The past few weeks, I decided to start an educational Youtube channel! For this channel, I'll begin by posting 3D Modeling SolidWorks tutorials for beginners, but later on as I learn more in school and do more projects, I hope to share my new knowledge for those as well.
I just uploaded the first episode of my series: CAD-ing Objects in My Room! In this episode, I will walk you through step-by-step how to cad my navy blue Hydrapeak waterbottle. By following through, you will learn how to use basic features of SolidWorks, as well as a few more advanced features such as Thread. Hope you enjoy and please share with anyone who you think might be interested! You can watch the video here.
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As of today, I have spent around 4 months in lockdown, avoiding interactions with the outside world and being a homebody. Unfortunately, like many others, I have contributed a large portion of my time to watching Netflix and being a couch potato. A few weeks ago, I decided I needed to find a fun hobby, which I decided was to be 3D modeling.
I was first exposed to 3D modeling in eighth grade when I used Autocad to model a cup to be 3D printed with the school's printer. It never got printed but I was fascinated by the technology, nonetheless. Then again in my sophomore year of college when I was in my community's solar car team. I downloaded Solidworks and tried to model the car's frame. There were quite a few more times when I used 3D modeling in my projects, from making a wooden clock to prototyping an easter egg jig. While I know how to use the basics of the software, there are so many more facets that I have yet to delve into. I love seeing the ideas in my head become visualized in a 3D model. This is something I can imagine myself doing as a career. As a result, I embraced the idea of "Get so good at something they have to hire you for it" (this is not the exact quote) and began my mission of becoming a 3D modeling expert. I searched youtube for good tutorials that can teach me how to fully utilize all of Solidwork's features. I found a 3 hour bicycle one by CAD CAM Tutorials which was GREAT. It took me about 8 hours to finish this bike but I learned an incredible amount. To name a few, I learned how to create a 3D sketch, how to use splines to create difficult shapes, how to use advanced mates, and more. These are all things I wouldn't have really learned just by doing projects on my own. I highly recommend trying out this tutorial. The speaker is detailed and almost all of the steps worked as expected. There were maybe one or two steps that didn't work for me so I had to find another method. On to the next tutorial... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj5Wo1Z9r20 As the second week of my summer internship at NG is wrapping up, it's time to reflect on what I have achieved and learned.
On the first day, I had a call with my managers who gave me a brief overview of what they had planned for me this summer. In short, I was to become a "Tableau expert". Before that call, I had never heard of or seen Tableau before. For those who may be in a similar situation, Tableau is a powerful data visualization program with a clean interface that makes the software easy to learn and use. It's honestly a fantastic tool for analyzing data. So, when I was given the task to take the first few weeks to learn Tableau, I was pretty excited. I began by searching for platforms through which I could learn Tableau. The most obvious place to go to was Tableau itself. Fortunately, they are currently providing their elearning series for free for 90 days. Their series are well organized and role oriented. For example, they have different series for designers, consumers, web authors, etc. I chose to go with the web author one and went through quite a few courses, learning the basics of Tableau and data analysis. The lessons were split between readings and videos, which quickly drained my energy and attention span. Being a hands on learner, I was hoping to find a course that was designed for me to work with Tableau directly, with videos walking me through step by step. So, after a few days of the series, I searched for a different learning platform. Finally, I found what I was looking for and it was located on Coursera. Coursera is a world-wide online learning platform that provides free online courses from renowned universities. The course I found is called Data Visualization and Communication with Tableau by Duke University. Their video lectures are designed to be tutorials of Tableau which the students follow on their own machine and with their own Tableau program. The course even provides a free 6 month license key. After just the first few videos, I was learning an incredible amount at a pace much faster than with Tableau's elearning series. The professor is very adept in explaining concepts, and the course is well organized. With a data set they provided, I began creating bar charts, maps, scatter plots easily. The professor walked me through analyzing salary data; determining what occupations led to certain visas being granted, what locations had highest salaries, etc. I am still in the middle of completing the course, but every day I make significant process in my Tableau learning through Coursera. Of course, going through Coursera courses for 9 hours a day can get exhausting and draining. Staying motivated turned out to be a daily struggle for me, especially with my internship being remote. I, like many people, prefer to have a task, a timeline, an end goal. Knowledge work has rarely been an activity that I would engage in outside of school. Fortunately, for my partner L, he loves knowledge work and it is what he does whenever he doesn't have job work. He gave me a few tips to maintain my motivation levels: 1. Knowledge work is different from normal work. It should not have a time limit (shouldn't be restricted to a 9 hour time slot). Time doesn't map perfectly to learning. 2. The brain needs a break and needs time to diffuse. This diffusion process can take place on a walk, in the shower, etc. Although it may seem like I'm not traditionally "working", this process is essential for absorption of information. 3. Find a way to utilize the skills I learn. For example, I could start my own data analysis project and practice using Tableau, or I could edit an existing dashboard and find ways to make it better, or I could write about the concepts I learn (which I plan to do in future posts!) 4. Make my own end goal and think long term. This is key to staying motivated and focused. For me, this was a variety of things. I want to impress my managers; I want to obtain skills that would help me not only in my internship, but also in school and in life; I want to make the most of my internship. With these new tips in mind, I tried to kick off a personal project, and I tried to find other ways to enhance my learning experience, so I listened to some data analysis podcasts. I was excited to use Tableau to explore a topic that I was interested in. I considered exploring the history of riots, success of online dating apps, best methods for health and fitness. Unfortunately, it was incredibly difficult to locate free, complete data sets on the internet. After a day of searching, I ended up trying to analyze employment stats, which felt like a dead end to me. As a result, I gave up on pursuing my own project and decided to focus more on finishing Coursera. Although I've never listened to podcasts before this month, I explored a few that discussed data analysis topics. Hearing people talk about their experience and give tips for newbies was motivating and insightful for me. Yesterday, I had a few exchanges with my managers, and I predict that I will be embarking on my first task soon. They informed me that they use SQL to filter through their database. SQL stands for Structured Query Language and is used to communicate with a database. According to ANSI (American National Standards Institute), it is the standard language for relational database management systems. So, I utilized the app Sololearn to grasp the fundamentals of the language. Sololearn is another program that I recommend to anyone who wants to learn any programming language for free. Their lessons are straight to the point and very informative. That pretty sums up my internship experience this week. In the next few weeks, I hope to continue my Tableau learning experience and utilize the new skills I obtained. Stay tuned for more updates. -DL |