AAA Drafting Blog

A SolidWorks designer talks about stuff related to CAD and mechanical design

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Blueprint Reading exam results, October 2010

Congratulations to all exam participants in the Blueprint Reading course at Metro College, Toronto. Here are the exam results:

# Stdt # Exam
1 DSP- 4250-0710-F196 98
2 DHR-4250-0810-F219 100
3 DHR-4250-0810-F221 100
4 DHR-4250-0810-F220 73
5 DHR-4250-0810-F228 93
6 DHR-4250-0910-F263 100
7 DHR-4250-0910-F287 95
8 DHR-4250-0910-F291 98
9 DHR-4250-0910-F290 98
10 SDP-4350-1010-F304 85
11 DHR-4250-1010-F306 90
12 DHR-4250-0910-F307 93
13 DHR-3830-0110-F028 98
14 DHR-3830-0110-F030 85
15 DHR-3800-0710-F204 85
16 DHR-3800-0710-F213 83
17 DHR-3800-0810-F247 83
18 DHR-3800-1010-F298 98
19 DHR-4250-0910-F267 98
20 DHR-3830-0510-F147 0
21 DSP-3830-0610-P166 0
22 0 83
23 DHR-4250-0810-F233 95


Next course will be AutoCAD 2009 starting this Monday. Hope to see you all again !

Sunday, October 17, 2010

New Geometric dimensioning and tolerancing GD&T page

Just this week I had a call from a gentleman in the USA about a geometric dimensioning and tolerancing course he was taking at a local community college. The course was being held by webinar and the instructor provided no means whatsoever for the students to ask questions. It was just lecture and listen.

By all accounts, geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, GD&T, is only used by at most 20% of the manufacturing companies in North America, despite the fact that it is supposed to be the national standard for drawing and dimensioning.

Its a tough subject to learn because it seems many instructors seem to dwell on esoteric definitions of terms and characteristics and say very little about how GD&T is actually used.

In my course at Metro College in Toronto, I try to put some real life examples into the mix. Its surprising how obvious and easy GD&T becomes when you use it to communicate a real world issue.

One of the primary reasons for GD&T is to make parts fit together in an assembly. I have kept that in mind when putting together my own geometric dimensioning and tolerance page.

In the future I hope to put my own webinar together, and you be sure there will be plenty of real time communication between teacher and student. In the end is that not what GD&T is about, - Improving communication ?

Sunday, October 10, 2010

How do you control traffic congestion in Toronto ?

Toronto is no different than many large cities all over North America in its traffic congestion problems. For many city workers a 2 or even a 3 hour commute by car is not unusual.

There comes a point where you are spending so much money and time on commuting, that it starts to have an impact on how you make ends meet. We all have to work, but if you spend all your time getting to work, it gets counter productive.

Have you ever considered working in the town or city you live in ? If you look carefully, there may be highly successful companies right under your nose that you could work for, and probably get to by just walking or taking a short bus ride.

If you work locally, you can potentially eliminate the need for one vehicle. Eliminating one vehicle can save some people as much as $18,000 a year. Because this money is not being spent on transit, it goes straight in your pocket.

Look for the success stories about companies in your local paper, concentrate your efforts on finding out about the type of skills that these companies hire. Even in a bad economy, there are always companies that are doing well.

You can save a lot of money and time, just by finding out about them and applying there, getting work close to where you live.