Non-Credit Final Project

AutoCAD Instructors-

I teach Introductory AutoCAD two nights each week at the local shipyard. On the last day of class the students have to show me their final project to receive their certificates. Most of them start a bit early, but some can finish it on the last 2 hours class. It's always been a mantle clock (see Clock drawing attached). I'm sure students have gotten the file from friends and made the few changes for the current "edition". It's getting old, and I'm getting tired of it.

Anyway, this quarter I'm moving to another final project for the class. See attached Classroom drawing. In a week or two I hope to hand them out to let the students nibble at it for a few weeks. Can someone "guinie pig" it for me and tell me if it's clear? Dimensioned right? Too hard? Too easy? Ideally it should take an expert 60 to 90 minutes.

The students would use Design Center to fetch the title block, 5 or 6 blocks, and the paperspace dimension style from drawings they all have on their classroom computers. They'd draw the high school desk (DESK-HS layout), and then rectangular array it into the arrangement for the trailer (portable) classroom (Classrom layout). They'd only dimension the classroom, not the chair itself.

-Paul
Newport News, VA
p_burgener@yahoo.com

Hi Paul,

Nice drawing. I don't think it would take quite that long to complete. ;) But then, I'm not a new CAD student.

How do you provide that drawing to the students? Do you view it as a DWF or do you pass out a paper hand-out? How does one find the proper location for the desks? Does this matter?

Opie-

Inthe past I've given them just the one layout sheet of the Clock. This time I expect to hand out two sheets, the two layouts of the desk the classroom trailer. They might be duplexed, though.

I'll keep your .dwf idea in mind. That way, maybe they could print out the hard copies for themselves if they want. That would force them into the water with .dwf. Good idea. Maybe for .dwf to get off the ground (IMHO) we'll need to start it up from the schools. In my experience, .ppf is good enough. It's pretty rare that others need to measure things or freeze layers.or views.

As for placing the desks, it doesn't matter. The only requirement is the row and column spacing between desks, and the angle. They can slide the "array" anywhere in the room to center it by "eye ball". Part of me wants to include a lot of "eye ball" placements and rotations, so I have evidence to nail cheaters. For the old Clock project, the only things that were "random" from one student to the next is the dimension placement, viewport, and maybe the point they insert the Asize title block. Not much. I'd confirm they were cheating by checking the "handle" of identical objects. A few times students in the same class shared the same file.

Next chance I'll get I'll try to make the "doesn't matter" more clear. Might just tell them verbally.

Thanks for the review. Might pass it out tomorrow so they can start nibbling. At this point, though, about all they can work on is the layers.

-Paul