CAD users: How old are you? 3

[toffeet]

http://www.cadalyst.com/cadalyst

Too those of you who have already taken the poll. Is there a simple explanation for the big differences between age groups? A big surprise to me was the 40-49 group, compared to the 30-39 and 50-59 groups.

I am in the 30-39 group and can not imagine an engineering world without the use of CAD. Or are there people who feel different about CAD?

Solid Edge V18 SP6 on WinXP SP2

 

[HgTX]

(tangent alert) As long as this thread is still going, I must take exception to something quoted from a book above:

50-59 = Baby Boomers = 1946 > 1964
40-49 = Gen-X
30-39 = Echo Boomers or Gen-Y

Are those ranges supposed to be ages? If so, that ain't right. It looks like they're off by 10 years. For starters, someone born in 1964 would be around 40 now, not 50 (although 40 seems too young to be a boomer). And they really aren't just 10-year spans like that, either. And Gen-Y goes a lot younger than 30.

Funny, though, I looked some more and Gen-X is older than I thought it was--both the generation itself and the terminology. I guess the term had a renaissance in the 90s, with the result that I thought I was older than the Gen-Xers, but apparently I'm one of them, and younger than the original definition as first coined. (By the above cited definition, though, I'm Gen-Y, which is definitely not true.)

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[ewh]

OK unclesyd,
We all know that your very well experienced.
I also remember the gum erasers, horsehair brushes and smudges on a beautiful, 99% complete drawing. The worse was a nosebleed on such a drawing. Luckily it wasn't linen. Those bags always seemed to aggrevate the smearing for me.

Hg is right, that chart is off. If baby boomers were born between '46 and '64, that covers 18 years. The ages noted only cover 9 years.

 

[Heckler]

The term Generation X came from a book written in 1991 by Douglas Coupland by the same name. It is a fictional book about three strangers who decide to distance themselves from society to get a better sense of who they are. He describes the characters as "underemployed, overeducated, intensely private and unpredictable."

Coupland took his book's title from another book "Class," by Paul Fussell. Fussell used "X" to describe a group of people who want to pull away from class, status and money in society. Because the characters in Coupland's book fit that description, he decided on the title "Generation X."

The media found elements of Coupland's characters' lives in America's youth and labeled them Generation X. This stereotypical definition leads society to believe that Generation X is made up of cynical, hopeless, frustrated and unmotivated slackers who wear grunge clothing, listen to alternative music and still live at home because they cannot get real jobs. It is a label that has stuck, stereotypes and all.

Hmmmm very interesting. But I still think those electric erasers are the cats meow. I think the true drafter has gone by the way of PC. I wish I had been given the chance to work with one.....

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

Never argue with an idiot. They'll bring you down to their level and beat you with experience every time.

 

[MadMango]

I used the eraser shield to scrape off the ink on mylars, we never got exacto blades for that.

Wikipedia has an interesting chart listing several generations with overlapping date ranges. I guess you can use this to argue or convience yourself or others you belong to what ever generation you want to belong to.

1860–1882 Missionary Generation
1883–1900 Lost Generation
1900–1910 Interbellum Generation
1900–1924 G.I. Generation
1911–1924 Greatest Generation
1929–1956 Jazz Age
1925–1945 Silent Generation
1946–1964 Baby Boomers
1948–1962 Beat Generation
1954–1965 Generation Jones
1964–1984 Consciousness Revolution
1958–1968 Baby Busters
1961–1981 Generation X
1975–1985 MTV Generation
1981–1986 Boomerang Generation
1977–2003 Generation Y
1986–1999 Internet Generation
2001– New Silent Generation

[green]"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."[/green]
Steven K. Roberts, Technomad
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[CorBlimeyLimey]

Hg ... The figures I used were just a rough linking of the age groups used in the OPs link to the Baby Boomer years, and then extrapolating the generations from there. Definitely not precise, but close enough (IMO) to make a link to the "Boom, Bust, Echo" groupings.

​

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[wes616]

I've heard all those from MadMango's list, except the last... what exactly is this NEW SILENT GENERATION?

Wes C.
------------------------------
No trees were killed in the sending of this message, but a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

No-one knows ... they wont tell anyone.

​

Helpful SW websites faq559-520​

How to find answers ... faq559-1091​

SW2006-SP5 Basic ... No PDM​

 

[kchayfie]

Or they're too young to talk yet. Although I've yet to meet a silent baby!

 

[unclesyd]

Though they me be silent they give their presence away by leaving a trail of disturbed air molecules around their transporter.

 

[ewh]

MikeHalloran,
It is difficult to imagine having to work on a sepia printed on the front side. You must really have to burn that lead in to make a line (or learn to print in reverse on the back side)!

How many here have spilled eradicator fluid all over a sepia? Another good reason to print it on the back.

 

[MikeHalloran]

I've worked in literally dozens of outfits where sepias were made right side up, just like prints, and untold hours were spent trying to make lead stick to a bleach- smoothed surface, or extra money was spent to buy erasable sepia paper.

I have _never_ worked in an outfit where printing sepias backwards and drawing on the nonemulsion side was SOP; I was always 'the strange guy who wants his sepias printed backwards'.

Okay, I was strange for other reasons too. ;-)



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[ewh]

Naw... I think you just ended up working under strange procedures.

 

[plasgears]

I tried CAD training for a while, and I dropped it because I was transforming into a draftsman/CAD type. That was not for me. Classically the engineer guides draftsmen thru his calculations and concepts for new creations. One old German ME who went into CAD in a big way expressed regrets for the same reasons.

One place I worked at hired science major engineering managers to do conceptual work. They missed the boat; that is what engineers are for! It was a case of sales managing the engineering dept and not doing a very good job. Engineers busy working at CAD may overlook the merit of analysing snap joints and other critical details to avoid failure. Engineers making unanalyzed cartoons is not the way to assure success in new designs.

 

[toffeet]

Hello plasgears,

Which CAD software was it, if I may ask?

Solid Edge V18 SP6 on WinXP SP2

 

[steph28]

I´ve never thought about it!!! Can you tell me why????

Stephany!

http://www.recoverandbackup.com

 

[Heckler]

Engineers busy working at CAD may overlook the merit of analysing snap joints and other critical details to avoid failure. Engineers making unanalyzed cartoons is not the way to assure success in new designs.

Engineers use Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) tools to optimize their designs. I would like to know what industry you are in? I don't see anything wrong with an engineer doing his/her own drawings then passing them off to drafters. We have drafter here and I find much easier to do the drawings myself then go back and fourth trying to get them done correctly.

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

Never argue with an idiot. They'll bring you down to their level and beat you with experience every time.

 

[ewh]

Then you obviously don't put much stock in helping your drafter to improve.

 

[Heckler]

The skills or desire to improve are not their. I've tried to mentor, encourage and talk with but the person is dug-in to "old-ways". It's extremely difficult to change people that do not want to change.

 

[ewh]

Yes, it can be. As an exercise, why don't you give him a project that is not of high priority, and keep giving it back to him full of red ink until he gets it right? I realize that not everyone has the luxury to this, but it would help to get your point across.

 

[plasgears]

Toffeet,

I believe it was AutoCAD, some years ago. I went thru the tutorial, and it seemed simple enough.

Then some characters were commenting on the new draftsman, me. It came to a screeching halt right there.