CADD/CNC Standards & Best Practices

Data is the lifeblood of engineering design & production.

That data must be controlled.

Or it will control you.

Complex projects—such as electric guitars—require data management tools, techniques, & technologies.

"Engineering Data Configuration Management"

The Guitar Building Project introduced complex and long-lived engineering data sets into the ET curriculum. Designing and building a guitar is not a "one and done" homework assignment; the engineering data will change over time. Always.

Designing an electric guitar body is an iterative process with lots of back and forth communication between the student and the instructor.
There is also a great deal of data reuse & sharing (e.g., the Standard Guitar Data set)
Complexity leads to mistakes and failures—some catastrophic

It was already said once, but the basic problem merits mentioning again:If you don't control changes to the data, the changes to the data will control you.

Goals

Embed information & help organize data ("self-organizing" is even easier)
Speed development from "art to part"
Error reduction (avoidance > early detection > re-work > scrap)
Aid in troubleshooting.

Introducing...

ETSU's Design Standards & Best Practices for CADD/CAM/CNC

What is it?

It's an on-line, PDF-formatted document containing both standards (must dos) and best practices (oughta dos) for projects at ETSU that use elements of CADD, CAM, and/or CNC.

Really clever title, that one.

The document was developed by faculty and staff for Engineering Technology classes primarily in the Manufacturing ET, Product Development & Industrial Technology concentrations. Parts of the document (e.g., most of the best practices) are specific to the equipment and software in use within the ETSU Engineering Technology labs; other sections (e.g., the layer naming convention) are applicable to any design &/or production environment.

Honestly?

It is confusing at first but, once you understand how things works, the philosophy of the document makes a lot of sense and, not surprisingly, helps you avoid making mistakes and speed up the development process.

So, what are you waiting for?

Download yours today!

Added benefit: Cures insomnia—Fast, fast , fast!!!

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