[OccamzRazor]

I teach SOLIDWORKS/FEA Simulation for a living and teach some of our students on the team before and during the build season. We design the entire robot in CAD each year with only 2-3 students actively working in the software. We are trying to increase that number but the biggest challenge is time and practice. I will share a couple of free, cheap, and not cheap options depending on how you view it.

I choose to teach the first few basic commands during a few sessions and see what the general interest is on the team and then put it on the students who are interested to seek out tutorials on the software as well as sharing resources online. I post problems and video tutorials to the CAD students and let them practice the required skills before build season. I require them to download the software and complete the in-software help tutorials.

The tutorials in the software are not robot specific so those skills need to be practiced by each individual to truly polish that skill set. Once they are able to struggle through a drive system with help from peers and mentors they usually learn much faster. Throw them in to the deep end and make them use the software. They usually swim. CAD is also a use it or lose it skill so practice is a must.

There are some additional tutorials on mysolidworks.com(30 hours). If you want to learn up to a professional level (CSWP and CSWE) then you can also choose to purchase the professional level mysolidworks account (100 hours +) for around $350/yr which is probably one of the faster self paced ways to learn without a lecture and these tutorials mimic the actual instructor courses produced by SOLIDWORKS. This is the expensive option but you will usually learn each command much faster with this method so you save time.

If a team has no mentor for CAD I highly recommend the mysolidworks professional purchase so that students can learn on their own.

You could also purchase the SOLIDWORKS Bible 2013 by Matt Lombard which is very well written and only 40$ or so on amazon. This also comes with video tutorials but is independently written and the newest version only goes up to 2013. This is also a good option as well to help speedily get students up the the level they want to be at. You could potentially teach this as standard curriculum for FRC and FTC students.

I would only purchase these things if you have already exhausted your web resources from other teams and need more point and click based instruction.

Hope this helps!