solidworks beginners

Solidworks is a very powerful 3D CAD software. Whatever you want to create, you need to think in 3 spatial dimensions where the scenario changes upon changing your vantage point. From that vantage point what you will see is 2D means that the view can be drawn on a 2D paper. Solidworks uses these paper planes to draw sketches and extrude the sketches to give them 3D shapes. So, knowing 3D coordinate geometry is helpful in this regard.
Anything you draw in sketches are equation driven. You cannot draw any arbitrary line which you can draw in Paint or CorelDRAW or any 2D software.
Generating complex surfaces are most difficult to make. Here you will need your imagination to combine with the equations working in the background to make a surface you need. You will need to figure out the algorithm for how Solidworks solves the equations in the background.
Always remember, your inputs are the parameters of many variables of an equation working in the background and Solidworks knows how to compute all the points along the way. These are nothing but edges and surfaces of a solid.

SolidWorks is only a tool for your invention. When you are able to imagine in your brain what you want to do, you are at the point. Everything you can imagine can be modelled in SolidWorks. In my opinion, it is not important how you will model your work. The end result is important. Always remember to fully parameterize your sketches. Last but not least: try to use keyboard shortcuts, they make your work faster and are very useful.

Your design is only as good as your sketch is. Two most important things I feel there is to learn are....DESIGN INTENT and SKETCHING correctly.

I am a product designer, not a engineer, and Solidworks has become a very important partner. I can model complex cubic surfaces just the way I want them. By the way, I learned advanced surface modeling techniques by learning on the site "learnsolidworks.com"! As for books, I recommend the texts at "sdcpublications.com"!!

Hi there,

I figured I'd add an answer here since it seems like the previous answers are missing your general question. The best way to learn SolidWorks is to get the fundamentals down, such as sketch planes, sketch tools, and basic features. I have a good tutorial on Youtube (my name is the same here as on Youtube) that works through the basics of the program.

From there, start grabbing different objects you may have lying around and try to model them. It can be something as basic as a pencil, all the way up to something more challenging like scissors. After you've got some practice modeling a variety of objects, find a subject that interests you, and start designing something from scratch. For example, I'm passionate about firearms. All of my skills in SolidWorks have been developed over the years of modelling firearms components, along with my day job at an automation company, designing custom industrial equipment.

Once you find a subject that interests you, you'll find that you're unintentionally learning SolidWorks at that point. The reason is because it's no longer work, but fun. Spend as much time as you can in the software experimenting with different tools and features, even if you end up modeling something totally abstract and impractical.

My personal recommendation (depending on what career path you take) is to avoid surface modeling starting out. Get a firm understanding of solid modeling before you venture into surface modeling. The reason for this is that a good 80% of all of the mechanical parts and objects out in the real world can be created in SW without surface modeling. Once you master solid modeling and want to try a project with complex surfaces and organic contours, you should have enough experience to understand what features you can start out as solid right away, and what features should be surfaces to be converted to solid later.

Hope this helps.