Users starved for information

The SolidWorks documentation, and I guess here I’m talking specifically about the official training materials, tend to aim low. Not that the quality of the training docs is poor, quite the contrary, it tends to get good marks from folks who have attended the classes. What I mean is that the material is written with the belief that your main audience is a pretty low level user. You don’t want to get too complex, because you’ll just confuse half the class. When they say “advanced”, they are talking about the next level up from beginner, not necessarily functionality that is pushing the limits of the software. They leave higher level users largely unserved.

For a long time this frustrated me, but in my new role as a writer, I see it as an immense opportunity. This realization was what lead me to aim the SolidWorks Bible at higher level users. So far it seems to be paying off, the book is selling better than the other books that cater to beginners.

I helped write much of the material for the Advanced Surface Modeling course. This was a bit of a departure both for SolidWorks and for me. I had taught the SolidWorks classes for years while working for resellers, so I was familiar with the style. Still, there were things about the style that would change, given the option. One of the familar tenets of the SolidWorks training manuals is the “learn by doing” approach. They walk you through tutorials and give you all the instructions you need to complete the lesson. So you have learned what they showed you. Another way to say that is that you have learned only what they have showed you. And there is a lot they don’t show.

My style is somewhat more chaotic, but more complete. I like to teach by showing contrasting options or techniques. I like to demonstrate decision making, not following instructions. So when I wrote examples, they would repeat a couple of steps using different methods to show different results, compare them, and talk about “why” one method was better than another. The whole “why” issue is one that is conspicuously absent from the SW training materials.

Probably the least “solidworks-ish” of all was that I like to talk about stuff that works and stuff that doesn’t work. When you’re really working on a job that pays money instead of academic examples that don’t matter, it is as important to know what doesn’t work as it is to know what does. Wasting time researching features to see if you can do something is wasting someone’s money, maybe your own. SW generally avoids making value judgments about the software in the training documentation, but where the rubber meets the road, you have to make value judgments all the time.

Anyway, the process of SolidWorks coming to the decision to create a manual for Advanced Surface Modeling, or any higher level function, must have been painful for them. They may have debated that the small audience for an advanced topic wouldn’t justify writing the course. Still, it is difficult to take a CAD package seriously as a tool to create complex shapes if the company does not offer a course on the topic. They had to do it.

It is equally strange that Solidworks does not offer a higher level course on CAD administration. CAD admin should be a huge topic where SolidWorks Corp should be educating its users. If SW users were working on properly administered installations, I’d bet they could decrease tech support volume by 20% or more. Still, it is this higher level of information that SW is reluctant to impart. Thinking about it at first frustrates me, but then I look at it and see it instead as an opportunity to provide some much needed reference material.

It is really only in the last several years that SolidWorks users ourselves have started to mature into really high end users. With the number of overall users growing and growing, it is inevitable that a certain percentage are going to want/need to become expert or wizard level. If SolidWorks does not step up to the plate and offer higher level information, third parties will step in to fill the void. SolidWorks World has become the main outlet for higher level info for most users.

People seem starved for information above the basic level. If you keep an eye on eBay, every now and then you will see one of those Advanced Surface Modeling manuals go up for sale, they regularly sell for over $200. What higher level info are you starved for?