PTC has introduced Windchill ProductPoint 1.1. This software allows for product-engineering collaboration that delivers what PTC calls "social product development"......sorry, but when I read that phrase I get the same creepy feeling. Not only that, but ProductPoint requires SharePoint, so the social ends right there for me. Source.
Design MCAD, Experience-Free
Downright scarey is the title of this new book from John Wiley and Sons: Autodesk Inventor 2010: No Experience Required. Now, I know that Wiley uses the "No Experience Needed" tag for all their beginner-level computer books, but that's no excuse.
No experience needed to design with Inventor and other MCAD software? There outa' be a law against that! Source.
You're right: "No experience necessary to design with Inventor and other MCAD software?" Ouch!
I was a product design engineer (doorknobs) for 27 years. We were an early adopter of AutoCAD, and in all modesty I have a bit of a reputation in the CAD field. Much to many people's surprise, AutoCAD expertise was the last thing I looked for on a resume when hiring new designers. I could teach them AutoCAD in two weeks, but I couldn't teach them design in two years.
I know that because I then moved on to 13 years of teaching mechanical engineering at a 2-year polytechnic institute.
Knowing how to run a CAD program does not make you a good designer, in the same way that being a touch typist does not make you a great writer. Shakespeare couldn't type worth a damn, but he was a fairly good writer...
I have heard it claimed that "simple to use" design and analysis software will make good designers better and bad designers dangerous.
Posted by: Bill Fane | Sep 23, 2009 at 06:08 PM