HOWEVER, I feel whatever the stage of the design, a model should always be modeled to capture the design intent correctly. No matter what stage a design is at their is always a reason for creating each bit of geometry, and once proficient it is just as fast to model correctly as incorrectly. This is why it is SO important to learn correctly and develop good modeling habits.

That does bring up another issue that is important. It was mentioned that With ProE it was required to properly define models ( I have not used it I take your word for it) This bring up my point with SolidWorks, It is VERY easy to generate 3 Dimensional Geometry… and this can cause problems. I worked in a University machine shop and we received a solid Model for a large robot designed by another university, it had a Full SolidWorks model. The shop Forman went to work making prints of the parts and getting guys on the floor to make parts. I was instructed to CNC machine a few complex parts on the Job. As I always do, I wanted to look and see how my part integrated with the whole assembly. When I started looking I was SHOCKED to see all overlapping geometry, Bolt circles that didn’t line up… you name it was wrong, but when you zoomed out and look at this model it by no stretch an impressive looking model. So my warning is….

With Easy to use SolidModeling packages comes “3D – Napkin Drawings” I am sure you know what I mean…. Just because a Model is 3D doesn’t make in engineered, be careful.

I hope this long Post was a help,

AL

HOWEVER, I feel whatever the stage of the design, a model should always be modeled to capture the design intent correctly. No matter what stage a design is at their is always a reason for creating each bit of geometry, and once proficient it is just as fast to model correctly as incorrectly. This is why it is SO important to learn correctly and develop good modeling habits.

That does bring up another issue that is important. It was mentioned that With ProE it was required to properly define models ( I have not used it I take your word for it) This bring up my point with SolidWorks, It is VERY easy to generate 3 Dimensional Geometry… and this can cause problems. I worked in a University machine shop and we received a solid Model for a large robot designed by another university, it had a Full SolidWorks model. The shop Forman went to work making prints of the parts and getting guys on the floor to make parts. I was instructed to CNC machine a few complex parts on the Job. As I always do, I wanted to look and see how my part integrated with the whole assembly. When I started looking I was SHOCKED to see all overlapping geometry, Bolt circles that didn't line up… you name it was wrong, but when you zoomed out and look at this model it by no stretch an impressive looking model. So my warning is….

With Easy to use SolidModeling packages comes “3D – Napkin Drawings” I am sure you know what I mean…. Just because a Model is 3D doesn't make in engineered, be careful.

I hope this long Post was a help,

AL

As for the Pro-E question, I agree with most. Pro-E does a fantastic job of teaching better modeling practices by making it harder to do things that are note fully constrained. Lots of button clicks though. Hands down our students prefer SolidWorks to Pro-E (mainly because it is easier). Although when asked they do agree that their models are generally more predictable in Pro-E.

If any of you have any old/obsolete project specifications that you would be willing to donate to our students for real world projects I would greatly appreciate them: cmaccormack@nti.edu

As for the Pro-E question, I agree with most. Pro-E does a fantastic job of teaching better modeling practices by making it harder to do things that are note fully constrained. Lots of button clicks though. Hands down our students prefer SolidWorks to Pro-E (mainly because it is easier). Although when asked they do agree that their models are generally more predictable in Pro-E.

If any of you have any old/obsolete project specifications that you would be willing to donate to our students for real world projects I would greatly appreciate them: cmaccormack@nti.edu

I miss the smell! ha! thanks Anna

I miss the smell! ha! thanks Anna

You are so right about the board drafting experience. There is a discipline of process that must be worked through with board drafting that is lost in today’s world of 3D CAD. When the undo button is a Staedtler Mars Plastic eraser, an eraser shield and a lot of time, you develop some good habits pretty quickly. The fundamental Drafting Practices and Descriptive Geometry haven’t changed just because it is 3D CAD. As much as I wouldn’t want to go back to board drafting, there is a lot of pride in knowing one can start with an empty 20 or 30 foot piece of mylar and lay a design out on it that was as perfect as it could be and a real work of art.

Cheers,

Anna

It goes back to board drafting even. I wish I saw more students with at least a semester of board drafting experience. It’s hard to get away from the discipline and method of laying out a drawing when you have to put it down pencil line by pencil line.

Personally, the thing I liked about it is that is almost forced you to properly constrain everything and define all the parameters before allowing you to proceed to the next step. I think it really helped you get the discipline to properly define a model’s design intent and make a robust model that is able to be changed many times w/out rebuild errors.

SolidWorks, while it has these tools, is geared more towards getting something done quickly. This lends itself VERY nicely for conceptual design and visualization. You’re able to QUICKLY try many variations of a concept, and get a mechanism design cranked out quickly. One downside I see to this is that things can get pretty sloppy quickly. If you start having to make some big changes, or even small changes, you can find yourself sinking in a pool of red. Once you’ve finalized a design, you really should go back and properly constrain and model your design to coincide with what your true design intent is. It is almost inevitable that the design will change down the road and need to be “tweaked”. If you’ve done the proper constraining up front, this will be a relatively painless process.