Thisbookisdesignedasasoftware-basedlabbooktocomplementastandardtextbookinamechanicsofmaterialcourse,whichisusuallytaughtattheundergraduatelevel.ThisbookcanalsobeusedasanauxiliaryworkbookinaCAEorFiniteElementAnalysiscourseforundergraduatestudents.Eachbookcomeswithadisccontainingvideodemonstrations,aquickintroductiontoSolidWorks,andallthepartfilesusedinthebook. ThistextbookhasbeencarefullydevelopedwiththeunderstandingthatCAEsoftwarehasdevelopedtoapointthatitcanbeusedasatooltoaidstudentsinlearningengineeringideas,conceptsandevenformulas.Theseconceptsaredemonstratedineachsectionofthisbook.Usingthegraphics-basedtoolsofSolidWorksSimulationcanhelpreducethedependencyonmathematicstoteachtheseconceptssubstantially.Thecontentsofthisbookhavebeenwrittentomatchthecontentsofmostmechanicsofmaterialstextbooks. Thereare14chaptersinthisbook.Eachchapterisdesignedasoneweek’sworkload,consistingof2to3sections.Eachsectionisdesignedforastudenttofollowtheexactstepsinthatsectionandlearnaconceptortopicofmechanicsofmaterials.Typically,eachsectiontakes15-40minutestocompletetheexercises. Eachcopyofthisbookcomeswithadisccontainingvideosthatdemonstratethestepsusedineachsectionofthebook,a121pageintroductiontoPartandAssemblyModelingwithSolidWorksinPDFformat,andallthefilesreadersmayneediftheyhaveanytrouble.TheconciseintroductiontoSolidWorkspdfisdesignedforthosestudentswhohavenoexperiencewithSolidWorksandwanttofeelmorecomfortableworkingontheexercisesinthisbook.Allofthesamecontentisavailablefordownloadonthebook’scompanionwebsite.
