Discover the customer portal, part 2

It’s so easy to take potshots at SolidWorks Help documentation, it almost feels unfair to criticize it, but people pay for the software, and expect documentation that is useful. First the demise of the printed User Guide, and then the steady decline of the Online Help leave users searching for sources for help and information.

There are some random websites out there that have useful information, but it is not comprehensive, gets dated quickly and cannot be as authoritative as information that comes straight from the horse’s mouth. Links to some of these sites can be had on the Links page of my personal site (now defunct).

Fortunately SolidWorks has offered a virtual font of information that surprisingly few people know about or use. This has been available for many months, and is called the Customer Portal.

You have to be a subscription customer to have full access to the portal, but this is very useful information.

The Knowledge Base is a great source of very detailed and extremely useful information. The Help and  even the official SW training materials are sunnily optimistic about almost everything. The Knowledge Base is not sunnily optimistic, although it does frequently suffer from lapses into corporate euphamism.  The difference is that the Help is written primarily by technical writers who have an understanding of the software. The training is written by training specialists. Only the Knowledge Base is written by SW Corporate tech support guys. Say what you want about reseller tech support, but the SW direct support guys know their stuff. You sometimes run into candid tech support conversations in here, but it is all useful information.

Many of the entries here describe real problems, and list SPR numbers. If you are having problems with something specific, come here and have a look. If you spend a little time looking through a search on a topic, I promise you you will find your efforts rewarded.\n\nFor example, searching Solutions on the phrase “file size” lists results talking about MS shadow data, the hot fix implemented in SP3, configurations, “save as” techniques, and other useful stuff. If you have a user group presentation to give, need to research a problem or want to write a big SolidWorks desk reference book, the Knowledge Base is a fantastic place to do a little research.

Another area of the portal I frequent is of course the Discussion Forums. These have recently been revamped, and offer a lot of good options. You can follow particular threads, get email notifications on particular topics, rate other users, search and reply to messages, conduct polls, see who’s online, send private messages, and so on. Really a lot of stuff. I’ve heard people who believe that the SW forum is not active, but I can assure you that is simply not the case. Because it is split into about 40 different topics,  not all of the topics are equally active. If you put all the topics together, the SW Forum is far more active than either comp.cad.solidworks or eng-tips. And you might think that because they are moderated by SW Corp that they are also highly censored – again not the case. There are some very spirited and frank discussions, and the only things I have seen removed have been blatantly abusive.

There are even some topics where SW employees will chime in and offer expert information, the “real deal” definitive sort of stuff that is often difficult to come by in free-for-all forums.

Next on the hit parade is the Technical Tips area of the portal. Wow. There is a lot of information here, and some of it is stuff you gotta know. Just read through it all. You will be a better user for it.

One of the best topics in this area is the API examples. You can use some of the code just right off the page to make useful macros. This whole area is very useful, and for once, extremely underrated.\n\nYou’re looking for good sources of information?  Definitely discover the SolidWorks Customer Portal. It’s just proof that good information comes from people who know what they’re talking about (technical folk) not people who know how to say it (english majors).