- What "CSWA-E Training" Actually Needs to Cover
- The Exam You Are Training For
- Training Plan by Domain
- Schematic Skills That Show Up in Questions
- Do You Need SOLIDWORKS Electrical Installed?
- Learning From the Official Sample Exam
- Sequencing Your Weeks
- Choosing Training Sources Wisely
- Registration, Fees and Retakes
- Frequently Asked Questions
- The exam is 50 questions, 60 minutes, and 35 correct answers (70%) are needed to pass.
- It is a knowledge test with multiple-choice and true/false items, not a hands-on CAD build.
- Train across five topics: electrical theory, Schematics, Electrical 3D, electrical design, and installation.
- The fee is USD 20 in North America for one attempt, and academic providers may offer free attempts.
What "CSWA-E Training" Actually Needs to Cover
The CSWA-E is the Certified SOLIDWORKS Associate - Electrical, issued by SOLIDWORKS (Dassault Systèmes). SOLIDWORKS currently titles the credential "SOLIDWORKS Electrical Design Associate (CSWA-E)." It validates foundational knowledge of the SOLIDWORKS Electrical product family, which is software for designing electrical schematics, laying out components in 3D, and producing manufacturing documentation. It is not an electrician's license, it does not authorize anyone to perform wiring work, and it has no connection to code-compliance journeyman or master exams. If you landed here looking for trade licensing, this is a different world entirely.
That distinction shapes how you should train. You are not preparing to prove you can pull wire or pass a safety code test. You are preparing to show that you understand how electrical design intent is captured inside SOLIDWORKS Electrical: how a schematic becomes a bill of materials, how wires get numbered, how a 3D cabinet layout relates to the 2D drawing, and what the project environment does behind the scenes.
If you need a broader orientation first, the explainers on what CSWA-E is and what CSWA-E stands for cover the naming and scope. This article focuses on the training itself.
The Exam You Are Training For
Good training starts with an accurate picture of the test. The issuer-linked exam guide and SOLIDWORKS' own Lesson 13 clarification agree on the essentials:
| Exam Feature | What the Issuer Publishes |
|---|---|
| Number of questions | 50 |
| Question types | Multiple-choice and true/false |
| Points | One point per question |
| Time limit | 60 minutes |
| Passing score | 35 of 50 points (70%) |
| Delivery | Online through SOLIDWORKS / VirtualTester |
| Nature of assessment | Knowledge test, not a hands-on CAD build |
A common point of confusion is the idea that this is a long, two-hour practical where you build a full project from scratch. That belongs to other certifications in the SOLIDWORKS family. The CSWA-E is a one-hour knowledge exam. Your training should therefore emphasize recall, recognition, and reasoning about how the software behaves, rather than marathon click-by-click drawing drills.
Training Plan by Domain
The issuer publishes five exam topics. They are headings, not a weighted blueprint, so you should not assume each carries equal weight or that any single topic dominates. Treat all five as fair game and distribute your effort accordingly. For a deeper walkthrough of how these areas are described, see the complete guide to the five CSWA-E content areas.
Domain 1: Electrical theory
The conceptual foundation that the software sits on. Questions here test whether you understand the electrical ideas that the tool models.
- Circuit fundamentals: sources, loads, switching devices, and protection
- Reading and interpreting standard schematic symbols and what they represent
- How control circuits differ from power circuits in a typical machine design
- Terminology you will meet again in the software, such as terminals, contacts, and coils
Domain 2: SOLIDWORKS Electrical Schematics
The 2D design side, where most candidates spend the bulk of their hands-on time.
- Inserting and editing symbols, and linking related symbols into a single component
- How wires, cables, and connections are drawn and managed
- Wire numbering behavior and the role of equipotentials
- Generating reports such as bills of materials and wiring lists from schematic data
Domain 3: SOLIDWORKS Electrical 3D
The physical layout side, connecting the schematic to a real enclosure or panel.
- How components from the schematic are placed in a 3D environment
- The relationship between 3D layout and routing of wires or harnesses
- What information flows between the 2D project and the 3D model
Domain 4: Electrical design
Design-level reasoning about how a project is structured and managed.
- Organizing a project into logical sections and drawings
- Using libraries and manufacturer part data effectively
- Understanding how design decisions affect downstream documentation
Domain 5: Installation
"Installation" is a published exam heading, but the issuer does not publish an exhaustive subtopic list or weighting for it. Prepare for it by understanding how the product is set up and how a project environment is configured, and treat any specific examples you study as preparation, not as confirmed exam objectives.
- General familiarity with how SOLIDWORKS Electrical is set up and how projects relate to its supporting data
- Awareness of the project-level settings that influence behavior across a design
Schematic Skills That Show Up in Questions
The keyword-level topics candidates most often want to master sit mostly in the Schematics domain, and they are worth drilling because they are conceptual and testable without a screen in front of you.
Wire numbering
Know that wire numbers are assigned by rules rather than typed by hand on every line. Understand what drives the numbering outcome: the numbering scheme configured for the project, how it treats connected conductors, and what happens when you re-run numbering after editing a drawing. Questions tend to probe cause and effect: "if you change this, what happens to the numbers?"
Equipotentials
An equipotential groups wires that are electrically the same point. This idea ties theory and software together: because the software knows which conductors share a potential, it can number them consistently and report on them. Be able to explain why two physically separate wire segments can carry the same identifier and why that is correct.
Component linking
A real-world contactor may appear as a coil on one sheet and several contacts across others. The software associates those symbols with a single physical part. Make sure you can reason about what is gained from that linkage when generating reports and checking the design.
Do You Need SOLIDWORKS Electrical Installed?
This is one of the most frequent questions, and the answer is more relaxed than people expect. Interactive use of SOLIDWORKS Electrical is not necessary to take the exam. The exam guide and Lesson 13 do permit running the software while you answer questions, so having it available can help, but it is optional rather than required.
On the version requirement: the current exam page asks for familiarity with SOLIDWORKS Electrical principles from version 2015 or later. That is a familiarity baseline, not a demand that you buy or install a 2015 license. Practically, the core concepts carry across releases, so working with a recent version is perfectly reasonable for hands-on practice.
If you can get access, using the software for even a modest practice project will make the questions feel concrete. If you cannot, structured reading plus practice questions can still carry you through, because the exam itself is not a hands-on build. The CSWA-E requirements overview covers eligibility details in full.
Learning From the Official Sample Exam
The issuer links a sample exam guide that includes an eight-question sample. It is a taste of the style, not the full 50-question exam, so do not treat it as a complete practice resource or assume the real test mirrors it item for item. The guide also contains some unrelated Drawing Tools and MBD boilerplate, which you can ignore because it belongs to other certifications.
The right way to use the sample is analytical:
- Attempt each item cold and note how long you took.
- For every answer, write one sentence explaining why the correct choice is correct and why each distractor is wrong.
- Identify which of the five domains each question belongs to, and note whether it tested recall or reasoning.
- Rebuild the same concept in your own wording, then invent a variant question and answer it.
This turns a handful of questions into a reusable thinking template. For more practice in the same spirit, work through the questions on our CSWA-E practice test, and pair them with the one-page CSWA-E cheat sheet for quick fact review.
Sequencing Your Weeks
You do not need a generic productivity system here, just a sensible order driven by how these topics depend on one another. Theory comes first because the software concepts hang on it. Schematics comes next because it is the backbone of every project. 3D and design build on the schematic. Installation closes the loop.
Electrical theory and symbols
- Review circuit basics and schematic symbol conventions
- Learn the vocabulary you will see in every later topic
Schematics in depth
- Component linking, wires, and wire numbering
- Equipotentials and report generation concepts
Electrical 3D and design structure
- How the schematic maps to a 3D layout
- Project organization, libraries, and part data
Installation and full review
- Setup and project-environment concepts
- Timed practice sets and the official sample analysis
Compress or stretch this to fit your background. Someone who already works in electrical design may need only a refresher on theory and spend longer on the software-specific behaviors. A newer learner should lean harder into the first two weeks. The CSWA-E study guide expands on pacing and review habits.
Choosing Training Sources Wisely
Several kinds of resources exist, and each has a role as well as limits:
- Official SOLIDWORKS material. The certification page, the exam guide, and Lesson 13 are the authoritative sources for exam format, scoring, and policy. Anything else should be checked against them.
- Learning paths. SOLIDWORKS recommends Electrical Schematic, Electrical 3D, and Electrical Learning Path study. This is preparation advice, not a mandatory training-hour requirement for eligibility.
- Reseller and training-provider courses. Providers in the SOLIDWORKS ecosystem, such as GoEngineer and Hawk Ridge Systems, are natural places to look for instructor-led classes. Treat them as research leads and confirm current course content and pricing with them directly.
- Community flashcards and question banks. Sites such as Quizlet or Examzify can offer quick drills, but quality varies and they are not official. Verify any fact against issuer sources before trusting it.
Key Takeaway
Use official documents to define the target and third-party material to rehearse it. When a study aid disagrees with the exam guide or Lesson 13 on format, scoring, or retake rules, the issuer's wording wins.
If you are weighing whether the investment of time is justified, the ROI analysis for the CSWA-E and the CSWA-E jobs overview discuss where the credential fits in hiring. Note that no certification-specific salary uplift or official pass-rate figure has been verified, so be skeptical of any site that quotes precise numbers for either.
Registration, Fees and Retakes
Practical mechanics matter for planning:
- Fee: USD 20 in North America for one attempt, per the SOLIDWORKS Certification Program page.
- Free attempts: Lesson 13 confirms free opportunities through eligible Academic Certification Providers. That does not mean every retail attempt is free, so check which route applies to you.
- Delivery: Online through SOLIDWORKS and VirtualTester. The exam guide mentions Tangix TesterPRO, while current program instructions direct candidates to the VirtualTester Web Client. Academic proctoring language does not establish a universal webcam rule, so read the instructions for your specific session.
- Prerequisites: The Associate and Professional exams have no formal entry prerequisites.
- Retakes: At least 14 days between attempts and a fresh exam credit, according to the current exam page and program policy, which supersede the older 30-day wording in the guide.
- Validity: Customer and student certificates have no official expiration date.
For fuller pricing context see the CSWA-E certification cost breakdown, and for scheduling details check the exam dates and scheduling guide. Because the retake wait is at least 14 days and requires a new credit, it pays to take a full timed run on the practice test before you spend your real attempt.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. The Associate and Professional exams have no formal entry prerequisites. SOLIDWORKS recommends Electrical Schematic, Electrical 3D, and Electrical Learning Path study, but that is preparation guidance, not an eligibility rule or a required number of training hours.
No. It is a knowledge test of 50 multiple-choice and true/false questions in 60 minutes. You may run SOLIDWORKS Electrical while answering if you wish, but using it interactively is not necessary.
The passing score is 35 out of 50 points, which is 70%. Each question is worth one point. That 70% is a passing threshold, not a pass rate; no official pass-rate figure has been verified.
No. The exam page asks for familiarity with SOLIDWORKS Electrical principles from version 2015 or later. That is a knowledge baseline, not a requirement to purchase or install a 2015 license.
You must wait at least 14 days and obtain a fresh exam credit, according to the current exam page and program policy. The older 30-day wording in the sample guide is superseded.
Training for the CSWA-E is mostly about understanding how electrical design ideas map onto SOLIDWORKS Electrical across five topics, then rehearsing that understanding under a 60-minute clock. Anchor your plan to the official sources, work through the sample analytically, and use realistic practice to confirm you are consistently clearing the 35-question mark.