps claims to have “over one thousand touch points for feedback” that allow them to find areas that need improvement with their applications. Without getting into detail about the effectiveness of their use of these touch points, I’m simply pointing out where they do look. First, note that the Product Definition Group oversees much of this activity and is staffed worldwide.
- They conduct direct customer visits. My company was lined up for such a visit a couple years ago, but due to scheduling, I had to cancel on the SolidWorks representative at the last-minute.
- They are conducting an increasing number of user surveys (check the SolidWorks Forum and sometimes your email too).
- There are field people who work through the VARs.
- Technical support provides invaluable information.
- They gain information from meeting with User Groups.
- SolidWorks World provides significant information, such as the top 10 enhancement requests list, voted upon by attendees.
- They also peruse the SolidWorks and CAD forums. It’s my understanding that they also hang out at other popular independent CAD forums.
Where is the most effective place to request a change or notify SolidWorks Corp about issues with their software? Well, I think that depends. Submitting ERs might be the most effective method, actually.
Thoroughly discussing problems and difficulties in the SolidWorks Forum may also afford more attention. Bugging VARs about software bugs is fairly effective in my experience (some have had opposite experiences). Of all the bugs I’ve reported via my VAR, none remain.
Another way to give feedback is to comment on the various SolidWorks related blogs. Get your favorate blogger to talk about the issue indepth. Depending on the topic, bloggers do seem to have a little more pull than the average bear. Unfortunately, I know only one bear that uses SolidWorks (and when her system crashes, it is usually a result of her bashing it about about cabin).
Stump the Chumps submission form
See if you can stump the chumps with your SolidWorks questions at our session in SolidWorks World 2010:
Stump the Chumps question submission form
Also, if you have files to submit as part of your question, please email your question and files to stumpthechumps@gmail.com.
SolidWorks is easy to learn
Based on my recent unscientific research, SolidWorks seems like it is an easy application to learn. In one poll, I asked for preference of educational choices for new employees not familiar with SolidWorks. A second poll asked how current users actually learned SolidWorks. The results are a little surprizing.
Of the respondents to the first poll, just slightly over 50% said they would teach SolidWorks to new employees on the job by mentoring them. Just under 50% said they would send their employee to VAR classes.
In the second poll, the overwhelming majority stated that they are self-taught in the use of SolidWorks. Some questions comes to mind. If SolidWorks is so easy to learn, do the VAR classes serve any purpose? Or, is it that the VAR classes are so ineffective that one is forced to learn on their own?
My own experience in sending new employees to VAR taught introductory SolidWorks classes have yielded mixed results. They do not seem effective in many cases. In fact, the VAR classes actually seem to be turning off some individuals to the use of SolidWorks. It may be that there is just too much information crammed into the short 3 to 5 day courses.
SolidWorks is easy enough to learn without classes. Classes should simply be used to provide a head start. Instead, in some cases they seem to have the opposite effect. Maybe the classes need to be broken down a bit. Perhaps the introductory class can take a slower pace and focus on core skills over the 3 days. Then, more complex skills can be taught in an intermediate class over another 3 days. (The current advanced classes offered by VARs would likely remain the same.)