As far as software goes: Don't get entirely hung on on one software or another. It will set you apart from your fellow students, who will be full to the brim with the focus of engineering education, namely, advanced math and science classes. Still, having some solid CAD experience is HUGELY helpful when you are applying for internships, or that first job. Larger firms use their engineers to engineer, and CAD technicians to draft and design the stuff you are verifying will not fall down/explode via your knowledge and application of math and physics. Sorry to be a killjoy, but as an engineer it's way more likely that you'll spend time as an Excel jockey than as a CAD designer. Getting a feel for displaying 3D information in two dimensions, and vice versa, is incredibly valuable and I've very glad my university made me do it before teaching me any CAD. It'll at least help you get in the CAD mindset and give you skills that will transfer over to other programs.Īlso, though you'll probably hate it, I DO strongly suggest that before you touch CAD, you learn a little bit about drafting by hand the old-fashioned way. edu email), as it's relatively similar in terms of both UI and functionality, and has some very helpful built-in tutorials. So if you're not in school yet and don't have access to whatever software they have (which will likely be SolidWorks), I'd recommend trying to get your hands on a student trial of AutoDesk Inventor (free for 3 years, IIRC might need a. Students graduate, they influence their companies to buy the software they know expensive software remains industry standard Software companies give universities free or discounted software so students will be familiar with, and loyal to, their particular software when they graduate Industry, CAD software companies, and universities kind of have a weird symbiotic relationship like so:Įxpensive (couple $k per license) software becomes industry standard Here's the rub: all the standard industry standard software is expensive and free training is hard to come by. Either way, it's a good tool to know regardless, because having one more way of effectively communicating your ideas is never a bad thing. Particularly if you're in product design at a smaller company like I am. A couple people have brought up already the good point that CAD alone is just a tool and that engineering fundamentals are your most important backbone, but I would say that depending on your particular job and industry you may still wind up doing a lot of CAD.
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