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[previous article] [next article]Kent Parkinson
AutoCAD is a Computer-Aided Drafting program which will turn your Sun (or PC) into an electronic drafting board. Much as a word processor enables a writer to revise text on-screen and store it for later use, AutoCAD allows anyone who draws to create and revise drawings on-screen, and to store their work for later use.
You can move, copy, mirror, rotate, erase, stretch, trim, extend, scale, and dimension any part of a drawing or the entire drawing - among many other options. Arrays of objects, such as bricks or gear teeth, can be generated automatically.
You can annotate drawings with text of any size, position, and angle, choosing from a variety of text fonts and styles. Plots of your drawings can be generated at any size and scale.
Purdue University has a site license agreement with Autodesk which allows purchase of the software at an 82% discount for Suns or PCs. The Agricultural Engineering Department has taken advantage of this opportunity and has been rapidly incorporating AutoCAD into research and course work. Six of our seven Suns are currently running AutoCAD.
At present, we offer three courses in AutoCAD on Sun workstations: a beginning course offered in the Spring, an intensive two week course offered in the Summer and an advanced course offered in the Fall. The introductory course, which was offered for the first time this semester, was filled to capacity (24) without the aid of advertising.
One of the nice features of running AutoCAD on the Sun is the multiple window environment. We have provided the students with a customized environment which allows them to easily open windows for directory scanning, start up an on-screen calculator for quick calculations, and run a modified version of webster to help with difficult spelling just to name a few. The student response to this has been very positive. We have observed that once the students have learned the basics of AutoCAD, they are less intimidated with drawing projects and spend their time manipulating the problems in a variety of creative ways. In short, they are freed of the burdens of technique mastery (ie, drawing nice clean lines) and concentrate instead on the problem at hand.
Another feature we have incorporated into the course is electronic assignment submission and return. In this way, no paper need change hands. When an assignment is issued, the student has until submission due date to submit the project for grading. This is accomplished by simply typing the command "submit". He is then prompted for the assignment number and the file name to be submitted. A copy of this file is sent to the class account for grading. Submissions may be made as many times as desired up to the due date. The student also receives verification that the file has been received by the class account. Once graded by the instructor, the student can retrieve the graded file by issuing the command "return". He can then check grading comments by thawing a layer called grade. If the student has made many errors, he may resubmit the project one time for a higher grade after making the suggested corrections. In this way learning by correcting errors (which is a major strength of AutoCAD) is encouraged.
We are still in the experimental stages; however, we are very pleased with the progress that has been made and are looking forward to making this new technology an integral part of our curriculum. If you have questions concerning the use of AutoCAD within Agricultural Engineering, please contact me (login: parkinso).
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