SolidWorks 2013 Bible in the Works

Some of you have been asking, and I finally have some news. There will be a 2013 version of the SolidWorks Bible. This edition will be rejoined into a single volume again. It turns out that splitting it into Parts and Assemblies wasn’t the best option. Also, the 2011 version had a printing problem where a whole bunch of pages were out of place. We skipped the 2012 version for a few reasons, first that the 2011 version was fairly late, and second that there wasn’t a lot of consequence that was new in 2012.

For every new edition I like to have a theme, or a reason for writing a new version. In 2013, I want to organize the information a little differently. In the surfacing book, I organized things in a certain way, and I think it could use a little refinement, but I’d like to follow a similar outline here:

  1. Concept: what is this feature or function supposed to do? (answer “what?”)
  2. Details: where do you find it, what are the options (answer “where?”)
  3. Workflow: show the feature in use, step-by-step (answer “how?”)
  4. Example: beyond how, you need to know why. This is a more annotated demonstration, where the bulk of the in-depth discussion takes place about the decision making process. Face it, what you really need help with is probably not the easy stuff (what, where and how), the information that is of most value to you is “why?”

When I look through the Help to a lot of software, not just SolidWorks, I see that most of them leave out some really basic information. SW help often leaves out where to find tools, or what they look like, or what you should expect them to do (input/output). I’ll aim at including all of that plus an example examining the decision making process you might use to select the feature or the options within the feature. Design is about Decisions. In the 2013 edition, I hope to help you more with the decision making process.

Every year I vow to have a closer look at the tutorials, and every year it seems to be the last thing on the list. This year I’m really gonna do it, though. Step-by-step stuff is in my opinion very hard to write and of limited value for anyone except new users. I prefer to teach concepts over facts. I recognize that not everyone agrees with me, so I’ll try to combine both methods. You can only learn basic stuff when you’re learning facts. To really work with the software you have to start understanding concepts. The software is just too huge to memorize a bunch of detailed facts. So, there will be a combination of brief step-by-step tutorials to demonstrate the workflow and short video demonstrations. There will be no dvd this year, but all the content will be available via download.

I write stuff for various media, including video and print. Video tutorials are much more attractive, because I spend less time on them, and frankly make more money for less work. The print stuff, ironically contains way more information than the video, and has to undergo tortuous editing by people who have never seen the software, has to get printed in black and white, in a font that someone inevitably complains about, on paper stock that someone inevitably complains about. I don’t get that I pour 2 months of banging on a keyboard into a pile of paper, and it sells for $39, and then put 10% of the information into a semi-scripted “performance piece” video, and it sells for $100. I don’t understand why it works that way, but it does. If I were to try to put everything in the book into a video series, it would easily be 1000 hours of video, and no one would buy or watch.

There is a place for both media, though. I feel that the video is a great place for beginners to learn basics, watch someone else run the software and pick up good habits. The books are a great place for intermediate users to learn nuanced details and get a bit of a more conceptual understanding. So beyond the personal economics, I think both media are valid.

Just so you know, I’m also slated to update the 2012 video materials for 2013. The production of that takes weeks rather than months, so I won’t start until after

And finally comes the larger question: Why write about SolidWorks at all, if the future is really what people are guessing it is for them? Well, part of the reason I get so angry about the direction of the software is that I have a lot invested in knowledge and experience with it, and I hate to have to start over again. While this experience is still worth something, I’ll continue to try to make a living with it. There are still a lot of users out there who are going to continue to use the software, so I’ll continue to write books and videos until they stop selling. It’s just a pragmatic approach.

I’m just getting started on this project now, and should be done in October, when the 2013 software is getting out to users. Not sure when printing will be complete, but I’d guess by the end of the year we should have printed books. Thanks for all the support.

 

12 Replies to “SolidWorks 2013 Bible in the Works”

  1. Hi. I know you are planning to release 2018 SW version. I have one request. Can you please how “internal ID” works? Example : When I want to fillet a whole feature,say a rectangular boss, I will right click on body after clicking on fillet feature and all edges gets filleted. Now when I edit the sketch to pentagon (here internal ID for line gets changed and normally the fillet feature fails because id of line has changed) it will take 5 edges and fillet. What runs behind the software? If you can bring up such situations on this topic, it will be great!!! Thank you

    1. Internal ID is a great topic, but I don’t have any real information on it. I have some ideas on how it works, though. Everything is assigned an internal ID based on its parents. For example, an edge is made from two faces that intersect. Faces are made from a feature and a sketch element. If one of those faces changes due to the sketch element that creates it, that changes the ID of the face and thus the edge. So any fillet that referenced that edge will fail. This is one of the underlying reasons why history-based CAD that is constantly rebuilt sequentially fails so often.

      Also, I have to say, it’s great to see people reading some of the old posts. I’ve tried to sort through the posts so that only the best ones remain. Thanks for asking a great question.

      1. Ok. Yes I also had very rough idea about it. The first time was when Creo amazed me with their intent edge selection and then SolidWorks also introduced it (not sure when) where you can completely delete the sketch and sketch new line and still fillets remain. Many people don’t know this reason of fillet failure so I think you can pour something from your contacts who can give you in depth information.

        It is always treat reading your posts 🙂 Thank you and please keep on writing.
        P.S. : If you can allow adding images in comments then it will really help more in interacting 🙂

  2. I’ve purchased many of your books over the years and I do like this approach you’re proposing. I’ve been working with Solidworks for a number of years but the product is so huge that often, when delving into a somewhat unfamiliar corner, you feel a lot like a newbie so the what is it for, what does it do and how do you get to it make a lot of sense. On the other hand, once you have a bit of a handle on that the next thing is what is the preferred attack strategies to solve classes of problems.

    One of the things I would like to see, once you’ve completed 2013, is to update the surfacing book so that it follows the same new presentation strategies.

  3. Matt I love your work. I’ve been a hard core CAD Munkie for since ’98, and have always enjoyed your work.

    Please keep writing the books :o) I’ve got the 2011 versions on iBooks and paper, and there is nothing like the experience and usability of a real book compared to a frustrating screen!

    Though All I really wanted to say is that from a long time fan of your work; thank you

    Sincerely

    James Dixon.

    PS Please hurry with the 2013!!

  4. As an instructional designer I truly appreciate the effort you take in designing your books. I’ve got your 2010 Bible sitting right next to me.

    Anyway, adults learn by adapting past experiences and results to current situations. That’s one of the reasons I leave work with a waffled forehead- bang my head on the keyboard- when things don’t work the way I “expect” them to work. See, I’ve been a UG/NX users for over 20+ years and making the jump (forward or backwards is relative) has had unexpected changes in my modeling methods and design workflows.

    Also as a visual learner, I appreciate the videos and a dialog that talks about concepts and how they might be applied to a design process. That’s one of the reasons I designed and delivered courses for New Hires, which had previous CAD background, in a complete design project workflow. We talked about concepts and methods of design and then explained the tools in enough dialog and examples to let them do the trial and error using their past software knowledge to solve the design projects. This allowed the New Hire to take ownership of their learning and still utilize the knowledge they have acquired. My job was “simply” to guide them along and take the technical questions when they had them.

  5. Thanks for the update Matt, One thing that I always find lacking from SW is a true and proper way to actually setup the software in terms of your current setup, preserving that set-up and uninstalling old version and reinstalling new version with you setup intact the way it was. I don’t know if it’s just me or not but it never works out for me in terms of doing it the way they recommend. I’ve gotten to the point that I just format the dedicated hard drive do a clean OS install and then just SW only. Unfortunatly then I’m back to square one on layout. This would be a great addition to your book or videos if possible. Same goes for setting up templates and files for drawing use. Thanks for all your great work Matt.

  6. Matt,
    I like your approach of presenting the concept of the feature, and then expand upon the details with some examples. You are breaking new ground by trying to describe what a Solidworks feature is supposed to do. Solidworks never says what a feature does. It is user discoverable.

    For example: a curve generated by projecting one sketch onto another. This is very useful to control shapes with two simple dimensionable views. Solidworks generally does something that looks like a projection. The resulting curve has nasty discontinuous slope and curvature even when both projecting curves are smooth and continuous, it may also feature almost invisible gaps, if the two curves intersect the curve will avoid that intersection point and wander about. The resulting curve can be made useful by convert entity in a 3D sketch, and then fit spline. That almost works but does not update when the underlying sketches are changed.

    I am looking forward to the description of the loft function. Especially the ones where the loft avoids some profiles so that the shape can have webs, bags twists or wings.

    Your books and skills are needed more than ever. The worse the software the more they are needed.

  7. I think there is a real value in detailed examples — yes, you do need to understand the concepts, but for me at least, I often find it hard to really “get” a new concept without some real world, detailed examples of how it is used.

    And, although I’m not a SW user, I’ve recommended the SW Bibles to several friends.

  8. I like the attitude where you show all possibilities of functions. Being a visual memory man, all those possibilities come later to me when I stand before a decision to choose designing method.

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