Is anyone signed up for this class or have any thoughts/opinions regarding it. I am unsure how much previous experience in 3-d cad software is expected.

10/24/2008 11:19:35 PM

I'm kind of on the fence about it. As far as CAD chops, you'll probably be fine with whatever got you by GC120.

10/25/2008 10:08:48 PM

What worries me is that I took GC120 at a community college, and we only covered autocad. I am fairly computer literate but just haven't had time to "tinker" with solid works.

MAE 442 filled up before I could get in it, so I am not sure what other elective to take next semester.

10/25/2008 10:26:52 PM

Do one of those project work courses for the prof's. MAE 496 I think? I've always heard people say it really isn't bad as long as you don't procrastinate, but I'd think it depends which prof you chose.

10/25/2008 11:38:37 PM

Yes, I am using 496 as my other technical elective.

10/26/2008 12:04:17 AM

GC120 was a joke..you know as much as the people that took it so don't worry about that.

10/26/2008 12:12:31 AM

^

10/26/2008 12:41:40 AM

I don't know if the class will concentrate on ANSYS or Abaqus, but I wouldn't think it would use cosmos in Solidworks (but I could be wrong).

As far as Abaqus goes it doesn't really matter if you know how to use solidworks for anything since Abaqus has it's own interface for creating the models (Or you could import the model from Solidworks or some other program if you really wanted to). What you need to know is general approach to creating a solid model, like what sequence and shape to make your extrusions and cuts and such. You should be able to get a pretty good handle on that in a day or two going through the tutorials in solidworks. Also, I wouldn't even worry about lack of 3-d modeling experince since creating the model is the easy part of FEA. After that you have to figure out and correctly setup all the material properties, get a good mesh of your parts, and properly input your initial and boundary conditions.

If Dr. Ngaile teaches this anything like his 495M class, it will be rather dry and boring.

[Edited on October 26, 2008 at 12:55 AM. Reason : ]

10/26/2008 12:49:36 AM

I hope this class isn't tooo dry, the topic appears fairly interesting to me (the elective website pics have me sold...jk). I feel it if would be a very useful class to graduate with.

10/26/2008 2:32:36 AM