Which do you prefer to be called as a person of Earth?
A Twitter posting by other human this morning inspired me to have a little fun today. The question is simple:
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Feel free to leave comments to explain your choice! 🙂
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.)
[memedex:pollid#489615] So, I really don’t know when to stop beating a dead horse. I’m going to talk about 3D mice again. However, this time, I’ve created a poll to see how many people are even using them with their 3D CAD application. The reason for this is two-fold. First, I’m experimenting with the use of polls here at SolidWorks Legion. Second, I’m curious to see the kind of response this poll will get. (Note to fellow bloggers, if you have recommendations for WordPress polling plug-ins, please let me know. For now, I’m using memedex.)
[memedex:pollid#489616] Anyway, back to the topic at hand. This poll is open to anyone that uses 3D CAD software. It is not limited to SolidWorks users. Please respond to this poll. Also, post any comments you might have about 3d mice or any other peripherals you use frequently.
Also, I have a second poll for those of us who have a 3D Connexion 3D mouse regarding how we obtained said 3D mouse. For this poll, I’m interested in see the ratio of people who’ve purchased one (for themself or via their company) versus those who have received one through various other means. Have fun with the polls!
I recently conducted a small poll on SolidWorks Yahoo! Group asking who was using SolidWorks Spelling Check. To my surprize, almost half (so far) have never even hear of Spelling Check.
Only 21% of respondents use Spelling Check regularly. I guess the next question is, “Why aren’t more people using this seemingly obvious tool in SolidWorks?” Is there a good answer for that? From my own experience, I use Lenny’s CommonNotes, which means most of my general notes are pre-fabbed. Since the bulk of the text appears in the general notes, there isn’t much text left in the body of the drawing where misspellings can hide. So, out of a lack for necessity, I’m in the “Yes, sometimes” category.
Here’s the kicker. For the Spelling Check to work, Microsoft Word has to be installed since SolidWorks piggybacks the Microsoft spell checker.
This brings me to another point. Why does this tool have a weird name? We all know this function is a spell checker. So, why is it referred to as “Spelling Check” in SolidWorks? This seems to be a rather odd quirk.
(To access Spelling Check, open a drawing and goto Tools pulldown>Spelling….)
Matt Lombard has a POLL about access to the presentations at SolidWorks World 2008. Right now, all the presentation materials are behind a login.  Theoretically only attendees of SWW8 have access to it. Do you agree with this? Once the poll is closed, I’ll state my opinion here.
