I thank Polaris, and our grads who helped design our Razor, for a great experience in the Ozarks. Here are a few highlights.

This trail started out by going up a mountain–the highest in Arkansas, then went down to a river. We crossed the river 5 times. Remember all that rain the south got this past year? It made crossing the river challenging. It also made mud. Lots of mud. This video is the last crossing. I was very glad Keith had doors added to the vehicle. They prevented me from getting soaked.
River Crossing #5: Video

Since October of 2007, NTI has been offering the CSWA exam to the NTI students and alumni for free.  This is continuing.  This page is going to be dedicated to publishing our testing dates and training dates.

Testing:

• The schedule testing date are the Monday following the end of each semester The exam itself is a 3 hour timed test. 

Training:

• The training is comprised of four (3 hour) lab classes followed by the examination.  The objective of the training is to help people prepare for and pass the CSWA exam. The class dates are split up to allow students the opportunity to use SolidWorks in between labs to apply what they have learned. This class is not intended to make you SolidWorks experts although the test is about your knowledge of SolidWorks.

Fees:

Note: All CSWA courses include the test.

• NTI Students and Alumni:  $750.00
• All other persons:  $1500.00
• Fee is due the first day of class

Schedule:

• 12/7    1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
• 12/9    1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
• 12/14   1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
• 12/16   1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
• 12/17 CSWA Exam Day.  Must start @ 1:00 pm

Registration:

• email Chris MacCormack at cmaccormack@nti.edu, Subject: NTI CSWA Training
• Upon receipt of your request, Chris MacCormack will send out the course syllabus and registration form.
• Complete the form and fax it back to Chris MacCormack. Your spot will NOT be reserved until this form is received.
• A confirmation will be emailed to you by December 2.
• If there are not enough people the class will be postponed.

Instructors:

• Chris MacCormack: 952.944.0080 ext 134
• Dan Podzimek: 952.944.0080 ext 111

After every CSWA exam I provide here at NTI, I like to congratulate the newest of the CSWA’s.  Today we had another great showing:

Starting off with Jessica Lewardowski who destroyed the test with the perfect 100% – Definitely in a class of the elite.

Others who are now proud recipients of the Certified SolidWorks Associate certificate include:

Ryan (never got his last name)

Cortney Gamlin (Graduate from the architecture program)

Thomas Hardenburgh (Graduate from the engineering program)

To all of these individuals, know that NTI is proud of your efforts and skill.  Keep in touch.

Thanks for a fantastic day to all of those who tested. 

It has been a long, fast and furious week here in room 159 at NTI.  I held the 1st Certified SolidWorks Associate Exam prep course with what ended up to be 4 outstanding individuals all with a common goal, to get help to earn an industry recognized certification from SolidWorks Corp.

In 12 hours these alumni were introduced to, worked with and built up knowledge required for the CSWA exam and a knowledge of how to take the course.  Class started at 4:30 pm and ended 7:30 pm Monday – Thursday.   These alumni also showed up and utilized NTI’s CAD labs before class to work on the subject matter we reviewed the evening before.  These folks put a lot of effort into this course and I really appreciate that kind of effort.

I poured my guts out to help them succeed on this exam in one week.  These folks worked even harder.  Kudos to you four.  With this kind of effort you will succeed in whatever you do.

Today we took the test and I am proud to announce that Cortney Gamlin and Thomas Hardenburgh successfully earned the CSWA certificate.  The other two will attempt the certification again in 30 days but will be working with me between now and then to increase their knowledge of SolidWorks.   I will ensure that the second attempt will be successful! 

For those of you who are looking to add another certificate to your belt contact Dan Podzimek at ext 111 for the next training dates and time.  Dan is a new instructor here at NTI who is not only a Certified SolidWorks Professional but also the head of the Minnesota SolidWorks User Group.  He and I are tag teaming this certification class and I believe compliment each-other extremely well.

It is time to beef up the resume and load it with industry recognized certifications to put your resume at the top of the lists.

I look forward to meeting alumni in the future who accept the challenge of this course and exam.  Good luck to all the NTI alumni.

Chris MacCormack

Hello all,

Now that I am overcoming my illness I would like to take a little time to comment on the SolidWorks World User Conference 2008.

To start with I want to mention that I ran into several architectural users of SolidWorks.  Hmmmm.  When I asked why they are not using Revit, AutoCAD, Chief architect many of them commented on ease of use and ability to do more.  I wish they could have provided more detail to these comments but I did find them using the SolidWorks Weldment tool for stick framing and structural design.  Then using those models in the COSMOS analysis package to ensure they were meeting code.  When I sold SolidWorks I worked with many companies that designed glass curtain walls, spiral stair cases, and the structural design of commercial building for much the same reason.

I met with educators from around the world and discovered some very interesting things.  In Finland schooling is very vocational even down to the elementary school level.  The instructor that I met from Finland discussed how by the age of twelve their students were not only proficient in designing/analyzing in SolidWorks but also manufactured everything they designed.  That Is a country that is embracing technology and science to increase their global economic standing.  

For the students here, as you enter your chosen profession you need to work hard to make our country change gears and do more to encourage science and technology in schools.  you can do this many ways; mentor students, meet with government representatives, work with your company and encourage them to join organizations like FIRST http://www.usfirst.org/.  This organization gets companies to donate 6 weeks of their time to adopt a group of students from a school to design and build robots for a Superbowl style competition complete with vendors, sponsors, Presidential visits and prizes.  Last year the competition was so big it had to be held in the Georgia Dome.  Check it out.

I also picked up some great quotes.  I will focus on this one : “There is no partial credit in the machine shop”  translation for architecture students : “There is no partial credit on the job site”.

Lets examine this quote – At the end of the day if you have not put all of your effort into ensuring your design, documentation and communication is not 100% accurate with no chance of being misinterpreted your company will have lost money.  IN manufacturing as soon as the machining tool starts the customer owns that piece of material and the time.  If you did not locate all of your features, size all of your features, apply the appropriate tolerances as required for the design to work correctly, etc… or dimensioned your design in a way that can be interpreted as loosely as government laws, gossip or other prominent books that people follow you did not do your job.  This will reflect poorly when it comes time for review.  So, take a little extra time.  Review your work.  Ask your self over and over again “Why will this not work?”.  Have other review your work.  Ask them “Why will this not work?” When you think you are done get up.  Walk around.  Come Back ask one more time ” Why will this not work? and have I missed anything?”.  Then get it approved.  You are responsible for your own actions and work.  Be the best.

More to come

Chris MacCormack

NTI is a CLEP and a Dantes (DSST) test site. Students of any college interested in taking these tests can now take them at NTI by simply making a phone call.

Update: NTI ceased as a testing center on June 21, 2012.

Schedule

Tests are scheduled to start Monday – Friday from 8:30AM to 3:30PM (the last test is scheduled to end by 5:30PM).

Procedure

1. Call Amy at NTI (952.944.0080 x104).
2. Schedule a day and time. Have preferred days and times available.
3. Come in at the agreed upon day and time. (Click address link at the bottom of this page for directions.)
4. Tell the front desk receptionist you are here to take a (CLEP or Dantes) test. They will call the test administrator to come and get you.
5. Sign in. Show ID–you need a picture and a signature. Pay $15 administration fee (cash or check only).
6. Sign into the test. Give your Credit Card info (unless using a voucher). Take the test. Get the results.
7. Cheer. Leave. Repeat?

Postsecondary CLEP opportunity

The state of Minnesota will pay the CLEP exam fee for MN public, private and home educated high school students. Students will still need to pay NTI to administer each test. Interested high school students should contact their high school counselor or principal for an authorization form or for more information. Authorization forms and detailed information is available through the State Education Web Site.

More information

Information for current students
Information for potential students

Wow,

Over the last 24 hours I cannot tell you all how much I have enjoyed the http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/solidworks/! online group. My 2nd semester class was able to get much needed information on how to spec out a helical gear on a CAD print in a matter of minutes (About 78) and Matthew Lorono–one of the fine person’s moderating the group with me–recently launched the SolidWorks Legion blog site. There is currently a post from him about Design with intent and Horizontal Modeling which I found to be fantastic. I will question him on a couple of his points, but his intent in this post is loud and clear. Use best modeling practices to ensure changeability, ease of creation and an overall stable CAD database for all to use.

Chris

COSMOS? What is this COSMOS?

COSMOS is the fully integrated finite elemental analysis tool for SolidWorks.

Finite Elemental Analysis what?

Finite elemental analysis is a numerical analysis system that calculates the Stress/Strain (among other things) on all of the cool designs you come up with here at NTI and as you enter the work force. In other words, will your design live up to the abuse they will receive in everyday use?
This is one of the ways engineering departments validate designs throughout the design process (From beginning to end). As you begin your designs you may have a concept on which you will pursue. With tools like COSMOS you can begin immediately validating these concepts to ensure that when it becomes time to spend $50,000 on a prototype you will have a good idea that your design will work properly and ultimately ensure a quality product.

So you may be asking why I am talking about this. Well, yesterday afternoon, Vince Adams from SolidWorks Corporation stopped by after an eight hour COSMOSWorks User Group Meeting to tour the school and speak with the students. Vince is the product manager for the COSMOS products at SolidWorks Corporation. In this position Vince oversees the ongoing development of COMSOS products. This includes visiting the COSMOS customers worldwide to understand the FEA needs that these people deal with everyday and incorporate those needs into the next generation of COSMOS products.

For NTI a visit like this means we gain some fantastic insight into the SolidWorks/COSMOS customer base future employee needs. As Vince spoke to the students, he mentioned that knowing how to analyze your designs and incorporate analysis into your design process is quickly becoming a necessary skill set for students like you entering the workforce. Tools like COSMOS will help you all to be able to do this with little knowledge of the mathematics behind it. Although Vince was quick to note that understanding the mathematics involved in FEA will make you better at these analyses.

Vince spoke at great length about many topics of which I will blog more about in the weeks to come. I do want to thank Vince very much for this visit and hope he will return in the future. For those of you how are interested in doing some research about FEA Vince Adams has a book published with Abraham Askenazi of Buell motorcycles called “Building Better Products with Finite Element Analysis w/ NEi Nastran Software and Tutorial”. He noted that this book talks more about the analysis process and less about the mathematics. By the way, Nastran is another FEA package I believe was designed by or for NASA. (Not 100% sure on this)

More to come…