Cool CAD

I'm so geeked.  This CAD stuff is pretty neat, at least to a layman.  I have a pretty high-visibility R&D project that is going pretty darn well (especially for a newbie.)  Now remember that I am brand new at computer aided design.  I wouldn't have gotten this job "off the street" but since I really know the product and I've been all over the company they are "training" me.  I say that in quotes because there is really no training program for new designers.  I'm the only one I know of that didn't come in the door with CAD experience... so it's been an adventure.  Luckily I'm pretty darn resourceful, and I am not afraid to waylay anyone walking by my desk and interrogate him on technical details.  (People are starting to walk the *other way for some reason!)  There is so much I still don't know... but I have been able to teach some of the senior designers some things too.  Catia is such an in-depth program that I don't know ANYONE who knows it completely.  We have people who have been using it for 10 years.... and none of them design things the same way.  Can be very frustrating!

So anyway... back to my project.  I had to take an existing component - the louver or vane of a register, and design an ENTIRE working assembly around it - using a totally new concept.  Out of my head.  That was fun, really.  It just boggles my mind that this kind of thing would be given to the "kindergartener"... but it does illustrate the company's faith in me.  So on one hand I'm totally overwhelmed, but on another I'm like "Whoa....cool!".  Next time you're in your vehicle, take a peek at your air vents.   There's a lot of moving parts in there, and they can't rattle (or shouldn't anyway!) and the little knob or wheel that moves them up and down and/or side to side can't be too tight or too loose.... all those little things that may not seem like much but it can be a design nightmare because of the nature of plastic.

I got the design finished and tweaked it about a dozen times.  That's another thing about designers... we are perfectionists and have to work within limitations that have us grinding our teeth, cussing at our computers and sometimes crying.  Okay maybe not..... but there were a few days in my first few weeks that I would have to in the ladies room and compose myself so I didn't break down and bawl at my desk.  Just because I had a week of "how to use the software" it seemed that the senior designers delighted in giving me something that even *they didn't know how to do.  ARGH!

Once I got my designs mostly finalized I suddenly became an engineer.  (I say that because our designers and engineers have pretty strictly defined tasks in the course of product development.   Designers design parts ... project engineers get the tools made and parts in spec; mechanical engineers make assembly fixtures; quality engineers, tooling engineers... you get the idea).  So then I had to kick off tooling (gulp!) in China of all places.  I have a deadline, a budget (which I've already blown to pieces) and specs to meet.  

Next I got to design and build a mini assembly fixture!  Actually pretty neato.... I just had to come up with a one piece design "nest" to put the parts in to be assembled.  You may think it's no big deal... but I am just wowed all over the place with myself.  I designed the nest... produced it on our rapid prototype machine (technical term is a 3-D Printer... it takes your CAD solid and turns it into a real live plastic part overnight)... and it WORKED!  I can assemble the parts I made!  

The thing about CAD and design in general is it really makes you think in a logical progression.  You have about 15 to 20 components that will all interface and have to work together - and the product has to interface with someone else's product!  You have to make your design so it is easily adjustable so you can tweak it, you have to make sure that it can be produced in an injection mold, you have to think about how your end product will be assembled, you have to think about what kinds of idiot things people can do to assemble it wrong and design it so that can't happen, you have to kiss your customer's ass and try to explain how their concept will just not work and then come up with something that WILL - within their limitations.... etc etc etc.  All in a day's work.

Dilbert is ghod.