How to train students in SolidWorks

[Chris Endres]

No matter how much time you take to "teach" (I presume everyone sits down in a room and goes over a topic), not everyone will retain the information or be able able to demonstrate their skills effectively.

The way I learned was by watching upperclassmen design for hours on end and by practicing whenever I had the chance. The best time to learn CAD is by practicing, I started by designing and building an FTC robot for 2013, then I moved up to drive bases, then to more complex assemblies like swerve.

The past few years, I have logged over 1000 hours of leisure CAD, that is just sitting down and designing whatever I thought of. By doing this, I learn something new almost every project.

So overall, it would be a good idea to show students the basics and good practices, then set them free.

Our advanced mechanical class is currently designing FRC sized robots to play (a scaled version) of the VEX Nothing but Net game, I can tell they are all learning a lot.