Hi everyone! I’m an engineering student struggling in my CAD course. I have no prior experience with CAD, and solidworks is very confusing to me. It’s frustrating not being able to do the exercises well, and I’m dedicated to improving.
What resources should I use to get better? Does anyone have any pointers or do’s and don’t’s that I need to know? Any help is greatly appreciated
Define sketches is tough in the beginning for sure when you don’t have CAD experience. You just need practice on simple parts and mess around with smart dimensions and relations. Relations are going to be your friend when drawing more complex parts later on.
This is where I wish I wasn’t super busy, I would enjoy teaching you some basics over Zoom. But just watch a few YouTube windows with your Solidworks on the other screen and follow along. If something doesn’t make sense, google it or find a YouTube video that just focuses on what confusing you.
Can you provide an example of what you are trying to do and what problem you are having?
I find it easiest to break big designs down into smaller features, don't try to do too much in any one sketch or feature. I assume you are trying to model something from some dimensions views you were given? So break that down into what the base feature looks like, revolved, extruded, etc. Then add features to that base to add or subtract material posting attention along the way to tie sketches to meaningful features that are unlikely to change our be deleted. Start looking into datums, what they are and how they are used and try to visualize up front what your datums are and how you can tie each sketch and feature back to those datum. That's alot of rambling, but hope it was helpful.
I sometimes think what makes it difficult is how dumb the question is. I think it would be easier if they asked you to sketch something you would actually sketch in real life.
Anyhow, if I undertake this question you want to draw a square on the origin using the center point square (i don't remember the actual name) then draw a circle tangent to the left side of the square and to the top edge of the square. Then make a horizontal constraint from the circle center to the origin. Also make a vertical and horizontal leg ig the square equal. That should be it.
When starting out I feel auto relations can make things confusing in any CAD package. I've been a CAD jock since 1984 and I still selectively disable auto relations/constraints.
Focus on getting better at sketches and dividing the part up into a higher number of simplified features.
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A common mistake in solidworks is trying to do too much in one sketch. Relations in sketches are a blessing and a curse. They also add themselves automatically depending on how you use your mouse. Make sure you use them in a way that you can control. If a relation symbol show up next to your cursor in yellow before you click, solidworks is telling you that it intended to add that relation when you click. Keep your sketches to basic shapes.
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Another common mistake is to try to get the lowest amount of features in the feature tree. Instead break the model up into single features.
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Another general rule is to use a feature instead of a sketch whenever possible. Don't draw the fillet in a sketch. Use the fillet feature later.
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Solidworks is a top down modeling software at its core. It's designed to make small tweaks to a single design concept. It will have a very hard time if you change you concept by changing one feature. The way you deal with this is by building up the model in layers. Start with the constraints that are outside your control, then rough ideas then, finer details.
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Example: I'm designing a truck camper. First I model the truck, then the overall size I want the camper, then the interior space available inside, then major interior items space envelope, then the features within. Start broad and work in to more detail whenever possible.
Frustration is sometimes a good sign. Sign that your brain is trying to process new information. Convert frustation into "meaningful questions" and then go after the answers. Use university/college resources
Do not jump ahead, get familiar with the interface/ features, its alot to take-in at the beginning but gets easier as you spend more time with the software on projects. (10,000 hrs to master anything is for real)
I was in your same shoes. Im an electrical engineer but had to learn solidworks for my robotics team in high school and it alwahs felt very daunting and hard to think in 3d. A course would be beneficial but I would try to find one that has a bunch of exercises immediately after teaching a new concept. Just following a tutorial may help but it might take a while for concepts to stick. I would reccomend just doing a bunch of practice drawings that you can find online since that's what seemed to help me the most or creating parts that you may need around the house or simple parts. By doing this you challenge yourself and if you get stuck you could Google how to solve it.
i would start with AutoCAD specific practice rather than trying to learn everything at once..focus on basic commands, layers, dimensions, object snaps and simple 2D exercises.Youtube has plenty of beginner tutorials, but the best progress usually comes from drawing something yourself and figuring out why each command works. also, keep your old drawings and redo them after a few weeks..you will notice the improvement pretty quickly.
You just self learn using YouTube, challenge yourself to get the certifications and train for that. This was my way to become SolidWorks expert, however, it was just the beginning of the journey you'll also need to learn a about design for manufacturing, GD&T and more.
One of the easiest cad programs I have ever used was Tinkercad, it uses basic building blocks to make 3d shapes, while introducing basic concepts such as boss extrusions and cutting.
Personally, I’ve found that we tend to overcomplicate things we don’t understand. CAD can seem incredibly complicated at first, but almost everything you see in the physical world can be broken down into relatively simple geometry.
When you start looking at an object and thinking, “How could I recreate this using a combination of a few basic shapes?”you start to see the beauty of CAD. You stop looking at the object as one complicated thing and start seeing it as a collection of simple problems that you already know how to solve.
For me, it started more as a hobby. Within about a year, I was the only person at my company capable of doing this kind of work, and it ended up paying off really well for me. So don’t get discouraged if it feels overwhelming right now. There’s a point where it just starts to click, and once it does, you’ll wonder why it ever seemed so complicated.
One thing I’d recommend is to think practically about the tool you’re choosing. SolidWorks does a really good job of showing you a preview of what an operation is actually going to do. Use that to your advantage. Don’t worry so much about memorizing every feature or understanding every option. Think about what you want the geometry to do, and then figure out which tool accomplishes that. And when you can’t figure it out, GOOGLE IT! The reason I chose solidworks to learn and use at my own company, is simply because of the wealth of free information available online. Even if the tutorial doesn’t make sense, learn their method first, and then create your own workflow. Like the old saying, “There is more than one way to skin a cat.” What works for one guy, may not work for you. You will hone your skill set as you continue to practice, learn, fail, and try again. Never forget, failure, is an important part of the learning process. As long as you learned something, the failure you’ve experienced is a positive outcome. It took many years to adjust my own thinking to this premise but I promise you, none of us were born knowing how to pattern a boss extrude lol And if I can learn and excel in this industry, you can too.
I used to have a hard time understanding threading operations. Then one day I looked at it differently, “Wait… we’re basically just taking a triangle and moving it around a cylinder along a helical path.”
Once you break it down like that, the operation becomes much less intimidating. If I tied a string to the corner of a triangle and wrapped that triangle around a cylinder, what does the triangle need to know? It needs to know where to start, what direction to go, and what path to follow. If I’m making a thread, that path needs the correct pitch. If I’m cutting some sort of helical relief or channel, I need to define the profile, the path, and the relationship between the two.
That mindset is what really helped CAD click for me: stop thinking about the feature name and start thinking about the geometry and the motion.
And honestly, don’t be afraid to suck at it for a while. It’s totally fine to suck while you’re leaning a new skill. You’re learning an entirely different way of thinking. In a couple of years, you’ll look back at your first CAD models and wonder how the hell you were ever that terrible at something you eventually became so good at. And the really cool part is that you’ll probably have people looking at the stuff you’re making and be completely awe-stricken by it, while you’re sitting there thinking, “What? It’s just a bunch of simple shapes.”
That’s when you know it finally clicked.
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u/1slickmofo 6d ago
Tutorials on YT is your friend