MCADMechanical Computed Aided Design

Many different types of CAD software

Depends on purpose• MCAD for mechanical design• ECAD for electronic design – later• For achitecture• For artists• ....

Many common and not so common MCAD programs

• CATIA• IDEAS• Solid Edge• Solid Works• FreeCad• AutoCAD• Blender

• We have chosen Solid Edge and we have a site licence for this

Different parts in MCAD

• Part design– Sketch– Modify dimensions

• Assembly• Analysis – Stress and Strain, Finite element methods• Motion – interference• Using structural information to study fields – Field

Solvers – temperature, E/M fields, particle trajectories (GEANT)

MCAD output

• Structure data base• 2-d Drawing• Rendered images• Manufacturing data – to NC machines, 3d-

printers• Analysis data

Different strategies

• In IDEAS you start with basic 3d-structures (blocks, cyliders etc.) and use Boolean operations to construct complex structures

• In Solid Edge you draw 2d-objects in different planes and extrude them in the 3rd dimension

Complexity

• Professional MCAD programs are usually very complex

• The same object can be achieved in different ways and there are a large number of refinements and parameters for the different commands

• Start with a few basic commands and learn more when you need it

Schedule

• This session– Learn basic operations with Solid Edge

• Next session– Describe the candle holder, loaded dice

• Last session– Stress and strain analysis, moving designs

Solid Edge