Learn to work across the full professional engineering software stack — CAD platforms, CAE, FEA, CFD, BIM, simulation, PCB design, GIS, numerical computing, programming, automation, digital twins, and AI-assisted engineering — and how to integrate them into one reliable multi-software workflow. 20 modules from CAD fundamentals through a capstone digital engineering workflow project. One-time purchase, no account required.
Explore the Full Curriculum →Not formally required by Dassault Systèmes, but CSWA is strongly recommended as the natural first step — it validates the core modeling skills (sketching, basic part creation, assembly mates, drawing views) that CSWP assumes you already have before testing advanced part and assembly techniques.
They combine multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank numeric questions, and most require you to actually build or modify a model inside SOLIDWORKS during the exam to determine values like mass, volume, or center of mass — they are hands-on, application-based exams, not a pure knowledge quiz.
It is based on full AutoCAD. The exam is administered at Certiport/Pearson VUE test centers and includes both knowledge-based questions and live, performance-based tasks completed inside the software.
SOLIDWORKS CSWA and CSWP certifications do not require periodic renewal once earned, though Dassault Systèmes updates exam content as SOLIDWORKS versions evolve. Autodesk Certified Professional credentials are tied to a specific software version; check the current policy at autodesk.com/certification before relying on an older credential for a job requirement.
Why exporting to STEP or IGES doesn't hand you an editable copy of a model — it hands you the shape, not the feature-tree recipe that built it. Illustrated comparison of a native round-trip and a STEP/IGES export-import cycle.
It isn't about whether your material stays elastic — it's about whether the stiffness matrix [K] stays constant through the load. Illustrated comparison of a one-shot linear solve and an incremental Newton-Raphson nonlinear solve.
PDM and PLM aren't competing products for the same job — PDM is the CAD-data vault engineering lives inside, PLM is the cross-enterprise, concept-to-retirement system that usually contains it. Illustrated scope comparison.
Three letters after "Computer-Aided," three different questions: what is this shape (CAD), how do I make it (CAM), and will it work (CAE). Illustrated branching diagram showing CAM and CAE as independent downstream paths.
Direct modeling isn't a stripped-down version of parametric CAD — it has no feature tree at all, which is exactly why it's the natural way to edit imported geometry that never had one. Illustrated feature-tree vs. face-editing comparison.
Mating every part fully rigid keeps an assembly from drifting on screen, but it silently breaks the moment that assembly is supposed to represent a moving mechanism. Illustrated comparison of a fully constrained bracket and a correctly under-constrained hinge.
It isn't about accuracy — it's about whether the solver ever has to invert a stiffness matrix at all, and that single choice decides your time step, your run time, and which problems you can even attempt. Illustrated comparison of implicit equilibrium solving and explicit direct time-stepping.
A finer mesh is a knob you turn. Convergence is the evidence that you turned it far enough — and only one of the two actually tells you whether to trust the result. Illustrated comparison of a single dense-looking mesh run and a multi-mesh convergence study.
It isn't about whether the load moves — it's about whether inertia is large enough, relative to the elastic and damping forces, that ignoring it would give you the wrong answer. Illustrated comparison of a slow quasi-static ramp and a load fast enough to excite the structure's own modes.
A solid always knows what's inside and outside of itself. A surface, by default, doesn't — and that single fact decides whether you can get a mass property, a mesh, or a toolpath out of it directly. Illustrated comparison of a watertight solid and a stitched surface shell.
Both remove material you don't need. Only one of them also questions the shape, the manufacturing process, and the material you started with. Illustrated comparison of a single fixed-input optimization run and a generative sweep across manufacturing methods and materials.
Software version control assumes two people can edit the same file and a tool can merge the result. CAD assumes they can't — and builds locking, not merging, as the answer. Illustrated comparison of Git-style branch-and-merge and PDM exclusive check-out/check-in.
An 18-section interactive reference spanning AutoCAD 2D drafting, MCAD platforms, FEA/CFD simulation, MATLAB & Simulink, PCB/EDA design, GIS, file exchange, scripting, and PLM. First 3 free to preview.