Week 1: Early Roadblocks
Nathan S -
To kick off my project, I started with trying to learn to use CAD, or computer aided design. These programs are normally pretty expensive, but there are opportunities to get them for free for educational purposes. The only problem is that it is almost as hard to get educational access to them as it is to learn the program. I had many customer service loops and long holds on technical support calls, but I eventually gained access to Autodesk Fusion 360, although not until the very last day of the first week. While waiting for that ordeal, I learned as much as possible about CAD.
I quickly realized that getting my hands on the program was, in fact, not nearly as hard as learning CAD. I learned that it is not something that someone can simply learn and use. The knowledge can be continuously improved upon as experience is gained, and there is no end-point where you know all there is to know about CAD. The second thing I learned was some of the basic tools and CAD fundamentals. These two things together somehow made me feel simultaneously more confident that I can learn to use CAD and also scared of learning it. As far as my project goes, I did not progress as much as I had originally hoped this week, but not all of the lost time was in vain. I did learn about the basics of Fusion 360 and I will be more ready actually to use it next week. While I was not only expecting but hoping to have struggles that I could learn from throughout my project, I was not anticipating one of those struggles to be getting my hands on the program in the first place. I am very excited for next week, as I will be working on-site and hopefully making good progress in Fusion 360 and making up the lost time.
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