Learn how to learn!

Imagine you are searching for a job in your engineering career. Boeing sounds amazing, but you have no idea how to use Catia, the CAD system they have used for the last 28 years. You would love to design cars for GM, Chrysler, or Mazda but you never learned how to use NX. There are many more CAD systems like Solidworks, Inventor, ProEngineer: why didn't we ever learn how to use these CAD systems?

There are so many options when selecting a CAD system, which CAD system should you learn?

If you all ready know which company you would like to work for, simply search online to find out which CAD system they use. However, for the 99% of us who don't know which company we are going to work for after we graduate, we need a different approach.

I am currently a college student working part time at an engineering company, and I know that CAD system skills are valuable. I have taken CAD classes in college, and was taught a variety of systems. At work, I use ProEngineer totaling 1000+ hours in design work. But is learning the wrong system going to hurt me? What if I don't end up at a company that uses the CAD system that I learned?

It doesn't matter! The secret is that I have learned how to learn CAD systems. Regardless of where I go, I will quickly get up to speed on the system. How did I do this?

First I learned the fundamentals of 3D CAD modeling. My CAD class had us build the same computer fan in 3 different CAD systems. This taught me to not focus on the CAD system, but the basics of 3D modeling. Many people may not be currently enrolled in an engineering degree. This definitely does not mean you are stuck. I found that YouTube is a great resource for helpful tutorial videos. I learned about extrudes, revolves, sweeps, chamfers, rounds, and many more 3D modeling basics. For example:

Get the fundamentals down, and then learning a new system is quite easy. All of the CAD systems have the same types of features. They can all extrude, or do revolves, or change the color of the surfaces etc. To learn a new CAD system, all you have to do is just learn where the buttons are to make those features. A lot of CAD systems these days even have a search bar in the corner of the screen. This makes it very simple to just type in the feature and have the program tell you the path to that button.I started in ProEngineer, but have become skilled in Catia, NX6, and Inventor. The key is that I learned how to learn CAD systems. Now when I look for jobs, I am confident that no matter what CAD system they have, I can quickly learn it. I will be able to design anything from airplanes, to cars, to whatever this is.

(No idea what this is, perhaps a spiked squid?)

Everything you need to know is on Youtube

            So I drive a vintage 1995 Honda Accord and recently it has been having some problems. I have yet to do any posts about the automotive field, so I decided I would document some of things that I am learning.

I do not profess to be an automotive expert or even a car hobbyist. I am a straight up car noob! At college, I am away from home and don't have the benefit of asking the car guys that I know for any help. But what I have come to learn is that everything you need to know is on Youtube!

A few weeks ago my car started shaking really badly. The engine sounded like it was running differently and I noticed that the shaking was exceptionally bad when I slowed down and was idling. My first thought was that there was something wrong with the spark plug. So I opened up the hood with my brother-in-law and inspected the Spark plugs.

This is what the inside of my car looks like....

Intimidating right?

What we found is that the first spark plug was not firing and that the cylinder it sits in had oil in it.

This is what a piston/spark plug/cylinder assembly that is firing is supposed to look like. (As found on Youtube)

If you notice in the video, there is a cylinder that has a piston that goes up and down. The animation even has spark plugs that ignite the blue fuel in the cylinder. The problem with my car, is that there was oil on my spark plug. There was so much oil that the spark plug was doused, sitting in a pool of oil, and was unable to make a spark. No spark = No firing piston = One man down. This animation video is of a 8 cylinder engine. My car only has 4 spark plugs. Because one of the pistons wasn't firing, the other 3 have to work extra hard and the crank shaft ( in the video it is the center rod in the middle of the assembly that is being turned or "cranked") may not be in sync. This is what was causing my car to shake.

The SOLUTION:

Replace the spark plugs, and stop the oil from leaking into the cylinder again. How do you do that....?

So again, I went to Youtube to learn how to replace spark plugs. This is the exact video that I watched. Just ignore the 20 second weird introduction.

 I found the video extremely helpful and went to the local auto parts store and bought 4 brand new spark plugs. Total cost on spark plugs,$2 a piece = $8.

As you can see, the plug on the right is the new spark plug and is what it is supposed to look like. The spark plug on the left is bad. You can tell that it has been burned and scorched from sitting in and trying to ignite a pile of oil.

So for $8, we replaced the spark plugs, but we hadn't fixed the entire problem. Sure, we got all of the oil out of the spark plugs, but if we don't fix the source, more oil will just leak back in onto the spark plugs. So doing some more research on Youtube, I found a video to show me how to replace the valve cover gasket. I went to the local auto parts store and purchased a valve cover gasket set for about $20. My brother-in-law and I watched the video below a few times, and then went at it.

After only spending $30, and a little bit of time watching videos, my car runs like a champ! Everything you need to know is on Youtube.