One problem with SolidWorks is its tendency to not alphabetize lists that users browse through, such as the Help Contents. Although these lists may be full of useful information, many users will never find it because the information is so difficult to locate.

This is the section of the Help files that I use the most because I can type something in, and if the terminology is correct, then most of the time I will quickly arrive very close to where I want to be. Sometimes you need to change the order of words, try an alternate term, or check your spelling, but the Index works well when you have a good idea of what you are looking for.

The Search function is for when you are not exactly sure of what you are looking for. For example, you may know that there is a feature that uses stripes to analyze curvature across edges, but you cannot remember its name. In this example, there are two words that you can use for your search: curvature and stripes. If you use curvature, then the Search function returns about sixty possibilities. The term that you are looking for is Zebra Stripes, but you may not quickly find it from scanning such a long list. If you search using the term stripe, then Zebra Stripes appears at the top of the list.

The biggest complaint that you can have about the Search function in Help is that it will sometimes return too many options, and it is not immediately clear what the connection is between the word that you searched on and the topic title that appears in the list. Still, too much information is better than not enough.

Many users overlook three options that are found at the bottom of the Search window: Search Previous Results, Match Similar Words, and Search Titles Only. All of these options are useful in narrowing down the search to find a meaningful result.

The link to this area is located on the SolidWorks Web site main page. SolidWorks has tested the most popular graphics cards and drivers for compatibility with various versions of SolidWorks, and has rated them at various levels, using the following criteria:

The Customer Portal is full of useful information, and first appeared in 2006.

The SolidWorks Discussion Forum is a very active moderated forum for discussing SolidWorks topics. SolidWorks employees will often respond to questions, although more frequently, questions are answered by other users.

There are many topic areas, such as Sheet Metal, Surfacing, API, Configurations, Assemblies, User Groups, and probably thirty more topics to choose from. The forum moderator does not heavily censor the material. Discussions of real problems, and even passionate rants, have been allowed to remain. Posts that are removed are typically wildly off topic and inappropriate by any measure.

This is another area that to me has immeasurable value. Almost any question you can come up with has either already been asked and answered, or there is someone waiting to answer it. Whether your question is about tips, tools, techniques, or something more generically engineering related, you are bound to get a useful answer.

The Tech Tips Web site is a listing of Cadalyst and SolidWorks Express (two relevant on-line magazines) articles about specific functionality. I would not classify any of these articles as particularly detailed or advanced, and they do at times appear to be more like sales pitches than informational pieces, but they are useful as articles of general interest to SolidWorks users.

More tips come in the form of PowerPoint presentations, most of which originate from SolidWorks World sessions.

Also valuable in this area are the API examples and the Utilities collection. If you do a bit of macro writing, then you will want to check these out.

The next most valuable resource is comp.cad.solidworks, the notorious SolidWorks newsgroup. This is a Usenet newsgroup, and is best accessed through a news server with a newsreader. Many newsreader applications are free, such as Microplanet Gravity, Xnews, Mozilla Thunderbird, Netscape, and Outlook Express. Generally, your ISP will supply you with a news server, which works similarly in some respects to an e-mail server. If you are unfamiliar with all of this terminology and not inclined to investigate it, then the easiest thing to do is to go to Google Groups, which archives all of the messages. If you choose this method, then you will quickly discover the downside to using Google Groups: it does not filter or sort the messages.

In any event, comp.cad.solidworks reminds us all that www also stands for Wild Wild West. This newsgroup is not moderated in any way, and so people can (and do) say whatever they want. Of course, this is not an attraction unless you are having a bad day and need to vent your frustration. The attraction of this newsgroup is that it can be a great way to get an answer to almost any SolidWorks question that you can think of because there are such a wide range of people accessing it that have a wide range of experience. (In fact, I have done some of the research for this book by asking questions on this forum.) There are people who monitor the group who seem to enjoy fixing programming, or researching obscure functionality. Of course, you are just as likely to get an answer from someone who misunderstands the question, and so you definitely have to be able to sort through different quality levels of information. You will find many highly opinionated responses, but this is also part of the attraction. Many topics in SolidWorks do not have clear cut answers, and different points of view can be valuable to understand various aspects of an issue such as file management or naming conventions. Very frequently, questions are answered in less than 30 minutes, which rivals most reseller tech support organizations.

Most of the other forums are commercial, which to me means that they contain advertising. They are listed here with brief introductions and the site URL: