COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN
TEACHING ENGINEERING DRAWING THROUGH CAD
This article describes the The Civil and Structural Engineering
departmental strategy for course at UMIST, similar to most
the Civil and Structural undergraduate engineering courses,
Engineering course at provides a core module in Engineering
UMIST, together with the
Drawing for its first year students. Since
practical issues of teaching
the fundamental skills of 1985, when computer aided drafting was
first included in the curriculum, there has
drawing production and
design within a CAD been a gradual shift from manual
environment. Attention is drafting to CAD. Regimental rows of
also focused on the use of drawing boards have been replaced with
the WWW in the course to open plan CAD suites. Students and
provide exercise material, staff have responded enthusiastically to
advice for completing the new technology and a new teaching
assignments and environment for engineering drawing
feedback.
classes is now in place.
The CAD Skills vs Drawing Skills
The first year Design course comprises a
total of 36 contact hours, 24 of which are
taught through CAD, the remaining 12
hours concentrating on hand drawing and
sketching. However, things do not
necessarily change with the introduction
of IT. The key graphical and drawing
skills required by an engineer remain:
n How to read a 2D drawing and relate
it to reality.
n How to create and layout a drawing
using standard views, scales etc.
n To be able to dimension and annotate
a drawing in a systematic manner.
n To be able to generate geometrical
constructions for the solution of
graphical problems.
The first of these skills includes 3D
visualisation, but more importantly the
ability to link a plan or elevation to the
reality on the ground. Practising
engineers spend far more time reading
Tim McCarthy drawings than actually creating them, yet
Department of Civil & this is a skill which is often overlooked.
Structural Engineering
The second and third skills relate to
UMIST
planning a drawing which must convey a
Manchester M60 1QD
certain level of information. The
Email:
tim.mccarthy@umist.ac.uk standard conventions of engineering
http://www.umist.ac.uk/
~mcgdtmc/
26 HABITAT
drawing are given through instruction and
they are also assimilated through reading
well produced drawings.
The final aptitude on my short list
concerns the ability to use geometrical
information and relationships to create
complicated shapes. In traditional
engineering drawing courses, this
dominated the curriculum; specific
techniques and equipment were required
to produce elliptical curves, hyperboloids
of revolution and all sorts of awkward
shapes. Thankfully, CAD helps us with
these and produces results of far greater
accuracy than could ever be possible by
hand. However, there is still a skill level
that must be attained. Simple tasks such
as transferring a dimension from one
plane to another, or bisecting an angle,
still require a modicum of thought.
Indeed, one of the great benefits of CAD
is that there are many useful tools for
generating construction lines and that
these construction lines can be made
visible or invisible according to the user’s
wish.
Along with the fundamental graphical
skills that a Civil Engineer must possess,
the use of a CAD program imposes some
extra demands. There is the obvious need
to instruct the student in the use of the
computer program. The functionality of
specific commands must be explained;
the use of CAD techniques such as object
snap and customising the drawing
environment need to be taught. Many
CAD concepts such as use of blocks,
parametric objects and associative
dimensions do not exist in a manual
drafting world. The CAD skills that we
attempt to transfer (in the order of
delivery but not importance) are:
n Insertion of blocks using object
snapping.
n Line drawing, snapping, simple
dimensioning and text annotation.
 COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN

n Setting up the drawing environment - layers, limits.

n Re-use of components and block libraries.
n File security.
n Construction lines, shapes (circles, ellipses etc).
n More complicated dimensioning.
n Paper space and drawing scales for printing.
n Hatching.
n 3D co-ordinates, views, user co-ordinate system,
rectilinear 3D objects.
n More complicated 3D objects, visualisation tools.

CAD Exercises
During their 24 contact hours for CAD, the students
undertake 5 separate exercises which build up their
skills in both the use of the computer program and their
engineering drawing. There is one demonstration
lecture using a data projector at the commencement of
the course. This introduces the course and the basic
CAD concepts and demonstrates what is required for
the first hands-on session. Subsequently, all classes are
held in the department’s CAD suites. The instructions
for each exercise are available only on the WWW,
which also contains extra help sheets giving tips and
tricks. Fig.1 The original architect's sketch

The first exercise involves the production of a drawing

showing the plan for the refurbishment of one of the
CAD suites. The original drawing of the building is
made available along with an architect’s sketch for the
location of a new wall. The students’ task is to
rationalise the architect’s sketch, the original drawing
with its grid references and what they find on the
ground. The dimensions on the original drawing and
the architect’s sketch are correlated with the ‘as built’
sizes of columns and windows.

The architect’s sketch is printed out from the web page

(Figure 1) and updated by hand. When all the data has
been gathered, each student produces a revised drawing
using AutoCAD. A default drawing is downloaded
from the web page. This contains all the blocks
required to assemble the finished drawing, together
with the grid lines but not the grid numbers. At this
point the exercise is essentially one of inserting blocks
at the correct location, scale and layer. Simple
dimensions and annotations are added. After 2 two
hour sessions, most of the students have completed this
exercise. Those in difficulty are identified in the
second session and receive extra help from the
demonstrators.

Fig.2 Exercise involving the creation of an auxiliary view

HABITAT 27
 COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN
Fig.3 Guidance on geometric construction
Fig.4 Student work posted onto the web for discussion
The response from the students is usually very
enthusiastic at this stage. They have developed a
degree of confidence and are ready for the more
28 HABITAT
ambitious second exercise which requires three 2 hour
CAD sessions plus some private study time. Before the
final CAD session, the whole year group attends a
“Masterclass” on the exercise in one of the multimedia
lecture theatres. Here we concentrate on the CAD
techniques and how to order operations for efficient
drawing production; the class is run with considerable
audience participation.
The scheduling of the masterclass towards the end of
the exercise was adopted as a result of feedback from
the student questionnaires. The original plan was to
give a demonstration, working through the exercise at
the beginning. This did not achieve learning objectives
as too much new material was introduced before the
students were sufficiently experienced to appreciate the
subtleties. Once the students have encountered the
problems they can contribute more to the interactive
class and derive more benefit. They also have enough
time afterwards to implement what they have learnt.
The content of the second exercise concerns the
creation of an auxiliary view and developed surface for
a contrived hexagonal structure (Figure 2). Many of the
frequently used drawing commands are introduced in
this exercise; the web page gives step by step guidance
on the geometric construction (Figure 3). The students
are told to include as many dimensions as would be
required to manufacture the auxiliary view and the
developed surface. The main drawing skills learnt
during this assignment include the transfer of
dimensions by construction lines, developments and
dimensioning. The main AutoCAD skills learnt are
object snapping, trimming and extending lines and
dimensioning. The biggest difficulty encountered by
the students is in dimensioning the auxiliary view
adequately. Once they have submitted their work, a
number of possible solutions (Figure 4) are posted on
the web for discussion at the next tutorial.
This is advantageous for the tutor in that the assessment
of submissions is easy. It is possible to detect which
students are not using the CAD techniques correctly
since any minor error in the construction will lead to
incorrect dimensions in the final views. Unlike the first
exercise where everyone achieves the same level, this
exercise allows for different levels of excellence. Of
course there is an absolutely correct solution. However,
very few achieve perfection. Feedback from this
assessment is given via the WWW and at the next
tutorial; each individual is coached by the
demonstrators on how to correct the mistakes.

Following the second exercise, the students have
acquired the basics on use of AutoCAD. Many move
on to the final three exercises in advance of the main
cohort, making use of the web material and also the
AutoCAD Learning Assistance CAL package which
comes with Release 14. Exercises 3, 4, and 5 require
only one 2 hour session each and deal with paper space,
user co-ordinate systems and 3D constructions.
Drawing layout, planning and dimensioning are
reinforced. Although only one session is required for
most students, two sessions are allocated. This enables
the slower students to keep pace. More advanced
students have the freedom to explore 3D visualisation
and rendering or to concentrate on other studies.
Logistics
We have been running the Engineering Drawing and
Design course in this mode since 1995. Class sizes are
typically 65-70. Due to the number of seats in the CAD
suite, the class is divided in two. One half has a CAD
session while the remainder have a one hour hand
drawing class. This results in two CAD sessions being
run per week (and two hand drawing classes). For the
first two CAD exercises, we have a student:tutor ratio
of 5:1. A ratio of 10:1 is needed for the final three
assignments.
A greater number of demonstrators are used during the
first half of the course to allow sufficient support for IT
as well as drawing and CAD. For many students, this is
their first intensive encounter with computers. With
improvements in IT provision in schools and at home,
this situation improves each year. By providing a high
number of demonstrators in the early weeks, we are
able to address not only CAD issues but also the myriad
of general user IT problems. This has the advantage in
the medium term of increasing the self sufficiency of
the students.
Currently, the CAD suites are organised in 3 clusters on
2 floors. This has not helped the tutoring staff but has
not hindered the students. We have plans to merge 2 of
the clusters and to concentrate them all on one floor.
This will tie in with the PC upgrade programme and
UMIST’s move to using the Windows NT environment.
The cost of hardware and software is a real issue and
limits the development of the CAD course. When
AutoCAD 13 was released, it was ridiculously
expensive and meant that many universities stayed with
Release 12. With Release 14 came a much better
COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN
program (with a superb CAL CD-ROM) and a more
sensible price. However, Autodesk continue to operate
a very expensive educational policy compared with its
main rival, Bentley Systems. While the people who
employ our graduates continue to look for AutoCAD
skills, we will try to deliver just that. We review the
situation each year in light of ever dwindling budgets.
The provision of course material via the WWW works
quite well. A factor in this is that the students do all
their CAD work on the PC and so the web is always
available. The fact that students can never forget their
handout is a real benefit. Since they store their
drawings on the fileserver, they cannot forget their
floppy disk now either. The Web pages are produced
using Microsoft Frontpage (though most of the material
was originally saved as HTML from MS Word) and are
sent by FTP to UMIST’s web server.
Printing and plotting have always presented difficulties.
Now that we use A4/A3 laser printers for black and
white output and A4 colour inkjet, we have eliminated
the poor quality of output we previously obtained from
the pen plotters. The move to Windows NT has also
given us a more robust print queuing system.
Feedback
Student questionnaires are issued each year. The
response is always very positive. We try to react to
criticisms and suggestions and to move the subject
forward. Two examples of this reaction are the
scheduling of the masterclass during the second
exercise and the replacement of one exercise a couple
of years ago. Surprisingly, the students do not object to
the material being available only via the web. Many
students choose to print out some or all of the material
but none have expressed any dissatisfaction with this.
In other courses, students have objected to free
handouts being replaced by web pages.
The ultimate test is how the students build on their own
skills and use the CAD and drawing techniques during
the rest of their course. Many other modules require
the production of drawings. The surveying course uses
mapping software that outputs DXF files that can be
imported into AutoCAD. In the second year design
course, the students use an analysis package that also
generates DXF files. These help students to appreciate
the value of data interchange and encourage them to
continue using CAD. Most students produce their third
and fourth year design project drawings in AutoCAD.
HABITAT 29
 COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN
We have now incorporated a 3D visualisation exercise
for third year structural engineering students in
response to a demand for a refresher and top up CAD
course.
Feedback from staff is also important. While students
now produce a better looking drawing, we still have to
monitor the content as much as before, if not more
diligently. With the move to drawing production by
CAD we have undoubtedly seen a reduction in the
manual draughting skills for large drawings. Students
are no longer adept at engineering lettering or stencil
use. Colleagues often debate the pros and cons of this
situation. With some dissenters, the general view is that
the move to CAD for drawing production is in the same
category as using word-processors instead of
handwriting. There is still a need for decent
handwriting but a near illegible scrawl is no longer a
barrier to professional success. There is still an
undeniable need for professional engineers to be able to
document evidence graphically and to explain ideas in
pictures. Many such tasks are more efficiently done by
hand, on a sketch sheet, whiteboard or even the
legendary back of an envelope.
CITIES OF EUROPE CD-ROM
30 HABITAT
Summary
The purpose of this article is to share the UMIST
experience of teaching engineering drawing via CAD
and outline our use of the WWW. You may read this
and say “that’s nothing extraordinary” and you would
be right. We have not attempted anything elaborate
with our web pages (there are many super web sites
with all sorts of interactive JAVA gismos). Rather than
apply a technology push, we have attempted to use
some of the available technology to remodel the course
in a modest and sustainable way.
The content of the CAD course has evolved over a
number of years. I believe it is possible to create
exercises which achieve the two learning objectives (i)
structured development of CAD skills and (ii)
engineering drawing techniques. It is important that
one addresses the CAD skill as an amalgam of
commands, drawing environment, and sequencing of
operations. Simply teaching the commands does not
work. What we teach at UMIST is how to produce
engineering drawings using CAD.
The WWW material for the AutoCAD course can be
found from the Departmental web site: http://
www.umist.ac.uk/UMIST_CIVENG/ (select the
WWW Teaching Resources link followed by 130
Design 1).
Cities of Europe is an interactive CD ROM
containing graphical information on eleven European
Cities. The disk contains three dimensional maps of
each of the cities, which are in turn linked to 450 full
circle interactive QuickTime Virtual reality
panoramas. The panoramas are hotlinked together
which allows the user to take a virtual walk through
each of the cities, the 3D maps indicating the user’s
position within the city at all times. The disk also
contains a number of 3D “object movie” models of
famous artworks within each of the cities which can
be viewed interactively from all directions. In
addition to the 3D elements, the disk contains
general information on currency, languages,
telephone codes and climates for each of the cities.
For further information see
http://www.netgate.co.uk/