Expanding your SOLIDWORKS knowledge to optimize your skills and your resume can be a daunting task when looking at the many certification types. The Certified SOLIDWORKS Expert (CSWE) certification is considered an industry benchmark for 3D design and is a strong addition to your portfolio of SOLIDWORKS knowledge. There are two variations that allow you to specialize in a specific area. We will cover each one, as well as the prerequisites that must be completed before taking the CSWE.

Expanding your SOLIDWORKS knowledge to optimize your skills and your resume can be a daunting task when looking at the many certification types. The Certified SOLIDWORKS Professional (CSWP) certification is considered an industry benchmark for 3D design and is one of the first steps in building your portfolio of SOLIDWORKS knowledge. It is also a pre-requisite to more advanced certifications. There are four variations that allow you to specialize in a specific area. We will cover each one, as well as the basic courses recommended by SOLIDWORKS that should be completed before taking the CSWP.

I have been a SOLIDWORKS user for about six years, using it mostly for CAD, but sometimes for running my designs through structural simulation analysis. The CAD software I used prior to SOLIDWORKS was slower and this process took extra time to set up. I had to export and import .STEP files between different software, and even though it worked in the end, it seemed like running simulations took forever. My experience since changing to SOLIDWORKS Simulation has been very different. In this blog article, I show you how I used SOLIDWORKS Simulation to run a simple static study.

Expanding your SOLIDWORKS knowledge to optimize your skills and your resume can be a daunting task when looking at the many certification types. The Certified SOLIDWORKS Associate (CSWA) certification is one of the first steps in expanding your SOLIDWORKS knowledge and is mainly taken by new users and students. There are five variations that allow you to specialize in a specific area. We will cover each one, as well as the basic courses recommended by SOLIDWORKS that should be completed before taking the CSWA.

The set of standards used for drawing and dimensioning your parts in SOLIDWORKS is known as the Drawing Template, similar to Part and Assembly templates. SOLIDWORKS drawings consist of two distinct layers, the sheet and sheet format. These both make up the drawing template. In addition, any changes you’ve made to the Document Properties will also carry over to the drawing template once that template is saved. The drawing template, sheet and sheet format all combine to make up the drawing file (*.slddrw). In this blog article, we show you how to set up your Drawing template.

As a user of SOLIDWORKS PDM, the majority of the functionalities available to you are controlled by permissions set by the system administrator. The Cache Options and User Settings are two PDM controls, that if given the permission, users can self-manage the ways that checked-out, checked-in and reference files are handled on their local computer.

Having spent some time working at a local battery company started from Carnegie Mellon, I saw firsthand as a SOLIDWORKS user how companies in the energy sector utilize the software. It would be very narrow-minded to exclude the totality of this industry. There are many products in the SOLIDWORKS portfolio, if leveraged properly, that can be powerful for those in the industry, from oil/gas, hydroelectric power generation, hydrogen power and many more. During my time at the battery company, I utilized the SOLIDWORKS mechanical design suite of products including the basics with sketching, product and assembly design to the more advanced capabilities and SOLIDWORKS validation products. In this blog, I go through a very high-level overview of the tools most likely to be used by a designer in this field.

As a SOLIDWORKS user, I am always excited when new software features and enhancements are released every year. The more I use the software, the more I realize how valuable these updates are and how much they improve my experience. Features such as customizing mouse buttons or accessing drawing arcs help me save time and add more details to my designs. In this blog post, I share with you my top ten personal favorite SOLIDWORKS features and why I am thankful for them.

SimulationXpress is a built-in, first-pass design verification tool created to quickly and easily put a single-body part through a structural study in SOLIDWORKS. This great tool is included with every license of SOLIDWORKS, after an easy activation and allows the user to do simple stress analysis simulation studies without the need to purchase an additional SOLIDWORKS Simulation package. In this blog post, we take a look at the top five features that make SOLIDWORKS SimulationXpress the tool you should be using with any part that you design.

Electrical and mechanical engineers can collaborate to design printed circuit boards (PCBs) that fit and function in SOLIDWORKS assemblies, bridging the collaboration gap between Electrical Computer Aided Design (ECAD) and Mechanical Computer Aided Design (MCAD). Using add-on tools, such as CircuitWorks, designers and engineers have the ability to read ECAD files in SOLIDWORKS. In this blog, we'll go over what CircuitWorks is and the benefits of using this add-on.

Past SOLIDWORKS updates are the building blocks for all future improvements and feature additions. However, with all of the changes that are applied every year it can be hard to remember and keep track of everything that has happened. What if there was a new feature you could be using right now, but it flew under your radar? To help with this, during our TriMech 20 for 20 event we provided a little refresher with four on-demand webinars focused on the progress and upgrades of previous SOLIDWORKS enhancements. 

The Tucker Carioca 1955 car was an idea that Preston Tucker dreamed of, but never built. Unfortunately, he died before he had the chance to do any engineering and bring his dream to reality. At Rob Ida’s shop, Ida Automotive, Rob and his team are working to pick up where Preston left off to build the very first Tucker Carioca.

Michael Souders from TriMech and Mike Sabocheck from SOLIDWORKS traveled to Rob Ida Concepts to help work on this project. Michael brought a couple of tools to scan items with him: the Artec Eva and Artec Space Spider.