I am all set for college guys. Got the apartment and schedule. I am starting off in pre-mechanical engineering. I want to design cars with a focus on engine design, and eventually work my way up to chief design engineer. After that I would like to start my own company,but first I have to make it through college. Anyway is mechanical engineering my best bet? I am almost 100% positive that it is but was just wondering if any of you guys are engineers that work for car companies. I will be attending Auburn University. They have a CO-OP program with Toyota and a mini-formula one team which I am joining. Right now their car is doing 0-100mph in 7seconds. If any of you guys need a place to crash in AL let me know. I'll be moving in around mid-august. I might even let cobrasvtracer stay if he needs to. I'll also be close to Birmingham so I will definitely get some track time on the R which will be great!

 

ALL THE MATH YOU CAN TAKE. Machining, tool design, etc... One of my favorite classes was Materials and Properties. It teaches you different processes as well as specific processes for different materials, material structures, calculations, etc... The main thing is how things are made and why they are made that way. Very good stuff, regardless of what type of engineering you will do.

 

I feel ya Aero...I am following the same dream, but with a supsension/chassis engineering in mind Good luck and maybe someday we will work together @ Honda R&D.

Oh an take alot of physics!

 

Stick with ME (mechanical engineering) and join SAE as well. SAE has a student membership and through their local events you'll get to meet lots of people in the auto industry to network with.

It's a good idea to learn different CAD software too, like CATIA, I-DEAS, Pro/E, and Alias.


[Modified by Blade, 11:17 AM 6/28/2001]

 

there is no money in it and its hard field to move up in... u have to deal w/unions and limited job market.

but... dont let me stop you from your dream, i wanted to do that too... changed my mind after speaking with A LOT of people.

also rememeber, when your hobby becomes your job is not as much fun.

Now I work w/trains and computers, my old job dealt with planes and airports... maybe I'll work my way to cars someday.


[Modified by Kamil, 3:27 PM 6/28/2001]

 

Not to mention that learning that software can pay for your way through engineering school

AD: Who has a CAD degree and gets paid for going to school

 

CAD can get you many OTHER jobs as well.... If you want to be in the Auto industry, I'd say CATIA for sure. I don't like Pro-E.

I'm currently using Autodesk Inventor, Mechanical Desktop & AutoCAD 2000i. Inventor is not bad at all, but needs a little more work.

Solidworks is also very common.

 

True Kamil, but to offset that a little bit, with another quote...
"when you enjoy what you do for a living, you will never have to work a day in your life"

Money is porbably not a good thing to use as the decideing factor for what you want to do with the rest of your life, because you can make a nice bit of cash, but if you hate what your doing, is it worth it?....... its not for me.

Mechanical Engineering Major is pretty nifty if i do say so myself.

I joined SAE and was active for a little bit with the club, but eventually i started to stray away for one reason or another, it was cool, met some people and stuff, maybe i'll try to get back into it this year. Also went to an SAE presentation with a guy from Honda, discussing about the Insight

If you wanna be an automotive design engineer, CADD CADD and more CADD.....go to Honda's website and stuff, and for employment, look for design engineer, they will tell you some desireable traits you should have, for instance, CADD!

 

Take english too. I have worked with too many engineers that focused only on engineering, and can't friggin spell or write a coherent thought, despite being great engineers.

If you can't explain an idea and present it in a satisfactory manner, then it won't be as useful. Just because you have an image in your head doesn't mean you can paint like DaVinci.


[Modified by FBP_1171, 1:53 PM 6/28/2001]

 

yaya dont let english, speaking, and presenting be a low point in your education. also, get involved with SAE and do a lot of projects. honda R&D wont look at you unless you have worked with the formula sae car or something like that. and im only in the aftermarket brake field...

 

Mechanical Engineering (that is the degree that I have) is a good degree to get if you are going into the field of automotive design. Like Blade said get into SAE and participate in the different competitions (i.e. MiniBaja, Formula SAE, etc.). Also attend the competitions. Honda was at almost every single SAE competition this year. I think some universities even offer a degree in Mechanical Engineering that focuses on automotive engineering. It depends on which part of the country you are in.

Another thing, and probably the most important, is hands on training/experience. Some of the students that I graduated with at my university got better grades than me but when it came to wrenching or mechanical COMMON SENSE they paled in comparison. Book smarts are NOT everything nor are perfect grades. Your ability to apply and demonstrate your knowledge is very important.

It is also good to know many different types of CAD and FEA (finite element analysis) packages *** you can. ProE is widely used and is somewhat user friendly. It is also compatible with many other CAD packages and FEA programs. There are many others out there.

Also, good written and verbal communication skills are EXTREMELY important.

Good luck.

-kenji




[Modified by kenji, 2:32 PM 6/28/2001]

 

is CATIA like autocad? that's what i'm using now, but i want to try out some different programs, to see what is more interactive.

argiris

 

CATIA is pretty good, but it's hard to learn. SDRC's package called I-DEAS is really easy to learn. I took a week long 40 hour class and picked it right up. I've never used Pro/E, but have heard goog things about it, especially its simulations features (CAE). Makes it a snap to design intake manifolds for instance.

Companies like Honda are huge on CATIA and Ford (and all their subsidiaries like Mazda, Jag, volvo) will be on I-DEAS.

Like Kenji said, Honda R&D in pretty involved with the SAE student evnets and their Ohio R&D comes out to almost all the SAE formula events to recruit.

The only advice I can give you is to get an internship or Co-op position before graduating.

 

AutoCAD and CATIA are not in the same relm. AutoCAD is basically 2D, because it's native solid modeling is non-parametric. Inventor and Mechanical Desktop are more like Pro-E, as they are primarily 3D based (Parametric Solid Models). You will basically never design in 2D anymore.

Pro-E is closer to CATIA, because of the ability to do limited FEA and simulations. Pro-E does not have it built in, I'm not sure about CATIA. Pro-E has a some cool features, like the capability to make design suggestions after doing FEA: This radius should be larger, or this sheet metal should be thicker, etc...

For ultimate FEA, there is ANSYS.

The good thing is, that once you learn one solid program well, the others will make sense, and be easier to learn.



[Modified by FBP_1171, 2:53 PM 6/28/2001]

 

Ansys is a nice FEA package. Although its drawing/creating of new objects is somewhat tedious to use. I guesss you just have to get used to it like anything else.

-kenji

 

You guys are all close.
Here's the deal. I am a design engineer for Honda R&D. Yeah, I'm finally blowing my cover. Anyway, whoever said you have to be involved in SAE or Honda won't look at you is wrong. Guess who was never in SAE? Yeah, me. Catia is what we use, and no I never had it in school, but I DID take the 3D cad program my school offered (I-DEAS). Anyway, make sure to keep your grades up above all else! And SAE will Definately help! But don't let your grades suffer because of it. Anyway, they love people that are huge into their product, like most of us, and they can tell who is and who isn't. Yes, I took Mechanical Engineering, but there are some Industrial Design people that I work with. Most of the design you are thinking of, requires Industrial Design from a Big name school in California, and that is Mostly drawing, still some catia though. Anyway, engineering will get you a Looooonng way into a lot of things, and pretty much any car company you want with good grades, SAE will help, and anything else car related you can put on your resume! (A few classes you could take might be Internal combustion engines, vehicle dynamics, etc.) Take them all.
And don't fortget to put on your resume that you autocross your type r, or built the motor yourself, unless you're applying to the Big 3, but you probably wouldn't be posting here.

 

thanks for your reply.
what does CATIA go for? maybe i can get my boss to get the program for the office, if it's not insanely expensive. i'm an architect and have seen the work that architects using CATIA have built........it's definately not possible to do with AutoCad.

thanks
argiris (if this is getting too OT feel free to IM or email me)

 

For what you want to do, ME is the way to go. If you want my advice...stay out of it. It sounds like an exciting field, but in actuality it is a major headache. You may be assigned to design seatbelt harnesses instead of engines. This is no joke. I went to school with many guys who went into the automotive field. One guy works for Cummins in Detroit. One works with Honda R&D in Ohio and the third with Ford in NJ. The bottom line is that it is VERY difficult to move up and the pay is awful.

My advice would be to get your ME degree and then get your MBA in finance. You'll have the technical knowledge and the business smarts. After that, send your resume out to the auto co's. You'll be surprised at the difference in salaries. Besides, the MBA degree will serve you MORE than the ME degree by itself. If you decide that the automotive sector is not for you, you can always go into investment banking...hint, hint!

 

As with anything, it will take skill, knowledge, patience and luck to get where you want to be.

Its interesting that you *must* have a college degree to do that kind of thing, and that seveal people have said that the career has a difficult path and low pay. Others have said that money isnt everything, etc etc.

Figure the odds of ending up in engine design @ Honda. (1:25,000,000?)
Figure what its going to take to get there. (4.0gpa, SAE, degree, computer skills, luck, etc)
Figure if everything else that goes with it is worth it. (pay, bs factor, paying for college, etc)
Then decide if its what you want.
If it is, then go and dont look back;
If its not, then even if you dont know what you want to do, at least you can narrow it down.

This is from a guy with 9 credit hours of college.
Married 4 years to the best thing that ever happened to me.
Living in a 3 floor townhowse 15 minutes from downtown Seattle.
Driving an S2000, after turning 25 this past April.

Think carefully, make the best decision for you.
Demian

 

I'm in a gawd damn archtitecture firm that isn't even running ACAD 2000 yet and does over $8 million a year in design work ....... something wrong with that picture!!!

You can use ACAD to do 3-D work, it is just not as fast as some of the others.

I would really have liked to get into automotive design and engineering, but I also wanted to have the option to be wherever I wanted, and a better chance to advance! So I got my undergrad in architecture, even when everyone told me I should have gone into engineering ..... I'm going to get my Masters in it as well so I can get licensed, maybe double major in engineering!


[Modified by TypeR0207, 12:10 PM 7/2/2001]

 

I used ACAD for 3D for many years. I even taught it for 3, including solid modeling, in the evenings after work. (long days ) The ONLY problem with using ACAD native solids is that you cannot easily modify them. Making changes require much more work-around than being able to delete a feature you don't like. I find that using ACAD modeling is actually faster, IF you know EXACTLY what the end result is. If you have to make changes during the design, there is very little flexibility. The others take a little longer to do the modeling, but the end result is the ability to make changes on-the-fly very easily, as well as multiple variations on one model.

If you have a significant number of ACAD users, I would try to get a discount or site license.


[Modified by FBP_1171, 9:38 AM 7/2/2001]

 

Oh, we've had ACAD 2000 for over a year now, but the computer **** that runs all the stuff has been too busy trying to create/update the office standards to install it ....... we have a pool when it will finally be installed on the systems.

Because of the projects I work on, and the clients I deal with, I'll have it by next week or so ...... I've had it at home since about a month after it came out, but don't use it that much there ......

 

i used to use acad 3d, but like you said, it's to hard to modify models.
i use 3d studio now, but that's just not accurate enough.
i wanted to try out catia (until i found out what it goes for) just because that's what Gherry uses. not that i like his work, but because he was even able to build the Gugg from using the program. i'd like to see what the program is like.

argiris, who thought he was the only architect on honda-tech.

 

We use AccuRender, 3D Studio Max, and some of the guys use VIZ for the animation stuff we do.

Check our weak-*** site out, http://www.bigwaha.com and you can see some of the stuff we've done.

Rick - who wishes he WAS licensed, but it won't be until he gets his MArch since he has a 4-year degree, not a five .....


[Modified by TypeR0207, 3:02 PM 7/2/2001]

 

Do you have to be any good at art and drawing to be an automotive design egineer? I have always wanted to now. That and the fact that it is one of the hardest majors their is has kept me away from it. I am an E-commerce major and that is how I plan on getting envolved in the automotive industry.