Seeing Mechanical

This article reviews a case for advancing the role of sketching in the art of engineering. Engineers have adopted productivity tools that promise more predictable outcomes. Computer-aided design, for example, is one of those tools. The evolution of design documentation made a huge advance when engineers no longer defined their designs in the universal graphics language known as orthographic projection drawings. Engineers now create a 3D simulation of the solid design instead of creating 2D representations of views. The 3D CAD process is closer to sculpting the design than drawing it. Sketches are part of a successful design process acting as a channel between creative engineering thinking and critical engineering thinking. Visualizing a design prepares the way to more traditional analytical engineering activities. In this early phase, engineering decisions are being made with little if any data. Intuition is a guide to get the project to a point where data can be collected and analyzed.