CAD MODELING

CAD modeling isn’t just about making 3D models in computer space.

I mean, you need to be able to do that, for sure, but to me CAD modeling is more about problem solving. While I’m modeling, I’m also figuring out how to make the things I’m modeling:

Foreseeing potential pitfalls, mitigating against them.

How will it be made? What will it be made of? How long will it take? How much will it cost?

My secret weapon is a 3D modeling program called Rhino. It’s highly configurable, and very intuitive to me.

I have a pretty entertaining Rhino backstory:

In 1997, I was 31. I felt pretty old - compared to my classmates - when I quit my job as an office manager and went back to school to study Industrial Design at the University of Alberta.

The U of A had recently upgraded its facilities to include a state-of-the-art computer lab. Having blown the budget on hardware, they went looking for a CAD program to install on the cheap, and found McNeel & Associates in Seattle, who were then working out the bugs on a beta version of their new CAD modeling software they were calling Rhinoceros.

Apparently the U of A Industrial Design computer lab was the first offsite multi-user lab on the planet where Rhino was installed. I was in the inaugural class. Rhino V1.0 wasn’t released until I was halfway done that class. My professors were learning commands the night before they taught them to us.

I took to Rhino like it had been made especially for me. And when I graduated with a Bachelor’s of Design degree, I took a job in the Industrial Design department, teaching Rhino to new crops of students. Nothing makes you learn faster than teaching, especially when your students are talented and ambitious, and I thrived on the challenge.

I was very successful teaching CAD, and I’ve also been very successful employing my CAD skills in industry. I still enjoy the challenge of solving problems, and working with my hands, both in computer space and a keenly-appointed shop, and CAD is my gateway to both.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that I’ve worked on tens of thousands of Rhino models. These are a few noteworthy ones.