Re: ASME B31 Appendix Z

From: <Paul>
Date: Thu Sep 27 2007 - 20:12:00 EDT

Christopher Wright wrote:

>> Isn't drawing the universal language?

> I've preached this sermon a milion times, but I guess one more won't
> hurt. Engineering is a communications discipline. Engineers only do
> stuff as a last resort--their job is to set forth definitive
> instructions for others, and one of the ways is with drawings. If your
> drawings aren't definitive you may just as well be mumbling what you
> want done over a phone for all the good you're doing. People who make
> bad drawings may have the word designer on their internet sig, but they
> aren't anything like designers.

Here's a relevant link from this month's Mechanical Engineering magazine, good article:

<a href="http://www.memagazine.org/contents/current/features/seemech/seemech.html">http://www.memagazine.org/contents/current/features/seemech/seemech.html</a>

I especially like this bit:

<<With CAD-rendering packages, engineers are now able to communicate designs with realistic clarity. There is often quick sign-off on a design that is so easily visualized and so deceptively close to completion. But presentation has no correlation with innovation—especially in the early design stages.

In contrast, early collaborative work benefits from the lack of resolution inherent in sketches. They communicate a fluid design that can incorporate an improvement. It keeps the door open to change.

Sketches themselves influence the structure of the work process as well as the product. Due to their informal nature, they can be used to breach divisional boundaries, say, among engineering, marketing, and manufacturing.

There are times when the inflexibility of CAD licenses, database vaults, and access rights impede the flow of design information needed for fast-paced collaborative design. A sketch promotes dialogue.>>

Paul
Senior Technical Doodler
PipingDesign.com Inc. Received on Thu Sep 27 20:12:00 2007