WHAT
ENGINEERING, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY STUDENT SHOULD KNOW
From the dawn of
history, the development of technical knowledge has been accompanied, and to a
large extent made possible, by a corresponding graphic language. Today the
intimate connection between engineering and science and the universal graphic
language is more vital than ever before, and engineers, scientists, and
technicians ignorant of or deficient in their field’s principal mode of
expression in technical field are professionally illiterates. Thus, training in
the application of technical drawing is required in virtually every engineering
school in the world.
The old days of fine-line drawings and of shading and “washes” are gone forever,
artistic talent is no longer prerequisite to learning the fundamentals of the
graphic language. Instead, today’s graphics student needs the same aptitudes,
abilities, and computer skills that are needed in science and engineering
courses.
The well-trained engineering, scientist,
or technician must be able to make and correct graphical representations of
engineering structures, designs, and data relationships. This means that
individuals must understand the fundamental principles, or the grammar, of the
language and be able to execute the work with reasonable skill (which is
penmanship).
Graphics students often try to excuse themselves
for inferior results (usually caused by lack of application) by arguing that
after graduation they do not expect to do any drafting at all. Such students
presumptuously expect, immediately after graduation, to be accomplished
engineers concerned with bigger things. They forget that first assignment may
involve working with drawings and possibly revising drawings, either on a board
or on a computer, under the direction of an experienced engineer. Entering the
engineering profession via graphics provides an excellent opportunity to learn
about the product, the company operations, and the supervision of others.
Even a young engineer who has not been successful in developing a
skillful penmanship in the graphic language will have use for its grammar,
since the ability to read a drawing will be of utmost importance. Furthermore,
the engineering student is apt to overlook that, in practically all the
subsequent courses taken in college, technical drawing will be encountered in
most textbooks. The student is often called on by instructors to supplement
calculations with mechanical drawings or sketches. Thus, a mastery of a course in technical drawing utilizing
both traditional methods and computer systems(CAD) will aid materially, not
only in professional practice after graduation but more immediately in other
technical courses.
Beside the direct advantages of a serious study of the graphic language,
many students learn the meaning of neatness, speed, and accuracy for the first
time in a drawing course. These are basic and necessary habits for every
successful engineer, scientist and technician.
The ability to think in three dimensions is one of the most important
requisites of successful scientists, designers, and engineers. Learning to visualize
objects in space, to use the constructive imagination, is one of the principal
values to be obtained from a study of the graphic language. Person of
extra-ordinary creative ability possess the ability to visualize to an
outstanding degree. It is difficult to think of Edison, De forest, or Einstein
as being deficient in constructive imagination.
Source:
Engineering Graphics by Giesecke and co.
Written
by Ampeh Justice
Jxticea@gmail.com.
GTUC,
Tesano.
