“CAD test was tough. I knew it all. But could not understand some of the views shown in a test. It was very confusing and though I knew the method, I could not solve the problem.” A very typical response from an engineering graduate to a question “how was your CAD test”?
Many such young engineers cannot clear the CAD test. There is a simple reason for it. Every recruiter who designs a CAD test has a purpose in mind. While evaluating engineering graduates for the job of CAD Engineer/design engineer, recruiters wants to check if his/her fundamentals are strong. Obviously, the test creator would keep a hitch in the CAD test, and one must be able to find it and take appropriate action. This shows strong fundamentals and an acumen to progress further in the design engineering career.
Some of the bright students can easily spot the hitch; for example, imagining/co-relating a missing view in a CAD test. But many could not. Why so? The answer lies in the way most of the engineering graduates approach learning of engineering drawing.
When you are pursuing your dream of becoming mechanical engineer, you believe that someone who has done diploma course would come and do drawings. As an engineering graduate you would be given advanced work of 3D modeling etc. With this perceived notion you do not focus and put enough efforts in learning fundamentals of engineering drawing. And then land into trouble in the CAD Test. Remember that the first step in the life of design engineer is to master drawings. Unless you reach to a level of zero markups on your drawings, you will not be assigned any advanced work.
How not to Learn Engineering Drawing
Let us look at how you study while in engineering college. In the engineering curriculum, there are ample opportunities to polish your skills by studying subjects like Engineering Graphics, Machine Drawing etc. But your approach is different. Everyone wants to reach the magic number of 40 marks, somehow. Instead of learning engineering, now you start with management of marks.
You go through the previous year’s exam papers. Based on your ‘intelligent study’ of those, you derive an insight that if I prepare only certain topics like line problems, problems about cut section of prism/cylinder I can easily reach score of 40. So, you blissfully ignore the career builder skills like orthographic projection, isometric projection, drawing a missing view in 2D, Drawing 2D from 3D and so on. There is a compulsory term-work which can give a good practice on these aspects, but many resort to copying and method like glass tracing (G.T.) for completion of term work. With this approach you lose golden chance of making a strong foundation for you career.
Now the interview fiasco
Imagine a situation. There is a campus recruitment drive and you land up in an interview for an MNC organization. The interviewer draws two rectangles as shown in the figure and asks for a missing view. If you draw one missing view, the interviewer asks how many more possibilities that you can imagine. And with this question, your dreams of getting job are shattered. You never expected such a question!
Someone who can draw most of the possibilities, gets selected. However, one who gets stuck at first or second possible view, the interviewer knows that his capability of reading lines is low, and he would struggle with advanced work in engineering drawing. Learning the menus and toolbars of CAD software like Catia or Creo is easy, but skill of ‘drawing reading’ is hard to come by.
No Option, better your ‘drawing reading’
This is cruel reality of mechanical engineering. You need to very good in ‘drawing reading’. In job situations like engineering review, you may even need to create indicative drawing without using a CAD Software.
Many of you have attended the class on engineering drawing, given examination for the sake of clearing it. Now, you have no option but to change your approach for good. Start the work under good guidance from mentors like CADCAMGURU. For decades, CADCAMGURU is striving hard to teach young engineers to adopt right approach to learn engineering drawing.
