A comment: the SolidWorks learning curve ad

[swertel]

A comment: the SolidWorks learning curve ad

I'm reading through the latest issue of Desktop Engineering magazine. I've seen this Saladworks ad before and I get a chuckle every time.

For those who haven't scene it, there is a verticle chalk line on a black board and the caption reads "(The SolidWorks Learning Curve)".

It's a verticle line! Who has the ability to make a climb like that when learning? Obviously the genious behind the ad didn't realize the audience is a bunch of engineers that interpret a verticle line as being a incontinuity in the curve. Something that can't be crossed. I'm going to have to put my mountain climbing gear on in order to learn SW. It is unbelievable how steep the learning curve is. This is a good thing? Something worth a full page ad?

Compare that to Alibre's learning curve.
______

HHHmmmm. Which would you rather be riding on?

Thanks for letting my ramble. I hope you get a chuckle out of this at least half as much as me.

 

[indesign]

Couldn't find the add on their web sight but noticed Solidworks is going all out on advertising lately. Even the Express version they are giving looks like an attempt to play catch up. Alibre must really be digging into the big pockets.

 

[volker]

Not sure it´s only a german issue.
Using yahoo, entering alibre design, you will find SW at the "Pool position".

It´s silly, isn´t it ?

Regards
Volker

 

[swertel]

To look at this from another perspective.

The short horizontal Alibre learning curve has a slope of zero. That means no learning curve. Install and using it is fairly intuitive. (Ok, maybe there's a slight slope.)

The SolidWorks vertical line has an infinite slope. Does that mean there is no possible way to learn SolidWorks?

--Scott

 

[MilesH]

I'm sure Alex could knock up something to divide any learning curve into equally digestible portions....

 

[alexfranke]

I'd love to see a scan of that ad... I'm guessing the folks in their marketing department are not engineers =) ...didn't we all learn about slope in high school geometry, though?

 

[MilesH]

It's here: http://www.solidworks.com/microsite/hom ... e=learning

 

[indesign]

Bet the designer was good in java ...well maybe a little.

Don't reaaaalllly wish to cut a company.. :lol: ...but what was going thru the minds of the ones who placed that 2nd grader add?

 

[swertel]

I posted a screen grab in the binaries.

 

[MikeHenry]

Doesn't the meaning of that curve depend on how the axes are defined?

I'd assume effort expended along the X axis and knowledge, capability, or expertise along the Y-axis. In that case, no change in effort results in an infinite increase in knowledge. Not too shabby, but if the graph is taken literally, a fair amount of effort needs to be expended before any knowledge is gained, since the curve seems to start at the middle of the chart. Since the chart lacks units we have no idea if effort is measured in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years.

Mike

 

[MilesH]

I think your close, Mike :wink:

The initial part along the X axis, where nothing seems to happen, is the very expensive training. At the end of this you have a Paulian experience and the totality of Solidworks knowledge is revealed to you in an instant......

 

[indesign]

Just wonder if Greg is sitting back in his chair laughing away and biting his tongue.

 

[swertel]

I hope so, but being that these are public forums on the net, I'm sure he can't give any "official" response, although he'd probably like to. Maybe just a post with a blank message to signify acknowledgement.

My guess, the SW learning curve is being spammed across the entire Alibre, Inc. address book and posted on all their bulletin boards with what not to do. Alibre has for the most part shut down for the day due to lost productivity. Good luck getting your support incidents filed, too busy laughing.

 

[indesign]

:lol: ...BTW...that is why I said ..biting his tongue :wink: ....I knew he just couldn't/wouldn't reply to most of these comments.

But I just had that vision in my head of the execs standing around a chair while they were busting with laughs looking at the forum.

 

[swertel]

I though the ad was funny enough, but Mike's and Miles' comments really put it into perspective.

 

[Gaspar]

Re:

I think your close, Mike :wink:

The initial part along the X axis, where nothing seems to happen, is the very expensive training. At the end of this you have a Paulian experience and the totality of Solidworks knowledge is revealed to you in an instant......

Hey Miles,

If you notice the fist curve they draw, it starts as asintotic to the X axis and ends as asintotic to an axis paralell to the Y axis. This would pretty much describe what you mention, a long period of fruitless learning efforts and at the end a sudden flash of knowledge (learning curves are usually just the opposite and tend not to infinity but to a horizontal, static value).

I think the final vertical line is just a zoom into the final portion of the inital curve.

 

[Cameraman]

You guys crack me up . . .

I've always envisioned a "typical learning curve" as shaped similar to the upper left quadrant of a circle, with the X-axis being time and the Y-axis being knowledge. I'm sure that is how Solidworks intended their ad to be interpretted, but after reading your posts I won't be able to look at it again without grinning.

Thanks for the new perspective . . .

Regards,
Greg

 

[cgriffin]

Here is my take...


A------------B

Getting from point A to point B is easier with Alibre.
(There are no steep learning curves.)

 

[alexfranke]

Much easier... There're only two letters between the A and the B in Alibre, and of course, in SolidWorks there's neither an A nor a B, so you might call this path undefined as well. Now if there were only a product names "Abilre" it'd be even quicker! :wink:

 

[indesign]

After all that........

It still looks like a brick wall! :shock:

Wish they had an icon that looks like a flattened face.