Required class for meche/aero but also extremely interesting. Crane's class is hybrid but functions more like a regular lecture (attendance is required). Grading is for the most part very lenient.

The first 1/2 is the most fun (and most easy) part, which preps you for the solidworks cert exam, which is itself pretty simple and you get 2 attempts on. Later in the semester you move on to drawings, more advanced assemblies (including a huge design project that took like 8 hours in solidworks), and a brief overview of a bunch of topics crane thinks will be useful for later classes. The last few weeks are spent preparing for the only real opportunity you have to not get an A: the GDT quiz. It is tedious and annoying, but if you practice it should be reasonably simple, just harder than the earlier content.

Crane is awesome and clearly very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about engineering. He is very good at breaking down concepts and relating them to real-life examples. He is also really forgiving with grading; he just gives out the answers to the in-class activities at the end of the period.

File management. You will lose .sldprt files easily; windows doesn't know what to do with them. Learn the GDT stuff and don't make stupid mistakes on homework as it's half of your grade.

If you know anything about 3D modeling this class will be cake for you. Make sure to stay on top of Quizzes and homework and you’ll pass with an A

Bi-weekly quizzes that are counted as in class activity. If you follow them directly from his presentation you should get a 100 on all of them and if you already know how to 3D model you should be able to knock them out in 10-15 mins. You take a certification exam for your midterm and I was able to get near perfect without studying.

Professor definitely goes over basic tutorials and gets more complicated.

If it is hard for you to visualize in 3D. The homework’s could prove challenging. Also when doing the homework follow the guide they give you as that is also how it is graded.

I think the actual material is straightforward and fun, but this professor as opposed to the other professors who usually teach this class, has made it very demanding. He has quizzes every week and has us replicate each of his lectures and at any moment says he can ask for them (which he has). He also has pop quizzes and will quiz you on old and recent material so if you get behind in this class, the work just keeps piling up. Quizzes can be 2 questions at least and if you get one wrong, a simple question about maybe the volume of the part, boom you just got a 50% on the quiz and the quizzes are overall 40% of your grade.... He is a hardass for sure.

SolidWorks

He is a hardass for sure. More in my overall course comments.

To not take it with Rubiano!

Everyone says to take Crane instead but honestly Kumar is not that bad. However, if you don't understand something he will not help you. He will look at you like you are an idiot and say why are you doing that, that is obviously wrong. But the courseload itself is easy enough if you understand how to think in 3-d, find a class groupme at the beginning and you should be totally fine.

join a groupme

I loved this class, it's very interactive and makes learning CAD accessible and fun.

Learned how to use SolidWorks and general rules about dimensioning and tolerancing. This class is useful for so many future classes in engineering, and it will be so helpful if you take it seriously and get good at CAD.

Crane is amazing, I cannot emphasize enough how patient and caring he is.

Go to office hours if you're struggling! Crane will be very patient with you

Crane

Super useful course, the introduction of engineering concepts applied to real life scenarios. Teaches you SOLIDWORKS and how it can be used to create real solutions.

Great professor, knowledgeable and entertaining.