For engineers who already know the math—but still lose projects. For the last few years, I’ve been sharing technical guides here on Mechanical Design Handbook —how to size a motor, how to calculate fits, and (as you recently read) how to choose between timing belts and ball screws. But after 25 years in industrial automation, I realized something uncomfortable: Projects rarely fail because the math was wrong. They fail because: The client changed the scope three times in one week. A critical vendor lied about a shipping date (and no one verified it). The installation technician couldn’t fit a wrench into the gap we designed. University taught us the physics. It didn’t teach us the reality. That gap is why I wrote my new book, The Sheet Mechanic . This is not a textbook. It is a field manual for the messy, political, and chaotic space between the CAD model and the factory floor. It captures the systems I’ve used to survive industrial projec...
Which software are you using in your mechanical design project? Advertisement I have been using Solid Edge 3D CAD software for 1-2 years for my mechanical design projects in the past. But now, according to the standardization in my design organization, I have to switch to use Unigraphics software instead, or we call it in short as "UG NX4" (the latest versions are simply called NX ). To be honest, at first, I still liked Solid Edge because I think I can make modeling and assembly in Solid Edge faster and easier than in UG. But one of the good things for UG is the Motion Simulation module that helps me simulate the movement of mechanical assemblies before releasing for manufacturing. I know that Solid Edge also has this kind of simulation module, but I didn't have a chance to use it (no license). So in this post, I would like to share how easy it is to set up motion simulation in UG NX4. Let's start with a very simple modeling. ...