Module 3

Design Communication
(Languages of Engineering Design)
Communicating Designs Graphically
• Being able to communicate effectively is a critical skill for
engineers.
• A lot of information is created and transmitted in the engineering
drawing process
• Design drawings: Sketches, Freehand drawings, Computer-aided
design and drafting (CADD) models etc.
Communicating Designs Graphically
I
• Graphic images are used to communicate with other designers, the
client, and the manufacturing organization
• Sketches and drawings:
 Serve as a launching pad for a brand-new design
 Support the analysis of a design as it evolves
 Simulate the behaviour or performance of a design
 Record the shape or geometry of a design
 Communicate design ideas among designers
 Ensure that a design is complete
 Communicate the final design to the manufacturing specialists
Engineering Sketches
• Orthographic Sketches
• Lay out the front, right and top views of a part
• Axonometric Sketches
• start with an axis, typically a vertical line with two lines 30o from the
horizontal. This axis forms the corner of the part.
• The object is then blocked in using light lines, with the overall size first.
• Then vertical lines are darkened, followed by other lines.
• All lines in these sketches are either vertical or parallel to one of the two 30o
lines.
• Details of the part are added last.
• Oblique Sketches
• Front view is blocked in roughly first,
depth lines are then added, and details
such as rounded edges are added last.
• Perspective Sketches
• They are similar to oblique sketches in
that the front view is blocked in first.
• Then a vanishing point is chosen and
projection lines drawn from the points
on the object to the vanishing point.
• The depth of the part is then blocked
in using the projection lines. Finally,
the details are added to the part.
• When we communicate design results to a manufacturer, we must
think very carefully about the fabrication specifications that we are
creating in drawings, as well as those we write.
• We must ensure that our drawings are both appropriate to our design
and prepared in accordance with relevant engineering practices and
standards
Engineering Drawings
• Layout Drawings
• Working drawings that show the major parts or components of a device and
their relationship.
• They are usually drawn to scale, do not show tolerances, and are subject to
change as the design process evolves
• Detail Drawings
• These drawings are used to communicate the details of our design to the
manufacturer or machinist.
• They must contain as much information as possible while being both as clear
and as uncluttered as possible.
• Show the individual parts or components of a device and their relationship.
• These drawings must show tolerances, and they must also specify materials
and any special processing requirements.
• Detail drawings are drawn in conformance with existing standards, and are
changed only when a formal change order provides authorization
• There are certain essential components that every drawing must have
to ensure that it is interpreted as it is intended
• standard drawing views
• standard symbols to indicate particular items
• clear lettering
• clear, steady lines
• appropriate notes, including specifications of materials
• a title on the drawing
• the designers initials and the date it was drawn
• dimensions and units
• permissible variations, or tolerances
• Assembly Drawings
• show how the individual parts or components of a device fit together
• An exploded view is commonly used to show such “fit” relationships
CADD Models
• CADD Models
• Good for digital visualization
• The making of 3D models in computers software is called geometric
modelling
• CADD software provides many features such as colour rendering, shading,
texting etc. to communicate the design more close to the reality.
• The modelled part can be rotated, sectioned and zoomed so that any
complex shape can be communicated to the another person without
confusion
 Communicating Designs Orally and in Writing
• REPORTING is an essential part of a design project: We have not completed our project
if we have not communicated our work and findings to our client and to other
stakeholders the client may designate.
• We communicate final design results in several ways, including oral presentations, final
reports (that may include design drawings and/or fabrication specifications), and
prototypes and models.
• The primary purpose of such communication is to inform our client about the design,
including explanations of how and why this design was chosen over competing design
alternatives.
• It is most important that we convey the results of the design process.
• The client is probably not interested in the history of the project or in the design team’s
internal workings, and so we should ensure that final reports and presentations are not
narratives or chronologies of our work. Rather, our presentations and reports should be
lucid descriptions of design outcomes, as well as the processes with which those
outcomes were achieved.
GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION

• Thomas Pearsall summarized the common concepts as the seven principles

of technical writing:
1. Know your purpose.
2. Know your audience.
3. Choose and organize the content around your purpose and your audience.
4. Write precisely and clearly.
5. Design your pages well.
6. Think visually.
7. Write ethically!
Know your purpose

• This is the writing analog of understanding objectives and functions for a

designed artifact.
• Just as we want to understand what the designed object must be and must
do, we need to understand the goals of a report or presentation.
• design documentation seeks to inform the client about the features of a
selected design
• design team may be trying to persuade a client that a design is the best
alternative.
• a designer may wish to report how a design operates to users, whether
beginners or highly experienced ones.
Know your audience

• When documenting a design, it is essential that a design team structure its

materials to its targeted audience.
• Taking time to understand the target audience will help ensure that its
members appreciate your documentation
Choose and organize the content around your purpose and
your audience

• The key element is to structure the presentation to best reach the

audience
• There are many different ways to organize information:
• going from general concepts to specific details (analogous to deduction in logic),
• going from specific details to general concepts (analogous to induction or
inference),
• describing devices or systems.
• Once an organizational pattern is chosen, no matter which form is used,
the design team should translate it into a written outline.This allows the
team to develop a unified, coherent document or presentation while
avoiding needless repetition.
Write precisely and clearly
• Some specific elements that seem to occur in all good writing and
presentations.
• These include effective use of short paragraphs that have a single
common thesis or topic
• Direct sentences that contain a subject and a verb; and active voice and
action verbs that allow a reader to understand directly what is being
said or done.
• Opinions or viewpoints should be clearly identified as such.
• As long as the designer remembers that the goals of both technical and
nontechnical communications remain the same.
Design your pages well
• A long section divided into several subsections helps readers to understand
where the long section is going, and it sustains their interest over the
journey.
• Tables should be treated as a single figure and should not be split over a
page break.
• Simple and direct slides encourage readers to listen to the speaker without
being distracted visually
• Thus, text on a slide should present succinct concepts that the presenter
can amplify and describe in more detail. A slide does not have to show
every relevant thought.
• It is a mistake to fill slides with so many words (or other content) that
audiences have to choose between reading the slide and listening to the
speaker.
Think visually
• Just as designers often find that visual approaches are helpful to them,
audiences are helped by judicious use of visual representation of
information.
• Given the enormous capabilities of word processing and presentation
graphics software, there is no excuse for a team not to use visual aids
in its reports and presentations.
• A team should not allow their graphics’ capabilities to reduce them into
clouding their slides with artistic backgrounds that make the words
illegible.
Write ethically!
• All results or test outcomes, even those that are not favorable, are
presented
• and discussed.
• Ethical presentations also describe honestly and directly any limitations
of a design.
• It is also important to give full credit to others, such as authors or
previous researchers etc.
Outline of the paper
Oral Presentations
• Knowing the audience: Who is listening?
• Presentation outline
• Title slide
• Roadmap for the presentation
• Problem statement
• Background material on the problem
• Key objectives of the client and users
• Key constraints
• Functions
• Design alternatives
• Highlights of the evaluation procedure and outcomes
• Selected design
• Features of the design
• Proof-of-concept testing
• Demonstration of the prototype
• Conclusions

• Visual events in presentation

• Practice
• Design reviews
 The Presentation Outline
• A title slide that identifies the client(s), the project, and the design team or
organization responsible for the work being presented. This slide should include
company logos.
• A roadmap for the presentation that shows the audience the direction that the
presentation will take. This can take the form of an outline, a flowchart, a big
picture slide, and so on.
• A problem statement, which includes highlights of the revised problem statement
that the team produced after research and consultation with the client.
• Background material on the problem, including relevant prior work and other
materials developed through team research.
• References should be included but may be placed in a slide at the end of the
presentation.
 The Presentation Outline
• The key objectives of the client and users as reflected in the top level or two of
the objectives tree.
• The key constraints that the design must meet.
• Functions that the design must perform, focusing on basic functions, and
means for achieving those functions.
• Design alternatives, particularly those that were considered at the evaluation
stage, including diagrams and descriptions of each.
• Highlights of the evaluation procedure and outcomes, including key metrics or
objectives that bear heavily on the outcome.
• The selected design, explaining why this design was chosen.
• Features of the design, highlighting aspects that make it superior to other
alternatives and any novel or unique features.
• Proof-of-concept testing, especially for an audience of technical professionals
for whom this is likely to be of great interest.
 The Presentation Outline
• A demonstration of the prototype, assuming that a prototype was developed and
that it can be shown. Video or still photos may also be appropriate here.
• Conclusion(s), including the identification of any future work that remains to be
done, or suggested improvements to the design.
 MATHEMATICAL MODELING IN DESIGN
Math and physics are very much part of the design process!
• MATHEMATICAL MODELS are central to design because we have to be
able to predict the behavior of the devices or systems that we are designing.
• Every new airplane or building, for example, represents a model-based
prediction that the plane will fly or the building will stand without producing
unintended, often tragic, consequences.
• It is important for us to ask:

• How do we create mathematical models?

• How do we validate such models?
• How do we use them?
• And, are there any limits on their use?
 Basic Principles of Mathematical Modeling
• Why do we need a model?
• For what will we use the model?
• What do we want to find with this model?
• What data are we given?
• What can we assume?
• How should we develop this model, that is, what are the appropriate physical
principles we need to apply?
• What will our model predict?
• Can we verify the model’s predictions (i.e., are our calculations correct?)
• Are the predictions valid (i.e., do our predictions conform to what we observe?)
• Can we improve the model?
Dimensions and Units
• Every independent term that we use in equation has to be dimensionally
homogeneous or dimensionally consistent, ie, every term has to have the
same net physical dimensions
• The physical quantities used to model objects or systems represent concepts,
such as time, length, and mass, to which we attach numerical measurements
or values
• Fundamental or primary quantities can be measured on a scale that is
independent of those chosen for any other fundamental quantities
• eg: Mass, length, and time are usually taken as the fundamental mechanical
dimensions or variables
• Derived quantities generally follow from definitions or physical laws
• eg : force is a derived quantity that is defined by Newton’s law of motion
• If mass, length, and time are chosen as primary quantities, then the
dimensions of force are (mass × length)/(time)2 . We use the notation of
brackets [ ] to read as “the dimensions of. ”
• I If M, L, and T stand for mass, length, and time, respectively, then [F = force]
= (M × L)/(T) 2
• [ A = area ] = (L)2
• [ ρ = density ] = M/(L)3
• The units of a quantity are the numerical aspects of a quantity’s
dimensions expressed in terms of a given physical standard
Significant Figures
•The number of significant figures is equal to the number of digits
counted from the first non-zero digit on the left to either
• (a) the last non-zero digit on the right if there is no decimal point, or
• (b) the last digit (zero or non-zero) on the right when there is a decimal point
•This notation or convention assumes that terminal zeroes without
decimal points to the right signify only the magnitude or power of 10
• We should always remember that the results of any calculation or
measurement cannot be any more accurate than the least accurate
starting value.
• Any calculation is only as accurate as the least accurate value we
started with.
Question
Describe the role of mathematical modelling in design engineering.
Show how mathematics and physics play a role in designing a lifting
mechanism to raise 100 kg of weight to a floor at a height of 10
meters in a construction site.
• In the question the task is to move the 100kg of weight to 10-meter height
• We can pull the weight using pullies to the requires height
• The given data
Weight of the item – 100kg
Height/displacement to be move – 10 meters
Let us discuss some basic physics principle for the particular job.
To lift the weight we need to know how much power used for this job.
 Abstractions, Scaling, and Lumped Elements
• An important decision in modeling is choosing the right level of detail for the
problem, which thus dictates the level of detail for the model--abstraction.
• It requires a thoughtful approach to identifying the phenomena to be emphasized,
that is, to answering the fundamental question about why a model is being
developed and how we intend to use it.
• right scale for our model means thinking about the magnitude or size of quantities
measured with respect to a standard that has the same physical dimensions
• we would compile or lump together a lot of information to build a concept
• lumped element model in which the actual physical properties of a real object or
device are aggregated or lumped into less detailed, more abstract expressions
Prototyping and Proofing the Design
• Focus on how to translate our design ideas into models and
prototypes that can be used to test our design concepts and
communicate our ideas to the client.
• Prototypes are working models of designed artifacts.
• They are tested in the same operating environments in which they’re
expected to function as final products.
• Often the first step involves sketching or drawing of our design
 PROTOTYPING AND PROOFING THE DESIGN
• DESIGN RESULTS can be communicated in several ways
• One useful tool for this process is a three-dimensional (3D) representation of the
designed object in a software program or in any other manner.
This 3D representation can then be used:
(1) as an input to a computational modeling program to simulate the design’s
performance under specified conditions;
(2) as an input into a variety of rapid prototyping technologies, such as 3D printing;
(3) to generate detailed engineering drawings of the design; and
(4) to guide the tool path in computer numerical-controlled (CNC) machining
PROTOTYPING AND PROOFING THE
DESIGN
• Prototyping….rough, quick, very iterative
When Do We Build a Prototype?
• The decision to build a prototype depends on a number of things,
including:
• the size and type of the design space,
• the costs of building a prototype,
• the ease of building that prototype,
• the role that a full-size prototype might play in ensuring the
widespread acceptance of a new design,
• and the number of copies of the final product that are expected to
be made or built
When Do We Build a Prototype?
Aircraft and buildings provide interesting illustrations because of ample commonalities
and sharp differences.
• The design spaces of both aircraft and high-rises are large and complex.
• There are millions of parts in each of these examples, and so many design choices
are made along the way. The costs of building both airplanes and tall buildings are
also quite high. In addition, at this point in time, we have ample experience with
both aeronautical and structural technologies, so that we generally have a pretty
good idea of what we’re about in these two domains.
• So, again, why prototype aircraft and not prototype buildings?
• In fact, don’t the complexity and expense of building even a prototype aircraft argue
directly against the idea of building such prototypes?
BUILDING MODELS AND PROTOTYPES

• What do we want to learn from the model or prototype?

• Who is going to make it?
• What parts or components can be bought?
• How, and from what, is it going to be made?
• How much will it cost?
Techniques to construct a
prototype:
• Mock-ups
• Construct a mock-up of a 3D part from 2D cut-outs.
• 2D parts can be made using a vinyl cutter or a laser cutter, and parts are then assembled into
3D mock-ups of a design.
• Materials used for these mock-ups might be foam, thin plastic, or wood
• Machining
• Machining parts or all of our prototypes ourselves in a machine shop
• Rapid prototyping technologies:
• fast and cheap ways to fabricate prototypes
• Rapid prototyping techniques use 3D CAD models as inputs, and convert these 3D files into
thin 2D layers to build the 3D part.’
• Rapid prototyping technologies include stereo-lithography and selective laser sintering,
which involve using a laser to harden either a resin bath or a polymer powder in a particular
configuration to build each layer
 PROTOTYPES, MODELS, AND PROOFS OF CONCEPT
• Prototypes are “original models on which something is patterned.”
• They are also defined as the “first full-scale and usually functional forms of a new
type or design of a construction
• A model is “a miniature representation of something,” or a “pattern of something
to be made,” or “an example for imitation or emulation.” We use models to
represent some devices or processes.
• We use them to illustrate certain behaviors or phenomena as we try to verify the
validity of an underlying (predictive) theory.
• Models are usually smaller and made of different materials than are the original
artifacts they represent, and they are typically tested in a laboratory or in some
other controlled environment to validate their expected behavior
• A proof of concept, in this context, refers to a model of some part of a design
that is used specifically to test whether a particular concept will actually work as
proposed
Graphically communicate the design of a thermo flask used to keep hot coffee. Draw the detailed 2D drawings
of the same with design detailing, material selection, scale drawings, dimensions, tolerances, etc. Use only
hand sketches.
Material selection

Top cap:
• This section can also be used a cup for drinking coffee
• Since it has to withstand hot coffee, we must use a high-quality plastic material which can support
minimum 200 0C on inside
• The plastic is coated with a low weight steel material
• The colour of the material can be of three choices – Black, red & steel colour

Body:
• Body is the main part of the flask
• Which will keep the hot coffee for long time.
• It contains an inner part and outer part
• Outer part is commonly used flask material which is a weight less steel material
• Inner part is glass which is coated with material which will not conduct temperature
• The inner section temperature should not affect the outer part

Bottom cap :
• The bottom carrier can be used as a biscuit carrier
• The material use for this carrier can be the same material as flask is made