Engineering Education for the Mechanically Inclined

Stand out from the crowd with Certification

Simply getting a degree is not enough to get ahead any longer. Getting the valuable application experience of being involved in a student teams will give you an advantage in finding the work that you will enjoy.

In the current highly competitive environment it is a good idea to get every advantage you can. Certification can be the differentiator that will get you the job that you want. Being certified shows that you not only know the theory but can use the tools to practice the trade and this can be an important distinction that can open doors for you.

Right now you can view the certification preparation classes for Autodesk University 2011 Virtual to learn more about the process and the things you need to know to pass the test. You can view the classes by going here and select the class or classes that you’re interested in.

The products that are covered include:

AutoCAD® 2012
AutoCAD Civil 3D® 2012
Autodesk® Revit® Architecture 2012
Autodesk 3ds Max® 2012
Autodesk Maya® 2012
Autodesk Inventor® 2012

I cannot overstate the opportunity that having access to these materials and Certification offer. Take advantage of it before someone else gets your dream job.

Calling all cars! …and bikes, and canoes, and bridges –Part 2

Are you a student on a team or a faculty advisor for one? If so I have something that you really must check out.

SAE International and Autodesk are sponsoring a webcast event; Winning with Autodesk on Thursday, October 6th at 7 PM U.S. Eastern Daylight time.

While this webcast will focus on tools used primarily on the SAE sponsored these tools can be used for any Mechanical design or engineering project. This benefits secondary teams as well as collegiate.

We will be reviewing 2D conceptual design tools, complex freeform surfacing, 3D CAD, FEA, CFD, dynamic analysis, creating metal frames, electrical wiring diagrams and 3D routing, engineering based machine component design, and all of it will be delivered in less time than it will take to get pizza delivered.

Tell your friends, parents, children, pets, and even complete strangers to register for this webcast and see how YOU can win with Autodesk!

Coming to a theater near you!

  You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll kiss ten bucks good-bye, but you also just may end up with a career that brings you satisfaction and joy.

  Join the students at Huntley Boarding School as they meet their new teacher, Mr. McCluskey. Learn how Mr. McCluskey's unorthodox teaching methods educate and inspire the next generation of artists, engineers, architects and designers. And wait until you discover the secret that is making Mr. McCluskey's Method the viral sensation for Autodesk customers worldwide.

Autodesk presents this tongue-in-cheek parody of the classic film genre -- the all-boys boarding school. Please enjoy and share with your friends.

Autodesk YouTube channel

Bringing it all together for you

You may or may not have noticed but while everyone was on their Winter break the Education Community and the scary smart people at Autodesk Labs were hard at work.

The changes are “behind the scenes” but will make your user experience better as they’ve made it easier for you to join the community, activate software and move back and forth between sites to try different technologies.

A huge change is the elimination of the need to have a school e-mail address so if you’re a secondary student you don’t have to have a teacher sign you up. This is great news for the Home School community as well.

Another, more subtle but great change is the move to a single log in for the Community, Autodesk Labs, and most importantly the Activation site. One username and password for it all. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone helped you have to remember fewer passwords?

So go check out the Autodesk Education Community if you’re not yet a member, revisit if you are and check out all of the additions and improvements. If you hurry maybe you can be the 2 millionth member!

More Sustainability content on the Autodesk Education Community

A new series of videos focused on Design for a Lifetime have been added to the Sustainability content on the Autodesk Education community.

 

You can find them on the Education Community and it doesn’t even require a log in to see the content.

Check them out and don’t be shy about sending them to your friends, playing them in your classroom or showing them to anyone interested in engineering and design.

Help with your homework

Sorry, I know it’s a little late for this semester but I would like to offer to help you see how you can make the CAD models for your lessons.

What I would really like to do is to help you see different ways to construct parts so that you can see the value of experimentation with the CAD tools. Creating the correct geometry does end up being the bottom line but exploring different ways of creating it can offer insight into ways of “seeing” designs in your future differently.

I’ve created a few examples of some work for a class in an MET program in the Midwest but I’d really like to help students from all over understand what possible.

Please send scans or digital data to me and I will put together a video for the site as quickly as I can to help you see at least one way of building your lessons. Don’t be shy!

It’s official! I’m Certifiable and you could be too; for free!

For the past several years I’ve been an Autodesk Inventor Certified Professional.

Having this certification has been a tremendous asset and has opened up opportunities for me to share my passion for Inventor and the other applications the support the Autodesk Digital Prototyping philosophy.

You will need to act quickly but I promise the price will never be lower.  Please take advantage of this tremendous opportunity to show the world what you know and make a statement about what it means to be Certifiable!

Open the Doors to Certification – It’s Free!

We are excited to announce the first ever, 8 city, Autodesk® Certification Roadshow. We are especially promoting Autodesk Inventor at these shows. Other Autodesk Certification products include: AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Revit Architecture, and 3DS Max Design. As you know,  Autodesk certifications are a reliable validation of your skills and knowledge, and can lead to accelerated professional development, improved productivity, and enhanced credibility for you and your employer.

Certification is one step that is critical to personal and professional success!

Event Details

Southern Polytechnic State University

October 26, 2010

9:00am – 4:00pm

Continuing Education
1395 South Marietta Parkway

Bldg 200  Ste 234
Marietta, GA 30067

Pratt Institute

October 28, 2010

9:00am – 4:00pm

School of Professional Studies
144 West 14th St. Room 509
New York, NY 10011-7300

Moraine Valley Community College

November 2, 2010

9:00am – 4:00pm

9000 W. College Parkway
Palos Hills, IL 60465

Salt Lake Community College

November 4, 2010

9:00am – 4:00 pm

CAD Applications Training Center
9750 South 300 West
Sandy, UT 84070

British Columbia Institute of Technology

November 8, 2010

9:00am – 4:00pm

555 Seymour Street
Vancouver, British Columbia
V6B 3H6, Canada

San Francisco State University

November 10, 2010

9:00am – 4:00pm

Downtown Center
835 Market Street, 6th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103-1901

Austin Community College

November 11, 2010

9:00am – 4:00pm

CAD Learning Center RM3213
11928 Stonehollow Drive
Austin, TX 78758

Honolulu Community College

November 19, 2010

9:00am – 4:00 pm

Drafting and Technology Department
874 Dillingham Boul
Honolulu, HI 96817

Key Benefits of Certification

• - Gain an industry recognized credential that proves your skill level
• - Use the Autodesk Certified Logo
• - Display your Autodesk Certified certificate
• - List your name in the Autodesk Certified Professionals database

Autodesk Open Doors Registration

You can visit the Autodesk® Open Doors website to find the most up to date event registration information. At out Autodesk® Open Doors to Certification event, you can test your skills on the Autodesk software releases for 2010 and 2011, and discover new opportunities to your career, be more productive, and increase your value overall as a professional.

Preparation Options

Make sure to visit  www.autodesk.com/certification so you can download your test roadmap prior to attending our event.  Contact your local ATC for Certification Prep classroom and online training options www.autodesk.com/atc

The Associate level test is a one hour timed exam while the Professional level exam is 1.5 hours in length.

Next Steps

Download your certification roadmap at: autodesk.com/certification

Important Link: www.autodesk.com/opendoors

Questions? Contact: opendoors@autodesk.com

A quick start for Students using Inventor in a lab environment

[This is specifically for students who need to be able to save their work to a flash drive but the pathing considerations apply to anyone in a lab environment where you' cannot consistently use the same machine every day. Just replace the concept of a flash drive with a mapped network drive.]

  Quick question. Have you ever created an assembly using a fastener or other component from the Content Center and the next time you go to open it Inventor isn’t able to locate those pieces?

  To use the Content Center consistently you need to know where the Content source files are and you need to be able to tell Inventor where to place the data for the parts that you’ve used so it can find it again. This is done in the Project File.

Chances are if you look a the active Project File on your school’s lab computer it is just listed as ‘Default.ipj’. In the following steps you will learn how to make sure all of the data you create or consume is where you need it to be.

1. Start Autodesk Inventor
2. In the Get Started tab find the Launch panel and select Projects
3. At the bottom of the Projects dialog select New
4. Select New Single User Project
5. Give the Project File a name. For our Example I will use ‘Classwork’
6. In the Project (Workspace) Folder space I will enter the drive name and the name of a folder that I want created on my flash drive named Classwork.
7. Click OK to create the Project File. You may have to confirm the creation of the folder on the flash drive as well.
8. Double click on your new Project name in the top panel to activate it.

  At this point you have created a new project file. Inventor knows where to find the Content Center data source information from a setting in the Application Options but it places data that you’ve used based on a setting in the Project file. This default is on the hard drive of the computer you’re using Inventor on. If you move from one computer to another your bolts, washers, etc. are still on the hard drive of the other computer. Now you will set your Project file so that anything you use from the Content Center travels with you.

1. With your new Project File active expand the Folder Options area in the lower portion of the Projects dialog.
2. Select the ‘Content Center Files’ row.
3. After a moment the current path will be displayed.
4. Highlight the existing path and enter:   .\Content Center Files
5. Press Enter to accept the new value
6. Save the change to the Project File
7. Click Done to close the dialog

  In a project file a period in the path represents that path where the Project File is found. This acts as a shortcut or alias. A folder has now been created under my Classwork folder named Content Center Files. Now when I place a bolt into an assembly it will be put there. When I go to save my work now it will automatically want to place it on my flash drive.

Now every time you go to a new computer you will have to Browse for you Project file but when you come back to a computer you’ve used before it should be on the list in the top of the dialog.

If everyone in a class agrees to a Project File path and name you won’t have to change this every time or perhaps ever once its been done.

The Inventor

When I was quite young I  became fascinated with an early infomercial about a product called the Shopsmith Mark V. This was one of those inventions that are so obvious (after they’ve been created).

Many years later I happened to meet the man who created it and sold the production rights as he would do so many times. Meeting him I discovered one of America’s great unsung creative minds. A man of inestimable energy and passion for creation. If you’ve ever ridden a snowmobile or an ATV using a basic CVT you’ve ridden something that was spawned from his patent on the Variable Diameter Pulley. If you’ve used a personal water craft you would be shocked to see video of him from the 60s driving a boat that instead of a propeller used a steerable impeller. The household trash compactor. The original one of which still works in his home. He also had a love of speed and performance creating a super-lightweight performance car that was eventually downgraded into the the first popular kit car.It also lead him to creating the Hydrogen Peroxide rocket and a car that still holds some 1/8 mile acceleration records and a car that many believe could’ve exceeded the speed of sound decades before the barrier was broken. This man had an understanding that the greatest inventions solve problems that people don’t know they have.

So, why bring this up on an Blog that is for technology and education when this man created nearly all of these things the many physical prototypes, and force of will? Because I know the frustration that many students and faculty are feeling in Mechanical Engineering. The creative element that drove this man is absent in the curriculum. It can be restored and must be soon. We are loosing so many students who want to create great things but become frustrated by the endless Engineering Science without the creative aspect. There are exceptions though and this is why I’m rambling on.

On Thursday, March 25th I was on my way to see Engineering students compete in the Shell Eco Marathon. These students are the best among us and they are taking their own personal time to learn the skills that will allow them to apply their education to great things. Sometime during my journey to see these wonderful teams my friend and mentor Tony Fox was lost to us. He would surely have marveled at the creativity of these students. In his time with us he manage to register ~100 patents with a grade school education, an amazing mechanical mind and a dreamer’s optimism that anything is possible.

So next time you see a Jet Pack being flown, ride that PWC or Snowmobile remember that they are powered by many things but their creation was fueled by his dreams. Dreams that we should all wish to have. I will miss Tony dearly but with so many of his creations around us I won’t need to look far to remember.

Bigger, Badder, Prettier and Easier than ever…

Autodesk Inventor 2011 is about to become public. It will be released to the Commercial customers first but you can bet it will quickly find it’s way on to the Autodesk Education Community and to the Education Institutions who have made the investment in Subscription.

So, in it’s fifteenth release what does Inventor have that makes it Bigger? How about Frame Analysis. Rather than doing FEA on a framework of standard metal shapes or having to use an arcane beam element analysis package we’ve built Frame Analysis into Inventor to leverage the Frame Generator that has been in the product for a few years now. The tools are quick and logical. I’m sure this will be a hit with the Student teams (Formula, Baja, Solar, Human Powered, etc.) who need to optimize their frames for weight and safety.

How about Badder? I know, not a word; but it should be and once you’ve done one of the seven built in tutorials for Injection Mold design and analysis you’ll see there hasn’t been a tool such as this added to a “CAD” package since Shaft (generator) was added to Inventor four years ago. I can hear you saying “…shut your mouth” already.

Prettier? There are engineering tools that are pretty? Why yes, thank you for  asking. Many of you have been using the amazing Autodesk Showcase tool that’s  available on the Education Community to show people your ideas in a visual environment without having to create renderings. Inventor 2011 this level of visualization built into not the rendering environment, but the modeling environment. As you’re creating an extrusion you can see it reflected on a counter top as a shadow is cast. You can also quickly switch between appearance modes for your model including or excluding wireframe elements, visible edges, or with realistic finishes.

Then there’s easier. The developers have upped the ante and even borrowed a few elements from other applications in the Autodesk Portfolio. Since the 2006 release AutoCAD’s sketching environment has had some tremendous enhancements. Inventor 2011 leverages the real time feedback on sketch elements but not to be out  done entering a value in the sketch preview dimension in Inventor creates a parametric dimension. Once your sketch is finished you just need to click on sketch entities or component edges and faces to be offered common tools for creating or editing the model. No need to go to the Ribbon or even use a keyboard shortcut. It’s all accessed with a click or two.

 

In addition to all of this there have been additional tutorials added to Inventor and they’ve even enhanced the Show Me Animations that I’ve told you about in the past.