A line has three things: 2 end points and the line itself
This was my first day learning Computer Aided Design which I have never done before. Derek, the engineering manager was teaching me and Paul, a tenant at Hethel. It’s seems a complex programme as they all do until you get the hang of them however I find I don’t visualise in 3 dimensions in the way engineers and designers do and so need a fair bit of help. Derek is asking me to consider my design intention, which i am considering could be a variation on a creative intention but in this context means making everything intentional. I’m not sure if there is a place for the accidental/unintended here as there is in art practice. The objects I made in CAD were rather small due to my brain working in cm and the programme working in mm – which i suppose was me trying to be intentional and still making mistakes.
There is a whole new vocabulary with this software and the engineering approach which is really interesting and is making me think about all kind of things in new ways. There are words and phrases which take me back to secondary school maths and technical drawing classes (some 20 years back) and some which are completely new to me…. tangents, adding relations forces conditions onto lines, features, extrude Boss/Base, referencing the origin, restraints, planes and surfaces…. Best piece of vocabulary from the day was from Derek, ‘infinite thinness’ describing something which had well …..infinite thinness.
