The start of a new year is usually a period of reflection, but also a time to look forward and plan how this new year could be better than the last. Typically, resolutions or goals are made, with the intention to personally improve oneself. These goals do not have to be limited to physical health improvements (get fitter, drink less!) but can be expanded to cognitive skills improvement, i.e. train your brain as well as your body.
Training is an important part of anyone’s personal development, but this should be seen as an on-going process, not a one-off event. For example, going back to the analogy of getting fit, if after training your body to lose weight or gain stamina, you do not maintain the fitness and training regime, you tend to gain the weight back or lose the stamina (speaking from personal experience)!
Work related skills are no different; the better the skills, the better the performance. But if you rely on old skills, and do not maintain them, the initial early advantages gained can – over time – fade as the systems you use improve. An example of system improvement is in 3D CAD modelling; in SolidWorks 2013 when creating a Cut-Extrude feat
ure, you had to specify it as Through All for each direction separately, but in SolidWorks 2014 this now takes one step with Through All – Both Directions. Would you carry on using the old method? If you didn’t know, but then the new improved method was shown to you, would you not gain in efficiency?
With the above in mind, how do you start? As I said, looking back and reviewing is a good way to judge the situation. This will in-turn help plan your next steps and goals. From a 3D CAD and SolidWorks point of view, a good example of reviewing your skills is testing. For most people, skill testing immediately provokes a response – memories of school or college exams, but this (usually) negative response shouldn’t be so.
As Engineers, testing is part of the design process; you design something based on requirements, a physical or virtual example is made, and the design is tested under certain conditions to see if the design meets the requirements. Using the feedback from the testing, the design can be improved or refined. The same applies to skills.
Along with testing, there may be certification. Again, this can apply to both design and skills. SolidWorks certification can be used as a benchmark to measure your knowledge and competency with SolidWorks software, and every successful certified SolidWorks user can publish their certificates with the world-wide SolidWorks community.
So why not add a goal to improve and enhance your SolidWorks skills this year, and try out the Modelling Challenge. Every successful pass gets a training discount voucher.
There is much to gain and nothing to lose! Contact us at training@solidapps.co.uk and take up the challenge.
