Chapter 4 Researching Designs 57
An aerospace engineer may have an idea for
the shape of a new fuselage for an airplane. The
company will develop rough sketches of the over-
all look of the fuselage without actual dimensions
and missing some of the overall components of
the design, but it will be enough to communi-
cate the design with members of the engineering
design team. A rough sketch may be of a small
component of a much larger device. For example,
a mechanical engineer may draw a rough sketch
of a gearing system for transferring power from
one component to another in a wind turbine.
Rough sketches are important because they
provide a way for the engineer to communicate
their ideas. It is important for the engineer to
be able to move design concepts from ideas to a
potential design solution to a problem. Sketches
also allow others to see the ideas and offer
suggestions to improve the design. Finally, rough
sketches provide a concrete object to begin thor-
oughly researching the potential effectiveness of
the design.
Sketching Process
Sketches are critical to begin formulating
ideas for a design solution. Now with advanced
computer modeling (described in Chapter 6),
Golden Pixels LLC/Shutterstock.comktttShLC/ G ld Pi l L
Figure 4-2.
After brainstorming, the
design team meets to
sketch their potential
solutions.
See Figure 4-3. Engineers also want to make sure
they have the overall shape and size of the prod-
uct, realizing that it may change drastically as
they research and further develop the design.
Rough sketches can be drawn to large or small
scale. Another term used for rough sketches is
thumbnail sketches because of their small size.
Rough sketches, or thumbnail sketches, are drawn by
hand in engineering notebooks so engineers have a
record of all their ideas.
Figure 4-3.
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