3 Things CAD Beginners Should Do
“Sure, the world we live in has three dimensions that we work and live in on a regular basis. But as soon as you face that computer screen, the mind tends to snap straight to its default 2D mode.”
You’re a 12 year-old kid and you’ve got your fourth pinewood derby coming up. Your dad offers to help design your car. Your dad also happens to be a mechanical designer with access to cutting-edge 3D-modeling software. The amazing idea you have for a car is...a school bus. Not a dog-nose bus--a flat-nose, rectangular bus. Essentially, you wouldn’t even need to cut your pinewood derby block. After some dispute and pleading, your dad convinces you to at least make it a dog-nose bus. Your dad proceeds to design the bus and cut it out of the block. This is your first exposure to 3D modeling. It is also your only exposure for the next 10 years.
Even with this superficial introduction to working in 3D space, you would have more experience than the typical engineering student enrolled in introductory engineering graphics. This is the situation I found myself in when, as a 21 year-old kid, I attended the first session of my engineering graphics course. At the end of three grueling, CAD-filled months, my heart was changed, and eventually I started a position as a teaching assistant for the course. I’ve never looked back. Well, actually, I frequently look back as I try to “[CAD] a mile” in my students’ shoes and find the best ways to help them. I’ve narrowed all the initial obstacles down to three that, when overcome, will open up your capabilities as a 3D CAD modeler. These hurdles are as follows: 1) getting your mind to think in a new dimension, 2) finding and becoming familiar with all your elusive tools, and, most importantly, 3) making mistakes.
Sure, the world we live in has three dimensions that we work and live in on a regular basis. But as soon as you face that computer screen, the mind tends to snap straight to its default 2D mode. You may find your subconscious telling you, “MS Paint never required you to think in the third dimension, why should SolidWorks [or NX or Catia or Creo or Solid Edge or….]?”
Deep into the first modeling session is when many design debutants start to find themselves thinking in all three dimensions. For others, that dimension may be too difficult to grasp until they see their GPA starting to suffer. Either way, the key to getting started is thinking in that third dimension ON a 2D computer screen. It can take time but opens up the world of 3D modeling (and incidentally helps solve those rotation problems in IQ tests).
Once the brain has wrapped itself around this new and fascinating dimension, it’s time to start finding buttons. Yes, the bane of every first-time user’s existence: finding the buttons. Each program you encounter will have its own user interface, and not one of them will immediately make sense. The most common question I’m asked when leading a lab is “Where was [button/tool] again?” Maybe it’s because we grew up skeptical of MS Word’s infamous Clippy, but few think to use the command search option available on most software packages. Google can be more than just a friend in these situations, too.
Overcoming the button-hunting hurdle is critical. But knowing how to click buttons is much different from knowing how to use them. Interestingly, one of the best ways to learn how to use the buttons is by clicking the wrong ones several times. And that is the miracle of computer-aided design: your mistakes can be corrected at the click of another button. Unlike a hole you just drilled out on the mill, that hole you just extruded through the block is not permanent; Ctrl-Z or the undo button should do the trick. I have found that many students, over the course of a single semester, never get over their fear of making mistakes. They hesitate to make the next move for fear of making the wrong one. The beauty of CAD is that no mistake is permanent. To learn this, the key is to start making mistakes and lots of them.
So don’t let the fear of the unknown keep you from using this useful design tool. Go ahead and make mistakes. Make so many that you begin to weep or threaten to uninstall the software from your computer. There is no better way to create a design than getting started on one. It is my guarantee that your first few attempts will be huge mistakes. Instead of letting that crush your creative soul, take the time to find that undo button and keep moving forward.
