Mechanical Designer. Should I get me ME for the line of work i want.

[AGoodman05]

I will give you a little background on me. I am currently a mechanical designer at a small engineering company in ky. I have been working for 3 years under mechanical and electrical engineers and have gotten some good experience in field and in utilizing 2D and 3D CAD. I want to utilize Solidworks more than I am now though. I would like to be a part of a company that focuses on using Solidworks for the majority of the design for parts and assemblies and even does rapid prototyping and testing.
Here is my situation. I am 25, got done with a 4 year BS degree 3 years ago in Engineering Graphics and Design Technology. I am contiplating going back to school and getting my Mechanical Engineering degree. It will take me 4 years to do it though and Im not sure that I absolutely have to have the (ME) degree to do the kind of work Im looking to do with designing in Solidworks for prototyping or other things like that.
So my question is should I keep working my butt off learning new things through experience and search for the job Im looking for or go ahead and get the ME degree and then go from there. Do you think my qualifications are fine how they are with my Mechanical Design Degree and experience using Solidworks. If not what skill sets should I focus on in addition to what I have. Thanks everybody for your help.

 

[photoengineer]

There should be lots of hand-on Solidworks jobs to a guy without a degree. If you are having trouble finding one, you can search for CATIA jobs. CATIA V5 is essentially SolidWorks with a few added features and you would do fine at that.

To answer your question, you do not need an engineering degree to do design work. Oftentimes engineers will use the 3D aspect and then designers will create drawings and handle the configuration control, but sometimes the designers will do 3D as well.

I feel that solid modeling is a tool that engineers use to get the job done. Just as most engineers use micrometers, tape measures, computers, e-mail, we also use solid modeling. But our reason for going into engineering isn't because we want to use these devices, our reason is we enjoy designing the products and validating they work as intended.

 

[TheTick]

If you want to do a lot of CAD work, a BSME can actually get in the way. However, 10-20 years from now you may want to be in a position to do more.

I have a BSME and I love working in CAD. It's hard to find positions that allow me to be an engineer (= "do the math") and still do design work. With the degree and age, the pressure is on to move into project engineering or management. I'd rather not.

If you want to get into FEA, get the BSME and go heavy on materials. The real engineering starts after COSMOS has spit out its pretty colors and someone needs to figure out "what's that mean?".

 

[KENAT]

Might I suggest looking over thorugh this forum & forum732r even forum730.

The topic of Engineer V Designer V Drafter etc. comes up every now and then, you might want to take a look.

For instance: thread730-256663 thread730-221206 thread730-234613

I'm pretty sure there have been others.

As others say, if you really want to do design work using CAD, then BSME or equivalent may not be necessary. Howevever, your pay may be lower - though it varies. If you are going to stick to design don't just be a CAD jockey, learn some about the engineering and preferably how to create drawings or equivalen MBD with proper tolerancing etc. compliant to relevant standards.

Can't stand CAD monkey's.

(Cut and past with edits from the original posting over in forum404.)

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[desertfox]

Hi AGoodman05

Well your BS in graphics and design technology is a good start to your career, my advice would be to go for your Mechanical Engineering degree it will give you a better feel for what you design in the future and a better understanding of the stuff your working on now.
Also in future years it may well open doors to a job at a higher level than your currently at and the way engineering is going the more you can offer in terms of a variety of skills and knowledge the better chance your survival will be in this field.

desertfox

 

[ShaggyPE]

More and more as the modeling tools become easier to use, I think the engineers will be doing more of the core design work and there won't be much left for the traditional designer. There will be engineering and drafting... where the drafting is simply detailing what the engineer did. There will still be a place for the non-degreed highly experienced designer, but I think there will be fewer and fewer of those since there won't be a clear career path from drafter to designer any longer.

If you want to have fun designing stuff, get the degree. Continue to work in the design field while you get the ME degree and you will be in a better position than your classmates to land the job you want.

-Dustin
Professional Engineer
Certified SolidWorks Professional
Certified COSMOSWorks Designer Specialist
Certified SolidWorks Advanced Sheet Metal Specialist

 

[KENAT]

"More and more as the modeling tools become easier to use,"

What evidence have you of that in CAD tools? Seems every release they incorporated a bunch of new features, or ways of doing things etc. which make it more complicated. Almost certainly more capable, but more complex.

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[ShaggyPE]

Good point Kenat. I guess I was thinking on a broader sense, not just from one release to another. Maybe like comparing SW2008 to Mechanical Desktop 1998.

Experience with some modeling tools is expected for an engineer (machine designer type) these days. 10 years ago, it may have been only a desirable attribute.

-Dustin
Professional Engineer
Certified SolidWorks Professional
Certified COSMOSWorks Designer Specialist
Certified SolidWorks Advanced Sheet Metal Specialist

 

[cksh]

CAD has definitely gotten easier. To me, Solidworks really set the standard for a window's based CAD program that was easy to learn and use imho. Unfortunately, as Kenat mentioned they start saturating these programs with all kinds of new features that can actually slow you down.

My firt 3D software was UG (Can't remember which version) and it was OK, and apprently light years ahead of the boxes the designers had to use to punch in commands. I learned solidworks 97 shortly thereafter and it was so easy to use I thought the days of designers would be short lived. I have used inventor, and became proficient at it, but it has the same issues of endless features getting added. I have also used pro-e and it felt like I had taken a step back in time.

There are lot's of companies, at least in Automotive, that do not use designers anymore. In fact finding one that has designers is becomming impossible. My current company is the only one that does use designers that I have worked for in the past 10 years. Maybe it is more common in larger companies.

To the OP I might go for the degree. When you think about it, you have another 30 to 40 years ahead of you. Things will change, or you may want a change somewhere down the road. Always nice to have that degree in your pocket

 

[KirbyWan]

Just a question about getting a second bachlors degree. Since you should have most of your common classes out of the way with you first degree you shouldn't need to retake classes like english, speech, non-technical electives, or any math or science that is equivalent to what an engineering program needs. So a BSME should take about two to three years from this point, right? If they do reqire the full number of credits (usually around 120) then you get to take lots of technical electives, more then the usual engineer. I know there were about 10 more classes that I wanted to take but couldn't because I was done.

Also I've worked on Solidworks and CATIA. They are very different. They are owned by the same company, but they don't even convert back and forth between formats. The Solidworks interface is excellent. The CATIA is much more complex, which probably stems from the fact it is designed to handle very large, complex and high part count assemblies. i.e. CATIA cna model a Boeing 747 and account for every bolt nut and washer. Solidworks is better suited for smaller less complex assemblies.

Thanks for responding to my question about getting a second degree.

-Kirby

Kirby Wilkerson

Remember, first define the problem, then solve it.