Is solidworks the best to learn on

[whendidigetold]

Hi, My son has solidworks 2010 and was wonderining if this is the best software for a kid (15) to learn.
He likes it and says it reminds him of sketchup(think thats right).
He wants to be an engineer.
Will this still be used by the time he gets to university/college?
Any other ones I should consider?

Thanks,

Jeff

[DMF_TomB]

there is a lot to learn on Solidworks. I have been using it over 6 years now. Of course there is a new version every year. In general it does change somewhat but the basics remain the same even 6 years later.

..........I recommend for books
SolidWorks 2010 Tutorial with Multimedia CD by David C. Planchard and Marie P. Planchard (Feb 15, 2010)

and

SolidWorks 2010 Bible by Matt Lombard (Apr 5, 2010)
.......some people have trouble learning at first. Do the Tutorial book and then read the Bible. At first it seems you are clicking stuff and not understanding but after awhile you start to remember what does what.
.......i keep the Solidworks Bible next to my work computer. Maybe once a month now trying to do something complicated i read the Bible to see how it is done.
.......i think i use Solidworks the most on a model of a 40 foot tall 200 foot long printing press. i do virtual diassembly of components. hide components or turn semi transparent to troubleshoot equipment (sort of like X-ray vision) and to design and build upgrades for the machine.
......many, many times i have seen problems on the computer and corrected them before even making 1 metal chip. i have many many times measured parts in an assembly to troubleshoot problems far far sooner than shutting a $1 million / day machine down to look at it.
......Solidworks and 3D Cad is the future and it is here today being used more and more everyday.

[rmarchjr]

For 3d models - YES YES YES!!!
I have used lots and once you actually learn it, SW is the best I've ever used.
The tutorials are a life saver.

[whendidigetold]

Thanks for the replies, It's good to hear that from actual users.

[Donkey Hotey]

Catia is just Solidworks on drugs. Everything he learns in Solidworks about sketch-based solid modeling, proper constraints and creating dimensioned views from the solids, will carry over directly to Catia (and to a large extent, ANY solids-based CAD program). The steps are similar, the location of the menus and icons is all that's really different.

In design engineering, he will either be required to know Catia, Unigraphics or Solidworks, with the occasional ProE job cropping up.

That isn't to suggest that Catia is better; Catia sucks. The problem is that there are lots of well-intentioned people who will tell you that anything other than Catia or Unigraphics is a waste of time. Oh yeah: Unigraphics sucks worse than Catia.

[whendidigetold]

Im sooo glad to hear that learning Solidworks is similiar to Catia. That was one of the questions I had.

[lcifers]

I have never used Catia but have been using SolidWorks since 1998 and rest assured your son will be doing himself a favor by learning as much as he can about SolidWorks.

I do know that both SolidWorks and Catia were developed by the same company, Dassault Systems...

[cro-magnum]

I think its great he is interested in solidworks or what ever program he decides to learn.

I hope that you or someone close to your son is mechanically inclined and get his feet wet on that end of engineering. When I hire engineers they either have to have a very impressive resume with no mechanical ability, or a so so resume with good mechanical skills. I'm sure his science projects will be the best in class.

I once built an assembly that could not be disassembled. It had a couple of welded parts and well they should have been bolted. This is where an engineer with mechanical background helps to derail situations like that.

Travis

[whendidigetold]

I once built an assembly that could not be disassembled. It had a couple of welded parts and well they should have been bolted.

Travis

I'm familiar with your work.
Just kiddin'
Yes, I'm pretty mechanical and his brain seems to be wired simliar to mine. Must be in his genes. His late grandad (my dad) was the equipment maintenace forman for a huge company (even had one thing pattented but never made any money from it ), and one of his greatgrandads actually got to work on the avro arrow while the other owned an automotive shop and could build darn near anything. Unfortunately my grade 8 education has hindered me. Which explains why I take an interest in his future. But like I always tell people......I'm uneducated, not stupid
Thanks for the comments. Nice to hear an employers view point.