Resources

The resources supplied and linked below have been developed and collated to support all the Design Challenges and therefore may not have direct relevence to any particular project. However, the general areas on the introduction to Design and the Use of Project Management are central to the successful outcome of a design project and therefore are worth browsing.

There are also overviews, introductions and tutorials on a number of software packages that may be used during a project.

The major central resources for the projects are supplied on a DVD/(CD) which is being developed for schools and undergraduate design and build projects. (see the "Multidisciplinary Design Project" website for further details about the project.) This DVD/(CD) contains a wide range of general design information and applications together with a bootable operating system which doesn't require applications and data to be installed on the user's hard disc. There are three main sets of packages on the DVD/(CD),

Desktop Applications

Including a office suite, web tools, image processing and printing resources.

Design Applications

Including Mechanical and Electrical CAD and various software languages.

Analysis Applications

Spreadsheets, Octave, Spice and ReD. (ReD is a web based library of engineering calculations which can be used to deliver project specific calculations for use in a what if environment.)

Textual Support Material

Databooks, on-line text books and manuals for the available applications.

The DVD/(CD) is quite extensive and contains as standard some applications and information that may not be required for any particular project. To aid understanding some of the more relevant items from the disc are duplicated below together with some resources which are too large to include on the CD. (Any updates or project specific additions will be made available via this website/email or via the Virtual Learning Environment)

Introduction to Design

Short Introduction to design and how to plan the stages, possibly example of times scales of a real building then mapping to current project (...)

• Introduction to the Design Process
• Cookbook of common mechanical designs

Use of Project Planning/Management

Tom Ridgeman's Guide to Project Management gives an overview of everything you'll need to know to manage your Engineering Design Challenge project. It's available here as a Powerpoint presentation and Tom's Lecture Handout (word document)

Lecture notes

Drawing

Initial visualization of design ideas for VLE discussion

In the first 2-3 weeks of the project you will want to discuss your initial design ideas with the other members of your team using the VLE. You can exchange ideas by posting drawings on the bulletin board. You can do this in the following ways:
- Hand sketches which you can scan and post on your team's forum (quick and easy!)
- Use Google sketch up. You can download a free version of Google sketch-up from http://sketchup.google.com/product_suf.html . It's relatively easy to use and may be useful when exchanging 3D ideas and concepts. Please note you CANNOT submit sketchup drawings to the CUED NAGTY support team for final component manufacture.
- On the DVD, distributed at the start of the project, you can access Qcad which is a 2D drawing package. Participants do not have to be logged on to their NAGTY account to use this software; it runs locally on your PC. Note - we can use these drawings to manufacture components at the end of the project.

Production of design drawings for component manufacture.

During the final stages of this project your team will need to submit design drawings to the CUED NAGTY support team. This allows us to manufacture any components before the finale in January. The deadline for initial design drawings is 15 December and for final drawings on 12 January. We can accept 2D drawings from Qcad and drawings from ProE.

If you have any problems producing your drawings please discuss this with your team mentor.

3D CAD - Pro/E Wildfire

NB To use ProEngineer you need to be connected to the Internet and logged into your CUED NAGTY account.

Pro/Engineer Wildfire 2 tutorial

• Part I - Introduction Overview of CAD and one approach to constructing components within ProEngineer.
• Part II - Parts - Worked Examples Simple part construction and 2-D drawing.
• Part III - Assemblies - Worked Examples Simple static assemblies, use of predefined parts, assembly drawings.
• Hints on the use of Pro/E for Sheet Metal Design (pdf)

• Mini-manual (Introduction to making parts) (pdf)
• Quick Reference Guide (pdf)
• Changes in Wildfire 2 (pdf)