Am I ready?

So, you have decided to get certified.  Congratulations on your first step to joining our club.  The next question is inevitably, am I ready?  Let’s take a look at the Big 3 Certifications and make some recommendations from there.  You can click on the Certification Title and it will take you to the SOLIDWORKS page for more information.



CSWA

The Certified SOLIDWORKS Associate is the entry level exam, but it’s not an easy test.  At 3 hours long, it is going to cover a lot of material.  SOLIDWORKS recommends that you should be able to complete the tutorials within SOLIDWORKS in order to pass this exam.  I’d also recommend at least 3 months of heavy use.  As I said in my Introductions post, we use this at the college level as the final in our Graphical Communications course, which is a 16 week course.  This is a very fast paced environment though.  Students discuss and demonstrate key exam components in homework and quizzes, even with this practice, only 3 out of 4 of my students pass the CSWA.  You are going to want to be familiar with the below concepts in order to pass.

• Sketch entities - lines, rectangles, circles, arcs, ellipses, centerlines
• Sketch tools - offset, convert, trim
• Sketch relations
• Boss and cut features - extrudes, revolves, sweeps, lofts
• Fillets and chamfers
• Linear, circular, and fill patterns
• Dimensions
• Feature conditions – start and end
• Mass properties
• Materials
• Inserting components
• Standard mates - coincident, parallel, perpendicular, tangent, concentric, distance, angle
• Reference geometry – planes, axis, mate references
• Drawing views
• Annotations

CSWP

The CSWProfessional exam is the proof that you are skilled in SOLIDWORKS.  You can hold your own in just about anything your boss can throw at you.  This certification will test you.  Many who attempt it do not pass their first attempt.  I myself made an egregious error and on the first segment of the CSWP and correctly answered only 1 question.  Yes, I failed miserably.  I’ll go into what I did wrong in another post, but it is a mistake that I have seen a lot of people make.  Don’t be worried and let me talk you out of taking the exam though, I’m here to help you out.  SW recommends that you complete SOLIDWORKS Essentials, SOLIDWORKS Drawings, Advanced Part Modeling, and Advanced Assembly Modeling at your VAR before attempting this exam.  I also recommend about 9-12 months of experience in SOLIDWORKS.  This exam is broken into 3 segments.  You can take one segment at a time and can take them in any order you want.  You have a total of 3 hours and 30 minutes for all 3 segments.  The following concepts are covered in these segments.

Segment 1: (90 Minutes)

• Creating a part from a drawing
• Using linked dimensions and equations to aid in modeling
• Using equations to relate dimensions
• Updating parameters and dimension sizes
• Mass property analysis
• Modifying geometry on initial part to create a more complex part
• Modifying parameters on the part at different stages while maintaining all other dimensions and design intent  

Segment 2: (40 Minutes)

• Creating configurations from other configurations
• Changing configurations
• Creation of configurations using a Design Table (Microsoft Excel is required)
• Mass properties
• Changing and/or rearranging features of an existing SOLIDWORKS part

Segment 3: (80 Minutes)

• Creating an assembly
• Adding parts to an assembly
• Doing collision detection when moving a part in an assembly
• Interference detection
• Basic and advanced mates 
• Rigid and Flexible subassemblies
• Replacing a part with another part in an assembly
• Creating a coordinate system
• Using a coordinate system to perform mass properties analysis

CSWE

The CSWExpert is the most intensive test SOLIDWORKS has.  Not only must you pass the CSWP exam, but you also have to pass 4 of the 5 following exams, Sheet Metal, Weldments, Surfacing, Mold Tools, and Drawing Tools.  This may sound counter intuitive, but, the CSWE was by far the easiest certification I took.  However, it was also by far the certification that I practiced for the most.  SDC Publications has a several books on the certifications.  I wore out the CSWE prep book.  I highly recommend any of the books by Paul Tran or David and Marie Planchard.  SOLIDWORKS recommends that if you have passed the above listed exams you are ready for the CSWE.  Unlike the other certifications, there is no sample exam.  The test is 3 hours instead of 70% to pass, you must score an 85%.  You will want to be familiar with the items below before you begin.  In addition to this, I recommend that you practice, practice, practice.

• Lofts
• Sweeps
• In-context assembly changes
• Imported part modification
• Belts and chains
• Sketch blocks
• Multi-bodies
• In-context assembly design
• Sketch pictures
• Spring modeling
• Move/Copy bodies
• Split tool

I hope this gives some explanation on what each of the big 3 Certifications entail.  You will want to stay tuned for my next post, How do you get the certifications for free?

Thanks,

Bryan

Introductions

My name is Bryan Ray.  I am a Journeyman Mold Maker, I have 10 years of experience in the engineering field and have 4 years experience as a Limited Term Lecturer at the college level.  I am certified in CSWA, CSWP, Sheetmetal, Mold Tools, Drawings, Weldments and CSWE.  I am the current President of the SOLIDWORKS of Louisville User Group.  I have traveled to China and Costa Rica where I've helped train people in the use of SOLIDWORKS and used the certification program to validate their training.  We also use the CSWA exam as the final in Design Communications to validate our students at the college where I teach part time.

Something has been bothering me for several years. I have given a presentation at SOLIDWORKS World for the last few years on Tips and Tricks to pass the CSWP.  The thing that bothers me is that my first question for the attendees is 'Who has taken the CSWP and failed?'  I see a lot of hands go up, my own included (yes, I failed my first try).  I tried to think of a way to help people out on passing the CSWP.  Not just once a year at SWW, but every day.  So, if every journey starts with a single step, then this is my leap.  In the posts to come, I'll do my very best to share some tips and tricks to help everyone on certifications.  I'm not going to limit this to just the CSWP, but this is where I am going to start.

This is intended to be an open discussion, if you have a comment or question, please feel free to post it.  There is always more than one way to get something done.  I look forward to learning something also.

Thanks,
Bryan