Defining Expertise in the Use of Constraint-based CAD Tools by Examining Practicing Professionals

Abstract

Academic engineering graphics curricula are facing a rapidly changing knowledge base and current teaching and assessment methods are struggling to keep pace.  This paper is the second in a two-part series which examines practicing engineering graphics professionals to discover their experiences in developing expertise in the use of constraint-based CAD tools.  It presents the results of a knowledge-mapping task and think-aloud modeling task used with five practicing product designers to examine their solid modeling strategies used when creating a 3D model and their organization of the concepts surrounding the knowledge domain of constraint-based CAD tools.  The results of the think-aloud modeling task yielded five specific modeling procedures which were distilled into one common modeling procedure for the given object.  The results of the knowledge mapping task revealed five separate knowledge maps, and the common elements from each one were combined to form a generic knowledge map related to the use of constraint-based CAD tools.  These two sets of results comprised the initial elements used to define expertise in the use of constraint-based CAD tools based on these five participants.  This article provides an initial look at an approach to creating geometry with constraint-based CAD tools, as well as specific topics to be included in a curriculum that includes constraint-based CAD tools.  There conclusions also suggest potential teaching and assessment methodologies.