Solidworks CSWA Exam

[stevsmith]

I'm thinking about taking the CSWA exam this month, I'm just wondering if anybody has any advice before taking it.

 

Iv'e got a few sample handouts that I have practice on and I'm fairly confident in taking the final exam.

[JD Mather]

Make sure to go through all of the built-in Help>Tutorials.

 

Make sure you know how to interrogate mass properties.

[shift1313]

Stevie, i didnt take the CSWA but the CSWP wasnt that bad. There was a lot more than the practice covered but take a close look at what they mention will be covered because 50-75% of it will come up at least. Make sure you understand all the options for each thing as well. IE fillets. There are constant radius, variable fillets as well as face, full round and so on before you even start using the filletXpert. I dont know that these things will be on there but at least be aware they are there.

 

Understand how to model a part a few different ways because this will come in handy.

 

At the bottom of the list they mention simulationXpress.

 

taken from SW site::

 

 

Exam features hands-on challenges in many of these areas:

• Sketch entities - lines, rectangles, circles, arcs, ellipses, centerlines
  
• Sketch tools - offset, convert, trim
  
• Sketch relations
  
• Boss and cut features - extrudes, revolves, sweeps, lofts
  
• Fillets and chamfers
  
• Linear, circular and fill patterns
  
• Dimensions
  
• Feature conditions – start and end
  
• Mass properties
  
• Materials
  
• Inserting components
  
• Standard mates - coincident, parallel, perpendicular, tangent, concentric, distance, angle
  
• Reference geometry – planes, axis, mate references
  
• Drawing sheets and views
  
• Dimensions and model items
  
• Annotations
  
• SimulationXpress

 

 

What I did to prepare was take the practice exams but i also went through the list of whats on the test and did as much as I could with each thing. Reading through the help(even if i knew what the feature was) just to see if there were any little things I didnt know. Just be aware that even if you think you know everything about each subject, the way they ask the questions may throw you for a loop.

 

Good luck to you.

[stevsmith]

He guys, thanks for your advice. I'll have to take a deeper look at the cosmos side and mass properties, for some reason I can't get the exact mass properties in the exams???

I'm always about 0.25% out even when I double check the items that I've to reproduce.

 

Is this common?

Did you say, "that's close enough"

[shift1313]

I had the same issue with Question1 on that practice when i played around with it. Q6 mine was dead on to 2 decimal places. If i get time today ill try and redraw the first one and see what I get again.

 

edit. and there is a small margin or error. Some of the questions will tell you within 1/2gram or something like that.

[shift1313]

I was able to work it in real quick and i got 1275.92grams which if i went by my engineering rules for sig figs would round to 1276grams. answer is 1280. Not really sure what the deal is with this question but I know over the past year or so i have drawn it a few times and have never been able to get the exact answer.

[stevsmith]

It's strange. I had the problem on 2 of the questions. but my answer was almost halfway between 2 values. I just gave in and finally just guessed. lol

 

I wont't be doing that on the final exam though, I'll be throwing my money away.

[shift1313]

Well the final exam may not be multiple choice. What was the other question? 6?

[stevsmith]

cosmsxpress allows change to mesh settings. which of the following statements is not true.

 

A) a fine mesh setting produces more accurate results than a course mesh.

B) a coarse mesh setting produces less accurate results than a fine mesh.

C) a fine mesh setting can be applied to a specific face instead of the entire model

D) All of the above.

[shift1313]

cosmsxpress allows change to mesh settings. which of the following statements is not true.

 

A) a fine mesh setting produces more accurate results than a course mesh.

B) a coarse mesh setting produces less accurate results than a fine mesh.

C) a fine mesh setting can be applied to a specific face instead of the entire model

D) All of the above.

 

 

In Cosmos(now called Simulation Xpress) you can alter the mesh size but you can not alter it based on location on the model. In the full simulation package you can. So C is not true.

 

Typically when you are working with a large model you probably only want fine resolution for your results in certain areas(bolt holes, features etc). large flat faces with relatively no change in geometry dont need a fine mesh to produce accurate results but the smaller details do.