CAD is the only skill which everyone involved with engineering of all background will need to learn at least the basics and pro-level for those who wants to pursue their career in designing. More importantly, the majority of Mechanical and Industrial engineering graduates seek design-related jobs as their career. GrabCAD alone have more than 8 million users as of 2020 and it’s easy to get lost in the crowd with so many variety of design, categories and different approaches. In this post, I will highlight the major difference between Designing in industry and, modeling which is basically taught in colleges and universities and route to perfecting your designer skillset. In conclusion, I will present few tips that I practiced to improve my CAD modeling skills.

Designing and Modeling

Designing and CAD modeling are two different sides of the same coin but design precedes modeling in the process. Although most schools and universities put so much effort for students to better themselves at CAD modeling, little attempt is made when it comes to understanding and implementing the design process in reality. Although design as a whole has evolved and branched itself into several categories, There is an artistic side that is used for animation, VFX, concept, and product design using B-spline curves focusing on aesthetics of the product but will leave the individual behind in mechanical or manufacturing aspects. Whereas, the mechanical design is less focused on aesthetics and importance are given to functionality, loads, calculation, and simulation.

CAD Modeling is just the first step in your path to becoming a great designer. Using CAD drawing is just the starter to familiarise yourself with reading a blueprint, commands, and shortcuts of the software. With the rapid change in the industry and more people learning different software to have an edge in the job market; drafter, modeler, and designer are no longer separate profession in job responsibilities.

To-do-List for improving your CAD skills

There are a lot of ways you can hone your skills, the way I increased my speed to read the blueprint and model in an efficient way is by practicing.

• Start by modeling basic CAD models. There are many cad drawings available on the internet, youtube, machine drawing textbooks, free pdf’s. There is ‘n’ number of ways you can design and model in CAD, practice a drawing a day, and look for ways you can model in the best effective way possible i.e. in a short time using suitable commands and accurately. 

• Tap into product design and free form modeling. Having experience in both solid modeling and free modeling will open new ways to play around with your design. start off by looking around at curved-shaped objects in your room (water bottle, jar, pocket knife) sketch them, give your own dimension, model it and you can play around with dimension.

• Look into DFM and DFA (Design for Manufacturability and Assembly) processes and basic of simulations in order keep your design clean and robust. Coursera, Edx and Autodesk univeristy have some great courses for beginners in this domain.

• When you get comfortable with cad modeling tap into rendering techniques, look into keyshot/ blender, or just fusion 360 renderings. The model you make is not worth it if the appearance is not appealing.

• Do certifications. Although certification carries very little importance when looking for a job in the industry but having it on could also be a plus point. In my opinion, one should do certifications offered by the official platform from Autodesk, Solidworks, etc. to test your skill level and to identify which areas you will need to work on.