Teaching Study of Engineering Graphics for Expressions of Innovative Design

Abstract

Graphics are used early to express design ideas. Early engineers were often painters, and their drawings pursued vivid images. However, such a drawing method requires a lot of time and effort, and this graphics technique is difficult to grasp by ordinary engineers. Until the “Descriptive Geometry” by Monge came out, the method of expressing the spatial object by orthogonal projection on the plane was adopted by the majority of engineers. With the development of computer technology, engineering graphics now have more expression approaches and can more effectively express innovative design ideas. The engineering graphics course should develop students’ capabilities of spatial imagination, machine expression, drawing software application, and preliminary innovative design. The cultivation of the first three abilities is relatively easy to achieve since these are the traditional teaching goal of the engineering graphics course, but the cultivation of innovative design ability is relatively difficult. This paper investigates the development of graphics technologies, classifies the graphics technologies according to the information dimensions, and studies the effect of different graphic technologies on the expression of innovative design. From the perspective of student learning, three transitions of the learning method to become an excellent engineer are required to achieve: from passive learning to active learning, from subject learning to project learning, from definitive learning to tentative learning. The teaching practice shows that, the innovative design based on graphic technology is an effective way to realize the transitions of the learning method, and the graphics technology has significantly cultivated students’ innovative design ability.