training Archives - SolidWorks Legion

ADDA hosts 53rd Technical & Educational Training Conference

American Design Drafting Association is hosting the 53rd annual Technical & Education Training Conference on March 27-30, 2012 at the Hard Rock Hotel in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The theme this year is “Training with Evolving Technologies”.

The conference is a 4 day event focused around building drafting and design skills. There is heavy focus on drawing standards by ASME, in particular GD&T and ASME Y14.5-2009. CAD technologies are also well covered.

Though this is not one of the larger trade conferences, its tight focus on design and drafting puts it at the top for training in the area of ASME standards, in my opinion. This will benefit individuals who need more in-depth skills related to GD&T and drafting (even when paper drawings aren’t used). The two day workshops on GD&T are particularly valuable.

Due to scheduling conflicts, I won’t personally won’t be able to attend this year, but I do hope to get a chance to go again within the next couple of years.

The early bird special for people who register by March 5, 2012 is $100 off the attendance fee. More information may be found at their registration form page.

UPDATE 2/2/2012

Description of workshops for this conference are now available.

How did you learn SolidWorks?

In a previous article, I recently asked for the opinions of others about the best methods to train new employees for SolidWorks. So far, the response is split between “on the job training with a mentor” and “VAR taught introductory courses”. This is a bit of a surprize given the emphasis placed on VAR based training these days. Do others question of the value of VAR training? Is it effective? Or, is VAR training just not worth the costs or the time away from work? My own experience is that VAR training classes do not necessarily give the best benefit to new users.

The responses made me curious about something else. How did current SolidWorks users learn the software?

Loading ...

Value of training options for SolidWorks

For me, SolidWorks was a fairly easy application to learn. In fact, I am self-taught for the most part. I learned it progressively over a couple of months because it was necessary for my jobs and I had to do it. That was over a decade ago. These days, that may not be an acceptable option. Users often need to hit the ground running. Not every situation is the same. Even still, I’ve created a new poll to get the opinions of others. Imagine you have a new hirer at your company for a position that required the use of SolidWorks, but they don’t have experience with the software. How would you handle that?

Loading ...

**UPDATE** 2/2/2012

UPDATE 2/2/2012