Give the gift of SolidWorks knowledge

By Jeff Sweeney, 3DVision Technologies.

I’m very glad to be posting here as my chance to give back to the Javelin team. Back when I was first starting to learn SolidWorks, I worked with a company that has its head-quarters in Ontario. As a result, I had several opportunities to interface with the AEs at Javelin. I found them very generous with their knowledge and friendship. With their help, I was able to quickly master the primary tool I still use for my livelihood.

T’is the season for giving and in the spirit of what I learned from the Javelin team, I want to encourage you to share what you learn. Don’t be one of those people who thinks their knowledge equates to job security and never helps others. The pace of technology changes too fast to put yourself out on an island. Don’t be afraid to share that clever toolbar, time saving macro, or little BOM table editing trick. It may help your co-workers [some may incorrectly say competitors] catch up to you in the short run, but the more you give, the faster you will grow because others will give in return. Maybe they have a better macro?! Make learning a team effort, teamwork accomplishes so much more than an individual. Besides, the stuff you know probably isn’t yours anyway; someone was generous enough to share their wisdom with you in the first place. Pay it forward.

Don’t forget, in today’s world your community can be much larger than your cubicle farm at work. Be a part of SolidWorks user groups, SolidWorks forums, Twitter and even large events like SolidWorks World. Don’t sit back in the shadows, give and share what you know. The SolidWorks community is full of people who will spend time to help others, participate, and become involved. It all comes back in many different forms…and for me it has come back tenfold.

As an aside, one of the first people I met at Javelin was John Carlan. I found John to be a very helpful guy and I liked him immediately. One day, I ran into him after not seeing him for quite a long time and I asked if he was still working at Javelin -teasingly inferring that I was surprised he had not been fired yet. I was quite embarrassed when I later learned that John is actually the managing director of Javelin! So I guess either John has forgiven me or he doesn’t know I am writing on his blog!?

About the Blog Author: Jeff Sweeney

Jeff works for SolidWorks VAR 3DVision Technologies as an Engineering Data Specialist and contributes to the SolidWorks Enterprise PDM and DriveWorks products. Jeff is also one of the authors of the 3DVision Blog.

Jeff’s major in college was agricultural engineering and was an agricultural engineer for two days after graduation until the company that hired him decided to drop their agricultural line leaving him no choice but to become a mechanical engineer. After a few years he moved on to designing  automation equipment and gradually assumed the role as CAD administrator. Learn more about Jeff here