Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Got an Engeering Project
…..now what?





Engineers everyday face the
challenge to remember design techniques. If the engineer is part of a design
team for a single product type, the design is repetitive, and hence he needs to
master the design technique once. But if you are working in design house, no
two projects are similar (atleast you hope ….). Now he is faced with referring
books and make sure he follows Design Standards. Situation is further
complicated if working with teams offshore. In this article I will try and give
all the reference websites that I am aware off. In my line of work I come
across different industrial products ranging from everyday steel to complex
composite material simulation. These are the websites that have helped me be
competitive and stay on top of my game.





Engineers
Edge should be every engineer’s safe haven of reference. Be it standard
formulas’, to material properties, to engineering principles all can be found
here. Engineering concepts for machine design versus product design,
incorporating thermal and electrical systems is well explained. Visitors to
this website can buy engineering books, download material databases. They have
some free CAD software for download. They also carry information about
different training sessions being held.





CADDigest
is touted as reading room for engineers. They have sections based on software,
and technology. Users can read FEA simulation techniques they are interested
in. They regularly feature articles from different bloggers across the globe.
Many times vendors themselves will contribute to an article too. For e.g.
Technical Managers at SolidWorks frequent this website with their articles.
Hence works as a great resource to know industry experts and their take on
software.





The
COSMOS Companion is a series of short subject presentations that provide
in-depth information on a wide range of topics to help SolidWorks Simulation
(previously known as COSMOSWorks) users design better products with more
insight and efficiency. Each presentation is available in video as well as pdf
format. It is assumed users understand the basic concepts. The companion series
is a great method to take analysis skills to the next level.





Remember
hogshead, fathom, furlong, troy pounds…..If there is a unit system you can
think of and need to convert into units known to present day mankind…..look no
further. This is a great resource to get unit conversions.





This is a great
website with tons of articles on engineering topics. What I really like about
this  website is the author
usually starts from a basic concept and builds on it. Terminology if not clear
is explained or can be searched for in the same domain. A word of caution,
since anyone can contriute to this website, users should always question
validity of information. On a positive note, I have yet to come across an
instance where information provided was incorrect.





CFD online is great website for information on Computational
Fluid Dynamics. Fluid Flow simulation topics are discussed by experts all over
the world. This website is not software product specific. I like the website
for its responsiveness. Users can get answers within a matter of few minutes,
giving hints on next step. Also, they have a section for reference books and
job positions available all over the world. So if you love the field you are in
but would like to relocate to Hawai…this might be a good place to start. 





MCADCAFE (as the name proposes) toutes itself for
information on CAD industry. They have forums to talk about new features in
software releases, how is one CAD company performing with respect to another. Current
offers run by software companies. Also a newsletter summarizing their
perspective on CAD industry. They also cover machine design shows and hence a
very useful resource for online information.





Many a times while
using SolidWorks users want to use polynomial equations to control a curve or
while using FloWorks see how one flow parameter effects the other. Users can
find information on building relationships between different parameters using
Mathworld’s resources’.





This is a great website if you deal with plastic material. They have
databases on different material types, in most cases can be downloaded and
plugged into the SolidWorks Simulation. Users can get stress-strain curves
giving material behavior upto and beyond yield. They also have information on
software training.





Campus Plastic works with plastic producing companies to
generate a database of material properties. Since they have information
directly from the manufacturer, they are very accurate, also they follow all standards required by different regions.
Users can download material databases for use in SolidWorks Simulation.





It would be unfair to not mention the GOD of all search
engines. Thank God these geniuses came out before I graduated. Google is the
best place to start looking for information. It does not matter what you are
looking for, their page file search technique is always one step ahead of the
game, information users get is always relevant to the question asked.



 



Rajat Trehan



Product
Manager – Design Validation



Computer Aided Technology Inc.






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