SOLIDWORKS is horrible

[skier]

Thanks to Cory I downloaded the software. I have experience with AutoCAD products, SketchUp, and the old fashioned T-square and drafting board. SolidWorks is horrible - very tedious to do simple things. Also I can't get through the first tutorial - halfway through the tutorial the software stops responding correctly to the commands depicted in the tutorial sidebar.

I've never used AutoCAD products, but I found Sketchup to be miserable and very limited. Solidworks is pretty similar to most of the other powerful solid modeling software out there: CATIA, Unigraphics, ProE, etc. One you learn one of them, you can pick up the rest pretty quickly. Give it some time and you'll see why industry uses these applications and not something like Sketchup (again, I can't comment on AutoCAD).