Spring

What?

At my previous job, due to its more quality-oriented role, I hadn't as much time to work on designing my own things on SolidWorks as I could have. I felt as though I needed some expereince, so I registered in a level 5000 class. The pieces displayed here are those for which I designed and worked on. All of these utilize concepts that I've learned over time, in class and out, as a way to advance my technical knowledge. 

How?

In my class, there was an option to undertake some design challenges. I ended up working on some things in a more creative, non-class related work in order to improve upon my skills. There were some things I had trouble understanding, like the sweep feature, and I ended up learning from online guides as well as in person to bolster my knowledge as best as I could. To this end, I ended up taking longer ways around problems so I could get familiar with certain tools. I also went back to try and do things using shortcuts to understand how to best optimize my work and learn best practices.

Chalice

Flower Pot

Results

It is true that I had barely any knowledge on the usage of SolidWorks before. From the work I've been doing, I've moved on from knowing the basics of SolidWorks that I barely learned in first-year to being confident in my abilities enough to say that I can comfortably design things using the software other than simple boxes with extruded cuts. I've also gain a newfound appreciation for time management, considering how long certain methods took that had more simple solutions.