As a professional engineer or CAD technician, it’s important to keep your skills honed. By continuously learning new modeling and evaluation techniques, users can become more productive and innovative in tackling design challenges.
But once an engineering challenge has been solved, how can a designer ensure that their ingenuity and proficiency with the software will be recognized? For that matter, how can team leaders identify standout designers on their teams?
One of the best ways to satisfy both of these issues is to become a certified CAD user.
But once an engineering challenge has been solved, how can a designer ensure that their ingenuity and proficiency with the software will be recognized? For that matter, how can team leaders identify standout designers on their teams?
One of the best ways to satisfy both of these issues is to become a certified CAD user.
- Solidworks For High School Students
- Solidworks Projects For High School
- Solidworks For Education
- Solidworks Curriculum High School
SOLIDWORKS Certification
As one of the most widely used MCAD packages on the planet, SOLIDWORKS is an excellent example of how certification can distinguish a standout designer or design engineer from the rest of the crowd. Dassault Systèmes currently offers 13 different certification exams covering skill levels from associate to expert and several advanced topic exams (Surfacing, Weldments, Mold Tools, Sheet Metal and Drawing Tools) that single out skillsets.
Though Dassault maintains a wide range of tests that cover skill levels from beginner to expert, the three most import exams are the Associate, Professional and Expert exams (the last also requires passing four of the five individual advanced topic exams).
Though Dassault maintains a wide range of tests that cover skill levels from beginner to expert, the three most import exams are the Associate, Professional and Expert exams (the last also requires passing four of the five individual advanced topic exams).
Solidworks For High School Students
Associate Certification
![Solidworks For High School Solidworks For High School](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/AHYDjExzoVA/maxresdefault.jpg)
- Explore manual technical drawing excercises and advance your skills by creating the 3D models and 2D drawings in SOLIDWORKS. CAD Tutorials for Vocational Schools. Designed for the machine shop student, these tutorials take you learning SOLIDWORKS and creating parts and assemblies that can be milled, turned and formed.
- SolidWorks MBD – this is an integrated drawing-less manufacturing solution that helps companies define, organize and publish 3D Manufacturing Information or PMI. MBD guides the manufacturing process directly in 3D, which aids in the elimination of possible errors, reduce cycle time, etc. Unlike the traditional 2D drawings.
The SOLIDWORKS Associate exam (CSWA) is the starting point for many CAD high school or college students who are looking to prove to employers that they can walk into a job and be productive on day one. The CSWA is a practical test (like all SOLIDWORKS professional certification exams) that covers 3D modeling, design concepts and sustainable design over the course of three hours. Links golf game for mac.
As a testament to the quality of the tests, entire states, and even a country, have mandated the use of these exams for all the students studying CAD in their universities. Mike Puckett, senior manager of the SOLIDWORKS certification program, points to Ireland and Florida as examples.
To pass the CSWA, users must achieve a score of 70 percent. Dassault claims that some 65 percent of those who take the exam pass and that 102,127 students have completed their CSWA certification.
To pass the CSWA, users must achieve a score of 70 percent. Dassault claims that some 65 percent of those who take the exam pass and that 102,127 students have completed their CSWA certification.
Professional Certification
With this experience, they’ll be SOLIDWORKS experts and using SOLIDWORKS PCB, SOLIDWORKS Electrical and Routing in no time! Class 2: Power & Energy. The second class I visited was a Power & Energy class. Their project was to design a water wheel that would generate energy from a stream behind the high school. The easy-to-use SOLIDWORKS Student Edition lets you sharpen your skills outside the classroom as you learn to design better products. SOLIDWORKS Student Edition is available to high school, home schooled and degree-seeking students (who can confirm enrollment in a degree-granting program or full-time enrollment in a certificate-granting program) or full-time faculty members using the software for. With this experience, they’ll be SOLIDWORKS experts and using SOLIDWORKS PCB, SOLIDWORKS Electrical and Routing in no time! Class 2: Power & Energy. The second class I visited was a Power & Energy class. Their project was to design a water wheel that would generate energy from a stream behind the high school.
When a user feels that their professional career could be enhanced with a higher level of CAD certification, Dassault offers the Certified SOLIDWORKS Professional program (CSWP). Over the course of 3.5 hours, the CSWP exam tests your ability to create parts from drawings; edit equations, parameters and feature order and create assemblies, among a variety of other skills.
Unlike the CSWA, the CSWP is split up into three segments, each of which can be taken separately. To pass the CSWP, users need to score at least 75 percent on each segment of the exam. Not surprisingly, professional users who take the CSWP have a higher passing rate than CSWA examinees, with 74 percent gaining certification. In fact, across the globe there are 32,328 CSWPs, each of which is likely master of their CAD domain.
Unlike the CSWA, the CSWP is split up into three segments, each of which can be taken separately. To pass the CSWP, users need to score at least 75 percent on each segment of the exam. Not surprisingly, professional users who take the CSWP have a higher passing rate than CSWA examinees, with 74 percent gaining certification. In fact, across the globe there are 32,328 CSWPs, each of which is likely master of their CAD domain.
Expert Certification — The Few and the Proud
Finally, the most daunting test in the SOLIDWORKS certification program is the Expert exam (CSWE). To achieve the level of SOLIDWORKS Expert, users must have already obtained a CSWP certification and have also completed four of the five individual advanced topics exams.
Each advanced topic exam lasts 90-minutes and is an exhaustive examination of a special topic within SOLIDWORKS. To pass a special topics exam, users must answer 75 percent of the questions correctly.
After completing the five prerequisite tests for the CSWE, users are challenged by a test that’s not only comprehensive, but also has a little mystery. Unlike all other SOLIDWORKS exams, the CSWE has no practice test available that provides insight as to which topics might be covered. Examinees walking into the CSWE will need to be ready for anything.
To pass the CSWE exam, users must answer 85 percent of the test correctly. Oh, and just as a way of illustrating how challenging the CSWE is, Puckett mentioned that across the globe only 2,339 SOLIDWORKS users have managed to earn Expert certification. That’s only two percent of the total number of people with a SOLIDWORKS certification (over 110,000).
Each advanced topic exam lasts 90-minutes and is an exhaustive examination of a special topic within SOLIDWORKS. To pass a special topics exam, users must answer 75 percent of the questions correctly.
After completing the five prerequisite tests for the CSWE, users are challenged by a test that’s not only comprehensive, but also has a little mystery. Unlike all other SOLIDWORKS exams, the CSWE has no practice test available that provides insight as to which topics might be covered. Examinees walking into the CSWE will need to be ready for anything.
To pass the CSWE exam, users must answer 85 percent of the test correctly. Oh, and just as a way of illustrating how challenging the CSWE is, Puckett mentioned that across the globe only 2,339 SOLIDWORKS users have managed to earn Expert certification. That’s only two percent of the total number of people with a SOLIDWORKS certification (over 110,000).
So, What’s Certification Mean in the Real World?
With SOLIDWORKS offering opportunities to validate your CAD skills across the entire trajectory of your career, one might wonder whether certification translates into a higher salary, more job opportunities or even just the comfort of job security. While SOLIDWORKS does not research users’ employability or salaries before and after testing, Puckett offers Disney as an example of a company that places quite an emphasis on SOLIDWORKS and certification.
Disney Parks and Resorts is one of SOLIDWORKS’ showcase customers. According to those who do the hiring over at Disney, SOLIDWORKS certification won’t necessarily guarantee you a job, but it will land you an interview. Military brass knuckles for sale. In a competitive job market where engineers and CAD techs are vying for the most interesting and cutting edge jobs, getting your foot in the door at a company that’s as innovative as Disney says a lot about the certification exams.
Though I’ve outlined the value that SOLIDWORKS certification, or for that matter, any CAD certification provides, there will still be cynical engineers out there arguing that certification programs amount to nothing more than a revenue stream that provides little to the end user.
For anyone with that opinion, I suggest you turn up at SOLIDWORKS World or any other user conference. There you’ll find the greatest concentration of certified users that you could ever assemble. Chat those folks up, and ask them their opinions about certification. Your concerns should wither quickly.
But if that’s not proof enough, do what I did. Give Mike Puckett a call. Not only is Mike in charge of SOLIDWORKS certification, he’s also actively invested in it. After speaking with him for an hour, I was convinced in the value of the program. I think you’ll find the same thing.
Disney Parks and Resorts is one of SOLIDWORKS’ showcase customers. According to those who do the hiring over at Disney, SOLIDWORKS certification won’t necessarily guarantee you a job, but it will land you an interview. Military brass knuckles for sale. In a competitive job market where engineers and CAD techs are vying for the most interesting and cutting edge jobs, getting your foot in the door at a company that’s as innovative as Disney says a lot about the certification exams.
Though I’ve outlined the value that SOLIDWORKS certification, or for that matter, any CAD certification provides, there will still be cynical engineers out there arguing that certification programs amount to nothing more than a revenue stream that provides little to the end user.
For anyone with that opinion, I suggest you turn up at SOLIDWORKS World or any other user conference. There you’ll find the greatest concentration of certified users that you could ever assemble. Chat those folks up, and ask them their opinions about certification. Your concerns should wither quickly.
But if that’s not proof enough, do what I did. Give Mike Puckett a call. Not only is Mike in charge of SOLIDWORKS certification, he’s also actively invested in it. After speaking with him for an hour, I was convinced in the value of the program. I think you’ll find the same thing.
Taking and Purchasing an Exam
SOLIDWORKS certification exams can be taken from any computer that hosts a seat of SOLIDWORKS 2009 or greater. The test is administered online in a secure client window separate from the core software. The SOLIDWORKS Associate exam runs $99, the Professional $99 and the expert exam will cost $149. Individual topic exams cost $19.95. If you fail an exam, it can be retaken but only after an exam specific waiting period has elapsed, usually 14-30 days.
About the Author
Kyle Maxey is a mechanical designer and writer from Austin, TX. He earned a degree in Film at Bard College and has since studied Mechanical and Architectural drafting at Austin Community College. As a designer Kyle has had vast experience with CAD software and rapid prototyping. One day he dreams of becoming a toy designer.
I recently paid a visit to my old stomping grounds,Smithfield High School in Rhode Island. It was my intention to catch up with my original CAD teacher, as I wanted to learn how his students are using SOLIDWORKS. What I expected to be a two hour visit, ended up being an entire day. I met with three STEM classes and even taught one! It was great to work with these up-and-coming SOLIDWORKS designers and learn about how they are using 3D CAD for their class projects. Below are some of my experiences with these different classes.
Class 1: Introduction to CAD
Solidworks Projects For High School
I began my day spending time with students in a beginner’s CAD class. Their project was to design and 3D print a hobbyist drone body and to make it fly using internal electronics. It was great to walk around and see students pulling apart purchased drones to see how they functioned and reverse engineer the primary components that they’ll design on their own. What amazed me most was, these students were designing their drone housing’s around PCB’s. They were even using in-context assembly modelingto add covers with mounting holes aligned with the drone housing! Little do these budding engineers know that these design tasks mirror many of the practical applications I see from the SOLIDWORKS clients that I visit. With this experience, they’ll be SOLIDWORKS experts and using SOLIDWORKS PCB, SOLIDWORKS Electrical and Routing in no time!
Class 2: Power & Energy
The second class I visited was a Power & Energy class. Their project was to design a water wheel that would generate energy from a stream behind the high school. The class was broken into groups and each were given a recycled bike wheel, that they removed the tire from. This was to be used as the basis of their design. Aside from the bike wheel, the students were responsible for designing and fabricating all components for their water wheel assembly. Most of the groups I observed, were in the process of designing the blades/buckets that would produce the rotation of their wheels. It was great to see that each group had their own unique approach to the design task. I had an opportunity to help two of the groups with their SOLIDWORKS models:
Solidworks For Education
Group One: Took the approach of using buckets that would be attached to the wheel.I saw the students cutting reliefs into paper and folding it to brainstorm the shape of their buckets. They told me they would be fabricating these buckets using sheet metal and a laser cutter in their lab. Knowing this, I explained to the students that they could just as easily brainstorm using the sheet metal features in SOLIDWORKS. In a matter of minutes, I was able to teach the group how to create a simple base flange and add additional edge flanges. Using the SOLIDWORKS sheet metal features, it took a total of 10 minutes for the group to design their bucket, create the flat pattern and save it to a DXF for the laser cutter.
Group Two: Took the approach of using curved blades that would replace the spokes and rim of the bicycle wheel. These blades will also be made out of sheet metal and cut on the laser cutter. The group had concept sketches of the profile of the blade, but hadn’t modeled it in SOLIDWORKS yet. I helped the group get started with their design in SOLIDWORKS by guiding them through the creation of the initial “flattened” shape of the blade. Then, I showed this group how to create a DXF of this sheet metal flat pattern to export to the laser cutter. However, we didn’t stop there. The group explained that the final blade design would be twisted after being cut, to give them the curvature necessary to catch the passing water and drive the water wheel. Again, within 10 minutes, I showed the group how to use the Flex feature to add a twist to the blade. In addition, I showed them how to insert and locate the blade in their wheel assembly and create a Circular Component Pattern to conceptualize the number of blades they’ll need for the final design. They’ve got more work to do but I’d say they’re off to a good start.
Class 3: Architectural Design
The last class I had the pleasure of visiting was an architectural design class. I presented to the students for the entire class and showed them how to easily model their architectural floor plans in 3D, using SOLIDWORKS. I took this same class when I was in high school and was excited to show them the tips and tricks I’ve learned, that would easily take their designs to the next level.
Jun 16, 2019 Download Microsoft To Do for macOS 10.13 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. Stay organized and manage your day-to-day with Microsoft To Do. Make shopping lists or task lists, take notes, record collections, set reminders and more to improve. Nov 15, 2019 How to get Microsoft Word for free on Mac If you're looking for a free version of Microsoft Word on your Mac, there are some good options. Jan 09, 2020 Microsoft Office is the most popular suite of productivity applications in the world, and it runs on Mac computers just as well as it does on Windows machines. The question on many Mac users’ lips seems to be, “Should I pay for Microsoft Office for Mac or use one of its many free alternatives?”. Start quickly with the most recent versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote and OneDrive —combining the familiarity of Office and the unique Mac features you love. Work online or offline, on your own or with others in real time—whatever works for what you’re doing. With 1 TB of. For Apple enthusiasts who want to use Microsoft’s Office software on a Mac, iPad, or iPhone, you can easily download the full Office 365 bundle, or any of its individual apps, from the Mac App. How to microsoft on mac for free.
I began the presentation with a walk-through of adding a sketch picture of the floor plan to a base sketch for them to trace the interior and exterior walls. We reviewed how to insert the image and how to scale the image to the proper size. Then, I showed them the simple process of sketching over the image using only lines, resulting in an open contour sketch. Everyone in the room was impressed when I easily extruded this sketch as a thin feature by selected the desired contours and setting the thickness of the walls. Once we had the walls extruded, I wrapped up the presentation with showing the process of creating a drawing from the part, creating a section view and automatically importing the model items they used when dimensioning the lengths of the walls.
The final project for the class is to develop a physical prototype of their house design. When I took the class, we used card stock paper and hot glue. However, with the power of SOLIDWORKS and 3D printing, these students can simply click a button once they’ve completed their 3D design!
Wrapping Up the Day
At the end of the day, I was grateful to have the opportunity to work with the young minds that are the future of the engineering, product design and manufacturing industries. Today kids are getting an earlier introduction to the industry than ever before through learning CAD tools, like SOLIDWORKS, and growing up in the age of fab labs and maker spaces. This visit proved to me that resources like these, provided by high schools across the country, will ensure our next generation pushes the envelope of future technology and unleash their creativity in a way that was never possible before. Thank you again to Smithfield High School for letting me visit and reminding me that you never stop being a student.