CAD Skills Don’t Make You an Engineer

Before I became an engineer, one of the most fascinating parts of television was those big block letters and shapes flying around the screen before the news. Wow, I want to do that. It was a weird thing to aspire to, but I’m sure there are people who have that job, even today.

I remember in high school trying to program a Star Trek computer game. The only visual output we had was a line printer, so the galaxy consisted of a grid of dots. Figuring out distances and positions in 3D was the most fun part of the programming for me. Trig, trig, trig.

When I became a young engineer, I realized how fascinated I was with geometry. Geometrical concepts and ideas, applying geometry to problem solving and this sort of thing just really engaged me. The ability to draw shapes on the computer in particular really got my mind going for some reason. I know there are other people out there with this same condition.

Then I got a real job, and the boss wanted me to draw a machine that already existed. Wow, this was cool. I’m a real engineer now. The skills involved with drawing the lines were completely fascinating. Getting the measurements right was also interesting. Ensuring the various views were correct was equally engaging.

And then I got to work on an actual project. It was going to be manufactured. Suddenly my outlook on the whole process changed. It wasn’t just the geometry. The real secret to design was how parts went together. It included how they were manufactured and assembled. Tolerances, gaps, press fit or running and sliding fits? Design matters, but it’s not nearly the whole story. Modeling matters, but only if you know how to make parts work together.

When you’re fresh out of school, you think that an Inventor class is going to get you a job. Take a turn in the machine shop. If this isn’t mandatory for any engineering or technology student, it should be. Do an internship on a manufacturing line. You’ll gain some real knowledge to make those CAD skills meaningful. You’ll gain a new perspective on more than just technical issues. The most important class I took during my mechanical engineering degree was Design for Manufacturing. A retired manufacturing engineer from Xerox gave us a view of the real world, and really opened my eyes.

Yes, CAD is important, but by itself, it’s totally out of context. You need to know how to make and assemble parts. You need to understand the whole process. Only then will those skills have any real meaning.