Engineering Drawing: An Essential Tool for the Egyptian Engineer

[AhmedHesham]

Hi

I'm a first year Egyptian engineering student. I have a problem with engineering drawing. In our country Egypt the focus is on grades and exams nobody cares about understanding any thing. Nobody really does understand anything. Nobody even loves engineering.

My problem is that I can not be good at any material without really appreciating it. I don't value the material of engineering drawing or engineering graphics if you want because as I said all what they care about is grades.

I need someone to tell me as an engineer why do I really need engineering drawing how much important it is. And in physics I really don't face any problem thanks to Walter lewin lectures on YouTube so I need something like this... An online course in engineering drawing.

Please help
Thanks

 

[.Scott]

Engineering drawings are a main part of any engineering conversation - they are part of the language.
Whether it be a bridge, an airplane, or a radar unit, trying to design and build it from verbal descriptions would be hopelessly prone to errors.

Engineering drawings are how engineers describe design options, how they describe prototypes, and how they agree on what will be built. And they often become legal documents.

They are the formal way that an engineering department communicates to the world. They are the source documents for the bill of materials required by procurement. They are reference documents for manufacturing - and are cited in all manufacturing process documentation.

The essential parts are a date (or commonly, the revision history), a drawing number, a title, the person and/or organization creating the drawing, and, of course, the technical specifications (most commonly including a drawing).

If you are a Software Engineer, there are a large assortment of documents that you use to communicate with the world - including engineering drawings. This may also be true of Chemical engineers. But as any other kind of engineer(Electrical, Mechanical, Civil), they will be your main channel of communication.

 

[AhmedHesham]

Engineering drawings are a main part of any engineering conversation - they are part of the language.
Whether it be a bridge, an airplane, or a radar unit, trying to design and build it from verbal descriptions would be hopelessly prone to errors.

Engineering drawings are how engineers describe design options, how they describe prototypes, and how they agree on what will be built. And they often become legal documents.

They are the formal way that an engineering department communicates to the world. They are the source documents for the bill of materials required by procurement. They are reference documents for manufacturing - and are cited in all manufacturing process documentation.

The essential parts are a date (or commonly, the revision history), a drawing number, a title, the person and/or organization creating the drawing, and, of course, the technical specifications (most commonly including a drawing).

If you are a Software Engineer, there are a large assortment of documents that you use to communicate with the world - including engineering drawings. This may also be true of Chemical engineers. But as any other kind of engineer(Electrical, Mechanical, Civil), they will be your main channel of communication.

thank you very much

 

[gmax137]

In school you probably have to learn a lot of rules pertaining to engineering drawings. These rules probably seem contrived or arbitrary, and the whole subject pointless. But in the end the point of all the rules is to make sure the drawing is entirely un-ambiguous. So that when you as engineer / designer hand the drawing off to the machinist, the part you get back is exactly what you intended. As mentioned above, the drawing is a communication, between you and the machinist making the part. Fussing over the drawing for a simple part (say a bushing) seems pointless, but many parts are extremely complicated and expensive to make; the drawing provides assurance that the part comes out as intended.

Also mentioned above, drawings can describe many different designs, from machined parts to electronic circuits to computer programs. The desire for flawless communication is the common thread.

 

[berkeman]

My problem is that I can not be good at any material without really appreciating it. I don't value the material of engineering drawing or engineering graphics if you want because as I said all what they care about is grades.

Do you have access to a 3-D printer at your school? If so, I'd recommend doing some drawings of some simple objects (but complicated enough to require a good 3-view drawing), and printing some of the objects from your drawing/plans. That will start to make things more concrete for you, and should be a fun project to help to motivate you.

 

[Dr.D]

If a person is not able to properly draw an object, then they do not really comprehend the shape of the object. For many problems, making a proper drawing is the essential first step.

Some of the rules taught in engineering drawing classes will seem entirely arbitrary. Why do we use a particular line type to show a section line, a hidden line, etc. The reason for learning these definitions is so that you can read the language, that is, so that your use of lines will be consistent with everyone else and all will be able to communicate.

In many places, the engineering drawings become legal documents. If a contract dispute arises with a buyer, it is usually the drawing that are the final authority as to what was to be manufactured.