Applying construction and descriptive geometry principles through CAD: Experiments with solid works

Abstract

It is generally acknowledged that computer-aided drafting (CAD) has rendered traditional construction and descriptive geometry methods obsolete. This two-part study experimented with SolidWorks in these two geometric areas by investigating assignments submitted by first-year engineering students at the Botswana International University of Science and Technology. The first part, conducted in 2017, used a simple geometric shape to train a cohort of 178 students on how SolidWorks could be used to mimic traditional construction geometry methods to model the shape. Participants were then assigned more complex geometries to apply appropriate SolidWorks methods to mimic the construction geometry methods of the assigned shapes. The students worked in groups of at least five members and completed the assignments in a three-hour lab session. The second part, conducted in 2024, addressed the visualization dilemma associated with the passive, teacher-centered methods used in demonstrating the descriptive geometry rabatment process. Another cohort of 557 students, working in groups of at least six members, developed SolidWorks models to demonstrate the process. This cohort was given over 12-hour lab sessions to complete the task. The results from the construction geometry experiments show that participants struggled to mimic traditional drawing techniques in SolidWorks, while the descriptive geometry cohort developed meaningful SolidWorks rabatment process models. These two CAD-based approaches are pedagogically important because, in the first part, traditional construction geometry was extended into platforms that support e-learning, while in the second part, a flipped learning approach to descriptive geometry was introduced.