[EricH]

Originally Posted by mplanchard

Eric - if you have SolidWorks 2008, make certain Instant3d is turned on. Click Instant 3d from the Features toolbar. When you select a sketch or a face, you can pull the face in with your mouse to form a cut or out to form a boss - you dont even have to select the icon - it is all on a right click. You stay focused on the center of the graphics window, you can also just drag and a ruler pops up. Click on the ruler for an exact value. This is really cool functionality - I think you will like it.

Marie

I know how to use Solidworks. It's just that without Inventor, I would have had a much, much harder time than I did. When students on another team are asking you how to do basic operations, like make a cutout, you know the level of instruction in Solidworks is minimal in the class (and they didn't look at any tutorials, but that's beside the point).

Of course, modifying particular components was a big pain, because half the time I had to do it 2-3x to get it right... and the constraining was a pain, but I got to the point where I could do it... (How do you get a helix to be concentric with a cylindrical tube? You don't use the concentric constraint, that's for sure!) If I posted a picture of what I did, you'd see some of why I say that.