The prevalence of feature-based 3D modeling in industry has necessitated the accumulation and maintenance of standard feature libraries. Currently, firms who use standard features to design parts are storing and utilizing these libraries through their existing product data management (PDM) systems. Standard features have enabled companies to…

Engineering design graphics courses taught in colleges or universities should provide and equip students preparing for employment with the basic occupational graphics skill competences required by engineering and technology disciplines. Academic institutions should introduce and include topics that cover the newer and more efficient graphics…

Spatial ability, which is positively correlated with retention and achievement in engineering, mathematics, and science disciplines, has been shown to improve over the course of a Computer-Aided Design course or through targeted training. However, which type of training provides the most beneficial improvements to spatial ability and whether other…

The objective of this study was to identify changes in dominant preferred learning styles of students based on instructional presentation of course content. This study evaluates dominant preferred learning styles of two groups of university students. The first group of students was enrolled in a course that introduces graphical representation in…

As the result of a qualitative investigation into spatial ability, a teaching technique called mentored sketching was found to be effective for teaching visualization skills to freshman engineering students. This contribution describes the technique, how it evolved, and comments made by students as to its effectiveness. While mentored sketching…

In this study, the popular Purdue Spatial Visualization Test-Visualization by Rotations (PSVT-R) in isometric drawings was recreated with CAD software that allows 3D solid modeling and rendering to provide more realistic pictorial views. Both the original and the modified PSVT-R tests were given to students and their scores on the two tests were…

This paper describes a pilot study for an alternative design process by integrating a designer-user collaborative session with digital models. The collaborative session took place in a 3D AutoCAD class for a real world project. The 3D models served as an interface for designer-user collaboration during the design process. Students not only learned…

This paper presents the results of a quasi-experimental study that brought 3D constraint-based parametric solid modeling technology into the high school mathematics classroom. This study used two intact groups; a control group and an experimental group, to measure the extent to which using a parametric solid modeler during instruction affects…

Spatial ability research has been approached from several psychological vantages since its beginnings in the late 1800s. This contribution attempts a summation of spatial ability research, beginning with a historical vignette and a major section on each psychological approach including the psychometric, developmental, differential and information…

This phenomenological investigation examined the lived experience of technically-oriented students over the course of a single semester, attempting to answer the question, "What was it like for a student to experience the spatial ability phenomenon?" The study included 12 interviewees and 8 focus group freshman participants at a Midwestern…

This paper describes the procedures of reconstructing ancient architecture using solid modeling with geometric analysis, especially the Golden Ratio analysis. In the past the recovery and reconstruction of ruins required bringing together fragments of evidence and vast amount of measurements from archaeological site. Although researchers and…

The paper presents a unique approach in associating perspective projection with the image beheld by the eye and demonstrates that all graphical and photographic perspective projections must contain distortion when compared to the image beheld by the eye. (Contains 8 figures.)

Over the past decade the software products available for solid modeling, dynamic, stress, thermal, and flow analysis, and computer-aiding manufacturing (CAM) have become more powerful, affordable, and easier to use. At the same time it has become increasingly important for students to gain concurrent engineering design and systems integration…

Regardless of the instrument used to determine learning styles, it is commonly accepted that people learn in different ways. As Professors, we tend to teach in a style that matches the way we ourselves learn. Tis may or may not match the learning styles of the students in our classroom. As Graphics educators, we cannot meet every student's…

Engineering design graphics education has come a long way in the past two decades. The emergence of solid geometric modeling technology has become the focal point for the graphical development of engineering design ideas. The main attraction of this 3-D modeling approach is the downstream application of the data base to analysis and…