There are two ways of learning. By experiments or by tutorials?
One involves reading everything about the subject and beinging to do the tutorials and the other approach is getting a basic idea and jump into an experiments.
As you might have realised i follow and vote for the experiment approach. It works for me. Without settling down on theories. I get the basics of what can get me started and jump into the tool to conduct my own experiments.
With the new fem software that i was introduced, i got so many supporting documents. If i had read them line by line and everything, not only would i have made the progress that i have made so far but also would have stuck somewhere because of the jargon. So mine technique was read or browse quickly. Get the basic idea of the steps involved and then begin your own experiments.
For the fem software, i began by modelling a 2d plate, meshning it, applying force and getting the cool coloured contour profile. Learning and experimenting with one feature at a time.
So if you find yourself not making progress in your own tool learning, then try experiments. The cool thing about experiments is they always teach you. Even if they fail, they give you insight of the process. So experiment!
