the importance of drawing during the mechanical design process

Engineering drawing

Outline

This is a paper that is intended to deal with the importance of drawing during the mechanical design process. This paper will introduce one to some few methods used by space and mechanical engineers in their specialized practice. It will be easy to analyze complex tasks by minimizing them to their personal components, communicate your concepts and thoughts, generating designs concepts to achieve these complex tasks through written reports and engineering drawing. This course will also help one to develop team work skills because in the current world, very few tasks can be handled by an individual. Most of the graduates in the present world will be forced to work in environments that require people to work as team members.

Introduction

Drawing involves formal drafting as well as informal sketching. The goal of engineering drawings can extend to require people to show the importance of drawing within the developmental stages of mechanical design. In addition, the requirements for the future aided designing tools can be implemented to help in the process of engineering drawings. During engineering drawings, the mechanical engineers are taught the process of drafting and sketching. It is evident that most of engineers have skills to make skilled as well as, interpreting formal engineering drawings. The drawings can be the representation of the final design that are intended to archive various completed design to be in touch with other drawers along with the manufacturing personnel. Some engineers tend to be very tarnished for not thinking well so as to come up with some rough ideas (Paré, 2009). 

It is very difficult to understand how engineers use both drafting and sketching when performing their tasks, however, understanding this theory in designing is significant because it help in articulating expected expansion of Computer Aided Design (CAD) systems. The question of using the CAD systems in drawing and sketching becomes a more “intelligent” and a significant factor to the engineers. In the past, the attributes of CAD systems were driven from development within the computer manufacturing. Understanding the significances of engineering drawing in the design process is the only factor that makes the systems to be based on design needs (Jensen & Helsel, 2005).  This research paper will discuss the importance of engineering drawings, the use of engineering drawing as well as, how they are used today as compared to the past.

Understanding the importance of engineering drawings for the designing process helps the engineers to start establishing various skills needed to be taught during their training. Engineering drawing is classified into different parts which include support notation as well as, graphic representation. The example of support notation includes dimensions, textual notes and calculations while graphic representations include drawings such as objects, as well as, plots and charts. Most engineers usually design graphic representations using scale drawings which are made of CAD computer systems. These types of drawings are defined to be drafted given that they are designed in accord with a set of accepted rules. Sketches as well are free hand drawings, which are not designed into scale, and therefore, the designer can use shorthand notation in representing the object and its function (Venugopal, & Raja, 2011). 

Engineering drawings are important because they communicate the ideas of the designers and ideas between the designers and the manufacturing personnel. Research shows that most mechanical engineering designers have reported drawing as the most desired method of an external and internal representation of data. Through drawing, designers have the ability of representing data into their minds as well as, externally on a paper, on the computer screen and other form of media. It is obvious that most designers like to draw and prefer pictures than the written description of an object. As a result, this shows the reasons why drawing representations are presently preferred as opposed to other forms of representations such as texts and propositions (Paré, 2009). 

The other importance of engineering drawings is that the drawn diagrams are able to group all the information used together hence avoid the large amount needed elements. For example, texts can only index to the next element within a sentence list while diagrams usually have many adjacent elements. Drawings also preserve the information concerning geometry in addition to topology, hence, allowing the room for easy indexing of the information which supports the process of computation, whereas texts are only serial in nature, is spite of them preserving temporal sequence of information (Jensen & Helsel, 2005). 

Engineering drawing acts as an extension of visual imagery in mechanical designing. It is true that without the representation of data on a paper or using media such as computers to the designers, designing can be of a substantive problem. An argument support for this hypothesis can be evident from the designer. For instance, when designers are asked to design something, the first thing that might be noted is that they take a pencil or a chalk just to sketch down on a piece of paper how the object will look like. Drawings use locations so as to group information regarding a single element, hence helps in avoiding the need of matching the symbolic labels. Other types of engineering drawings act as a leeway for the short term memory for the designers. Therefore, the designers regularly make sketches so as to help them in remembering some ideas that they could have forgotten a while ago (Venugopal, & Raja, 2011). 

Entrepreneurship, manufacturing, economical knowledge and management are the most common subjects which supports the leaning processes found within Industrial Engineering. Engineering drawing is a subject that has been forgotten yet it should not be forgotten because it is a very important subject. On the other hand, engineering drawing has been forgotten in the learning process because nobody understands its function. In classes, many learners ask many questions concerning engineering drawing like the reason for studying it, rather thanlaying their major focus on entrepreneurship knowledge (Jensen & Helsel, 2005). 

The questions asked by learners concerning engineering drawing is wrong because before production of products, these products must be designed in their desirable shape, the shape of their wrappers, their models and the shape e of their symbols. For all these designing process to take place, the essential knowledge is in engineering drawing. Generally, Engineering Drawing is a clear, precision and bright language used at the designing process to pass across some effectual information, solve all the rising problems, clearly and accurately visualize an object and analyze that object (Davis & Juneau, 2008). 

The basic purpose of engineering drawing is to grind the skill and give the ability in drawing and reading the machine’s components a produce of mechanized activity. Engineering drawing can also be used to create a product’s program within an industry. Without engineering drawing, it cannot be easy to produce products according to our own plans. Because the outcome can be very different from what we wanted. We cannot produce anything if we lack a proper size, format and shape of the product. The major element of all the activities involved in engineering is the designing of a product. To devise a scheme, one must begin with acquiring the insight about the human essential, then the creation of the product’s concept, development of the product, making the product perfect, manufacturing of the product and finally distribution of the product (Paré, 2009). 

In the past, that is until after the Second World War, engineering drawing was done in a very manual way. It was done by a simple use of a paper and pen. But with the new technological changes, there are the computer aided design which makes it very easy to carry out engineering drawing in an electronic manner. Even though engineering drawing is done electronically today, the use of pen and pencil have not yet been stopped. Some of the tools that are used to carry out manual engineering drawing are: pens, inks, pencils, straightedges, French curves, T squares, rulers, triangle, protractors, compasses, dividers, erasers, push or tack pins and scales. Other tools that are also included among the list of the manual engineering drawing are the tables and drawing boards.

The English idiom that states ‘ You should go back to the drawing board’ was derived from the manual engineering drawing which means, rethinking something altogether (Venugopal, & Raja, 2011). This idiom was enthused by the factual act of discovering the errors that were discovered while designing during the production process and returning the product to the drawing board for redesigning. The devices that are used for manual drafting are known as drafting machines and they help in manual drafting by putting together the: pantographs, drawing boards, straightedges and other tools that are used during the drawing process into a one drawing environment. On the other hand, their practical correspondent is provided by the Computer aided design (Davis & Juneau, 2008). 

Producing drawing usually entails making an original that is later own reproduced, producing several copies that are to be distributed to the vendor, company archives, shop floor and many others. The typical methods of production entail the white and blue appearances whether blue on white or white on blue and that is why engineering drawing were called blue lines or blueprints and are still called like that even today. The terms used to refer to engineering drawing are outdated from a factual viewpoint because most of the engineering copies done by the modern method are either in multicolor or in black. When we look at the case of (CAD) Computer Aided Design drawings, the inventive is the design printouts files that provide the end resulting imageints (Venugopal, & Raja, 2011). 

The design of products is the end result of the person who designed them and the primary stand of developing goods by the producer. The array of the designs of the products by the designer can be attained through some stages in the designing process which is very long. Engineering drawing is very essential and is needed in the industrial engineering. The people who need engineering drawing most are those who study industrial engineering because engineering drawing will help them in their profession as specialized entrepreneurs (Venugopal, & Raja, 2011). Geometry is not only communicated in all engineering drawings but also tolerances and dimensions for distinctiveness. Very many systems engineering drawings have evolved.

References

Davis, P., & Juneau, K. R. (2008). Engineering drawing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

HYPERLINK “http://www.worldcat.org/title/engineering-drawing-problem-series-3/oclc/41712072&referer=brief_results” http://www.worldcat.org/title/engineering-drawing-problem-series-3/oclc/41712072&referer=brief_results

Jensen, C. H., & Helsel, J. D. (2005). Engineering drawing and design. New York: Gregg Division, McGraw-Hill.

HYPERLINK “http://www.worldcat.org/title/engineering-drawing-and-design/oclc/4135387&referer=brief_results” http://www.worldcat.org/title/engineering-drawing-and-design/oclc/4135387&referer=brief_results

Paré, E. G. (2009). Engineering drawing. New York: Holt.

HYPERLINK “http://www.worldcat.org/title/engineering-drawing/oclc/783502&referer=brief_results” http://www.worldcat.org/title/engineering-drawing/oclc/783502&referer=brief_results

Venugopal, K., & Raja, V. P. (2011). Engineering drawing. New Delhi: New Age International.

HYPERLINK “http://www.worldcat.org/title/engineering-drawing/oclc/278395674&referer=brief_results” http://www.worldcat.org/title/engineering-drawing/oclc/278395674&referer=brief_results