etc is lot like learning a foreign language. The more you practice it
in real-life situations, the better you become at it.
So what are you doing about it?
What is your strategy of learning your favourite cae program?
I will illustrate mine. In NAL I became fasinated with solidworks. It  
was the primary cad tool in my lab and glancing at the cad operators  
from my desk, I was always drawn to the fasinating tool.
So first thing I did was I asked for a demo from the cad folks and  
asked them to point me to the tutorials. Once I had a look at those  
tutorials and I began practising them. I began to venture out.
In my quest to learn the software, this tutorials were roads and  
tracks laid down for me. As long I travelled on them I was doing good  
and feeling confident but I was not confident to take a new design. So  
along the way I began deviating from my path, I began exploring the  
sideways. I delayed replaying the tutorials and began making household  
utentils. Cups, plates stoves, replaced the bar coils and nuts and  
bolts of the tutorials.
To cut the story short, my decision to do real life articles and stuff  
enabled me to learn the software much more quickly.
So the whole point of this post is this. Don't be just a fan of the  
tutorials. Walk on them, they are generally the best source of  
learning but don't always keep to the roads and venture out to the  
side walks and explore.
Keep aside the tutorials and try things from your world. Create cad  
model of your study table, analyze the load of your bike etc.
Its truly like learning a new language, unless you practise it out  
with the world, you won't be learning it enough!!
