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ABOUT
Todd Childress / Keith Childress

The Childress family welcomes you to their CATIA^® training website.

Keith Childress began providing CATIA training to fellow designers and engineers in 1986 while an employee of Saturn Corp.

In 1995, the Childress family established their CATIA^® training business and have been providing CATIA^® training longer than any other company in the USA. They began offering CATIA^® V5 training in 2001, thus making theirs the first company in the state of Michigan to offer CATIA^® V5 training.

In addition to providing in-class training at their Warren Michigan training facility, the Childress' pioneered the use of the internet to deliver CATIA^® training and were the first company in the USA to offer Internet-Based (online) CATIA^® V5 training.

Keith Childress and his sons, Adam and Todd, worked together to develop their CATIA^® course. They refer to their course as practical CATIA training because it is based on their practical use of the CATIA software in the automotive design and engineering profession over the past 25 years.

Their practical CATIA^® training is designed to teach you what you need to know to immediately go to work using the CATIA^® V5 software.  They use many of the components they've designed throughout their careers as an aid in teaching CATIA^® training course participants how to use the CATIA^® V5 software.  While the aforementioned training exercises are of automotive components they have designed, the methodology for using the CATIA^® software applies to all other disciplines as well (aerospace, home appliance and electronics, tooling, special machines, etc.).

Keith Childress

Keith Childress has worked in the automotive design and engineering profession for more than 30 years. During this time he has held positions as Detailer/Layout, Designer, Sr. Designer, Design Leader, Project Engineer, Sr. Project Engineer, and Engineering Manager (view Mr. Childress' resume).

Mr. Childress has been awarded United States Patents for 3 of his designs. These include a composite headlight assembly for Fisher Guide (GM), a dropping safety latch for General Motors, and a seat belt cable mount for Saturn Corporation.  

Mr. Childress is a 1980 graduate of The Batavia School of Drafting, and a 1982 graduate of the prestigious Philpot School of Automotive Body Drafting. He is also a former Batavia/Philpot Schools instructor.

Mr. Childress has been working with CATIA^® since 1986 and has been teaching people to use the software for 25 years. He has written articles that have appeared in  CATIA^® Solutions, ProE , and Solid Solutions magazines. Mr. Childress was invited to be a guest lecturer at Southern Utah University and has spoken at numerous high schools, colleges, and technical schools over the past 25 years. Richard Cousins, author of the CATIA^® V5 Workbook (arguably the most respected and widely used CATIA^® V5 textbook in the world), invited Mr. Childress to work with him to produce the audio-visual adaptation of his popular "CATIA^® V5 Workbook".

Mr. Childress' design and engineering background is very diversified. He was responsible for the design and engineering of the restraint systems for the first two production Saturn Corporation vehicles. Mr. Childress was the project engineer for the Plymouth Prowler, responsible for all "body-in-white" panels. He has extensive design experience in restraints (seat belts and air bags), structures, exterior panels (sheet metal, aluminum, and composites), plastics (including interior trim), vehicle packaging, lighting, and mechanisms (Click here for a comprehensive look at Mr. Childress' professional experience).

In addition to CATIA^®, Mr. Childress is familiar with several other CAD systems, including CGS, Unigraphics, ProE, SolidWorks, AutoCAD, and Mechanical Desktop.

Mr. Childress can be reached at 586 693 2585, or via email at kchildress@practicalCAD.com.

Todd Childress

Todd is the youngest of Mr. Childress' three sons.  He had taken drafting classes in high school and had shown an interest in pursuing design/engineering as a career.  Todd's first exposure to CATIA^® was when he took his father's CATIA^® V4 class while still in high school.

Because Todd showed a strong aptitude for design, Todd's dad took him under his wing and mentored him in the basics of creating detail drawings using the descriptive geometry principals that Mr. Childress had learned in Batavia and Philpot some 20+ years earlier and has used throughout his career.

After several months of creating detail drawings, Mr. Childress began to introduce Todd to 3D modeling; first with wireframe and surface, and then solids.  Once Todd became comfortable modeling with the CATIA^® V4 software, Mr. Childress introduced him to part design.  To do so, Mr. Childress salvaged many of the parts he had designed over the years from the junk yard and gave them to Todd to model.  Mr. Childress discussed the design process that he'd gone through with each part; introducing Todd to the fundamentals of plastic and sheetmetal design, and a variety of manufacturing methods and considerations. Once Todd had completed modeling a given part, Mr. Childress would have him do design changes to the part.

Within a few months Mr. Childress was able to give Todd complicated design scenarios in which he would design plastic and sheetmetal parts from scratch using the background info Mr. Childress would provide and the knowledge he was accumulating.

When CATIA^® V5 came on the scene, Todd worked with his brother Adam and their father to develop their CATIA^® V5 course. Todd worked as an assistant instructor with his father and brother before earning the title of Primary Instructor several years ago.

In addition to teaching CATIA^® classes, Todd has hands-on experience using the CATIA^® software working as a designer in the automotive design/engineering profession. Todd is currently working with his father to develop a CATIA^® advanced surfacing course which is based, in part, on Todd's industry design experience.

Todd has earned high praise from seasoned design and engineering professionals who have had him as an instructor, and/or who have worked with Todd on the job. The following are just a few of the testimonials Todd has received:

Hi Keith, I just finished up your course with your son Todd. I just wanted to pass that on that Todd is very good and very professional and I enjoyed the course very much. Thank you. --Steve Jackson, Senior Product Designer, MI

Todd: Thanks so much for the great (online) course in CATIA.  At least I now know how to interact with designers and engineers, and am able to talk intelligently about future positions. Best Wishes, --Glenn Foster

Keith, I just wanted to send you a quick note to tell you that we thoroughly enjoyed your son, Todd. He is an awesome teacher and a great person in general. I can't say enough nice things about him. We're glad we had the opportunity to have him teach us the lessons. 
Thanks! --Joann & Lee

Todd, as I stated to you before, I have taken V5 basics twice before, but the previous times were in traditional classroom settings, with other students. This one-on-one (online) setup is absolutely the best! Thanks for all your help and patience. --Terri

When Todd took the reins of the Childress family CAD training business 2010, his first order of business was to create the Practical CAD Training website. Todd intends to expand the business by offering training in other Computer Aided Design (CAD) software programs. As such, Todd believes the generic "Practical CAD Training" name is more appropriate than "Practical CATIA Training", which Todd's father used since 1995 to describe the CATIA training course. Todd's father (Keith Childress) is still actively involved in the business, volunteering his time to provide support to his son in the areas of sales, website/course development, training, etc.

Todd can be reached at 586 693 2585, or via email at tchildress@practicalCAD.com.

NOTE: CATIA^® is a registered trademark of Dassault Systemes and has no affiliation with Practical CAD Training.