Mechanical Engineering Software
It's a General misconception in a fresh Mechanical Engineering student that he/she does not have any link with IT , Computer and Software . He just think that he has to only tackle with machine , automobiles , engines , boiler , turbine , process cycles , Engineering Drawing etc. When I was in First year of my Under graduation I also have same perception about my field. But gradually I came to know about Engineering , Estimation and Calculation Software which are essential for a Mechanical Engineer. In This article I shall be elaborating about some software that a Mechanical Engineer mush have to know.
1. CAD/CAM (computer aided design / computer aided manufacturing) is mostly used my Mechanical Engineer . CAD is a field and we could use variety of software for designing which includes : AutoCAD , Solidworks , Creo Parametric , Fusion 360 , Catia and mush more . In Pakistan most industries prefer AutoCAD , as most of working is done in 2D drawings and AutoCAD is very powerful tool for 2D Drafting and Design.
For 3D designing one should have expertise on any software like Solidworks , Fusion 360 etc.
While for CAM you could use built-in CAM feature in Solidworks 2020, Creo and Fusion 360 but CAM has its own preferred software too like Master CAM. The Thumb Rule in CAD/CAM is to design a model first , that apply necessary CAM on that Model and generate G code from that and than transfer the G code into CNC machine.
2. Simulation And Load Calculation an essential part to tackle with for Mechanical Engineer . Some most powerful tools for simulation are ANSYS , ABACUS , COMSOLE , Fusion 360 , SIM SCALE, HAP (hourly analysis program) etc .
Simulation simply mean to test your model or design under design conditions , either your model shall sustain the environmental conditions or not this rough estimation is done by these Analytical Software .
And if you are interested 2D analysis of beam loading , torsion , Pressure vessels you have to learn MD Solid for that.
3. Numerical Solving Software are also much essential to learn for a Mechanical Engineer. According to my knowledge MATLAB and MathCAD are two powerful tools could be use for the numerical solving with in no time . In MATLAB you could not only deal with numerical solving but you could also tackle with simulation , CFD , Data Analysis and much more. But for MATLAB you should have to get expertise in coding too.
While on other hand MATHCAD is purely used for calculation purpose it shall also tackle with units too.
4. Documentation and Spread Sheets making is also a necessary skill which a Mechanical Engineer shall know. For this task one should know about Word , Excel , Primavera P6 (for project management and scheduling of Project) .
From The Desk Of,
Mussaid Ali