My design process

[highpocket74]

Dropping a few sketches here for the fun of it.
This is how my ideas begin their journey out of my head into a product (sometimes).

Not all ideas become a product, but they all begin the same way as orthographic sketches so I can "see" what I'm thinking. Hand sketching in 3D is not easy so I prefer old school ortho views and sections. I've always thought I missed my proper generation because I loved board drafting in college. Unfortunately, CAD technology was coming into use at that time and quickly stomped out any a career in manual drafting.

I'm a huge fan of shows like VH1 Behind the Music, How It's Made, and Modern Marvels. The backstory of how things come about is fascinating to me. When I was in high school I was captivated but a book entitled "How Things Work". It was full of sketches that explained how things worked. These are the basis of influence for my Design Evolution series posts on my website.

 

[Admin]

 

[highpocket74]

 

[highpocket74]

 

[lee]

ISO paper, cool.

I started my career at the very end of making hand drawings, my employer was well behind the curve on the CAD thing.
The way of 'thinking' has changed drastically just based on the way things were communicated.
With hand drawings the Chief Engineers would walk up behind you and give input as you developed the product.
Now with 3D CAD engineers place an image on my desk, some times its a good starting place and some times I just don't know where to start ("Oh hell no" is apparently not an appropriate response (according to HR)).

Even with the instant messaging tools we have available I think the design process is less collaborative with full 3D CAD.
The ideas of the initial designer are baked in to the part or structure and it's not easy to sway the final result very much after that.
And it's like pulling teeth to get a sketch before the engineers fire up the cad scope.

I'm supposed to be working, I have a large stack of drawings to check sitting on my desk, thanks for the distraction...

 

[highpocket74]

ISO paper, cool.

I started my career at the very end of making hand drawings, my employer was well behind the curve on the CAD thing.
The way of 'thinking' has changed drastically just based on the way things were communicated.
With hand drawings the Chief Engineers would walk up behind you and give input as you developed the product.
Now with 3D CAD engineers place an image on my desk, some times its a good starting place and some times I just don't know where to start ("Oh hell no" is apparently not an appropriate response (according to HR)).

Even with the instant messaging tools we have available I think the design process is less collaborative with full 3D CAD.
The ideas of the initial designer are baked in to the part or structure and it's not easy to sway the final result very much after that.
And it's like pulling teeth to get a sketch before the engineers fire up the cad scope.

I'm supposed to be working, I have a large stack of drawings to check sitting on my desk, thanks for the distraction...

Any time! 😏

 

[highpocket74]

The 3D stuff has really not streamlined anything! We don't get projects out the door any faster at work now than we did with stupider software. There are more steps to go through to get drawings made from the 3D models! Auto-generated piping isometrics are a REAL PAIN! They are extremely ugly unless you spend a lot of time like we did to clean them up in settings to make them more legible.

These young punks now are spoiled! Drawing skills are not required! Field measurements are almost completely replaced with laser scanners. Although, I do like the laser scanners for capturing EVERYTHING in the project area in almost no time.

Now, for my SXS designs the 3d stuff has been great for working with CNC shops. They don't even want a paper (PDF) drawing! Only send the model.