ProE Etiquette
How well you get along with your coworkers can have a huge impact on how effective an engineer you can be. I’m not just talking about meetings, but how well you can collaborate on projects. People generally know you don’t pass off shoddy work or incomplete projects to the next person who has to work on it for you. But sometimes I’ve seen exactly that in the design world. Even though most CAD programs track everyone who touched that part or drawing, people seem to think they can get away with things they generally wouldn’t try in a report or presentation. A couple months ago Peter J Francis asked whether MCAD or ECAD was more trouble than it was worth. GEARS discussed his love hate relationship with it but admitted that the skills he learned with ProEngineer allowed him to really kickstart his career. Skills with a particular CAD or…
MCAD & ECAD… more trouble than its worth? (by Peter Francis)
This is a guest post from Peter Francis, who can be found on Twitter and DesignSpark. Do you currently exchanged data between systems or are you put off by the complexity? Most modern mechanical CAD (MCAD) systems have the capability of exchanging data with electronics CAD (ECAD) systems however this does have its issues and limitations. I though it might be useful to explore what is possible and hopefully demystify the process. First of all why would you want to exchange CAD data between ECAD and MCAD systems? The one of the main aims of any CAD system is accuracy of design information, for most part a sketch on the back of an envelope would surfice for most design work, however with the increasing sophistication of modern products and ever tighter size and performance constraints the connection between electronic and mechanical parts is ever more important. So why do we exchange CAD data?…
Where it all began…. (by Peter Francis)
This is a guest post from Peter Francis, who can be found on Twitter and DesignSpark. Welcome to my first post on Engineer Blogs. It seems traditional to start with a post describing who you are and how you got into engineering , so I won’t flout the tradition. My name is Peter Francis and I’m Head of Design at ebm papst UK Ltd where I’m responsible for a team of hardware / software engineers designing controllers and fan products for a diverse range of UK customers. I’m a Mechanical Design Engineer by training and have an interest in electronics and software as well as aviation and motorcycles. I’ve even been known to tinker with an Arduino occasionally. Enough about me , how did I get into engineering ? Well it started a long time ago… and by ‘a long time’ I mean 1966. It was the beginning of the…