UKC

Product design/ Design engineering is a career I am aiming for at the moment. My friend kindly gave me a student copy of solid works and I slowly teaching myself the ropes.
I spend most of my time drawing things from Youtube but lately I have lost motivation. I would like to learn a bit more about the industry of CAD Design specifically Solid works.
Could anybody suggest alternative ways on which I can pick up new skills and increase my knowledge.

Suggestions welcome,
Stewart.

In reply to stewyclimb:

Placements / internships are a good way to get experience. Have you started uni yet?

In reply to aldo56:

I haven't started Uni, I have recently come back from 2 years of travelling the world and at the moment Uni is out of the question for me. Looking to gain as much knowledge as possible to keep my options open for the future.
Thank you for the reply.

In reply to stewyclimb:

If you want to learn how to use solid works effectively, you need to get cadding complex stuff using all the tools. Pick and engine block (or something equally complex) and cad it to the mm. I've done this and it isn't easy but you learn a lot. Can you loft complex geometries? Can you use all the drawing relations properly? Then start really getting to grips with surfaces so you can modify iges and step files etc. You should be able to model in surfaces alone... a pain in the arse but an important skill. Also if you're not at that stage already, you need to be able to model parts from tech drawings so make sure you know the ins and outs of them. Tollerances, notations, the works. And same in reverse... bad 2D drawings are a machinists nightmare so learn this WELL. Oh and don't forget design for manufacture... aside from SLS and 3d printing you need to be able go make the part easily. Think about tool paths etc. Get hold of some cad cam software (eg 1CNC) to help perhaps.

As for motivation... well its an industry you want to be in so only you can answer that.

In reply to stewyclimb:

Pick things you WANT to draw. Projects for yourself are useful. The thing with CAD is there are a million and one different ways to achieve the same result. A really good CAD designer knows the ins and outs of how you get the system to do what you want it to with a minimum of effort. Different sections of design will benefit from the use of different techniques - a machine design engineer will deal mainly with prismatic shapes, not complex 3d curves and they are very different techniques. Getting a machine designed is utterly different to designing products, although related. If you are wanting to do product design it will help to get involved with general design work - it's about usability and aesthtics. Design engineering in my experience is more about functionality and cost, and these two different motivators require you to think in different ways. Of course you can do both and that's when you actually become a really good designer but it takes practice.

Go and volunteer to shadow machinists, fabricators, sheet metal workers, get shown around plastic injection moulders, weedle your way into a product design company however you can. This game, despite what they will feed you at university is about experience, a gentle touch and developing enough forethought to spot problems before they arrive. You don't get that by not getting involved, and how can you possibly expect to design effectively if you don't have some experience of what you are designing?

It took me years to get to where I am now and you will find the same - you are never done learning so act like a sponge and get stuck in. If yo weren't at the other end of the country...

In reply to mike kann:

Thank you for your reply, I am currently volunteering at a place that designs and manufactures carbon motor sport parts. I'm am learning slowly put mainly resin infusion and the process of creating carbon fibre.
Thanks again,
Stew

In reply to stewyclimb:

I agree with the posts above. Find something you want to draw and learn as you go but it's one of those programs where you can't be slapdash about it. It's much better to really take your time and go through everything with a fine toothed comb to get everything right to the MM.
I've heard doing a car is a really good project to cover all aspects of the program. I've not done one myself to that level but you would get a good balance of solid and surface modelling from the components and the outer shell.

It might sound silly as well but get yourself a copy of the rendering program Keyshot. It lets you render imported solidworks models in real time and you can produce some truely stunning results in very little time. it might seem a minor thing but actually producing something basic that makes you go "wow I can't believe I made that" really helps motivate you to work hard and learn more about the program.

Best of luck!

In reply to stewyclimb:

To echo what Mike said, get some experience of how things are actually made on the shop floor in all sorts of disciplines. You can't have enough knowledge of how your design will be made and the problems that the shop floor guys will have with a designer that doesn't have this understanding.

It's basic stuff in machined items such as small drills wandering off in deep holes, the number of setups on 3 axis VMC's, workholding, all that basic stuff that makes life easy.

I went to a seminar on Solid Works 2014 recently. The standard package has some very impressive features now.

In reply to stewyclimb:

Have you thought about writing to companies, explaining your situation and trying to get a factory tour? Lots of companies would do this as we NEED new engineers. Some of the most rewarding days I've had have been going around cool places - the Jaguar engine testing centre with millions of bits of prototype engines everywhere, Astrium where they build Astra satellites, Bombardier where they were building the largest monocoque carbon wing ever built... see what you can get and it might help you decide what direction to push in. Hooky copies of SW float around in the ether as do most CAD programmes - getting to know a few can help. If you run Linux there are some pretty decent free 3d modellers. SW do Draftsight which looks and feels pretty close to AutoCAD (which is kind of essential to know the basics even if it is a dog). Inventor comes in a LT version which although it's expensive is not even close to SW and could get you started with parametric modelling. Most programmes you can get sample copies which have all the functionality of for a couple of weeks to a month...

In reply to stewyclimb:

If you're a practical, hands-on kind of person perhaps using it to actually creates something of interest to you rather than just working through tutorials would help restore your motivation. Working through endless tutorials is pretty dull even when you're learning a new thing here and there. If you're not so hands on there are 3d printing options from companies like Shapeways, no need to get glue under the fingernails but you still get something physical back from your design work.

If you're feeling disenchanted with it now is it really what you want to do with the next 40 years?

jk

In reply to stewyclimb: As someone who spends far too much time fighting with bad cad models, or at least unrobust ones, my suggestion would be take time to learn about good cad architecture.

Within reason it's fairly straightforward to build a model that piles layer upon layer of visual complexity and is very precisely dimensioned. However if you can't subsequently change some fundamental aspect (e.g.the diameter of a bore or the length of a web) without the whole thing falling over, you've just produced pretty junk.

It's worth knowing the reasons behind feature based/parametric modelling (compared to direct modelling), and developing good practice. Maybe try making some fairly simple parts/assemblies and then imagine your design calculations suggest some significant dimension or even shape changes. Would you pretty much have to start modelling again, or could you develop a model that robustly responds to the change.

Have a look at Desktop Engineering for some interesting articles.

In reply to Liam M:

+1 to that.

I recent was dealing with a part created for a client which had over 200 rads on it and lofts left right and centre with little to no efficiency in terms of features. I was asked to add more complex geometry on top of it. After 3 days of fighting it, I was one blend rad away from what we wanted and the model just spat it's dummy, so much so that NT Cadcam, the supplier of my Solidworks and my very capable support desk told me I just needed to start again. I did, and with in 8 hours of work I had a complete model with less than half the features and that you could actually change without i commiting hari kari. Learn the ins and outs of the way features work, we way you can relate sketches to other geometry, the interdependancies created by choosing certain items from different sketches and the way you make sure you don't create child features needlessly. The trouble with the level of automation you get in programmes like sw's is that often you put in complexity you don't even realise is there and it shafts you later on...

In reply to stewyclimb:

I guess it depends where your 'design interest' lies; if you like the more abstract skill of coming up with, and developing ideas, then you should probably have all sorts of ideas you might want to develop. Let's call that 'the inventor'.

The other aspect is the skill of taking an idea, and seeing into production in an economic manner. Let's call that 'the implementer'.

Finally, there's the skill of taking a design and expressing it in a medium that allows the idea to be exchanged with people and tools. Let's call that 'the draughtsman'.

All three are useful skills, and they usually cross over, and it's useful for each to understand the needs and workings of the others.

I think you need to figure out which of these roles best fits your character. The fact that you're copying YouTube stuff, and becoming disillusioned suggests to me that you're not bursting with your own ideas, so maybe not an 'inventor'.

I'd agree with the other comments that the best way to learn how these tools work is to really design something, from scratch (as mike kann says: "Pick things you WANT to draw. Projects for yourself are useful."). Then you'll find the problems that tutorials don't show you, and you'll have to find ways to get the tool to do what you want.

But the tool is just a tool, and, if you want to become a designer, you need to know about design briefs, specifications, and, fundamentally, how to break a problem down into pieces you can solve and implement. And, whilst there are some formal methods you can use, this skill really comes from experience, and is rarely taught in university engineering courses.

In reply to stewyclimb:

I don't know if I am totally out of date, but many years ago when we learnt CAD we learnt the principals of technical drawing on paper first.

I could be totally wrong, but maybe getting hold of an old skool drawing board and having a go at drawing your elevations the old way might help focus on what the CAD is actually for and help your 3d thinking.

Its a tool, a shiny pretty one, but still a tool with a practical purpose.

In reply to marsbar:

To be honest, it depends on the package you are aiming to use. Draughting skills like you describe come in useful but often actually get in the way these days. I can't remember the last time I sat down and decided what each part would look like at the start of a project. The way parametric CAD works allows you to evolve the design as you go and to think freely rather than laying out what you think will work and the fitting it together. Draughting is far less important than it ever used to be. Having said that, it's always a useful skill