I was looking through all of the referring URLs to this blog, and noticed a new CAD related blog from Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology and School of Engineering. I hope the blog for CPIT takes off. The students will gain a great deal of exposure to how others use CAD around the world and some great tips and tricks.
Blogs are a great resource and can point many to other resources around the web with a more personal or customized way than a search engine.
Who said CAD was not fun? It certainly was not me, as it has been a blast for me the forever-recovering mechanical designer.
I am a huge supporter for students in engineering and CAD. I always welcome questions from students on CAD and engineering subjects as well as welcome their emailed feedback on CAD and what they think. I actually had some of the coolest ideas recently from a high school student who was competing with a student team in robot design and build competition. It is remarkable how the students have such fresh ideas and a unique perspective as they learn CAD. For example, a student called me on the phone to discuss his take on 3D assemblies. He suggested that currently you can now program constraints for movement within the 3D model assembly, but why not link or rig those constraints to electrical motors. The electrical system could control the movements based on the settings of specified hardware and take into account the wiring and much more. Imagine a fully automated (Inverse Kinematics) robot in Autodesk Inventor. Test a design more completely before committing the design to fabrication. Digital trial and error with movement as well as other functional constraints to simulate performance, mechanics, and even operating environments. This could sprout the mechanical equivalent of the architectural industry buzzword BIM (Building Information Modeling). Perhaps MAIM for Mechanical Assembly Information Modeling. 
I also donate leftover products in my department to students at the end of the year.
Well here goes the CPIT traffic of web hits.
Check out the new CPIT Blog with Andrew Robertson and hopefully
soon the faculty and students.
http://cadatcpit.blogspot.com
http://cadatcpit.blogspot.com/2004/06/blogs-from-within-autodesk.html
Is it just me, or are the New Zealanders one of the most active regions for pro-active CAD discussions? In any case, I do hope to attend one of the CAD conferences down there sometime. I almost attended last year at a CAD conference with Hugh Bathurst, but the notice for the event did not offer enough planning time for me.
Cheers,
-Shaan
