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THE CAD CODER

    Resources

    In this page, I have listed all the resources I used for learning programming languages and Solidworks API.

    These resources are in the form of following types:

    1. Books I read

    2. Video tutorials I watched

    If you want to know how I learn programming please visit About page of this blog.

    I have organized this page in following topics:

    1. Visual Basic for Application (VBA) programming language

    2. Solidworks VBA Macros

    3. C# programming language

    4. Solidworks C# Add-in

    5. C++ programming language

    6. Bonus Section!!!

    Feel free to jump to the topic you like from the above topic list.

    Visual Basic for Application (VBA) programming language

    To learn Visual Basic for Application or VBA programming language, I used Excel Macros for Dummies book.

    This book helps me in understanding programming concepts and learning VBA programming language syntaxes.

    This book is beginner friendly and teaches in an easy manner!!

    If you can want buy this book from Amazon, you can buy it by clicking below image ad.

    If you don’t want to spend money to buy this book then it is ok!!

    Not everyone learns by reading a book.

    You can read VBA tutorials from this blog.

    Solidworks VBA Macros

    I learn Solidworks VBA macro from Me in 3d YouTube channel.

    You can watch those videos by clicking above text link.

    I am also giving tutorials on Solidworks VBA macros in this blog.

    You can go to Solidworks VBA macros page of this blog and look for the articles I wrote till now.

    This is why this blog exists!!!

    If you like to read and want to make fast progress I suggest you buy the Automating SOLIDWORKS 2017 Using Macros book.

    You can buy this book from Amazon by selecting this link.

    Although I had not read this book it is updated one out there.

    If you want to download Free books of AngelSix, you can download those by clicking here.

    It will start downloading those books at your machine.

    C# programming language

    I learn C# programming language by watching C# tutorials of AngelSix YouTube Videos.

    You can also watch those tutorials by clicking here.

    These tutorials are easy to understand and content is presented in a very professional manner.

    In-fact AngelSix YouTube channel is the best YouTube channel out there for learning actual programming in C# programming language.

    I personally like this channel because the person behind LUKE was a CAD Engineer and had done automation Solidworks and Autodesk Inventor.

    If you want to know more about him you can read about him here.

    He also write free books on Solidworks API but I think they are now outdated.

    But still if you want to read them you can download them.

    Apart from that I also use “C# 7.0 in a Nutshell: The Definitive Reference” as a reference and glance over it regularly.

    Image of this book is shown below

    If you want to buy this book you can buy it from Amazon by clicking above image.

    Other than these you will need help from others so you need a good habit of asking questions online.

    You can ask me questions also but I am not an expert in this.

    Luke is the right person for clearing your doubt in the C# programming language.

    Solidworks C# Add-in

    I learn Solidworks C# Add-in by watching again AngelSix videos (again him!!) of SolidDNA.

    You can watch those tutorial videos by clicking here.

    SolidDNA is framework for creating Solidworks Add-in with C# and WPF programming language.

    Now there is not much information on how you learn Solidworks C# API over the internet.

    Except the official help from Dassault system.

    I will be going to cover these in my blog in future so stay tuned till then!!!

    C++ programming language

    I also learn C++ programming language for fun!!!

    I want to create the same functionality using the C++ programming language and Solidworks C++ API.

    For learning the C++ programming language I read 2 books.

    1. Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++

    2. The C++ Programming Language

    Both of these books are written by Bjarne Stroustrup the creator of the C++ programming language.

    Out of these 2 two, I would suggest reading Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++ first.

    To my surprise, this book is for those who did not have any kind of programming knowledge!!

    This book teaches how to develop thinking for solving problems programmatically which is very helpful in the long run and not taught by others.

    So if you ask me which I book I should buy then I say buy this one book only and you learn to solve problems programmatically!!!

    For Solidworks C++ API, there is no material available online except Solidworks default help.

    If you want to know some information about Solidworks C++ API, I can help you because I have created a small application using it.

    Bonus Section

    This section is for you as a reward for reading till here.

    Here I share with you some tricks and tips whenever I struck with a problem.

    So I used the following resources whenever I face any issue:

    1. Solidworks Offline help

    2. Google

    3. Solidworks Forum

    4. Stackoverflow

    Solidworks Offline Help

    If I want to do something in Solidworks API and I don’t know how to do then Solidworks Offline Help is the most useful resource for me to found the solution.

    In case you are not able to open offline help then please follow these steps:

    a. Select the Help option

    b. Uncheck the Use SOLIDWORKS Web help option as shown in below image.

    uncheck-solidworks-web-help

    c. Select API Help and open the offline version of API Help.

    d. go to Index tab of API Help and type the command you want to search.

    for example, if you want to know how to access hole wizard in Solidworks API, just type the hole wizard and open 1st option.

    This will lead to the hole wizard or something related to it.

    I personally look for code samples in the help file because they are much helpful to solve the problem and have a pre-written code sample.

    Google

    If I was unable to get any sample code then I use Google to look for the solution.

    Now I used “How to” approach for searching on Google.

    For example, I want to open Excel in Solidworks VBA macro.

    Thus I will search for “How to open excel in Solidworks VBA”.

    This will give us links to the Solidworks forum and I will look for a solution of the exact problem or similar problem.

    With this approach, I don’t have to create an account in the forum and I can navigate through different answers.

    Solidworks Forum

    In case, you have an account on the forum and you want to look for the answer 1st there then search for a similar question in forum first.

    There would be someone who has a similar problem in past and already asked it. So looks that answer first.

    What will you get by doing this exercise?

    *If you are lucky then you will get exact code what you are looking for otherwise you will get a similar type of code sample. *

    If you are unable to found the answer then ask the question.

    There are lots of people who already had macros written and they will share.

    Or they will guide you on how to get the answer!!!

    But keep in mind that, if you are working on Add-in or standalone application, you have to wait for it because there are not many people do that and are willing to help in the forum.

    Stackoverflow

    There are some cases where I need to look for language-specific answers.

    In those cases, I look for answers in Stackoverflow.

    This is a very good website.

    Personally, I don’t have any account in Stackoverflow but still, I managed to get the answers.

    I hope this page will help you!!!

    If you want to buy any of the recommended books, then please buy them from the links above.

    They are Amazon affiliate links and helps me to write more content.

    If you like this blog please share it your friends also.