Learning Pro/E at a community college

I was on mcadcentral the other day and someone was asking where to take Pro/E training in Southern California. Be careful who you learn from or you could end up teaching the class.

Your other option is if you can learn Pro/E on your own. I learned on my own too... And so can you! It just took me at least decade to master Pro/ENGINEER.

When I first began to design the Design Engine Education surfacing course it was in the way I wish I could have learned surfacing. Our class helps students learn from making those mistakes beginners make. Back when I didn't realize I was just a beginner classes were taught from a book and from a video never by challenging me with a real problem. Design Engine does not teach from any of this. We have real world problems for our students to work through using real world applications with top down design. Everyone can follow a step by step book read training tho I would rather not. Instead we allow students to try things on their own, allow them to make mistakes with instructors within questions reach.

If I had that specular highlights surfacing intensive workshop back before 1994, I could have created better models sooner, completed more project on time, modified that one project within two hours instead of 5 weeks, got that one job, kept that one job, been the last one to be let go, satisfied more managers, made more money and all with confidence. I mastered it and anyone can do it. It just took me fifteen years. I cram that experience and passion into a four week intensive.

Oh... and I thought I was an expert after 5 years. In 1997 I 'was' the surfacing expert. Now I look back at how little I knew then.

Surfacing Training at Design Engine: How did they benefit?

Sram: The industrial designers at Sram, makers of Grip Shift and Rockshoks, have always used Rhino and Alias to make product to hand over to Engineers to either import or remodel. Now with Pro/ENGINEER training their industrial designers can work on engineering models and offer engineering a 3D Pro/E deliverable. Since Sram's engineers took the same class they now know how to manage any modifications to the model as they see fit. The industrial designer can now manage ribs on the front forks as ribs are visible to the consumer they should be handled directly by industrial designer and not necessarily the engineers. Industrial designers using Pro/ENGINEER instead of Rhino saved 30 hours per product and streamlined the process so engineers don't have to be tied to the static IGES data.

Rubbermaid: From one engineers' new found skills for "proving form" the engineer can make live modifications on the screen in front of CEO and other engineering managers saving weeks of revision circles.

Knoll: After taking Surfacing training at design engine Knoll engineers can now create more accurate lead times.

General Atomics: After taking the surfacing week long intensive, they don't have to hire outside consultants to handle the complex surfacing of their Aero forms.

Nike: Nike sent industrial designers and engineers together in the week long surfacing class, where they both discovered a unique work flow of capturing form and proving form. This cut 40 hours out of their design process. This forty hours saved six weeks lead-time for one specific product to hit the market.

Fisher-Price: After some Fisher Price Engineers took a surfacing week, their entire design process changed, work flow from conception to production. Because Industrial designer and engineers both took the class together, they worked together to formulate a written process that enabled industrial designer to maintain control to a specif point and passed off the development to engineering at another point. The engineers can take a Rhino or Alias model and reformulate the design using Pro/ENGINEER with a new process. The collective team shaved off 19 weeks out of a 10 month design to tooling process.

Grayhill: An engineer from Grayhill stated that his new skills with Pro/ENGINEER and surfacing (Johnathan is a degree d industrial designer taking the specific seven day class to ID'ers) helped foster a collaborative environment where he can now work on engineering models more efficiently. Reinforced brand identity through all involved parties speaking the same mathematical language.

Call Design Engine today to speak to a instructor about our surfacing class
312.226.8339

My personal Record of Improvement

I always look for ways to better myself. Physically mentally and emotionally. (less emphasis on emotional haha) For me it's not just to read self help books but to implement an aggressive attitude to learn.  Simple as consistency of constant aggressive learning.

In 1992 my push was to learn telephone/internet related tools such as FTP, modems, Archie and Gopher. I taught internet classes in the evenings at Motorola. In 1994 my mission was to learn Surfacing. In 1995 my mission was to learn HTML and Perl. In 1996 my mission was to learn Alias Studio. In 1998 my push was to learn CDRS the Evans And Sutherland Surfacing tool used by GM and Ford. (they were using CDRS at Caterpillar Cab group in 1998) In 1999, my mission was to teach Alias Studio. In 1998, my focus was on public speaking, so I could present at Pro/E user conferences with confidence. In 2001 I made a push to learn ISDX so I could teach it. In 2002 my focus was on learning Maya and Pro/CONCEPT in order to teach them. In 2003 I taught myself Maya well enough to teach a Design Engine four-week Maya comprehensive class. In 2004 I designed plastics classes and made a push to organize so I could teach a two day class. Another year, 2005, I taught myself Pro/CABLE. By 2006, I had learned Pro/CABLE well enough to teach it. In 2007 I taught myself Routed Systems Designer and made several Pro/E user presentations and made other preparations to teach that. In 2008 my focus is to hone my training skills.

I have made up my goals for 2009.  I made a serious effort to learn Mechanism and Animation.... and video editing software. I am open to suggestion for my learning path as 2010 rolls near.    Remember consistency is important.  Like making a commitment to working out in the gym every day.  I go on on vacation and trips teaching on-site classes with no access to a gym so I do push-ups in the morning in the hotel room.  Learning in Pro/ENGINEER should be just as consistent. And who better to invest in but yourself?

Each year I give myself a swift kick in the pants (attitude kick) so I can learn something new that will make me more in demand as an instructor. I hope others can take my lead and push themselves each year like me to learn something new at a high level each year.

What are you doing to improve yourself or your situation?  Send me an email bart@designengine.com

Design Engine Education
Bart Brejcha
120 N Green St. Ste 605  
Chicago, IL 60607
ph: 312.226.8339
bart@designengine.com
www.proetools.com

The Dream Job is NOT Impossible

In the united states as recent as 1975, parents would pay an employment agency tall cash to assist their 22 year old son (recent graduate) a job. Dad's paid that fee to conclude and get the kid out of the house as they say (after college). Those 'employment agency' advertisements could not guarantee a job legally but if they had good success rates and client testimonials then people paid the fee. They would manage resume with their customer, pool from the employment agency contacts, coach the candidates and actually assist their clients into obtain a job.

The culture changed to where the hiring manager pays the fees. The later came in the form of a percentage or margin paid out from an hourly rate or a yearly salary depending upon if the job is full time or contract. With the current climate for job acquisitions... manufactures like to try before they buy and opt to hire a candidate for contract first then make an offer after six months.

On a past business plan for design engine I specified that design engine would take a fee in exchange for training, utilizing design engine database, resume building, coaching to assist customers to obtain their dream jobs. In a sense we resorted back to before the 70's where people pay a group for job placement.

It just looks like a Pro/E training class and we call it a four week comprehensive ... in a sense you pay us to get a job but there is a month of work and it usually takes 8 weeks before candidates get their job. And in our case many times it's the dream job candidates want, like Harley, NASA or General Dynamics.


http://www.proetools.com/courses/pro_engineer/comprehensive_wkshp.htm

Design Engine has assisted thousnads into obtining their dream job. 

Downturns become Upturns

"Living in this kind of economy is often intimidating; I see success at this Design Engine: job placements, new product designs and ideas, new business sects formed. Downturns become upturns and here at Design Engine we prepare people for when that inevitable upswing comes" - Bart Brejcha, Principal Engineer, Design Engine

Design Engine believes that ones mind should always be engaged versus taking training courses with a step by step book in front of you.  Participants at Design Engine learn to solve engineering problems like a puzzle. They are given a specific problem to solve and are shown specific tools to use to solve the problem. Students develop what Design Engine likes to call a toolbox. Their toolbox is full of processes and work flows that can be used to find solutions to innumerable amount of problems that engineers are faced with daily. And just like a puzzle, after solving it students are left with a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction that generates confidence which drives creativity. The confidence also lets engineers have fun with their jobs and then they cannot wait to have the next problem to solve. Armed with this process, designed by Design Engine, our participants feel freedom and confident to find new jobs, solve complex problems, estimate projects, capture form faster or design with more confidence. This is quite unlike other technical schools as they give a book to the student and the student only has one way to go- failure. Design Engine's most popular class is their four week Pro/ENGINEER Comprehensive Course that covers everything from basic modeling to routed cable design, plastics, surfacing and much more.  After the class, students have over 160 hours of Pro/ENGINEER training and are ready to be competitive in the job market.

Design Engine Education is a technical vocational training center located in the West Loop of Chicago. Design Engine focuses on teaching industrial designers, engineers, and mechanically inclined individuals how to design and engineer products using 3D software. Design Engine Software: Pro/ENGINEER, Maya, Alias, Rhino, Photoshop, Adobe Flash, among others. When an unemployed individual participants in a course at Design Engine, the Design Engine staff  being well trained to help participants locate job as soon as possible runs the participant through a specific process for locating a job. From day one participant resumes are reviewed, revised, and then entered into an online websume database available to hundreds of hiring managers across the country. Students are also allowed to look through Design Engines database of over 10,000 contacts many of which are hiring managers that learned their trade at Design Engine.


Design Engine Education
Bart Brejcha
120 N Green St. Ste 605  
Chicago, IL 60607
ph: 312.226.8339
bart@designengine.com
www.proetools.com

Design Engine: More than just a name

The word engine ... it makes the motorcycle go and the car drive.  It's the heart and center of a vehicle.  In that respect Design Engine is the vehicle for pushing your career farther!

So Design Engine is more than just a name.  Its meaning conveys that we push the participants in an organized step-by-step process helping those in their current job excel or helping people find new exciting and more fulfilling jobs.  Many past students thank us for the motivation they received even ten years after attending a  Design Engine course.


WHY Design Engine is more than just a name:

1.  We don't just teach Pro/E or Rhino or Alias at Design Engine; we teach design and engineering.  I chose Pro/ENGINEER and designed this course called the four week comprehensive pro/engineer workshop.

2.  Resume help. We help with resume and job placement and/or offer encouragement for advancing at your current position or in your current field. We know what the managers are looking for in designers and engineers. We simply make sure your resume reflects those things. We also prepare you in the class to be able to answer questions during an interview. Our database is filled with thousands of contacts for job applicants or networking that we make available to all of our students for as long as they need them.

3. Our online websume service.  After we use our skills to improve your resume we allow you to post your resume on our websume site. Be prepared to receive 5 or more calls per week! Notice the list is fairly short, we take students down once they find jobs.

Sample websumes:
http://www.design-engine.com/markhackett/
http://www.design-engine.com/mattkeeley/

4. Assistance with contract agencies.  The agencies call us for applicants because we often custom train individuals for jobs that are in demand.  For example, there are many open requisitions for Pro/CABLE and RSD users and we often teach 2 weeks of both Pro/CABLE and RSD in our four week Pro/ENGINEER class.

--at any given time there are five Pro/CABLE or RSD jobs on Dice or CE weekly. 

5. Motivation.  Design Engine breathes inspiration into people and inspires them to reach for new tools with new vocabulary in both Industrial Design or Engineering.  For example, by showing a mechanical engineer what an industrial designer is and thinks, we open an entirely new field for more employment.

http:///www.PTCUSER.ORG user presentations

Considering the state of the economy and the poor attendance of various PTCUSER events, I offer a series of presentations that educate participants on plastics, diecasting, and forging related to Pro/ENGINEER. My hope is to increse the attendance. If your group would be interested in having me speak at your next http://www.ptcuser.org/ event contact 312.226.8339 and arange with whom answers the phone.

Abstract
For the the talk next month I would like to do a presentation to the group regarding free form surfacing using Pro/SURFACE and ISDX. The 45 minute talk leads the group down a path by taking a chair through many design scenarios. By manipulating curves and surfaces the seat goes through many iterations of design. The chair starts out as a basic surface geometry and then I take it through a series of modifying techniques and the geometry matures the form from basic ugly char to a task chair for the office into an Indy race car seat, then into a seat for outdoors and so on. I display all the modeling techniques live and after the demonstration I will explain how these modeling techniques work all while getting the audience to understand how surfacing can enhance their overall product look all while remaining easy to modify. Being able to model surfaces like this can save design engineer 80 to 90 percent on a typical surfacing project.
Past Presentations
My presentations are typicly packed with tips and techniques for helping designers get their jobs done faster smarter and with less mistakes. One talk for example is titled, "Mistakes Easily Made with Plastic Part Design: and how to avoid the typical mistakes,". Most plastics part designers for example get a sink mark in their parts even when they know all the rules. I simply share tips from my plastic part design class for avoiding all those mistakes such as using relations and parameters to maintain a 70 percent rule for ribs with respect to the nominal wall thickness http://www.proetools.com/courses/plastics/plastics.htm . Other talks I do are related to ergonomics and offer specific techniques for surfacing modeling joysticks to seats to drill housings. Other topics I have presented on in the past are with respect to gear design and Mechanisms. For example using Pro/ENGINEER and a top down design example of a single cylinder engine and mechanize it all from scratch live http://www.proetools.com/courses/pro_engineer/mechanism.htm . Other topics that are of significant interest are my A class surfacing http://www.proetools.com/courses/isdx/level7.htm , basic surfacing http://www.proetools.com/courses/pro_surface/intro.htm , making IGES geometry parametric http://www.proetools.com/courses/pro_surface/advanced_import.htm, harness design with RSD http://www.proetools.com/courses/pro_engineer/procable.htm  and Pro/CABLE. Since I know Pro/ENGINEER and teach product design and engineering workshops, I do not use Powerpoint.  That fact can be funny sice most of the user presentations are powerpoint presentations. 

Bart Brejcha bart@designengine.com   http://www.proetools.com/ 312.226.8339

A delema for training...

An engineer wants to take training but does not have the money for the four week class. http://www.proetools.com/courses/pro_engineer/comprehensive_wkshp.htm

there is a delema worthy of discussion.

Let me paint my learning curve/progression. First we state one obvious point. Engineers tend to learn on their own... That is why you hire an engineer because they figure out how to do things.

I learned surfacing on my own... after two years of using it (1994) I was the expert. I imported geometry from Alias, rebuilt it in Pro/SURFACE and basically set standards at Motorola for managing import geometry.   Three years (1997) later I realized only in hindsight how little I knew after that two year mark of 1994. Five years later (2002) I forged new modeling techniques and incorporated surfacing from the high end Alias users. I sat at GM at night watching learning listing.... then tried all that in Pro/E pushing hard on what I knew to forge further. I realized how much more I knew about surfacing from that 1997 mark. I hit road blocks and used software to surpass the road blocks. five years later... its 2007.

I designed the  Pro/E surfacing week so to aid participants to compress that learning and discovery time of 10 years into a five day workshop that I wish I could have had 15 years ago.

So the delema seams simple. What is your time worth and how much money can you make with these tools/skills?    For me I know I would have failed less, modeled faster, created modifiable models, satisfied the design teams, made managers happier, kept that one job, charged $10 more per hour, and end the end made more money.

New Classes for Engineers interested in Aero Dynamics with Pro/ENGINEER

We have several new classes at Design Engine that go far beyond our regular surfacing classes and far beyond what the PTC resellers are capable of. For the past 15 years, Design Engine has put specific focus on product design training and with that, we developed A-Class surfacing workshops in both Alias, Rhino and Pro/ENGINEER. These classes matured over the years. See these links:

http://www.proetools.com/courses/pro_surface/level7.htm
A-Class Surfacing using ISDX

http://www.proetools.com/courses/alias/level5.htm
Alias A Class Surfacing in Auto Studio

NEW CLASSES: Aero Forms for Aerodynamics Engineers
The new classes we have implemented are for engineers and individuals without degrees interested in working with Aerodynamics engineers or Aero forms.

http://www.proetools.com/courses/pro_surface/level9.htm
Surfacing Aero Forms using Pro/ENGINEER

Since there is a huge demand for highly skilled surfacing experts (and we noticed an even higher demand for Pro/E surfacing in the aerodynamics companies like Boeing, Northrup Grumman, and General Dynamics), we created this 2-day workshop. It is recommended that individuals interested in this class first take our 1-week surfacing class and then come back a month or so later for this 2-day aero Dynamics workshop.

Michicagn workers

Workforce Investment Act
WIA federal grant training money now available to Michigan Residents to empower the unemployed and underemployed in many states. To inquire please call 312.226.8339. Ask about WIA and how can we help you get a job. See us on the Michigan WIA Training Providers site! 

DESIGN-ENGINE|EDUCATION has joined the Workforce Investment Act effort to help the unemployed and underemployed gain career training that is enabling and empowering in the workplace. Michigan's WIA program will give you funding to take our four weeks of Pro/ENGINEER Training.
Due to the slow economy and the large number of unemployed persons in the United States the federal government has made certain grant money available for training underemployed. Some grant money is available for manufacturers training their current workforce too.
With the grant, Design Engine Education gives our most popular four week comprehensive computer aided design software  Pro/ENGINEER. We have helped over 2,000 people obtain employment from our four week comprehensive workshop over the past 15 years.
You don't have to be unemployed, funding extends to large companies as well. Take Pro/ENGINEER training for example: an engineer gets laid off from a major manufacture and has 3,000 plus hours on Pro/ENGINEER. He or she can take our four week class with WIA funds to first get acquainted with Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0 training then undergo two weeks of Pro/SURFACE Training and ISDX Training or Mechanica Training and Pro/CABLE. The person leaves our Pro/E training with skills most employers don't even have. Often with out even advanced notice, we will custom build any course.

The faculty and staff at DESIGN ENGINE|EDUCATION are committed to helping you find the career you are looking for or to help you excel in your present career. We are your advocates and we want to help you grow with skills and technique. Your success is of utmost important to us. We also provide help with your resume and offer insightful interview help. In the design world, our highly recognizable name can be an excellent way to get your foot in the door at your dream job. We maintain an active relationship with contract agencies such as Aerotek, Peak Technical, Black Diamond, Oxford International, and Butler to name only a few. Contract agencies actively recruit from our resume bank of past students. After you take a class with us,  our doors are forever open to you whenever you need them!

YOUTUBE videos

I am often saying in the office.... "It's not how fast you model something but how fast you modify it twenty times...
In product design changes come so fast from marketing or industrial designers that flexibility and modifiability is paramount."

On http://www.mcadcentral.com, a forum where I participate, I recently was discussing problem solving techniques...  I used one software or another as requiring more problem solving workarounds over the other and got into more of a bench mark explanation...

I wanted to engage other software experts ... catia, solidworks, rhino, alias and maya.

With that said I developed this challenge I call the clay back challenge for the talk board http://www.productdesignforums.com
http://www.productdesignforums.com/index.php?showtopic=8141

Check out some of my tutorial videos on Design Engine Education 

What is A Class Surfacing

A-Class surfacing is defined as these two major points
1 lightly created geometry and that the geometry is built correctly.
2 light reflections are reflecting in a desirable way. i.e. if g2 is required then the light reflects in a g2 way.

A Class surfaceses are those aesthetic free form surfaces, which are visible to us (interior/exterior), having an optimal aesthetic shape and high surface quality.

Mathematically class A surface are those surfaces which are curvature continuous while providing the simplest mathematical representation needed for the desired shape/form and does not have any undesirable waviness. < this waviness is found with a goussian anaylisys.

Curvature continuity: It is the continuity between the surfaces sharing the same boundary. Curvature continuity means that at each point of each surface along the common boundary has the same radius of curvature.

+Compare G0
positional conections. Not tangen but touching.

+Compare G1
simply tangent. The surfaces in this example are tangent, the curve plot is not tangent. This line can not be broken down to a more simple curve therefore it is not curvature continuous or G2. You can not take an integral at the intersection of the curve as it crosses to the other surface.

+G2
curvature continuous. When a curve plot is tangent. The equation of the curve plot can be broken down into a more simple curve by taking an integral. ie. calculus

five ways to determine g2 continuity.
1. Evaluate with your eyes the light reflections
2. Evaluate the math using Calculus (if you can take an inergral at a curve that crosses a surface intersection then there might be g2 continuity)
3. Look at the curve plot in either Pro/E or Alias
4. Spans or CV's line up in Alias
5. zebra stripes

Some people will use a Gaussian analysis incorrectly. In this tool G does refer to that specific mathematician however the standard Gaussian analysis refers to concave vs convex. ie. when light reflects back to they eye.




A class surfacing workshop by Design engine education in Chicago http://www.proetools.com/courses/isdx/level7.htm

Aid Young Mechanical Engineers with Training:

1) To help young engineers who have been out of engineering school already at least one year and who have not yet got a job working as an engineer
2) To help recent mechanical engineering graduates get a job
3) To encourage councilors to utilize our assistance with enabling young engineers gain employment
4) To help young mechanical engineers get a higher wage on their first engineering job

Pro/E Training to young Mechanical Engineers:

DESIN-ENGINE | EDUCATION is where young engineers go for specific experience with 3D Solid Modeling, namely Pro/ENGINEER. Our famous three week compressive class teaches young engineers to be experts at more than one mode of Pro/ENGINEER. They can appear more experienced that already working engineers who have not yet learned aspects like Pro/SURFACE, ISDX, Pro/MECHANICA, Pro/MECHANISM or “top down design”. These are the tools that pay big money and imply you have over 5 years experience in the field. The first week is a comprehensive effort to nail down the basics of Pro/ENGINEER, focusing the last day on how to modify other engineer’s parts.The second week focuses on different extensions of Pro/E. Extensions like Pro/Sheetmetal used on John Deere cabs. Mechanism for making moving linkages. Routing Cables like that used for gas lines on Caterpillar tractors or wiring harness for a Cummins engine or wires inside a cell phone. The third week will focus on Surfacing; ergonomic and styled forms like that you find inside cars, seats or styled forms found on products on the shelf at Target. Lastly a serious look at plastics as related to tools inside Pro/ENGINEER
that enable engineers to speak intelligently during interviews about plastic part design and all of the above topics. Bottom line is that by focusing the compressive training on real world problems, we help you gain what looks like work experience to potential hiring managers.

HOW WE DO THE Pro/ENGINEER Training

1 ENGAGING and FUN
We are hands down, the world leader in delivering high-impact courses for 3D Professionals: Industrial Designers, Mechanical Engineers, Draftsman, Mechanics mainly because what we do is so visually and metal engaging. Basically, the projects are fun. By focusing on solving a problem in design or engineering we found young engineers learn better and faster by first being engaged by a product scope. "We don't just teach the software, we teach design and engineering and choose to use Pro/ENGINEER to do it because that is where the jobs are."

2 ACCESS OUR DATA BASE and REPUTATION:
We have a database of over 10 thousand contacts at companies like Caterpillar, John Deere and Military defense contractors that need Pro/ENGINEER users. If we can train young engineers on Pro/ENGINEER at the level we aim to accomplish, these manufacturers will hire them! We have strong relationships with over 300 contract agencies that call for college graduates that took our three week comprehensive as a post graduate workshop.

3 BUILD ONLINE RESUMES CALLED WEBSUMES
These online resumes are viewed by hiring managers
http://www.proetools.com/resume.htm Look for ‘websume’

WHEN
Our specialized and focused Pro/E courses are offered throughout the year. Design Engine Education instructors are flexible to accommodate by offering the three week compressive workshops each month typically starting the first Monday of each month. We encourage you to tour our Chicago lofted state-of-the-art training center and meet our world-renowned instructors. We have a proven track record for training over 1000 young engineers and designers that are now working at Motorola, Caterpillar, John Deere, MASCO, Harley Davidson, and NASA.

HOW TO START
Contact David Mazovick, our Training Coordinator or fill out our online form telling us about yourself. Stop into our Chicago training office on the weekend with friends or family to visit. Inquire over the phone with any questions, concerns, or to speak to an instructor, to customize a workshop, or to speak to other young engineer past references. 312.226.8339

Review our website carefully. There is a lot of information here. Specifically the three week comprehensive workshop website.
This is the link to the comprehensive Pro/ENGINEER training workshop. Look over the website with others and get opinions from peers and friends after speaking to others who like you just graduated from Engineering school took our class and got a job at a major manufacture.

Training: The Students and relative skills gained from the 'Three Week Comprehensive' Pro/ENGINEER training course merited Peoria's Caterpillar to hire every single Degreed or non Degreed Engineer that is available to go to Peoria. If you are interested in taking our most popular course the 'Three week Pro/ENGINEER comprehensive' or going to work for Caterpillar in Peoria, call to speak to the instructor or call for references of past students.

Learning MAYA, Alias, and Pro/E together

There are many programs available to help someone get a product from an idea to reality. From MAYA, Alias, Unigraphics, Solidworks and Pro/Engineer Wildfire. Learning to use the strengths of each program can be a lot of fun and help get projects to run quick and easy from a dream to a product in your hands. We offer mnay classes and can help some one learn how to move from one program to another. Taking a free form part modeled in Alias and bringing it into Pro/Engineer to be placed in a working linkage system works well. Afterwords, you can render the parts in MAYA to make them look real, and then use Photoshop or something else to place those renderings in an enviroment to show to possible investors or others who might want to see your work. If learning some of these techniques is something you may be interested in, please let us here at ProETools.com know and we'd be happy to work with you. Thanks for your time.
~Bart

Learning Pro/E

Lots of people want to know the best way to learn Pro/E. There are some ways that are more successful than others. Anyone can read through a book and mimic tutorials, but that will never get them to the range of "advanced to expert" users. Through the last few years, I've payed attention to those of my sudents who have excelled faster than others, noticed a few things and applied them to my classes;

1 The students who have excelled the fastest were the ones that were allowed to struggle. Due to our class size of around 4 students per instructor, there is always some one ready and waiting to assist. The best way for this to be leveraged to the student's advantage is let them struggle right up to the point of frusteration, and then help them just before they get upset. This way, when they figure things out on their own, it makes that small victory so much sweeter! However, it is important to not let the students get frusterated because their learning curve drops to zero when they are not having fun. This requires a watchful and attentive eye from the instructor with out hovering over the student and making them uncomfortable.

2 Having fun keeps students excited and on task. Letting students model objects they want to makes sure they are enjoying what they are doing and makes sure our school is not just feeding them canned tutorials.

3 Healthy competition between students keeps them learning at a fast rate. Getting the students to race through projects while helping each other out is fantastic for fast learning and having the material stick in their heads. Teaching each other tricks and working together to trouble shoot problems really helps the learning process.

Those are some of the principals that Design Engine Education uses to help us push our students to be the best. There are more specfic things as well, such as the progresion of learning the program, that Design Engine uses to teach Pro/E. Stop on by to learn with us! Check our website at ProETools.com

~Bart

Pro/E Training Chicago

I manage a company in Chicago that specializes in "Product Design Training" The tool that we use most often to teach this is Pro/Engineer. We can also teach product design with other tools like Alias, SolidWorks and Rhino. Many of our students like to learn useing Pro/E because it makes them very marketable, as lots of companies use Pro/E and there is a large demand for it. Many of our Industrial Design students come here to learn usign Alias. We also have a large Corporate client base that comes to us for training on these software packages. Check out our website at: ProETools.com to see if we can do anything for you.