A Technical Skill for Drafting and Design

Andrew Abesamis
Nov 1 · 2 min read
Photo by Sven Mieke on Unsplash

One of benefits that I had back in my high school days was that it was technical school. Technical high schools here in Las Vegas have the luxury of teaching their students various skills that some college entry level classes teach. As an alumni at Northwest Career and Technical Academy, I had the opportunity to learn a technical skill that I believe will help me in the future as a mechanical engineer. This skill is CADD, or computer-aided design and drafting.

Photo by Tomas Yates on Unsplash

Designing a certain project has to start somewhere, whether it be on paper or on a computer. Fortunately, there are computer programs in this day and age that are capable of designing some pretty unique and aesthetic things, such as cars! The software programs that I used back in high school that demonstrated these design capabilities were Autodesk Inventor and Solidworks. Both of these computer softwares are used to draft 2-D and 3-D designs. These designs could be as simple as a wheel, or as complex as a whole car engine. Seldom did I use Inventor and Solidworks, I only used them during my freshman and senior years of high school, respectively. However, it laid the foundation of how I approach things on a computer-aided design level.

Photo by Jungwoo Hong on Unsplash

While it has been a while since I picked these programs back up, I do possess some knowledge on how to use them. I could shake off the cob-webs and look at Youtube tutorials and/or demonstrations videos about these programs. I was astounded as to what top-notch Inventor and Solidworks users can do on these programs, and I hope to one day reach that level as a mechanical engineer. As of now, this is my plan of action, because buying a student bundle for these programs is a bit pricey, especially in my savings. I would also like to look into some drafting classes that would benefit my interest in designing cars and creating 3-D models of them. There is always time to learn and improve upon knowledge and/or skills, especially in a world that is ever-changing, so why not start now?

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade